“Avery is here, and I’m not one hundred percent sure about this, but I think he has teamed up with Abner. Both men seem to have gone off the grid, and we are not sure why. We think, and I stress the word think, that they both started to explore the dark side of the web and are not sure of their next move. I’m sure that Abner has enlisted the aid of his . . . ah . . . fellow hacker, the one he calls Phil. But that’s all we know right now.

“Mr. Zack Meadows, your husband’s partner in the ownership of Happy Village, has not seen fit to return our numerous phone calls, and that’s starting to bother all of us. An eyeball-to-eyeball meeting is on the agenda. It was our job this morning, before coming here, to see if we could speak with him. We called, and of course the call went to voice mail, as did all the others. We tried calling the office, but the person who answered just said Mr. Meadows was not available and asked if we wanted to leave a message. We did. At that point, Fergus and I decided there was no point in fighting this abominable traffic just to be told that the man was unavailable, so we came here.

“Joseph is manning the apartment. Everyone checks in hourly with him, and we’re to meet up at one o’clock, but if that isn’t physically possible, then people will call in. I think that brings us pretty much up-to-date, and I regret that we don’t have more to report. But rest assured, we are working it. We’ll figure it all out, then take the appropriate action. We’re dealing, I suspect, with gangs and some turf warfare.”

“We’re here,” Fergus blurted as he swung the car into Lizzie’s paved driveway, where the silver Mercedes Jack and Harry had borrowed and obviously returned was sitting. Both men got out and walked Lizzie to the door.

Lizzie hugged both men before she unlocked the door. She thanked them for bringing her home, her eyes filling with tears. The last thing she said before she closed the door was a heartfelt whispered “Find those bastards and make them pay for what they did to my husband.” Fergus and Charles simply nodded.