Page 19 of If She Sensed

Ah, but this did.

She reached for her laptop and opened it again.The forum reloaded.SunflowerMom52 on her beach.The woman from Thursday group at her celebratory dinner.She scrolled further and found two more recent posts, both of them made of the same nonsense.Another milestone.Another woman stepping into her life with both hands open.

She read them both carefully.

She was not impulsive.That was important.She had learned that about herself over the past few months, learned it the way you rediscover about yourself, some vague fact that you’d known earlier and life and had nearly forgotten.She didn’t act on the heat of the feeling.She let it cool into something harder and more useful.And then she made a plan.

She looked at the screen and she began to do exactly that.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"I've got nine names," Sloane said, unwrapping her first taco as she looked down to her phone."Fresh Horizons graduates from the same cohort window as Carol and Donna, or close to it.”

“That’s all from the Facebook page for graduates?”Kate asked.

“It is.This thing is a treasure trove.”

The taco truck was parked at the edge of a small lot two blocks from the office, beside a metal picnic table that had seen better decades.Kate had driven past it a dozen times without really even noticing it.Sloane had been the one to suggest it, which surprised her, and then she remembered that Sloane was probably a practical person about lunch in ways that Kate was not.

The afternoon was cool but clear, and there was something almost forcibly pleasant about sitting outside with a paper-wrapped taco in your hand while the city went about its business around you.Kate had ordered two—one carnitas, one potato with salsa verde—and was working through the first one while Sloane sorted through the list on her phone.

"Well, seven of them had working phone numbers,” Slone said.“Two didn't."

"Start with whoever looks easiest to reach," Kate said.

Sloane made the first call.The woman answered on the second ring, and they put the phone on the table between them.They both reluctantly put their tacos down as they spoke.

The woman’s name was Janet Howe.She'd completed the Fresh Horizons program about fourteen months ago, she told them.She sounded measured and willing to talk, and when Sloane explained they were following up on a matter related to the program, she didn't ask for details or push back.She said the program had been good for her, genuinely.It had helped her rebuild some of the confidence she'd lost over the course of a long, deflating marriage.She spoke about Richard Hale with a measured appreciation—not gushing by any means, but without a single, negative word.

When they finished, Sloane thanked her and ended the call, reclaiming their tacos.

"Nothing there," Sloane said.

Kate was halfway through her first taco as she nodded agreement.

The second call was to a man named Rob Felton, who had been briefly in the program with his ex-wife as a condition of their counseling before their split had become final.He'd only attended four sessions before they stopped going together.He had nothing unpleasant to report.He'd found it professional and thought it had genuinely helped his ex-wife even after he'd stopped attending.He seemed faintly embarrassed to be speaking with federal agents and Kate was not unsympathetic.She told him he'd been very helpful and Sloane ended the call.

"He seemed like a sweet guy," Sloane said, reaching for her second taco.“And also… not a single bad word about the program.”

Kate looked out at the street for a moment.A delivery driver was unloading something from a van across the lot.She watched him for a second and then looked back down at her food.“Who’s next?”she asked.

“Already on it,” Sloane said.“Brenda Castro.”

Brenda Castro made yet more statements and little quips that were in line with everything they’d heard so far.She continued to paint the Fresh Horizons program as a well-run, professionally organized operation that had helped her find her footing.Brenda spoke warmly about the group sessions, about the women she'd met there, and about the sense of community the program built around something that could otherwise feel very isolating.She'd made two friends she still kept in touch with.

Sloane scrolled to the fourth name.

"Gloria Tran," she said."No employer listed in the file.Phone number's a cell."She dialed while chewing down the last of her final taco.

The line rang five times, and Kate had nearly written it off when the call connected.

"Hello?"a woman’s hurried voice said.

"Ms.Tran?Gloria Tran?”

“Yes, that’s me.Who is this?”

“This is Special Agent Sloane with the FBI.I'm here with a colleague, Agent Wise.We're calling in connection with Fresh Horizons.We were hoping to ask you a few questions about your experience with the program if you have the time."