“You don’t believe he was on vacation?”

“I don’t know. He was stationed in Afghanistan for the DoD; wouldn’t be surprising if his vacation was actually an assignment,” Hugh said. “They’ve been nice, but really not forthcoming with information.”

“Any theories?”

“Lots of theories, just no suspects.”

Hugh then leaned in, much more intently, the animation on his face returning as if his face submerged from the static and snow of an old television.

“Then I started getting text messages from Boone two weeks later,” Hugh withdrew a sleek phone, its screen bright and shifting in colors. He scrolled through some saved messages. River noticed a sizable list from Boone. Hugh stamped a button and showed the screen to River.

AIASP

“I received ten of these over the course of the past three weeks. All of them saying the same thing,” Hugh finished.