The Herd(47)

“Never mind. But thank you. Are you able to tell me anything about the woman she was messaging with?”

“No dice. Whoever it was shut down her account between their last exchange and now, so there’s just nothing to go on.”

“Bummer.” This mystery woman—she knew where Eleanor was, didn’t she?

“I’ll keep working on the other profile you sent me, the guy’s.”

“Maybe hold off—I don’t need to check his alibi if Eleanor really did walk off on her own.”

“You got it. And also…I’m sorry? Er, I guess congratulations that she’s okay?”

“I don’t know how to feel either.” My stomach was contracting as if I’d swallowed something spiky. “But thanks.”

I hung up and then saw Hana’s group text: Guys, I think I know where Eleanor is. I couldn’t call her fast enough, my fingers slipping over the commands.

“Katie. I’m so sorry I wasn’t around today. But I think I figured it out.”

“She’s in Mexico.”

A long silence.

“How did you—”

“Hana, I’ve been trying to find her too. Did you find out about the Click messages?”

“The what?”

A confused beat, and then she told me about her calls first with Cameron, then with Eleanor’s sweet parents. I never thought of Hana as much of a digger, but I was impressed she followed her instincts. She was good at the psychology bit.

“Cameron talking about the forger was obviously a huge red flag,” she went on. “Like, did she find another way to procure a fake passport?”

“Makes sense to me.” I was intermittently taking notes and doodling in a notebook.

“When we were all in their little home office last night, I noticed her Frida Kahlo book on the shelf, and tonight it just snapped into place. I looked again at the numbers I’d spotted sitting, er, out on the desk as Daniel was showing us that weird contract—one looked like a phone number but didn’t connect, and the other was two digits longer. So I Googled the first two digits of the longer number with the words ‘country code.’ Mexico. The two numbers were for burner phones.”

“Smart.” I’d looked hard at that desk too. When had Hana snatched up some random phone numbers? And why would they be sitting out where Daniel could see them?

“What about you? What’d you—hang on, Mikki’s calling.”

A few beeps, the usual swirl of you-theres and hellos.

“So where is she? Is she okay?” Mikki sounded frantic.

“We think she’s okay,” Hana said. “She left voluntarily. Moved to Mexico.”

“Oh, thank God.” A crazed laugh. Then: “What the fuck?”

“She’s been planning it for a while,” Hana noted. “I’m…so relieved, and yet so furious?” She said it curiously, like she was neither of those things.

“I’m so glad she’s okay, oh my God,” Mikki said. “But why would she—especially when the Herd—” Her voice cracked, like it was stuck at the top of her lungs.

“I guess maybe things weren’t as good as they seemed?” Hana said.

“That cunt!” Mikki sounded amazed. “That fucking brilliant, horrible cunt. Do we know for sure she’s down there?”

“I hope so, because it would mean she’s alive and fine,” I broke in. A surprised silence, like they’d forgotten I was there.

“Katie, you were about to tell me what made you think she was in Mexico,” Hana prompted.

I quickly assessed: There was no reason to mention Fatima, or the bank records, or my meeting with Ted, or anything other than the smoking gun, really. “She was figuring out how to ditch her identity and move to a town called Guayabitos. Described her plans to a stranger online.”

A stunned silence.

“Well, you probably should have led with that,” Hana said.

“I just found this out. She—”

“Who was she talking to?” Mikki interrupted.

“A stranger on Click,” I said. “She had a profile, and it wasn’t too hard to reset the password and access it.” I gave them the CliffsNotes version, implying I’d worked alone.

“I really, really want you to be right,” Mikki said carefully, “but also…goddammit, Eleanor. That bitch didn’t even say goodbye. And she left behind her two companies without warning or any plan to keep them going? That…that doesn’t sound like her.”

“I guess this is a PR nightmare,” I said. I didn’t mean to sound flippant, but.

“Not to mention…hurtful? That she just thought it was fine to abandon us one night?” Mikki’s voice rose to a scratch. “I can’t believe it. Those smug-ass cops were right.”

“What do we do now?” Hana asked, always the mom, always the planner.

“I guess tell the detectives?” I said after a moment. “Will they still look for her if she left voluntarily?”

“I don’t think so,” Hana said slowly. “If she has debts here, her creditors can come after her. And if she’s in the country illegally, that’s Mexico’s issue.”

I let out something between a laugh and a groan. “I just can’t believe this. It’s Eleanor we’re talking about. Would she…could she really do this?”