She picked up the pace and they got onto the next entrance of Route 11.
“It looks like he’s heading east. Back towards Maine.”
“Okay then. I’m going to stay far enough back so he can’t see us, but there’s a chance he’ll ditch this vehicle now that we’ve spotted him in it. Let me know whenever the dot stops.”
They drove for a few miles.
“I’ve been thinking,” said Tina. “We need to decide what to call this dude. He has so many names it’s getting hard to keep track. I’ve been thinking of him as Adam, but Celine calls him Lloyd, and he’s currently using a Seth Baker driver’s license.”
“I vote for Seth,” he said decisively. “That’s what Jessie knows him as.”
“Seth it is.”
The red dot took a turn and slowed down.
He expanded the map to see where it was currently located. “Seth exited the highway. Looks like Seth is heading for a strip mall.”
She laughed as she hit the gas pedal and they zoomed down the highway. “You don’t have to call him Seth every time. I know who you’re talking about. Exit?”
“This one works. Go.”
He guided her off the highway into a small town just over the New Hampshire border. They found the blue CRV parked outside a store that sold cell phones. “I bet he’s picking up a burner phone,” Tina murmured.
“I’m going in.”
“No!”
But he was past the point of listening to caution. He had to see this guy face to face. He had no idea if Seth would recognize him. Had Jessie told him that her brother was on TV? Just in case, he pulled a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them on, even though the day was overcast and he probably looked like a jerk wearing them.
Inside, Seth was in the midst of completing his purchase. In cash, Jack noticed. He waited a few steps behind him, scrutinizing every detail of his appearance. He wore newish blue jeans and tan suede work boots that didn’t look as if he’d worked in them at all. And yet just a few hours earlier, he’d been near a boat packing crates. Maybe he oversaw the operation rather than hammering nails himself. That would fit with the state of his hands, which looked as if they’d seen more computer keys than hammers.
When Seth turned away from the counter, shopping bag in hand, Jack stepped forward so they nearly bumped into each other.
“Sorry, man,” Jack said. Seth shrugged and tried to step around him, but Jack said, “Hang on. Don’t I know you?”
“Don’t think so?—”
“Yeah, you’re Seth. Seth Baker from Sea Smoke Island.”
Seth’s head jerked up. That quick glance told Jack a few things. One, he was on edge, just like Tina had predicted. Two, he wasn’t used to whatever criminal shenanigans he was involved in. He didn’t have control over his reactions. His brown eyes filled with alarm as they darted toward the door.
“You got me mixed up with someone else,” he finally said. “What’s Sea Smoke Island?”
More signs of inexperience. Never say more than you have to. Even Jack knew that much.
“Really? Man, you look like Seth. Guess you have a doppelgänger. I swear it was you that I saw with Jessie.”
Another flinch from Seth. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”
Of course he did. A flashing neon sign would have been less obvious than that guilty expression on his face.
“Too bad for you. She’s a cool girl. If anything happened to her, she’d have an entire island looking for her. That’s how Sea Smoke rolls.”
Seth’s face—good-looking in an eager, puppy-dog way—paled as he tried to edge around Jack. “Whatever, dude.”
Jack shifted his position, refusing to let him pass. “You should drop the act. You’re in over your head and you know it. Let us help you. I figure if Jessie liked you even a little bit, you must have some redeeming qualities.”
“I don’t know?—”
