“I don’t know.”
That wasn’t entirely true. I’d heard Maddie mention the name among people from school, but I’d never met him.
I repeated the message.
Mark stared at me.
“Did you read anything else?”
“No.”
“Can you?”
I gave him a look.
He knew the rule.
When Maddie got her first phone, I’d told her privacy came with responsibility. Even during the years when she suddenly started carrying it everywhere, I’d never searched it.
“I’m not unlocking her phone.”
“Then we wake her up.”
“She just fell asleep.”
Mark rubbed his face.
“Morning,” he finally said. “We’ll talk to her in the morning.”
I didn’t sleep.
At seven, I went downstairs. Maddie’s phone was gone.
At 8:15 a.m., I heard her bedroom door.
She came downstairs in sweatpants, her hair twisted into a knot. Her eyes were swollen.
“Morning,” I said.
“Morning.”
She opened the refrigerator.
“Did Tyler leave you at prom?”
Her hand stopped.
Then she slowly closed the refrigerator.
“You saw the message.”
“The screen lit up.”
“I left my phone face down.”
“It lit up anyway.”
She nodded.
“Who’s Eli?”
“A guy from school.”
“Was that his car?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he bring you home?”
She stared at the floor.
