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was that bad. Why didn’t you say anything?”
    Because I can still see my dad climbing into his car, and the note, and my mother’s tear-streaked face. Because I didn’t want you to know that my own father didn’t want me. Because I didn’t want you to look at me the way you are right now.
    “There’s nothing to tell. He wasn’t around. It doesn’t matter.” I started to turn away, but Jared kept my arm locked behind him and my body against his.
    He lifted my chin. “Is that the reason you think everyone is going to hurt you?”
    The familiar numbness I felt whenever I thought about my dad for too long spread through me. “Jared, I don’t… I can’t talk about this. Please.”
    “Okay.”
    We stood side by side in silence, watching the trucks pull in and out of the parking lot. I didn’t want to talk about my dad and relive the pain that never seemed to go away. But my memories were the only possible clues we hadleft, and if Andras was responsible for the crimes on my dorm room walls, he had killed dozens of people.
    By the time I slid back into the booth a few minutes later, I was ready. “What else do you need to know?”
    Alara turned the sugar dispenser upside down, emptying what looked like half the contents into her coffee cup. “You don’t have to talk about this, Kennedy. We can figure out another way to find her.”
    “We don’t have time.” I pulled my shoulders back and took a deep breath. “Ask me whatever you want.”
    Priest fidgeted with his headphones. “Did your father ever talk about his childhood?”
    “Not really. I know he grew up in DC, but my grandparents died before I was born.”
    Priest and Alara exchanged a look.
    “Anything else? Like a special place you went together?” Lukas asked.
    I started to say no, but then an image flickered in my mind. The photo I’d found tucked into my mirror while I was packing up the house, after my mom died. Me sitting on my dad’s shoulders, in front of a gray weather-beaten house. “There was this picture of us.…”
    I closed my eyes and focused on the details in the photo, things I’d never paid attention to before, scanning them one by one.
    A broken gutter on the side of the house.
    The half-mowed lawn behind us.
    My missing front tooth.
    Pink flowers on a dogwood tree.
    My dad’s silver wedding band.
    The quarter-sized hole in the knee of my jeans.
    Untied blue Keds.
    A green sticker on my Wonder Woman T-shirt.
    I zeroed in on the sticker. Blurry letters circled the outside, but the white writing in the center read I VISITED THE WORLD’S LARGEST BOTTLE CAP.
    “There’s this old picture of my dad and me in front of a house. I have no idea where it was taken, but there’s one of those stickers on my shirt that you get when you visit a cheesy museum or landmark.”
    “Do you remember going anywhere like that with him?” Priest asked.
    “No. But the sticker says ‘I visited the world’s largest bottle cap.’ ”
    “It’s better than nothing. Who’s up for a road trip?” Lukas asked, just as Alara took a sip of her sugar-laced coffee. She swallowed too fast and ended up in a coughing fit. Elle tried to pat her back, but Alara swatted her hand away.
    Lukas’ fingers flew across the screen of his phone. “The world’s largest bottle cap is located in Massachusetts, at the Topsfield Museum of Revolutionary Taxidermy and Patriots.”
    Elle scrunched up her nose. “That is so disgusting.”
    “It’s a museum with a giant bottle cap in it. What do you expect?” Priest stole one of my fries. “Just be glad they didn’t taxidermy the patriots.”
    “Your grandparents lived in Massachusetts, right?” Lukas asked.
    I nodded. “Boston.”
    “It’s a connection.” He sounded hopeful.
    Alara crossed her arms. “You aren’t actually suggesting we go to Massachusetts because of a sticker? To look for what, exactly?”
    “I agree with Alara,” I said. “It’s a long shot.”
    Priest took off his headphones and