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“Someone has Connor’s phone,” I whisper.

“We know someone used his number.” Andrei looks at the image again. “Cole is coming to the entrance. Stay beside me.”

I press Connor’s name before I can talk myself out of it. The call connects. Andrei watches my face as I listen, but all I hear through the speaker is a faint ring.

“Do you hear that?” I ask.

Andrei lowers my phone from my ear. The ringing continues near the side entrance, where a large planter stands beside the glass doors. Cole arrives as we move toward it. Andrei reaches out to stop me when I see a phone tucked behind the planter, its screen lighting with my name.

“Don’t touch it,” he says, placing himself between me and the phone.

“I wasn’t going to.” I look around the lobby, searching the faces near the elevators and the side entrance. “They left it here while we were upstairs.”

Andrei calls the detective while Cole checks the area around the planter. I end my call, and the ringing stops. My phone screen returns to the photograph of us outside the bank. Someone watched us arrive, then came into the lobby and left Connor’s phone where I would hear it.

I want to search every face passing us. I also want to get away from the planter before the person who sent the message decides they haven’t frightened me enough. Cole positions himself near the bank entrance while we wait for the police.

“Why leave it?” I ask Andrei.

“So you would find it,” he says matter-of-factly.

“They could have kept it and sent another text tomorrow.”

“They wanted you to know they’ve been close.” He looks toward the street. “And they may be finished using the phone.”

The detective sends officers to recover it. They ask for my phone so they can photograph the message and record the time it arrived. One officer removes Connor’s phone from the planter with gloves. The screen lights up when she presses the side button. The visible call and message history has been cleared. She tells us her team will examine it before anyone can say whether they can recover more data.

Andrei leads me through the side doors and into the parking garage. Cole walks ahead of us, watching the entrance and the cars nearby. I stop beside Andrei’s SUV while he unlocks it. My brother’s phone is in a police evidence bag, and finding it has brought me no closer to him.

“They wanted me scared,” I say.

Andrei opens the passenger door and waits. “Are you?”

“Yes.” I meet his eyes. “But I’m going to look anyway. I’ll never stop.”

“I know you won’t.”

He says it as though he’s finally stopped expecting anything else from me. I climb into the SUV, and he closes the door before walking around to the driver’s side.

On the road out of Seattle, I call Birdie. She answers before the first ring finishes.

“We’re on our way,” I tell her. “Is the book still on the rear table?”

“Exactly where I left it. Harris hasn’t let me breathe too close to it.” Her humor fades when she hears my voice. “What happened?”

I tell her about the office, the photographs, and Connor’s phone. By the time I finish, she has gone silent.

“Harris and I are inside,” she says. “The front door is locked. We’ll stay here until you arrive.”

“Is Murphy okay?”

“He’s asleep on a pile of books I was trying to sort. He’s having a better afternoon than any of us.”

I close my eyes for a moment, grateful for the ordinary picture. “We’ll see you soon.”

Andrei drives while I study the car photographs again. Connor’s old blue shirt is visible only at the edge of the bag, but I recognize it each time. He may have given other clothes away with it. I try to remember where we took the donation, then stop when I realize I’ve been staring at the same image for ten minutes.

Andrei reaches over and turns my phone face down on my lap. “You’ve told the detective how to identify it.”