It took a half hour and he was nearly to the bottom and growing more discouraged and therefore angrier, when he stopped, studying a printout of an email. He set this on the dash and continued through the rest of the stack. Nothing else.
The one email would have to do. He read it again.
He went online and looked up the name in the “From” line. He found plenty of references but no addresses.
He then sent a text to Dom Ryan asking him to use his contacts to see if there was a nearby address associated with the name.
The mobster replied right away that he’d check. Of course he would. The money clock was running.
The email was a curious one. It was an interoffice email, dating to when Allison worked for a different company ages ago.
The missive was brief.
Hey there, Alli!
Euler’s Identity has been called the most beautiful of formulae.
eiπ+ 1 = 0
I knowanotheridentity that’ll give Euler a run for his money...
Apparently the sender, his ex’s coworker Frank Villaine, wasn’t too much of a geek to have a romantic side.
54
Tell me what you’re talking about.”
The girl’s rounded jaw was set. Her eyes red. “You think I was fucking deaf? I heard your fights. He said he knew all about you. You were cheating on him! Everybody in the neighborhood could’ve heard.”
Some did, yes.
“Go on,” Parker whispered, finding a calm center. Somehow.
Hannah’s whisper was vicious. “Dad said he knew all about you. The affair. It was him, right? Frank!” Her eyes were filling with tears. “You cheated on him. He found out. That’s why he started drinking! You ruined his life!”
So this was behind her comment during their fight earlier.
You dumped him there and went on to something else...
Tears in her own eyes now, Parker tried to grip her daughter’s forearms, but the girl pulled roughly away.
“No, no, no, honey! When you heard that, he was drunk, wasn’t he? Rambling, sometimes incoherent?”
“So? It doesn’t make it a lie.”
“Not a lie, no. But he believed things that just weren’t true. He’dforget the day of the week. He called me Judy—his old girlfriend. He called you Abby.”
Parker never knew where that name came from.
“Remember that party? Fourth of July at Hank and Patty’s. Your father got into a fight with Mr. Simms because he was sure he was saying things behind his back. He got paranoid and mean. Jesus, Han. Think about it: When would I have time for an affair? Sixty-hour weeks. Home the rest of the time.”
“Why would he make it up?”
“Because he got paranoid and delusional and angry. He wasn’t in his right mind. I never—”
“Don’t lie to me!”
“She’s not lying, Hannah.” Frank was standing in the doorway. His round, kind face was cast down at her. The girl looked up, clearly shaken that someone else had heard the exchange.