Page 131 of Weight of Guilt

Rachel looked between them. “What car? What are you implying right now? Maybe I said too much. I wasn’t trying to imply that⁠—”

“I can explain more,” Wren rushed. “But first—what does Jacob drive?”

“A black Accord.”

Wren’s fingers tightened around Nash’s sleeve. That was right. She remembered seeing it at her house when he pulled up. But she’d dismissed the fear niggling inside her. She’d told herself it was nothing, a coincidence.

But it wasn’t.

Prine crossed toward them. “What’s going on? What did I miss?”

Nash turned to her. “I need you to run Jacob Morgan. He hasn’t been entirely truthful with us.”

“We already ran Jacob,” Prine told him. “He has no criminal history.”

“Run everything,” Nash said. “Vehicle. Employment. Phone. Addresses.”

Prine’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Wren answered before Nash could. “He’s hiding something. He lied about how he met Nora. He told my sister he was visiting his aunt at the hospital.”

“And? Maybe he was just desperate for an excuse to meet her. It doesn’t make him a criminal. It might make him a hopeless romantic, though.”

“He doesn’t even have an aunt,” Wren said. “Rachel just confirmed that.”

Prine’s expression sharpened.

Wren pressed a hand to her forehead.

Something else was trying to surface.

“Last night . . .” she started.

Nash’s attention returned to her. “What about it?”

“I don’t know if it’s relevant but . . . he asked me if the police believed Christian. And he wanted to know if the DNA test had come back yet.”

Prine lowered her phone.

“Nora has been telling him everything for days.” Panic began to build in her chest. “Christian. Roy. The investigation. Mason. Jacob would know what school my son goes to. Mason has met him before. Mason might even trust him because of that.”

Prine motioned to one of her colleagues to come closer.

The entire room seemed to shift around Wren.

Rachel took a step backward. “You actually think Jacob took Mason?”

Wren looked at Mason’s picture on the wall.

Her beautiful boy smiling beneath those terrible words.

MISSING.

Nausea roiled inside her. “I don’t know.”

But she knew one thing. Jacob hadn’t just happened to meet Nora. He’d put himself in her path—and he’d done it for a reason.

And if he’d lied about that, there was no telling what else had been a lie.