Before I Go: A dark and tense psychological crime thriller. by Marie Reyes (the false prince series txt) 📗

“What do you mean?” He straightened up from his slouched position.

“It’s not easy being the younger one. Everyone says that parents dote on the younger sibling. I call bullshit.” She pounded the keyboard with her fist now, and he could picture her throwing the thing across the room.

“I think I would have liked having a brother or sister.”

“The grass is always greener. Sorry. I don’t know why I said that. She was awesome. Life of the party. She always did everything before I did though. By the time I achieved anything, she had always gotten there first. I kinda double corrected. Perfect grades, studied my ass off, never got in trouble, but for some reason my parents didn’t seem to give a shit. They were always more concerned with her. There was always some drama. I always got so mad at her for it, but now, now I’d kill to have her call with her latest crisis. One time, I remember, she ran out of money in Australia. Hitchhiked. Ended up staying with some random middle-aged dude in Cairns. For some reason, she felt compelled to tell our parent’s all the gory details. Man, they were pissed.”

Michael forced out a laugh to detract from the fact that he would have given his right arm to have someone give a shit about him.

“Anyway, you’re one to talk. I know next to nothing about you. It’s funny that isn’t it? I’ve never really traveled outside of the states. I’ve worked with people for years and barely talk to them, yet I’ve known you a few days and I already feel like…”

“I know what you mean. Trust me though, there’s nothing to tell. My life is the least interesting story in history.”

“Yes!” Josie declared as her laptop sprung to life. “Come over here,”

“What?” He mustered the energy to get his body off of the sofa.

“I finally got into her account. I’ve been trying to guess her password for the last year. There has to be something.” She scrolled through reams of messages, writing down the names of anyone she had conversed with before she disappeared. She sent a group message from her own profile begging for information. Any snippet, no matter how insignificant. While she waited to see if anyone would respond, she scrolled through all her photographs again.

The pictures showed a story. One edited and filtered until you could no longer be sure it resembled reality. Choreographed to show a perfect life. She was surrounded by groups of people, all beaming smiles and flattering camera angles. No pictures of a girl scared and alone, on dark streets, trapped in a cab and driven to her fate. He could barely imagine that grinning face with a look of terror on it, what those eyes might look like as she tried to escape. They identified where she was from tags, and landmarks. They scoured the Internet to find which ruins she was posed in front of, which stretch of sea she was lounging on, which bars she was drinking at. The second to last picture they recognized was the next street across from them, but the very last photo didn’t seem to fit with the one that came before. It was somewhere different. She stood in front of a white tower. It looked like a cross between a lighthouse or a small signal tower that you might see in an airport.

“What’s that?” Michael asked.

“Not sure. Is that sea in the background?” Josie traced her finger along a fuzzy stretch of blue behind a white wall. “Looks like it.”

“I’m going to ask.” She picked up her laptop and walked over to Julio, who sat, unmoved from his position at the front desk. “Can I ask, do you recognize this place? We want to go.” She placed her computer on the side and rotated it to face in his direction.

He leaned over the desk and squinted at the laptop. “Yes. Chetumal. Nice place. You can learn to dive. Go sailing. I have boat there.”

“Is it easy to get there from here?”

“Very easy. You can get taxi, or I can even drive. Give you a tour. My nephew can always watch this place.”

“That’s amazing, thanks.” Josie rushed back to Michael. “Did you hear that? Chetumal. We can get a cab. It will give me a chance to take another crack at the taxi driver too. Ask them some questions. Captive audience and all.” He watched Josie type Chetumal white tower into her search engine and pour through the images with a newfound vigor. “This is it.” She pointed at the tower she had seen Tanya posing in front of. Her leg shook as she tapped her foot against the floor. “We should go now. It’s still early.” He watched her range of emotions swirling into one rotating vortex of energy.

“Josie, Michael,” Julio called from the front desk. He had his phone still in his hand. “My nephew will watch the hotel now. I can take you if you like? Show you Chetumal?”

“Are you sure?” Josie asked, a huge grin on her face.

“As soon as Frederico gets here we go.”

“I’m going to put my laptop away.” She raced upstairs, leaving Michael stood there in her wake.

“Hang on.” He headed after her.

***

“What the hell is happening right now?” He leaned against the wall as she placed her laptop in a large metal locker, shut the door with a clunk, and turned the key.

“What if this wasn’t the last place she was? She was in this Chetumal place. We were talking to the wrong taxi company the whole time. I have a good feeling about this.”

“But going with this guy. You think that’s a good idea?”

“What, our hotel owner? Don’t you think you’re being a bit paranoid?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.”

“Here would this make you feel better?” She passed him her phone. A post uploaded to her profile, tagging them both at the hotel and informing everyone they were traveling to Chetumal.  “Everyone knows where we are,