Romeo took a deep breath, swiping the call log away.He tapped Chad’s phone against his chin, wondering where next to check before opening up the internet and finding out what Chad had been looking at.
There were articles about him.Holly Stevenson’s damning exposé was the first page that opened, but it wasn’t the only one.Chad had tabs upon tabs of articles about himself open, tearing into him, shaming him, and there was that word again.Monster.
“Is that what you did,” Romeo shook his head.“Did you park at the side of the road and read all these ...did you walk around the lake?Did someone see you, recognize you, attack you?”Romeo shivered.
He had to push away thoughts of Chad being forcibly dragged into the water, a gang of people surrounding him, shouting and screaming.
He opened Chad’s photos and there were pictures of the cottage they stayed in, the beach, and Mercutio.There were no pictures of Romeo.Chad knew he had to be careful, but there were pictures that indicated he wasn’t alone on the trip, thatFrankwas there with him.
Two coffee cups.
Two pairs of trainers on the mat.
Their hands entwined when they’d been snuggling on the sofa.
Romeo’s chest ached.
There were no clues when Romeo logged into maps, no sign he had searched for the lake.He hadn’t needed a navigation app to get to Josh’s place, he could drive there in his sleep.
There was nothing other than evil articles, evil messages and evil voicemails.
Why did he stop?
Why did he get out of the car?
How did he end up in the water?
Romeo was about to give up, but a folder on Chad’s home screen caught his eye.He hadn’t named it as such, it just had a question mark beneath the brown folder icon.
Romeo frowned and pressed his thumb against it.
There were two pictures.
One of a man.
It was a headshot that had been cropped from a bigger image.He was smiling.He had long hair, some of it tucked behind an ear.His eyes were brown, and his cheeks were round with his smile.He was leaning back slightly, and the image had blurred, like he’d been moving, like he was mid-laugh.He wore a football shirt and held a can of lager in his hand.
Romeo didn’t recognize him.
He swiped his image away and looked at the other picture.
It was of a woman.
Again, it had been cropped from a bigger image.
She had long brown hair, smoky eyes, and pale pink lipstick.She wore a black V-neck top, sparkly earrings, and had an expensive looking bag hooked over her shoulder.
Like the man, she smiled at the camera, but there was no blur.
She was crystal clear, and the lighting was different.
Whoever the people were, they hadn’t been cropped from the same picture.
Romeo didn’t recognize her either.
There was no other information in the folder, just the faces of a man and woman.
Romeo exhaled in frustration, clicking on the images for the details.
