Truth be told, he wasnt quite sure why he was here. Well, he knew the easy answer to that question, but he knew there were deeper ramifications, too. He was here because the call hed received on his cell phone an hour ago had told him to come. He didnt know why, and he wasnt sure who had even called. All he knew was that the few words the person on the other end had spoken had been enough to get him to go: Meet me at the very center of the High Bridge at two thirty or Ill send your wife those emails youve been hiding. If you see cops, you wait until theyre gone and then go to the center of the bridge.

Dustin had not had a chance to ask questions because the call ended after that. After leaving his house, hed tried calling the number back, but no one had answered. Hed panicked a bit during the eighteen-minute drive between his apartment and High Bridge. The call had not woken his wife up, mainly because he kept his phone on vibrate after ten oclock at night And even if he did leave his ringer on, he wasnt even sure it would wake her up. The woman slept like a rock. Still, he worried that shed get up to use the bathroom or something and find him gone. And then what? What sort of excuse was he supposed to use then?

One problem at a time, he told himself as he got out of his car and hurried to the bridge. He knew it all looked a little suspect, or that he might be out hoping to get mugged or killeda lonely, middle-aged man out for a stroll on an old bridge at 2:20 in the morning. But hed do pretty much anything to ensure those emails never got to his wife.

He wasnt even sure how it had all happened. Hed been in a very low place last year. The depression had gotten to be too much, and hed acted out of it. And though he was in a much better place now thanks to therapy and the right medicines, the secrets that rested in those emails were the one thing he was going to keep hidden come hell or high water.

Only…now someone knew about them. He had no idea how. During the drive to the bridge, hed suspected it might be some sort of hacker. Or maybe someone from that dark period last year that he could not quite remember. Thered been a lot of drinking and a lot of excess, so he was sure there were at least a few blank spots in his memory. But for the life of him, he could not think of who might know about the emails and the information they contained.