Page 99 of Lost and Found

Wes leaned back in his chair. “Are you worried about Matt swimming at Decker’s?”

“No. He has enough bodyguards watching him that you’d think he was the heir to a monarchy. I just need a cup of coffee. Want one?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind. I just want to finish looking through this pile of pictures from Jennifer.”

She liked doing little things for Wes, and he seemed bound and determined to do them for her and Matt. Bailey went downstairs and set the coffeepot, idly tidying the kitchen as the coffee percolated. She turned at Wes’s footsteps. “Couldn’t wait for the caffeine?”

“Can you look at this?” He held up a photograph. “Tell me if you see anything strange.”

“Sure.” The picture had a nostalgic quality, as though it was taken with one of those disposable cameras that were commonplace before cell phones had cameras.

She focused on the college students crowded at a tailgate gathering. She recognized the popular place where students religiously gathered to pre-party for football games. Ryan and Caitie stood with several friends, each holding a red Solo cup. Their carefree demeanors hid what the future held.

“What am I looking for?” The background was busy, and Bailey studied each face. Then she saw what Wes had also noticed. On the right side, not facing the camera, Erick, Peter, and Martin posed together, making obnoxious hand gestures and acting like tough guys, mean-mugging it for someone to take their photo. “Erick et al.”

“Yeah.”

“So?” She offered him the picture back. They’d already established Erick and his friends orbited in the same social circles. Their paths crossing at a tailgate together wasn’t a stretch.

Wes didn’t take it from her. “Look what they’re doing.”

She studied it again but couldn’t quite see because of the angle. “I don’t know. They look like idiots. That’s what they were doing. With their hands held up like rich kids throwing gang symbols. Or maybe that’s more reminiscent of the boy band era. What am I missing?”

“Look at their hands.”

“I am. What am I missing?”

Frustration evident, he took the picture back and scowled at it. “Let me show you something upstairs while the coffee brews.”

She followed him into their makeshift office. Wes glanced at the picture, then positioned his arms like Erick’s, holding up his fingers as if counting to three. “What does it look like my hand is doing?”

“Holding up the number three, sideways.”

“Could be an E?”

She took the picture back and squinted at it. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Wes drew a large E on the whiteboard. He capped the marker and shoved it in his pocket. “Now look at Martin.”

Martin held up three fingers pointed down. “That could be the letter M.”

Wes wrote M next to the E. “Now Peter. Look at what he’s doing. Do you think it could be a P? It almost looks like he was a second or two behind Erick and Martin and didn’t quite have it formed yet.”

Bailey squinted at the three boys she detested. They were so young and soft-looking. They hadn’t had enough time to grow out of their cushy upbringings into thicker skin. Still, they had the same pompous air. “I don’t know. He could have been flicking a cigarette.”

“Or it could be the letter P.” Wes wrote the letter P next to M and E. “Do you see any connection?”

Her lips pulled down. She studied the letters and found nothing, then stared at the picture and saw preppy rich kids throwing gang signs. That had nothing to do with figuring out what happened to Caitie unless the three obnoxious boys had actually joined a gang and led them into her dorm. “Can you give me a hint?”

Wes erased the three letters and rewrote them, first with a giant M, then with an E on top of it.

Her stomach dropped. “What in the world…?”

“You see it too, don’t you?” Wes drew a sideways P that cut diagonally through the M and E.

Her lips parted. Her mind raced with questions. “That’s the symbol on the top of the key.”

He nodded. “Why would Ryan want to give me a key with their interlocked monogram?”