Page 58 of I Can't Even

My call was easy. Hannah and Harry were actually at Liam’s Coffee Shop but promised to spread the word to their friends and then rendezvous with us at the house. Liam was on his phone considerably longer.

“Do you have a recent picture of Em?” he asked. “It’d help the patrol officers to know who they’re looking for.”

“Hang on,” I said. I was not a big picture taker, but I checked the photos on my phone. Shots from my life in New York popped up, including some of Jessie and me when we went ice skating at Rockefeller Center this past winter. I quickly scrolled through, hoping Liam didn’t see. It was a bust. I had no photos of Em. “I’ve got nothing.”

“What about social media?” Liam had his phone to his ear.

“Em’s not online,” I said. “Babs forbid it.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. His brow rose.

I shrugged. I supposed it was worth checking although I couldn’t imagine my introverted baby sister had any desire to have her life played out on social media, especially if it was met with maternal disapproval.

I opened up a search engine on my phone and did a cursory search. I got nothing on Emily Blumer. I tried a variety of name and initial searches and even some of the nicknames I called her. Nothing. Lastly, I did an images search for Emily and Gull’s Harbor and my phone blew the fuck up.

Picture after picture filled the small screen. Huh. Who knew there were so many Emilys in Gull’s Harbor? As I scrolled through the pictures, I realized there weren’t. There was just one; my baby sister who apparently had a whole other life happening online.

“Holy crap!” I cried.

“What is it?” Soph raced over to me, looking at my phone as I held it out for her to see. There had to be more than fifty pictures, memes, and short videos of Em. I glanced up at the top of the page. The girl already had thousands and thousands of followers, and it looked like she’d only recently gotten online. In fact, she’d joined the day after Babs passed away.

“Is that our Em?” Soph asked.

I played one of the videos. It was footage of Em getting her belly button pierced. We both cringed as the guy put the clamp on and we watched in shock as Em in her shorty shorts and knotted T-shirt flirted with him while he did it.

“I’m speechless,” I said. “I am without speech.”

And I was. Soph’s phone rang, and we both jumped. She glanced at the display. It was Stan. She turned away from my phone and took the call while I continued to scroll through all of Em’s posts.

Liam joined me and peered over my shoulder. He frowned. “Is that Em?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m assuming this is how she’s decided to manage her grief. See? She’s using the hashtag grief and another hashtag Emily for every post.”

“Processing bereavement by becoming a social media star?” Liam gave a low whistle. “She’s got a ton of followers. I don’t even have that many for the coffee shop and I’ve been in business for years.”

“Looks like a celebrity shared her posts and now she’s trending.” I frowned. “Except now she’s missing, and a stranger has her phone. Oh, god, what if it’s one of those woman-hating-incel-troll types and he’s abducted her?”

My voice was shaking, and Liam put his hand on my back to steady me. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll find her.”

I knew he was bullshitting me, but I was ever so grateful for how assured he sounded. He messaged the link to her social media account to all of his employees and his friend Ryan.

“My sister is missing!” Soph was pacing and her voice was raised. “I know and I’m sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt. Isn’t there any way you can cancel your dinner with your colleagues for a family emergency?”

I couldn’t make out his words, but I heard Stan’s deep drone on the line, and it was all I could do not to snatch the phone out of Soph’s hands and tell him to get his ass over here and help us. Perhaps it was my panic kicking in or maybe I just didn’t like a man who couldn’t be there for his wife when she needed him. Then again, I couldn’t remember a time when Stan had ever put anyone ahead of himself.

Liam squeezed my shoulder and I realized I’d taken one step forward as if I would actually grab Soph’s phone and curb-stomp it like I wanted to Stan’s head. I glanced at my sister’s face. She looked upset enough. She didn’t need me brawling with her husband to make it any worse.

“Aunt Jules, has there been any word?” Hannah and Harry asked as they parked in front of the house and jumped from the car.

“No,” I said. “But we have discovered that your Aunt Emily has a lot going on in her life that we didn’t know about, but I’m guessing you two did.”

I turned my phone around so that they could see it. Hannah and Harry were in a couple of the pictures and they both looked duly alarmed that I had found Em’s page.

“We can explain,” they said together.

“I’m listening,” I said.

Soph shoved her phone in her pocket and joined the group. One look at their mother’s face and both Hannah and Harry hugged her close.

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