Page 71 of The Five Year Lie

Zain takes a slow sip of his beer. “Nothing too useful. He said he didn’t want to badmouth your dad in front of you. But he agreedwith me—that shipping video to another server was a security nightmare. Your father didn’t listen to him, and he refused to explain his actions.”

I snort. “Well,thatsounds plausible.”

“I know. He said the whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth. And that it was one of the reasons he left Chime Co.”

“Yikes.”

“Disclaimer”—Zain props his chin in his hand—“I’m not that good at reading people.”

“I got that.”

“But he seemednervous. He told me to drop it. He also made a point to say that there’s ten more employers for every guy with our training.There’s no need to work for assholes—his words.”

“Huh. Well, that’s kind of eerie. But also a dead end.”

“Unfortunately.” Zain rubs his hands together. “So now I need another big idea.”

“Don’t we all.”

He rolls his beer bottle between his hands. “How about this—we figure out whether Drew found anything weird in those warrants he was looking at. I bought a new air gap machine, and I’ll back up the second tape onto it. But I think Drew’s final days at Chime Co. will be on thenextone. Maybe he got caught. And that’s why he sent you that weird message.”

That damn text.There’s trouble. I need to see you.“Right. For at least thirty seconds, he wanted me to know the truth.”

Zain laughs. “Harsh.”

“Is it? I didn’t show up in the park, so he obviously just shrugged and then skipped town. Then he broke up with me by email, like a chump.”

He sits up a little straighter in his chair. “Wait, I forgot about that email. I could probably trace the machine he sent it from.”

“What does it matter?” I ask, even as my heart flips over. The email makes less sense now than it used to. I always found it cold. But now that I know Drew tried to send me a desperate-sounding text before he split town, the tone of the email seems weird.

“I need that third tape,” he says. “Monday we’ll do the swap. That should take us all the way up until his exit date.”

“Okay,” I say immediately. And I already know I’ll steal the next one when Zain asks me to. Just one more rule to break for Drew, who’ll never appreciate it.

“Thanks for going to the fair, Ariel.” He pushes back his chair. “I’d better go.”

“It was actually fun,” I admit. Zain isn’t so bad.

He carefully works the lime out of his empty beer bottle, then rinses the bottle before depositing it into my recycling bin. “I hope you’ve figured out that I’m not hitting on you. Although I’ve had real crushes on people at work before.”

When he turns around, he’s wearing a funny little smile that invites me to ask the obvious question. “On who, then?”

“Drew,” he says quietly. “And, yeah, I know I’m not his type. He was never going to stand in line at Holy Donut with me on a Saturday in sweats and sex hair to buymea Holy Cannoli Ginger Glazed. But I’m still going to be really pissed off if we don’t find out what happened to him.”

I watch him walk out then, my jaw on the floor as he tosses me a wave on his way through the door.

And here I’d thought Zain wasn’t great at reading people. But I’m just as bad. Or maybe worse.

Chastened, I carry Tara’s cape upstairs and hang it up. Then I tidy the kitchen. When I open the door to take out the trash, my mom’s lights are still on. So I grab the car keys. I might as well return them to her now, in case she needs the car tomorrow morning.

Ray’s car wasn’t out front, so I’m not very worried about intruding on a private moment. I tap on the kitchen door and then open it.

I hear my mother’s voice, but she stops speaking abruptly. “Ariel? Is that you?”

There’s nobody in the kitchen, so I track her down in the dining room. She’s sitting there with a man I recognize but can’t place.

Oh wait—I can. Even in his business casual clothes, he has that cop look—the short hair and authoritative posture. “Hi, Officer...” I say, trying to dredge up his name from my memory.