Myron nodded.

“It’s hard on so many levels, but it’s like we’ve been living in purgatory for ten years. You have to keep yourself busy or you lose your mind. So I came into my office this morning. Then I met with my lawyers to see what we could do.”

“Do about what?” Myron asked.

“About Patrick not talking. I was looking for some legal recourse. You know, to make him cooperate.” Chick looked up from the laptop. “What did you want to see me about anyway?”

Myron wasn’t sure how to raise the subject of the texts with Nancy Moore yet. Should he go the direct route or ease into it?

“Hold up,” Chick said. “It’s about to air.”

The modern era. La Sirena had a good blend of the art world, Village hipsters, and Wall Street masters of the universe. The place was lively with the arriving lunch crowd, and here, at the bar, two men were huddled over a laptop watching a news program. No one looked twice.

“Wait, where are they?” Chick asked.

Myron recognized the room. “That’s the Moores’ living room.”

“They’re not doing it in a studio?”

“Guess not.”

On the screen, Anderson Cooper sat in a plush leather chair. Nancy and Hunter sat on a couch across from him. Hunter wore a dark suit and dark tie. Nancy wore a light-blue dress that was stylish yet conservative.

“Where’s Patrick?” Chick asked. “Myron?”

“I don’t know. Let’s watch, okay?”

The interview began without Patrick. Anderson started with some background—the kidnapping, the ransom drop, the strain of no answers, the long wait for this day. He raised the fact that Nancy and Hunter were now divorced, clearly implying that the breakup was a direct result of what had happened. Neither Nancy nor Hunter bit, though.

“We share custody of our beautiful daughter,” Nancy said by way of explanation.

“We raised her together,” Hunter added.

After a few more minutes, Chick shook his head and said, “Unbelievable. They’re giving him nothing.”

It was somewhat true. Anderson wasn’t pushing them, which was understandable under the circumstances. These weren’t politicians running for office. These were parents who had suffered greatly and were now trying to comprehend their sudden . . . Would you call it luck?

Nancy did most of the talking. She explained to Anderson how grateful they were to have Patrick home again. “Our son has been through a terrible ordeal,” she said, biting her lower lip. When Anderson tried to get some details, they deflected by talking about Patrick’s need for privacy and “space for recovery and transition.”

This was the message, repeated in various forms: Please give Patrick and the Moore family privacy to recover from this terrible ordeal. They used the phrase “terrible ordeal” to the point that Myron wondered whether they’d been coached to say it.

Anderson pressed on. He asked about the kidnapping, if they were any closer to catching the perpetrators. The Moores offered no real answer, deferring questions “about possible apprehensions” to the “authorities.”