Page 29

The words settle heavily between us.

"He ran?"

"We don't think so."

"You don't know."

She slides another sheet across the table.

"I know this."

It's a timeline.

Morrow leaves the station after another interview. A traffic camera catches him walking south. A second camera catches him two blocks later. The third camera…

Blank. The timestamp continues. The recording doesn't. The fourth camera never captures him at all. He simply stops existing inside the surveillance network.

"How many cameras?"

"Eight."

"And after the third?"

"Nothing."

"No witnesses?"

"None."

"No phone signal?"

"It disappeared."

My coffee has gone cold. I don't remember drinking it.

"This is bigger than a missing teenager."

"I know."

Molly reaches into the final folder.

"I saved the strangest part for last."

She places several printed pages in front of me.

"They're requests."

I glance down. Requests for records. Property ownership. Adoption documents. Archived birth certificates. Each request had been submitted within the last 24 hours. Each one returned with errors.

"Who requested these?"

"The teenager."

"Morrow?"

She nods.

"He started digging before he disappeared."