Emma

The following morning, I call the records office at the University of Washington. I read online that universities are allowed to confirm if someone has graduated from their school and with what degree.

The woman who answers tells me that Liam Linville did indeed graduate from the university with a bachelor’s degree, but that degree was not in finance but rather in English.

I thank her for her time and wonder what this means. Perhaps, he lied to his parents about what degree he ended up getting.

They don't usually give out the real degree at commencement ceremonies and instead mail them to their home.

What are the chances that Liam graduated majoring in what he wanted and told his father what he wanted to hear?

The more research that I do, the more confused I get. I still have no idea whether he is actually D. B. Carter, but at least he appears to be a real person.

Why isn't he going by the name Liam Linville anymore?

Why isn't he talking to his sister?

I know that I have stumbled onto a mystery and it will take time to get to the bottom of it.

There are a lot of things that line up with him being D. B. Carter, like his knowledge about independent publishing and me actually seeing him write.

That knowledge also lines up with him possibly lying and pretending to be D. B. Carter.

He could be Liam, Alex's old middle school friend and Kristen's brother, but he doesn't have to be D. B. Carter.

I did tell him about my assignment and then I did mysteriously get a message from some anonymous person on the forum giving me his address.

Who is to say that he wasn’t the one who wrote me that message and led me to his home?

I've always thought that I had enough skepticism and street smarts to not fall for every lie out there, but I guess I don't.

I feel stupid.

You should not, I say to myself. Liam's lies are intricate and well arranged. If anything, he is quite a master at it and it is going to take me a long time to figure it all out.

My thoughts return to the follow-up article that I have to write for Corrin.

What the hell do I write in it?

I had this brilliant story about a reclusive writer and now… What do I have now?

I check my email and spot one from Samantha.

She's the journalist who wrote the article about the nursing home scam. She includes a way to reach her and I dial the number.

The conversation with Samantha is a lot more straightforward. I tell her that I'm a journalist working on a feature about elder-care abuse.

I tell her that I had stumbled upon her article and ask her for more details.

“The nursing home chain is called Trilogy Manor Care,” she says. “His uncle's name is Matthew Linville and he's one of the richest men in the Pacific Northwest, which is saying something.”

So far, she hasn't revealed anything I didn't already know from her article and from Kristen, but I appreciate the confirmation of the details.

“You had mentioned that the key witness in the trial, Liam Linville, had gone missing,” I say. “I was wondering what led you to believe that?”

“Since he testified, no one has ever heard from him again. At least no one that I ever spoke to. It's like he ceased to exist.”

“Is there any chance that he just wanted to get away from all the press and his family? Could he have just gone on a trip?”

“I thought that maybe he did. Then a year later I was doing a follow-up story. I tried to contact him again, but I couldn’t find him. There was no information in the public records of him renting any apartments or buying any property. I even got a hold of his Social Security number and looked up his credit report.”

“You did? How?”

She pauses, probably realizing that she’s said too much.

We journalists have a way of finding things out and they are not always the most straightforward and honest.

“The thing about his credit report,” she says, ignoring my questions, “is that it confirmed that he basically stopped existing or spending money, right after the trial.”

“What do you mean?”

“Credit reports have an account history, like a history of credit card payments and status of all real estate, installments, and revolving credit accounts. It also contains hard inquiries like if a lender or landlord checks your credit report it will show up on that report. It also includes any loan defaults, late payments, delinquencies, charge-offs, collections, and public records. All of these were blank. He basically stopped existing.”

“Do you think he was murdered?”

“I have my suspicions,” Samantha says, “but I'm a journalist and I need facts. All I can say is that he's missing. He has disappeared.”

“Is there any possibility that he's using another name?”

“Yes, perhaps. People can acquire new identities and his family was wealthy, but he wasn't. He never took any money from the family and as far as I know he didn't have any money of his own.”

“What did he do back then? I mean, for a living.”

“He worked in the wood shop. Made furniture.”

“He was a carpenter?”

“I guess you could say that. He seemed to be like the kind of person who didn't have it all figured out yet, but he would soon. It's too bad because he didn't get that chance.”

After we hang up, my thoughts go in circles regarding what Samantha had just revealed.

She has done an extensive amount of research and promised to send me some of the information as well. As far she was concerned, or rather her newspaper was concerned, she couldn’t write a follow-up unless she had more concrete information.

Besides, Liam wasn't a famous person and people are allowed to disappear of their own free will.

There is no evidence of foul play or bodily harm.

I pick up my phone and review parts of our conversation. I'm glad that I recorded it so that I could have it to take additional notes from.

I open my laptop and start to write down everything that I know. I write down what happened when we were together, glossing over our intimate encounters, but not removing them entirely.

I'm writing down the whole truth and the whole truth involves those scenes as well. I write down how I found his California driver's license with the name Peter Mueller Schmidt on it and how I confirmed with Alex that his real name is Liam Carson Benjamin Linville.

I still have no idea why his ID is in Peter Schmidt's name, but talking to Samantha I'm starting to feel like maybe Liam Linville had left Seattle and started a new life as Peter Schmidt.

All of the names and all of the lies swirl around in my mind. Writing everything down in the order that I learned information actually organizes it a little bit.

Now things are starting to make a little bit more sense as to why he had that other driver’s license with his picture in his wallet.

It still doesn't make sense as to why he's pretending to be D. B. Carter, if he actually is pretending to be him.

I quote Samantha extensively in my notes and reread what I have just written. I'm definitely filling in a lot of gaps about the real identity of Liam Linville and I'm certain that he is the Liam that I met in the desert.

I still don't know if he is also Matt Lipinski, the guy in the forum who led me to D. B. Carter, or D. B. Carter himself.