Page 62 of The Five Year Lie

“Say—”

“—Thank you,” Buzz says quickly.

“No problem, little man.” Zain gives him a funny smile.

Buzz eats the first cookie so fast that he probably doesn’t even taste it. Then he nibbles the second one more thoughtfully, wading back toward the rock where he’s been playing.

The sunlight glints off the short hairs at the back of his smooth neck, where his hairline dips a little to the left, just like Drew’s did.

Sometimes when I look at him, I feel Drew’s presence like a physical thing. Like he’s here beside me, watching Buzz. “I still don’t get it,” I whisper. “It’s one thing to want answers. But creating a false persona and infiltrating a company... Who does that?”

“A real badass,” Zain says. “It couldn’t have been easy. He must have felt responsible for buying those cameras. He must have been so angry.”

Angry.I sit with that for a second. He must have been. But I just didn’t see it. In fact, I would have said thatIwas the angry one in that relationship.

“This Amina video,” I say. “What are all the ways that it could land in a cop’s hands?”

“Four ways,” Zain says, counting off on his fingers. “The cop requested it from a homeowner, who said yes. The cop got a warrant for it. Or someone inside Chime Co. mishandled it somehow. Or else Chime Co. got hacked.”

“So maybe the cop just hacked the system?”

Zain lets out a bark of laughter. “Nice try. But a beat cop wouldn’t have the chops to break into our system. Hacking isn’t magic. Most data breaches require poor human behavior. Like maybe this cop had a friend who worked at Chime Co.”

“Now, there’s a gross idea. Can you imagine asking a buddy for a clip of a teenager in a compromising position? Bros before hos...”

“Thatbetternot be what happened,” Zain growls. “This company is my whole fucking life. I work eighty-hour weeks. I need to know the place is worth it.”

Okay. Well. At least I’m not the only one who might feel used. I take a cookie out of the package and eat it, even after I said I didn’t want one.

That’s on-brand for me, too, I guess.

Then I check the time, and it’s getting late. “Buzzy! Five-minute warning!”

My son looks up and gives me the puppy-dog eyes of a kid who doesn’t want to go home.

“I’m going to finish with the second tape,” Zain says. “Then I’ll need one more, I think.”

“Okay,” I say, even if I’m privately unsure that I’ll steal another one.

“I’ll make you a printout again,” he offers.

“Thanks.” But I probably won’t be reading it. My interests lie elsewhere. “Hey—can we ask your friend to figure out who Jay Marker was? Can he learn anything without his real Social Security number?”

“He can try. Sure.”

“I still don’t know why he had to be Drew Miller at all. Why not just take the job as Jay?”

“I’ve been thinking about that...”

Of course he has.

“... If he was a pissed-off customer, maybe he already threatened to sue Chime Co. Maybe he was known to the firm already.”

That’s actually a great theory. Lawsuits pop up at Chime Co. all the time. Cheating husbands caught on camera bringing their girlfriends home, for example. They threaten to sue, but rarely go through with it. Chime Co. has multiple law firms on retainer for the purposes of discouraging them.

And my father wondered why I never wanted to run Chime Co.

“Buzzy!” I call. “Let’s go! Bring your toys!”