“It’s your law enforcement training talking.”
“Yes, that. Exactly. Most people don’t realize…”
She looked over at him. “What don’t they realize?”
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“What were you going to say?”
He released a deep sigh. “I don’t want to freak you out any more than you already are by telling you things you don’t need to know right now.”
“Things about kids?”
“Yeah, and what they’re up to online, among other things.”
“My parents monitor his online activity.”
“Kids have figured out a way around that.”
“What do you mean?”
“They have codes and stuff that parents would never understand.”
“Seriously? How does that even work?”
Nate glanced at her before returning his attention to the road. “You sure you want to hear about this?”
“Not at all, but it might help find Ethan to know more about it.”
With obvious reluctance, he said, “Say you want to score weed, for example. Maybe the code word is strawberries, and you text a friend saying you’re craving strawberries, which is a super basic example. It’s usually much more sophisticated than that. Parents scrolling through a kid’s phone would never stop on the word ‘strawberries’ like they would if the message said ‘weed’ or ‘pot.’”
“That’s terrifying.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve said too much.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m so naïve about these things. Ever since everything happened to me, I’ve sort of checked out of social media and keep in touch with far fewer friends than I used to. I found out who my real friends are.”
“You’re not missing anything by staying away from social media and online nonsense.”
“Sometimes I feel like I am. My friends from home are still connected through social media, and I’m not. But I talk to the ones who matter, the few who stood by me through the bad times.”
“I’m sorry if this situation is resurrecting painful memories for you.”
“They’re never far from the surface.” As she looked to him for reassurances, she noticed for the millionth time how beautiful he was. She never got tired of looking at him. His wavy dark blond hair, blue eyes and dimples had led her roommates to give him the McDreamy nickname, which had stuck, much to his dismay. “Thank you for taking me home.”
“I want to know where your brother is, too. I hope it turns out to be no big deal.”
Brooke hoped the same thing, but the longer they went without word from Ethan, the more convinced she became that whatever was going on would end up being a very big deal.
* * *
Mike called Sam on her cell. “Lieutenant Archelotta wants to see you over here.”
“I’ll be right there.” She went to tell Tracy she was leaving for a short time but would be back and conveyed Brooke’s message that she and Nate were on the way home.
“Has something else happened?” Tracy asked.
“Nothing new. I’ll let you know if I hear anything. Stay close to the landline.”
