Missing You

Kat Donovan, a New York City police detective, has never found closure over the murder of her father, Henry Donovan, a fellow officer killed 18 years earlier, despite Monte Leburne's conviction for the crime. One night, her friend Stacy, a private investigator, reveals she has signed Kat up for the dating site YouAreJustMyType.com. Browsing profiles, Kat is stunned to see what appears to be Jeff Raynes, her ex-fiancé, who proposed during college and vanished after her father's murder. Kat sends him a link to the John Waite "Missing You" video, a song that was a private joke between them, but the reply is generic, showing no recognition. When Kat identifies herself, the man goes silent, then tells her he needs a "fresh start" (86) and disconnects.

In a parallel storyline, Gerard Remington, a pharmaceutical chemist, wakes bound in an underground bunker after being lured into an online relationship with a woman named Vanessa Moreau. Titus, the leader of a kidnapping operation, questions Gerard in a farmhouse. His computer operative, Dmitry, works on Gerard's stolen laptop while his armed enforcer, Reynaldo, stands guard. Gerard deduces he is being held on Amish land in rural Pennsylvania. He spots a woman in a bright yellow sundress and later discovers victims' clothing topped by that dress, grasping the scale of Titus's crimes. Gerard is led to a clearing and shot dead.

Kat's investigation into her father's case gains urgency when Captain Stagger, her superior and Henry's former partner, tells her Leburne is dying of pancreatic cancer. At the prison, a nurse administers a sedative cocktail that puts Leburne in a semi-narcotic state. Leburne insists he never killed a cop; he was already facing life for two other murders and simply took the blame after someone told him to confess.

Kat shows Jeff's profile to Aqua, her former Columbia University classmate and yoga instructor, a brilliant man with a serious mental health condition who was once Jeff's roommate. Aqua confirms the photos but warns Kat with song lyrics: "Watch out for people who belong in your past. Don't let 'em back in your life" (231).

Brandon Phelps, a 19-year-old college student, comes to Kat's precinct with a troubling claim. His mother, Dana Phelps, a wealthy widow from Greenwich, Connecticut, went on a trip with an online boyfriend and has stopped communicating. Brandon admits he hacked into the dating site and discovered the man his mother left with used the same profile photographs as Jeff, though under the name Jack.

Kat obtains the prison visitor log and discovers Stagger visited Leburne before the lead detectives even knew Leburne was a suspect. Confronted, Stagger claims he went out of loyalty to Henry. Kat does not believe him, and Stagger places her on leave.

Bank surveillance footage from Greenwich shows Dana withdrawing cash in a bright yellow sundress, but Kat notices a figure lurking in the background. Stacy's background check reveals Jeff Raynes ceased to exist after a bar fight in Cincinnati 18 years ago. Brandon discovers Jeff's photos were posted on a deleted Facebook page under the name Ron Kochman. Dana's financial adviser reveals she wired roughly $250,000 to a Swiss account, supposedly for property in Costa Rica. Kat's partner, Chaz Faircloth, discovers the limousine that picked Dana up had stolen plates.

The novel reveals Titus's full criminal operation. Born in the Bronx, he began as a pimp luring runaways at the Port Authority bus terminal before evolving into online romance scams. His current scheme uses fake profiles built from photographs harvested from defunct social media accounts to seduce lonely targets, lure them to the farm for supposed romantic getaways, hold them captive in underground root cellars, drain their finances, and kill them.

Kat traces the Swiss account to a second victim, Gerard Remington, whose cousin filed a Suspicious Activity Report after Gerard transferred his savings to the same account. At Gerard's home, Kat confirms he was also a YouAreJustMyType user. Brandon discovers "Jeff" is communicating with other women on the site, including Martha Paquet, who left for a supposed getaway and has not been heard from.

Kat drives to Montauk, Long Island, where Stacy has traced Jeff's identity. She encounters his daughter Melinda and Sam, Jeff's former father-in-law, who refuses to let her in. Kat realizes a critical detail: When she messaged "Jeff" online, she was the one who identified herself first; the person on the other end never recognized her, confirming he was not Jeff. Returning to confront Sam, she is startled when Jeff himself steps out. He confirms he had nothing to do with the profiles; someone stole his photographs. Jeff is evasive about why he changed his name but admits he still loves Kat.

Stagger hints that Henry had an arrangement with crime boss Cozone. Kat's Aunt Tessie, her mother's close friend, reveals Henry had a long affair with a person whose street name was Sugar. Cozone's enforcer brings Kat to the crime boss's estate, where Cozone claims he discovered the affair and used it as blackmail. In Brooklyn, Kat discovers Sugar is Anthony Parker, a Black man who reveals he and Henry had a 14-year romantic relationship; Henry was a closeted gay man living in terror of exposure. Stagger then admits the truth: He ensured Leburne's quick confession to prevent the investigation from exposing Henry's secret. Stagger insists Cozone ordered the hit because Henry stood up to the blackmail; the cover-up was about burying the motive, not hiding the killer.

Events accelerate when Titus learns Kat has been investigating the bank account. He drives to New York to kidnap Brandon, planning to use the boy as leverage to draw Dana out. Dana, still captive at the farm, strikes Reynaldo with a chair and escapes barefoot into the woods. Titus lures Brandon outside and grabs him. Kat witnesses the abduction and commandeers a car to follow, coordinating with federal investigators as the vehicle heads toward Pennsylvania.

At the farm, Dana doubles back to the farmhouse, overhears Dmitry relay Brandon's phone number to Titus, and kills Dmitry with an ax. On Titus's orders, Reynaldo sets the farmhouse ablaze, but Dana circles back to the underground cells and frees Martha and other captives by breaking padlocks. Titus arrives with Brandon, whom he shoots in the knee to draw Dana out. Kat hears the scream and sprints toward the clearing. As Titus aims at Kat, Brandon grabs his leg, and Kat fires. Titus survives but falls into a coma. The freed captives overpower Reynaldo, and Dana kills him. Thirty-one bodies are excavated from the farm; seven living captives, including Dana, are rescued.

Jeff appears on Kat's stoop the next day, and the two reconcile. Kat rents a place near Jeff in Montauk, and for a month they live in what feels like the fairy tale Stacy once predicted. Then Bobby Suggs, one of the detectives who originally investigated Henry's case, calls with news: He has rerun unidentified fingerprints from the murder scene, and they match Jeff. Overhearing the call, Jeff confesses. Eighteen years ago, he came home to find Kat's father beating Aqua, who had seen Henry at a cross-dressing club with Sugar. Jeff intervened, and in the struggle he grabbed Henry's spare gun and shot him. Stagger arrived and orchestrated the cover-up to protect Jeff, Aqua, and Henry's reputation, helping Jeff assume the Ron Kochman identity. Jeff left Kat not because he stopped loving her but because he could not face her while carrying the secret. The novel ends with Kat and Jeff sitting side by side, hands touching, as Kat hears the echo of "I ain't missing you at all."