Sixty-Five

The couple closed their apartment door. Lee and Mel had joined Jael and me.

“What is Airbnb?” asked Lee.

I said, “It’s a website that lets you make some extra money renting out your apartment.”

“These two rented that apartment to her?”

“Yeah. They went away for the weekend, rented the place to Far Li.”

“And she brought you there to have sex with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, ‘Why?’”

“You are too old.”

“I don’t think—”

“He was the frog,” Jael said.

“What?”

“The frogs in the videos. They are tempted, drawn toward the beetle.”

“I’m the frog.”

“Yes, you are the frog. She tempted you and trapped you.”

“Then how come I’m not dead?”

Jael said, “Because she did not want to kill you. She trapped the others as well.”

Mel, silent until now, tapped her phone. Called Bobby on speaker. “Bobby, have we got anything on a Chinese national named Far Li? Any record? Anything in the database?”

“Let me look.”

We waited.

“You do look a little green,” Mel said.

I stared at her, eyes unfocused, suffering a flash of insight. Not the good kind, not the kind that pulls all the pieces together, solves the puzzle, and suggests that you’re a genius. This was the shitty kind, the kind that pulls all the pieces together, solves the puzzle, and tells you that you are a cornucopia of incompetence.

“I got something,” Bobby said. “Far Li is here on a work visa. She works at Xiong Distribution in Everett.”

“That makes sense,” I said.

“Her sister was Shu Li.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Who is Shu Li?” asked Jael.

Lee said, “Shu Li was a student at UMass. She was here on a student visa.”

Mel said, “She committed suicide last year because of online bullying.”

And the last piece of my stupidity dropped into place.

“Russell or Dorothy is next,” I said.

Mel said, “E’s going to his house.”

“How do you know?” Bobby asked.

“PwnSec,” Mel said. “Far Li blames PwnSec for her sister’s death.”

I remembered the text. Flipped open my phone.

Russell had texted: E’s safe. She’s coming over.