Fool Me Once

Maya takes stock of all the of the clues that she’s amassed thus far, concluding that someone must have doctored the nanny cam video and that only Isabella had access. She checks the tracker history from Hector’s car and finds a Paterson, New Jersey, housing project that he’s visited several times in the past few days. Maya resolves to start knocking on doors.

Shane calls. His tone chilling, he asks what Maya has done. Detective Kierce found out Shane ran a ballistics test for her off the books, and now Shane knows that the same gun killed Joe and Claire. Maya asks Shane to trust her, but Shane scoffs, tired of hearing her unearned “mantra” (347). Maya hangs up on Shane and pulls out of the recovery center’s lot. On the quiet road ahead, a van cuts her off and two men approach her. Maya’s “lizard-instinct part of the brain [comes] to a realization: She [is] being attacked” (347). Holding a gun to her head, the armed assailant tells Maya that Joe is waiting. The van door slides open in front of her. Maya starts to cry and fumbles to unlock her door, stalling for time. The gunman falls for her helpless act, offers his arm, and doesn’t frisk her before steering her toward the van.