But another part couldn’t stop thinking about one thing.
Nora had survived long enough to reach Elaine.
“What happened to her?” I asked.
Elaine looked toward the café again.
Then she began.
“When Nora was sixteen, she had secretly been seeing a nineteen-year-old named Caleb.”
The name meant nothing to me.
That made it worse.
Elaine explained that Nora had met him online after lying about her age.
They had been communicating for several months.
Nora knew Michael and I would never approve of her seeing someone older.
So she kept him hidden.
“Did he take her from the beach?” Michael asked.
Elaine hesitated.
“I don’t know exactly what happened that afternoon.”
My heart sank.
“But Nora told me enough to understand that she left the beach willingly.”
I stared at her.
“Willingly?”
“She believed she was going to meet Caleb.”
I felt something inside me break.
“She was sixteen.”
“I know.”
“She was a child.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t she come home?”
Elaine looked down.
“Because Caleb convinced her that you were going to have him arrested. He told her that if she went home, everything would get worse.”
Michael stood up.
“He lied to her.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he take her?”
