Thrones references, and lots of generic memes with vaguely inspirational or funny little sayings.
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
Is it Friday yet?
If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, that means nobody wanted it. Set it free again.
Not that there was anything wrong with all that. From what I could see, Reese was the same kind of girl I’d been at fifteen. Which is also to say, nothing like the other known targets: Gwen Petty, the pretty, popular one, and Nigella Wilbur, the aggressive wild child.
Something told me that Reese was drawn into these online conversations as much by loneliness and insecurity as Gwen had been by vanity and Nigella by raging hormones.
The question was, what did they have in common? Certainly they were all risk-takers, whether or not they knew it. Loading that app onto their phones was like hanging a COME AND GET ME sign on the front door.
Now one of those girls was dead. One was still alive. And one was missing.
But what did this guy plan on doing with Reese Sapporo?
Or even worse—had he already done it?
CHAPTER 41
AS SOON AS I had a secure copy of Reese’s phone on my system, I used it to open the app and see what had been left behind.
The most recent item was the photo of Reese from that morning, bound up and wide-eyed with fear in the trunk of that anonymous car. I skipped over it as quickly as I could, but not before it had burned another little hole in my psyche. It was hard to think about and even harder to look at.
After that, I found a long string of texts and conversation fragments going back almost five months. He’d taken his time with Reese. Something told me he’d had to. Even here, the only responses she offered to his long texts were nothing more than shy little bursts, heavy on the stickers, hashtags, and emoticons.
At least, that’s what we were allowed to see. There was never any knowing what the app’s administrator was editing out—or adding in—for purposes of his own.
In any case, as I read through what was there, it was easy to see shades of the same guy from before. His sentences were full and well punctuated. His language was mature for a teen, but not quite adult, either. And while I didn’t see the Cummings poem this time, there was one verse of old-fashioned poetry. I had to google it to find out it was Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Love’s Philosophy.”
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?
He was wooing his target this time, as opposed to seducing her. The character who came across, through this line of communication, seemed like a young and naive person, just like Reese herself, and much less overtly like some lothario trying to get into a girl’s pants. That’s the version I’d seen in his communication with Nigella Wilbur, and to an extent with Gwen Petty, too.
There were no selfies this time, either. No nude pics or anything overtly sexual at all. Basically, he had turned himself into the kind of person Reese Sapporo would respond to. And he’d told her exactly what she wanted to hear, as she wandered further and further into his trap. I hated seeing these strings in retrospect, where it all seemed so clear, even if it hadn’t been to the victim at the time. But reading them over now felt a little like watching the crime play out through soundproof glass, while Reese flew like a moth toward that flame.
He’d even called himself JonSnow2 on-screen. It was a reference to the best-looking guy from Game of Thrones, who also happened to make regular appearances on Reese’s Instagram.
For that matter, it wasn’t hard to imagine my own fifteen-year-old self responding to some of this. The secret boyfriend. The kindness he showered on her. The attention he paid. Even the little moments of self-deprecation. It all added up.
And it was all lies.
CHAPTER 42
Let me tell you what I imagine when I think of you. I imagine a girl who has no idea how beautiful she is. I may not know what you look like, but I do know you’re beautiful. I hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable. It’s just the truth.
I know you’re just saying