“He left this morning. I assume he went back into the woods. He only came here to get our animals away from the fire.”
“And the woman?”
Salter glanced at the clock. “I dropped her off in downtown Oakhurst.”
Wen moved closer and showed Salter a photo on her phone. “Is this her?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You really had no idea who she was?” prodded Wen. “She’s famous. She’s been all over the news.”
Salter crossed her arms. “I got a flip phone and a computer I use to play solitaire, moderate a holistic health message board, and read my spam.”
“You don’t have any social media accounts at all?”
She grinned, nodding down at her perfectly normal middle-aged body. “Do I look like selfie material?”
“You said you dropped her downtown,” Jordan cut in, hoping to get back on track. “Anywhere near the bus stop?”
Salter looked down and started tidying the mess on her coffee table. “Sure, it’s possible. But I have no idea where she’s headed. I didn’t ask. I personally think people have a right to privacy. If she’s the big deal you say she is, she’s probably calling an Uber. Bet she’s never ridden the dog in her life.”
Wen looked at Jordan, and for the first time, he felt they were in sync.
“We’ll get there faster if I drive,” he told her.
She followed Jordan as he ran to his car.
FORTY
CARA
8.5 tsp sugar in a 12 oz serving? Sweet tea may look innocent, but some doctors say it’s diabetes in a bottle!
—Chyron, HLN Morning Express
The Oakhurst library computers were directly across from the reference desk, but the librarian couldn’t have been less interested in the woman with savagely chopped, purple-black hair who was using them. Cara hoped her look was so off-putting that everyone else would avoid eye contact, too.
She logged in to one of the terminals and created a new Gmail account using the name Carly Cooper. Using the Visa gift card and her new email, she purchased a Greyhound ticket to Sacramento and researched the Amtrak to LA.
Noting the location of the Best Western, she headed first to a nearby gas station with a convenience store, walking like she belonged, just as Rae had instructed. The day wasn’t particularly warm yet, and the cold blast of air-conditioning as the doors whooshed open made her shiver. She grabbed a basket and headed straight for the teriyaki beef jerky. She addedthree single-serve boxes of breakfast cereal, along with crackers, cheese, and a bag of M&Ms. As she opened the cooler door to grab a coconut water and a Dasani so she could reuse the bottle, a muted TV on the back wall caught her eye. Over the news anchor’s shoulder was Cara’s glammed and Photoshopped Facebook profile picture.
“Can you believe this shit?” The woman standing beside her yanked open the cooler door and shook her head in disgust.
In the narrow aisle, Cara was pinned between the heavyset woman and an ice cream freezer wedged into what probably should have been a fire exit.
“Crazy,” she agreed, willing herself not to panic.
“You can’t tell me they aren’t tracking everything we say and do. You even just think about something, and next thing you know, it’s right there on the TV!”
Cara wondered what was coming next. She also wondered whether she could push past the woman without breaking the hinges on the glass door.
“I saw online that this iced tea is supposed to be organic, but what does that matter if it spikes my blood sugar? Might as well have a goddamn Coke Classic. That’s what I really want, anyway.”
Cara’s water bottle crinkled as she unclenched her fist. The angry woman wasn’t looking at Cara’s Facebook photo, but the scrolling chyron below it—a warning about the sugar content of so-called health beverages.
“Buyer beware,” Cara said, trying to smile as the woman made her selection and closed the door. She scooted past and hurried to the front of the store, where she grabbed a disposable smartphone and paid the cashier.
In front of the store, she powered on the phone and keyed in one of the few numbers she’d committed to memory. He answered after only one ring.
