“Bridget?” a man said behind her.

With a start, she turned to face an Asian guy who didn’t look much older than her. “Yeah?”

“I’m Samuel Poon.” He held out his hand. His head was faintly shadowed where the hair had been shaved off. Maybe he’d been going for tough, but instead it made him look vulnerable, like a baby bird.

Her carefully crafted explanation flew out of her head. “I’m here because Bob—R. M. Haldon—has been kidnapped. He tried to send me a message, but I didn’t understand it at first. Then I figured it out, and now I’m afraid something even worse has happened to him.”

His brows rose. “I want to help you, but first why don’t we go back and sit down. Then you can explain to me what’s happening.”

“Okay.”

He waved his keycard over a sensor. A door into the glassed-in area opened. They walked past the two clerks, both now on the phone.

Officer Poon ushered Bridget inside a small, plain room that held two chairs and a table. He left the door open.

“So you were saying something about how R. M. Haldon has been kidnapped?” From his chest pocket, he pulled out a little notebook and flipped it open, clicked his pen.

Bridget took out her phone. “Look. It started when he sent me this email. I knew something was wrong with it, but it took me a while to figure out it’s all in code.”

“In code,” he repeated. He set down his notebook and took her phone. As he scrolled down, his brow furrowed.

“But I finally unscrambled it.” And it all came tumbling out—her work on the database, her parents’ real names and the names Bob had used, what she’d seen on Reddit, and finally how she’d figured out the clues and solved the true meaning hidden in Bob’s message.

Officer Poon twisted his head as if he was having trouble hearing her. “So all that is why you think Mr. Haldon’s been kidnapped.”

“Yes!” Bridget was relieved someone was finally listening to her. “Like he says in the hidden message, he was kidnapped by his assistant. That Joanne Dart woman. Or”—the thought suddenly struck her—“I don’t know, maybe she just says she’s his assistant but she’s not really.”

Officer Poon exhaled heavily. “Ms. Dart actually is his housekeeper. I’ve dealt with her several times.”

“Oh.” Bridget recalculated. “Okay. Well, I guess that makes sense. If she works for him, it would be easy for her to kidnap him.”

“And now you say she’s selling chapters of Mr. Haldon’s new book on the dark web? Have you seen this yourself?”

“I don’t even know how to go on there,” Bridget admitted. “It didn’t seem safe to look for it myself.”