I shivered involuntarily.
“One time, in high school … Madison was in the homecoming court. It was obvious she wanted to be queen, badly. But everyone knew it would be Tara Briggs. Tara was nice to everyone, she did volunteer work, you know, got straight As—there was no way Madison would win over her. A few days before thebig game, all of a sudden, some pictures started spreading around school.Nakedpictures. Of Tara. Someone started the rumor that Tara was sending them to all the boys in the school to get them to vote for her. Madison’s mother took them to the principal and got her kicked out of the homecoming court and suspended from school.
“Thing is … I saw the photos. It looked like someone snapped them while she was in the locker room changing. Tara was so humiliated; she left school and never came back. It was really sad.”
A cold feeling started spreading through my body.
“You want my advice? Be careful. Nora Clark is one of the top real estate brokers on the West Coast. She’s a very influential woman. I’m pretty sure she’s been fixing things for Madison her whole life. I havesomany stories.” Jamie shook her head. “And look—just because you got a new phone … she’s not going to stop, Savannah. She’ll find some other way to spy on you. She won’t stop until she has everything she wants.”
“I’m meeting with a lawyer and taking steps to stop her. But you—you need to cut the cord. Stop letting her blackmail you. Can she even prove anything?”
“Well, I ended up putting the pills back, so I don’t think so. But you know Madison. I didn’t want to risk it.”
“She can’t prove it, and at this point, it’s been months since it happened. So tell her you’re done.”
Jamie gave a weak smile.
Bracing against the back of the bench with one hand and supporting my belly with the other, I managed to stand. “I’ve got to get back to work, and I know you do too. I’ll swing by tomorrow with your phone.”
“Thank you.”
I gave her a sad smile and walked back to my car.
That night, I opened a new cloud account under a fake name, with a new password. I plugged Jamie’s phone into my laptop and copied everything I could find—all the photos and screenshots of her entire text history with Madison.
When I met with the lawyer on Saturday, I was going to be prepared.
CHAPTER18
THE NEXT AFTERNOONI offered to make a coffee run for the office. I used the opportunity to drop by the clinic with Jamie’s phone.
When she saw me, she brought me into an empty exam room. I handed her the phone.
“Listen—there’s something I forgot to tell you yesterday.” She began tapping and scrolling on her phone. “I don’t think I was the only one Madison had following you.”
A lick of electricity shot up my spine. “What?”
“A few times when I was trailing you, I saw another woman hanging around. It looked like she was watching you too, maybe even taking pictures of you. I snapped a photo of her—look.” She handed her phone back to me.
The woman was tall and thin. She was wearing purple capri leggings, a snug black hoodie with the hood up over a baseball cap that hid her hair, and dark glasses. Her head was down, so her face wasn’t visible.
I zoomed in on different parts of the picture, looking for clues.There—on her ankle. A tattoo.I zoomed in as closely as possible. Best I could tell, it was a heart with initials inside, butbetween the blur from the zoom and the fanciness of the font, I couldn’t make out the letters.
“Are you looking at the tattoo on her ankle? I noticed that too,” Jamie said, leaning in. “I think the first initial is an H, but I can’t tell what the other letter is.” She paused, watching me peer at the picture. “If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t seen her in a couple of months, at least. So maybe she’s not following you anymore.”
“Let me text this to myself,” I said, tapping in my phone number and hitting send on the photo. “And now you have my number. If Madison contacts you again, please let me know.”
“I will. And good luck with that lawyer.”
The day proved to be full of surprises—as I was waiting for my Uber to take me back to the office, I got a text from Jenna.
It was a photo of a female barista. The woman was wearing the signature dark-green Starbucks apron and visor. She was making eye contact with the camera. I zoomed in on her panicked face, and my breath caught in my throat.
It was Melanie Daniels—my DCS investigator.
Heart pounding, I called Jenna. My mind raced as I waited for her to pick up.What the hell am I looking at? Melanie Daniels working at a Starbucks? Does that mean she’s not a real DCS investigator? She’s a barista?
The pieces fell into place, and it all started to make sense. DCS had told Dr. Quinlan there were no open cases linked to either me or an employee named Melanie Daniels. It was all a fake?
