“He doesn’t share the social conscience the rest of your family is known for?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Alastair Calder said, with what sounded like just a hint of pride. “He does care about injustice. He’s on the web all the time, debating it with people. I’ll hear that damn tapping at three in the morning, and go into his room and tell him enough is enough. And he’ll tell me he just has to make one more point with some stupid idiot in Oklahoma or Dublin or Cape Town. Like he’s trying to win the planet over to his point of view. It’s like that cartoon of the person on the computer saying he can’t come to bed because someone is wrong on the Internet.”

“What sort of issues does he get fired up about?”

Alastair frowned. “Who knows. Sometimes I think he’s just looking for something to get riled about. He sees others jumping on some bandwagon and he has to get on too. He says this whole social-network thing is a way to get back at people.”

“Get back at people?”

He shrugged. “To get revenge. To make sure people get what’s coming to them. That’s never what my wife and I were about. We weren’t about revenge. We were always about justice.”

“Can you recall any specific instances?”

Alastair had to think. “Well, take that son of a bitch who attacked that retarded—sorry, my apology, we don’t say that any more, terrible word—that mentally challenged woman. He pretty much admitted he did it, but he got off. Cory thought that was pretty disgusting.”

“I guess you heard what happened to that person,” Duckworth said.

“Oh yeah, terrible. Even considering everything.”

“What about that kid who ran down the girl?” Duckworth asked. “His defense that his mother’s pampering sabotaged his ability to understand the consequences of his actions.”

“The Big Baby,” Calder said.

“That’s the one. So you know the case. Did Cory ever mention it?”

The man’s face grew concerned. “Why are you asking?”

“Did he?”

“Just the other day. How could you have guessed that?”

“Have you ever heard of a website called Just Deserts?”

“What is that? Some cooking site or something?”

“No,” Duckworth said. “It’s a site that encourages vigilantism. People become heroes on that site when they’ve taken action against a person deemed to have gotten away with something. Like the man who sexually molested that girl.”

“What kind of vigilantism?” Alastair asked.

“I guess that’s up to whoever is carrying it out.” Duckworth frowned.

“So what the hell are you suggesting? That Cory is striving for recognition on this site?”

Duckworth shrugged. “Maybe it’s the shortcut to achieving a social good like his brother and sister.” He paused. “Or his mother and father.”