“Immensely.”
Nate sighed. “I need access to your social media skills.”
Even uttering those words was painful to Nate.
The thing was that Nate knew he could be considered a paradox given the nature of his job. Perhaps since his dealt with data analysis, someone would think that he would be involved in all matters of technology and information.
On the contrary, he abhorred social media. Sure, he’d gone through a short phase of experimentation back when it had all been new and exciting, but it had soon lost its appeal for him.
He did recognize one useful quality though.
“Are you telling me we’re going social media-stalking?” Coop’s voice sounded both amused and slightly shocked. And too pleased for his own good.
Nate winced. “Not the term I would have liked but yeah.”
“Would you have preferred ‘information hunting?’”
“You’re already getting on my last nerve.”
Cooper laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll be there in an hour. Make sure you have coffee.”
Nate couldn’t help the smile that stretched his lips. “Will do.”
Which was where they found themselves a little while later, camped in Nate’s living room, his laptop open in front of them, as Cooper juggled with half a dozen open tabs.
“Does this look like her?” Coop asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Nate knew it wasn’t, it was just that his impatience was starting to make him jittery.
He studied the profile Coop was showing him. The picture was of a dark-haired girl but it was taken from too far away to tell, and her other ones were private. He then noticed the location of residence listed and turned a blank look at his friend.
“This person lives in Canada.”
“So?”
“Dowelive in Canada?”
“Nooo,” Coop said, dragging the word, “butshecould. Maybe that’s where her permanent residence is.”
A brief jolt of unease went through Nate before he squashed it down.
“No, she has to live somewhere nearby. That’s why we bumped into each other so early in the morning the day of the accident.” Nate would accept no other option. “She has to.”
He felt Cooper’s eyes boring on him before a strong hand squeezed his shoulder.
“Okay, bud. Don’t worry, she’s here somewhere. We’ll find her.”
Nate nodded, more to convince himself than anything else.
“Hey, what if she doesn’t have a photo of herself but something else as a profile picture? Maybe we’ve missed her because of that.”
Nate thought about it and the more he did, the more it sounded like something that could be possible.
“Look for a profile that has something to do with books, or anime, or art of some kind.”
A few more minutes passed in silence before, “Hey, check out this one.”
Nate pulled the laptop closer to him.
The profile picture was the face of an anime girl in a futuristic context, with wavy green hair, glasses, and a forlorn look in her eyes. Below it were the words, Madison Pierce.
