“Amazing,” he says.
“It just kind of happened,” my dad tries to explain as he drags a stepladder against the wall and climbs up to pull the battery out of the alarm. “Pickle’s brother gave him some homegrown stuff, so after coffee, we went out behind the alley and smoked. It was just a little bit!”
“Did they have their kids there?” I ask, horrified.
“No!” he says. “They were all at some playgroup thing or something.”
I look at the pile of chopped potatoes on the counter, and he follows my gaze.
“I wanted poutine,” he says sheepishly.
“Amazing,” says Burke again.
“You are ridiculous,” I tell Dad. I turn to Burke. “Come on. Let’s go upstairs.”
“But I want poutine,” says Burke.
I narrow my eyes at him and he follows me out of the kitchen. When we get to my room, Burke collapses onto my bed in a fit of laughter. “I can’t believe your dad is totally baked!” he chokes out as he pulls out his phone.
I turn on my computer, ignoring him and wondering what I did to deserve this insanity.
I open the Radio Silent email account and begin scrolling. A lot of messages are reactions to last night’s episode, but a few of the subject lines read MISSING, which is how I tell people to get my attention if they want to suggest a case.
I begin skimming through them, but nothing I read seems like a good fit for the podcast. One guy clearly needs to accept that his wife wants a divorce, considering she packed a bag, told him she was leaving, and now won’t answer his texts or calls. Another lady wants help tracking down her mother’s kid sister, who ran away from home back in the ’60s. I work through several others, but none of them feels right.
I’m about to give up and call it a day when another email catches my attention. I squint at the sender’s address: [email protected]. The subject line reads “Interview?”
“What the…” I mutter as I open the message.
Dear Radio Silent—
My name is Quinlee Ellacott, and I am the chief crime correspondent for BNN, an online news outlet that seeks to “send the truth wherever you are.” I have followed your podcast with great interest and would be very interested in securing an interview with “the Seeker” as you cryptically refer to yourself.
I think the role that the Seeker has played in shedding light on missing persons cases is fascinating and important, and I’d love your take on it. I’d also like to discuss your place in the investigative landscape in more depth. Our audience wants to know: Who is the Seeker?
You refer to the amateur sleuths who help you as “laptop detectives,” and in several cases, it seems as if this digital investigative work has paid off. This raises the question: Is it reasonable for Radio Silent to step in where traditional law enforcement has failed? If so, doesn’t the public deserve to know more?
We think it’s a bit ironic, and an exciting slant to the story, that the host of the most popular podcast devoted to uncovering people wants to remain anonymous. I’m sure you’ll understand when we attempt to find you in that very same spirit. You’ve laid out a very exciting challenge for us!
You might find it easier to just cooperate with us from the beginning. Please reach out to me at your convenience, and we can discuss terms of a possible interview.
Regards,
Quinlee J. Ellacott
For a moment, I almost forget to breathe. Quinlee Ellacott is the aggressive, take-no-prisoners chief crime correspondent for Breaking News Network. BNN doesn’t broadcast traditionally; they’re a completely online outfit, with an agenda to “tell the truth, even when it isn’t pretty.” They’re also huge, with an enormous following online, and Quinlee Ellacott is their most well-known reporter. Her specialty is scandalous crimes with lots of dramatic twists and turns, and she never misses an opportunity to insert herself in the story.
In other words, she’s everything I try not to be.
I read the email one more time. I think the role that the Seeker has played in shedding light on missing person’s cases is fascinating and important… What does this mean? Are people starting to pay attention? Not just to the podcast, but to me?
“No way,” I say, pushing the laptop away from me.
“What’s up?” asks Burke, paying attention for real this time.
“Quinlee Ellacott wants to talk to me.”
“You mean that reporter chick from the internet?”
I nod. “BNN. She wants to figure out who I am. Or who the Seeker is, anyway.”
I twist the laptop so he can lean in to read it. He skims through it, then waves his hand dismissively. “Same old, same old,” he says. “She won’t figure out shit.”
“Are you kidding me?” I ask, starting to panic. “She said she’s been following the podcast with interest. She said the public deserves to know more! What if she starts digging around?”
He lifts his chin toward the laptop. “May I?”
I slide my seat out of the way. “Be my guest.”
He sits down and starts opening up browser tabs. Using jargon that I only barely understand, he rapidly explains what it is that makes my system so secure.
“Basically,” he concludes, “nobody is going to find you unless you want them to find you. Someone would have to be outside your bedroom window, actually watching you record, for you to be found out. So unless you’re worried about Spider-Man climbing up the side of your house and spilling the beans on Radio Silent, you’re cool. I promise.”
“Okay,” I say, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I’m sorry I keep asking you this. I know it must be annoying.”
He waves me off. “Your secret identity is between you, me, and the walls.” He stands up from the chair. “Anyway, I’d better get home. My mom wants us all home for dinner. Maybe I’ll see if your dad wants to grab a toke with me on the back deck before I head out.”
“Not funny, Burke,” I say, forgetting about the email for a second to spin around in my chair and glare at him.
“I kid, I kid,” he says, showing me his palms. “Another secret that’s safe with me. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
He disappears down the steps, and I sink back into my chair. Burke has managed to calm me down, but a seed of worry has been planted in my mind, and I know it’s not going to just disappear that easily.
I didn’t start Radio Silent to bring myself attention. I started it for the opposite reason, to bring attention to cases and people who deserved it. To draw my own obsessive attention away from the mystery that’s haunted me for more than half my life.
It’s never been about me. It’s about the people who need finding.
9.
After Burke leaves, I turn back to my laptop and delete the email from Quinlee Ellacott, then set a block so her future emails will be deleted automatically. I’m about to shut my laptop and head back downstairs to give my father a hard time when a new email, subject line MISSING, appears in my inbox. I open it.
Dear Seeker,
I am writing from Houston. My friend Vanessa Rodriguez has been missing for almost a week. She didn’t show up for work six days ago, which is extremely unusual for her. Because of an unusual series of events, nobody—not her boyfriend, her family, or any of her friends—realized she was missing for almost two days. We have reported her disappearance to the police, but although they tell us they are looking into her whereabouts, we are worried that they aren’t taking Vanessa’s disappearance seriously. My sister is a big fan of your podcast and suggested that I reach out to you. Since we have no idea what else to do, here I am.