Rachel was safe enough to call me, but she was clearly distressed. She seemed frightened by something, although I couldn’t determine what it was.
And my father was somehow connected to a situation that had now involved seven women.
I thought about all the dates, all the unanswered messages, and all the times my father had told me that he didn’t understand why people disappeared from his life.
For the first time, I wondered whether I had been looking at the situation from the wrong direction.
Perhaps the women weren’t disappearing for the same reason.
Perhaps there was something about those dates that I had never thought to ask.
Or perhaps Rachel had learned something entirely unrelated to the earlier women but equally difficult to explain.
I didn’t know.
All I knew was that I needed answers.
The Next Morning
I arrived outside Rachel’s office early the next morning.
I had spent most of the night rehearsing questions in my head, trying to prepare myself for whatever she might tell me.
