Page 45 of Girl Long Gone

“I’m good. Just want to start looking into Simon Thompson.” She propped her computer on the table and pulled up her favorite search engine.

She typed in Simon Thompson’s name and scanned the results page. Halfway down the second page of results, a headline snagged her attention. Local Girl Missing. Unanswered questions lead to sleepless nights. A girl who’d recently moved back to Brooklyn after years living in Paris had disappeared, and at the time of the article eleven years ago, hadn’t been found. A picture was wedged in the middle of the page. The words underneath explained the girl’s relatives were worried sick, their names positioned under their pictures. One name in particular stood out.

Evelyn sucked in a breath. Simon Thompson.

“What’s wrong?” Lacey rushed to Evelyn’s side, glancing over her shoulder. “Is that Simon?”

“Yeah. Looks like his cousin went missing when we were in high school. Do you remember that?”

Lacey shook her head and pointed to the screen. “No, but it looks like she was from a different school. What was her name?”

Evelyn zeroed in on the girl who’d gone missing over a

decade ago. “Her name was Lynette Nelson.”

LN. The keychain she’d found in Gabriel’s pocket had

held those same initials.

“I have to tell Connor.”

21

Connor rapped on Simon’s apartment door. He’d taken a chance and shown up without contacting him first—he didn’t want the guy to set up some bullshit meeting in the middle of a park again. Connor wanted to put Simon on his heels and gauge his response.

It’d worked with Mr. Wilson. The prick hadn’t given him any new information about Gabriel, but he’d gotten a clear picture of their father-son dynamic.

The door opened, and Simon stood with water dripping from his red hair, a towel scrunched in his hand. His sweatpants and T-shirt were much more casual than the preppy sweater he’d worn to the park. His pupils dilated and wrinkles rippled across his forehead. “Oh, hi. Detective Mitchel, right?”

Connor nodded and peered past Simon into the apartment. “Yeah. Can we talk?”

“Sure, come in.” Simon turned to the side to let Connor pass, then closed the door and followed him into the studio apartment. He leaned against the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. “What can I do for you?”

“Hayley Teller. When’s the last time you spoke with her?”

“Who?”

Connor shook his head. “Don’t play dumb. You and Hayley talked on EternalMatch. You spoke pretty frequently on the site. You even exchanged phone numbers. Did you ever meet her?”

“No. I haven’t talked to her in a while. Why does it matter?”

“Hayley Teller was murdered.”

Simon’s pale skin lightened to the color of the cheap Formica countertop, making his blue eyes appear darker. “Are you sure?”

“Police don’t tend to make a positive identification on a body unless they’re pretty damn sure.”

Simon shook his head, the motion slow and barely visible. “I can’t believe it.”

“Is there anything you need to tell me about your relationship with her? Anything the police will uncover anyway?”

A light flush registered across Simon’s cheeks, and he turned his hard gaze on Connor. “What are you implying? That I had something to do with the murder of a woman I never met? I don’t understand why you think this poor girl’s death has anything to do with me.”

“Really?”

“If I could help, I would. Even though Hayley and I talked online, we never met in person. You can check our conversation. It will prove I’m telling the truth.”

Connor narrowed his gaze. “What about your phone? Would your records also show you’re telling the truth?” He was grasping at straws. He didn’t have a warrant to take in Simon’s phone, but Simon didn’t know that.