Out of Time: The Family That Lost Me novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Flash Drive

Shelby sat at the break room table with the flash drive between her hands and would not let go of it.

Abram put a cup of tea in front of her, nodded to me, and went back to the kennels.

He left the door open a few inches.

"I'm not here to ask you to forgive me," Shelby said.

"Good."

"I'm here because I can't sleep in my mother's guest room knowing what's on this."

"Then plug it in."

She slid it across.

I opened my laptop.

The drive held one file, a chat export four years long.

It had every message from the group I had seen on her phone, plus a second folder.

The second folder was titled "Aunt Di."

"These are your private messages," I said.

"Mine and hers." Shelby's voice went small. "She started writing to me four months ago, the week I got laid off. She said you were running yourself into the ground, and she was scared."

I opened the first message.

It was from my mother, sent on a Tuesday.

"Shelby, honey, would you do something for me? Mallory's apartment has a pullout couch, and you need a place. Why not stay a while? Keep an eye on her."

"I thought she meant my laid-off self," Shelby said. "I thought she meant be company."

The next message was dated three days later.

"Does she have her bank app open on her phone a lot? I'd just like to know she's saving."

Then: "What does she spend on? Don't tell her I asked."

Then, week after week, a pattern.

"Did she send the Friday transfer?"

"Anything unusual on her phone this week?"

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