Caleb’s eyes moved from Zeke to Sybil to Zeke again. “I don’t, I’m not…” he stuttered. “I’m sorry.” He shook his head like he was trying to clear a muddle of thoughts. “I haven’t slept in a day. My brain isn’t quite working.”
Zeke wanted to say,Join the club, but the last time he had done that, they’d ended up in The Insomniacs, where a retired FBI agent was evidently using them to get closer to a young woman who, from what Zeke had pieced together from Julian’sfiles, may or may not be a murderer and/or arsonist fleeing from authorities.
“We’re just worried about her. A friend of ours recently passed away, and we haven’t heard from her since,” Sybil said gently.
“I thought it was me,” Caleb said. “She just…she just ghosted me a couple of days ago. I thought I was getting too, I don’t know, clingy? I surprised her at work one night, and I thought things were going really well. But I haven’t heard from her either. Not since…” He unlocked his phone. “Yeah, four days ago.”
“Four days ago,” Zeke said. “So same as us.”
Now Caleb looked genuinely distraught, his jaw tightening, his eyebrows darting into a diagonal. If this were a true crime series, there was a chance, Zeke considered, that the boyfriend would be a suspect, but either Caleb was the best actor disguised as an investment banker known to man, or he was truly broken up by the news.
“I guess I thought, I mean, you guys obviously know her—she likes her space. I guess I thought she was just taking space,” Caleb said.
Sybil placed a hand on his arm. “She probably is. Don’t worry.”
Caleb wasn’t a fool, though, Zeke could tell.
“But you’re here. Soyou’reworried. Also, I’m still confused.” Caleb turned to Zeke. “You guys wereroommates? I mean, not to get too weird, but I obviously know who you are. My younger brother has your poster on his wall.”
“She didn’t tell you?” Zeke asked.
“No, and now I’m starting to wonder what else I didn’t know.”
Join the club, Zeke thought again.
“Can I give you my number?” Sybil reached for his phone. “We can stay in touch. I’m sure she’ll turn up soon, and maybe if you hear from her, you can let us know? And vice versa?”
“Yeah, for sure,” Caleb said as Sybil punched her contact information into his phone, then sent herself a text from his phone.
“Now we’re connected,” she said, and Zeke knew she was leaving nothing to chance. His Sybil. She was really something.
“Hey,” Zeke said. “How did you guys meet? She never told me.”
“Oh, funny story, sort of one of those meet-cutes,” Caleb said. He lit up, then realized that maybe their story wasn’t going to have a happy ending. “Anyway, Grand Central, rush hour, we were on our phones and literally collided. I gave her my card, she texted a few weeks later.” He sighed. “I don’t know, man, I really like her.”
“Did she say what she was doing at Grand Central?” Sybil asked.
“I assume getting a train? Like I was? Although, actually, I was getting on, heading home. She was getting off. So…come to think of it, I’m not sure. I never thought about it.”
“And did she tell you anything about her family?” Sybil was good at this, Zeke thought. Kind but still pressing.
“Grew up in Colorado, not close with her parents who still live there, I think, hmmm, Mom works in a salon, Dad is a contractor. Divorced when she was little. Moved to New York out of high school thinking she could be a star? I know it sounds stupid but I really think—thought, I don’t know—that she could be. I just totally believed in her.”
“Right, right, that sounds about right.” Sybil smiled at him. “Okay, we shouldn’t take up more of your time. I know how these places grind you to the bone.”
His eyes grew somber, then widened. “Her brother, Levi, maybe you could call him? Maybe he would know?”
“She mentioned Levi to you?” Zeke perked up.
“Yeah, for sure. She really admired him, seeing the world, all that cool stuff.”
“Great,” Sybil said, and squeezed his arm. “Great, this is so helpful. We’ll be sure to track down Levi.”
Colorado. Both parents alive. Dad a contractor. But also, Levi.
Betty seemed to weave truths into her fictions, Zeke thought. Maybe this was one moment of honesty they could bite into, one real thing among a spool of lies. If they were lucky enough, this lead would unravel the rest of them.
MYSTERIOUS LOCAL CHURCH BURNS, THREE DEAD, OTHERS MISSING
