Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“I will say, however, that I listened to him more than I should have. Let him come by to follow up because he was grieving, and having lost a sister when I was younger, his case resonated with me. But he became too involved.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zane became convinced that a professor at WCC was involved in Michael’s disappearance. Since there was no credible evidence to support his suspicions, I couldn’t do much more than chat with this professor. Nothing came of that chat, but one day, Zane came in with a blog post that seemed to link this professor to his brother. It seemed credible enough for me to follow up on the lead.”
This was what Zane was telling me about—the bad call he’d made. The reason I must be careful about what I say.
“And I did follow that lead. The blog was linked to a VPN, which means we couldn’t trace it to an IP address, but we could trace it to a VPN provider. With that much, I felt confident talking with this professor. He was very cooperative. Let us use his laptop, no questions asked, and I didn’t see any evidence of the VPN provider on there. But knowing Zane’s background, what he does for work, I started to have my doubts. I asked Zane if I could meet him at his home. I told him what I’d done to follow up on his lead, then asked if I could check his laptop to see if he used the VPN provider linked to the blog. He came clean, which was reassuring in some ways, disappointing in others.”
“He made that whole thing up so you’d look into the guy?”
“Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately, what Zane did is a crime, so it was an involved process, ensuring this professor and the department wouldn’t try to pursue anything legally. I bent over backward to keep Zane out of trouble. It was a very unfortunate mess.”
Yeah, I can definitely get why they wouldn’t take him seriously if that’s how things went down.
“So now that you know about that incident, you can see why an acquaintance of Zane’s showing up with this new information could be concerning to me?”
“I can see that.” There’s a knot in my stomach.
“Don’t get me wrong—like I said, he’s a good guy. A little socially awkward. A little timorous, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
As much doubt as she’s raised in me, I’m still struggling to make sense of some things.
“But there was someone breaking into my house in that video on the flash drive. Did you have a chance to look at that?” After Zane left, I watched it—it looked like a man in all black and a ski mask had been trying to get into the house.
“Could be a friend he talked into helping him. Or maybe just someone trying to burglarize the place.”
“A friend? Like he got someone to do that?” I’d considered this, but not that seriously. What kind of fucked-up person would he be to do that?
“Well, if something happens that connects to his brother’s disappearance in some way, maybe Zane believes we’ll continue pursuing the case. Not that we aren’t still looking into it, but it’s clear Zane doesn’t think we’re doing our job. I don’t know what else there is to do. I’ve exhausted all my resources. Even when he brought in that subreddit post linking to your Insta, I did my due diligence. Checked the Reddit account it came from.”
“What did you find?”
“A dead end.”
She has this knowing look, and I must admit, hearing these things is sobering. They make more sense than the bizarre reality Zane tried to convince me of: that some maniac is trying to kidnap me along with his other victims.
“Even the connection on that subreddit, this imagined link between Jason Kilbourne’s or Michael Grayson’s disappearances, doesn’t ring true. Yes, the guys are around the same age. Young men, which is probably why they got any media attention—this stuff happens all the time in this town to people of other ages and demographics, and no one bats an eye. But some bloggers and podcasters have linked them, probably because they need to create more monetized content and because the true-crime media they consume leads them to thinking any connection—even just attending the same community college—is enough to persuade us to get search warrants and bust down doors. But I think you can see why it’s a stretch to assume they’re connected outside of this Reddit thread. The letter sent to you could have easily been written by someone who had already seen the Reddit post. Maybe even someone who had a vested interest in stirring up more interest in this case. Maybe even Zane.”
More fair points.
More reasons to make me doubt him.
“Do you consider yourself Zane Grayson’s friend?” she asks, and I wonder what sparked the question.