Page 84

“No,” I answered. “Her brother’s pretty worried. She isn’t responding to him either. But there’s a good chance she’s got her phone with her still. And I may have an easy way to track it.”

I pulled Geneva’s iPad out of my bag and set it on the table.

“I found it in the basement at the Bell house. It’s Geneva’s. Her notifications went off when I sent her a text.”

“You stole it?” Dan asked.

“I borrowed it,” I said. “I don’t intend to keep it. I intend to use it to track Geneva’s phone if she’s got that enabled. I just have to figure out how to get into the thing. She’s got it password protected. Any way you can break it?” I looked at Karen.

“Not in a heartbeat, I can’t. I’d need a warrant.”

“You’d need a warrant,” I said. “I don’t. Plus, you just said Geneva’s not a suspect. And I’m not acting on your behalf. I’m acting to protect my client who I believe may be in harm’s way.”

“Is there anything you can do to help with that, Mac?” Dad asked the sheriff.

Mac looked miserable, but shook his head no. “We don’t have anything other than a bad feeling to support the claim that she’s a missing person. Geneva’s an adult. She has a significant history of just leaving town without telling anyone, least of all her family. I can put an unofficial word out. But this isn’t a crime yet.”

“I don’t want anything to do with that,” Karen said, pointing to the iPad.

“I’ll just be in my office,” I said, folding the tablet under my arm. I left the conference room and headed across the hall. Dad followed me.

He shut the door behind him. “How bad was it?” he asked.

“Well, I’ve pretty much lost Landon Bell’s trust as well. He took Kevin’s side when I told him the old man was faking his illness.”

“It’s a lot to process for him,” Dad said. “That boy’s been taking care of his father for a long time. He might come around though. Give him a chance.”

“What if I’m right though? What if Geneva didn’t just take off on her own? She’s been threatened by this creep multiple times. Opus nōn perfectum. Remember?”

“I get it,” Dad said. “But not one of those threats has been backed up by any attempt at real harm. So far it’s just been harassment. For all we know, this could still be the work of some prankster.”

“Come on. You know it’s not. You read the same decoded letters I did. Derrek Sidney was trying to send Geneva a message just seconds before he died. With every minute that goes by that I don’t hear from her, the worse I feel about it.”

I pulled my phone out and tried to call Geneva again. Of course, it went straight to voicemail. Now, when I sent a text, the iPad stayed dormant as it was no longer connected to Wi-Fi.

Dad picked it up. He woke up the screen but was stopped by the password prompt.

“Don’t just throw anything in at random,” I said. “Too many attempts and it might lock us out completely.”

“What have you tried?” he asked.

“I haven’t,” I said.

“Well, try her birthday.”

I pulled Geneva’s file up on my laptop and scrolled to her initial intake data. She’d only listed the month and year of her birthday, not the date. I did a quick browser search for her name. Nothing popped up.

“Hey, Mac.” Dad poked his head out the door and shouted across the hall. “March yourself in here for a second, will you?”

A moment later, Mac complied.

“I need you to get on the horn,” Dad said. “Look up Geneva Bell’s driver’s license. I need the day she was born.”

“She’s probably still got an Illinois license,” I said. “I doubt she would have taken the time to change it. I know she was hoping her stay in Helene wouldn’t be permanent.”

“I’ll need a couple of minutes,” Mac said, surprising me. I expected some of Dan’s influence to rub off on him. But true to his word, he came back fifteen minutes later with the information I needed.

“It can’t be as simple as this,” I muttered. That said, I was guilty of the same corner-cutting myself. My phone password was just an inversion of my own birthdate.