“Nope. But she sure attracted attention when she came. She was really hot looking. I didn’t like her, but I understand why Ernesto did.” He shook his head in wonderment. “If she did half of what she writes about, I’d cut off my left nut to spend a night with her.” He scrunched up his brow. “Well, maybe not my nut.”

“I understand what you’re saying.”

“All the boys had the hots for her. Only Ernesto was brash enough to go up to her and attempt conversation. Like really talk to her. Mostly, she just talked and guys listened. Like hung on her every word…” Abruptly, Karl stopped talking. His eyes went to Decker’s face, then he averted his gaze.

Decker said, “I know that my son went to some of the parties.”

“Not for a long time.” Karl couldn’t look at him. “Really. I haven’t seen him in about a year. He was real smart, you know. All the girls liked him.”

“Except Ruby,” Decker said.

“Oh.” Karl blushed. “He told you about that?”

Decker nodded.

“Yeah, it was pretty nasty. It was Ruby’s fault. She kept sticking it to him. And Ernesto was kinda pushing her on. Finally, Jake had enough. He got her good, but it was real ugly. Actually, I think that was the last time I saw him.”

Consistent with what Jacob had told him. Decker had one more letter to read. “Just let me finish this letter off and then I’ll leave you in peace.”

“All right.”

The poor kid sounded so tired! Decker skimmed the contents of the letter, noticing that the tone had changed—more veiled warnings than sex.

If you’re going to be part of the cabal, you’ve got to know what you’re doing. If it’s obvious that you’ll break, it’s not going to carry weight. You need to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. It probably would be best if I came down for a show and tell. In the meantime, you shouldn’t talk because people might take it the wrong way. The Bees can be had, but they’re not total morons. You’ve got to tread gingerly, or not at all.

The more I think about it, the more I think I should come down. It’s getting boring up here. I’ve run through about twenty men—all of them rich dot-com nerds and over forty. It’s nice because they take me places, buy me meals, and I get all the pills and ciggies I can jack. But I miss your young, studly prick. I need it inside of me. So yeah, maybe I’ll come back down and we can work the details out before you’re shipped off to Auschwitz West. Because it’s clear to me that we need to talk.