Page 61 of The Five Year Lie

“So...” I try to think, but irritation is making my blood boil. “Either he didn’t know anything about it, or he lied. Those are the two possibilities.”

“Basically. Yeah. Or he didn’t want to explain it to me and didn’t believe it was still relevant.” Zain shrugs. “LiveMatch isn’t on the server anymore, though, so it must have come down after your father’s death.”

“So maybe itwashis pet project?”

“Maybe. I wish I could be sure what it did. My favorite theory is still that it was an AI engine for video recognition. Those were just getting started five years ago, but they’re highly controversial.”

“And possibly illegal?” I ask.

Zain snorts. “No way. Technology evolves faster than the law. You can build something that everyone agrees is creepy as fuck, but there’s no law against it.”

“Lovely.” I kick my feet, splashing water onto our legs.

“Drew was focused on two things—LiveMatch and the warrant system. I couldn’t figure out how those two things went together. But now that you heard that girl’s story, it makes more sense.”

“Does it?”

“Yeah. Both of those things involved transferring videooutsidethe company’s secure network. And that’s what happened to his foster sister, yeah? A video ended up in the wrong hands.”

“I guess,” I mutter. “But slow your roll. I need you topromiseme you won’t ask more questions without discussing it with me first.”

He shrugs. “It’s easy for me to ask people, though. It’s my job to be nosy. Nobody is going to think anything of it. Why aren’t you happier about this? Buzz’s daddy was a stand-up guy.”

“He was a stand-up guywho used me,” I sputter. “He got close to the boss’s daughter. He pretended I was important to him. He let me think that I really knew him. But pretty much everything he told me was a lie.”

“Oh.” Zain blinks. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“Obviously,” I mutter. It kills me that Drew didn’t trust me enough to tell me who he really was. I trusted him with my whole soul. “And you’re still giving him too much credit,” I add. “Think about it—he takes this job to prove that someone at Chime Co. was responsible for the death of a teenage girl. And then he disappears without a word. Nothing came of it.”

“Hmm,” Zain says. “Maybe.”

“What doesthatmean?”

“LiveMatch got scuttled, didn’t it? And then there’s your father’s, uh...” He clears his throat. “His overdose. Drew disappeared right afterward.”

“Wait.” That shuts me up for a second. “There’s no connection, Zain. That’s ridiculous.”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Maybe this is way out of line, but your dad was a super-ambitious man. Maybe he did something wrong and Drew was going to expose him. And he couldn’t take it.”

“That is a fucked-up theory.”Although...A sweaty chill rolls down my spine as I realize it has some merit.

“I know. Okay. I’m sorry.” He shakes his head. “I’ll stick to thefacts. Want a cookie?” He opens his backpack and pulls out a package of chocolate shortbread cookies.

“No thank you.”

He tears open the package. “Is it okay if I give some of these to Buzz?”

“He can have two,” I say automatically, because they’re small. But my mind is stalled. My father didn’t leave a suicide note. His death was ruled an accidental overdose.

But I’ve always wondered how that happened. He’d been taking those pills for years. And suddenly he takes too many? But suicide never made any sense, either. He had everything he wanted and more.

Didn’t he?

All kids have a sixth sense for sugar, and Buzz magically appears in front of us, eyes hungry as Zain extends the cookie package toward him. “Can I have one?”

“Your mom said you could have two,” Zain says.

“Cool.” He takes two cookies with wet fingers.