“I got her a disposable phone to call me in case of emergencies. One night I get a message.” Billy stopped, trying to compose himself, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “Her voice is real soft. She says she loves me, and she’s sorry. ‘They promised to help me,’ she says. That’s it. I called back but the phone just rang and rang. Don’t you get it? I couldn’t help her so she called someone who could. And they came and they took her away. But wherever they took her, it wasn’t home. Right? I kept expecting to see a ‘missing girl reunited with family’ story on the news. But ten years and nada. So, I mean, where is she?”

“You thought George Abe took her?”

“I thought maybe there was a chance. Thought maybe she called her dad, and he sent his henchmen to clean it up. Do damage control. Prevent her from embarrassing him. Look, I know how it sounds, but you’d be amazed at the paranoid shit I’ve dreamed up in the last ten years.”

“That’s pretty damn paranoid.”

“I’ll do you one better. The night Suze called me? That was the same night Mr. Musgrove ‘killed himself.’ After I got her message I drove out here, and she was gone. When I got back home, like five hours after leaving, my street was full of cop cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance. They were bringing Mr. Musgrove out in a bag.”

“And you think it’s connected?”

“I think Suze refused to rat me out. I think they assumed it was Mr. Musgrove who took her, since it was his house.”

“You think Benjamin Lombard had your neighbor killed to prevent a political scandal? Come on, Billy. You’ve seen too many movies.”

“Have I?”

“And you think this mysterious ‘they’ was George Abe?”

Billy shrugged.

“So you hacked ACG to see if George was hiding something?”

“It was the easiest place to start. Even I’m not crazy enough to hack the vice president.”

“He wasn’t the vice president then.”

“I know. I’m just fucking with you. But yeah, I went after ACG. Rattle the cage to see what falls out. At least something to point me in the right direction, but George Abe doesn’t know any more than anyone else. He’s looking for her just like the rest of us. I should have let it go then. I mean, I knew that. Eventually they’d bring in someone who would find me.”

“We didn’t find you, Billy. You walked up and sat down.”

“Yeah, but it was you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you, you were a sign or something. I recognized you right away. Remember the day you jogged down to the library? I was there, in my car, using the library Wi-Fi. I looked up and there you were, Gibson Vaughn. BrnChr0m. The legend.”