I felt like I was going out of my mind. I had no idea what I was even doing. Fiona was going to help me, I know, but there was a small matter of I have no idea how to even begin this thing. She thought I could figure out where Liza went, but she never told me or left me even an inkling or anything.

I paced in my room, running my hands through my hair. After a few moments, Dave opened my door, eyes wide and excited. "Dude, your girlfriend's on TV."

"She's not my girlfriend, and, yes, I know," I said, exasperated.

He shook his head. "No. I mean they're talking about her video."

I pushed past him and out of the room. Sure enough, on the TV was Liz's face and her soft voice. "A month later Vitality was released to the masses and the company value skyrocketed. Victoria's family - including her hard-working son who had been a loyal employee to the company - never got any recognition." They cut the audio there and the anchor began talking over more of the video.

The words didn't register, though. I suddenly knew how I was going to find Liz. I picked up my laptop and loaded up the video. It was now banned, but it wasn't deleted. I downloaded it to my computer and watched it again.

That's when it hit me: she was probably staying with whoever the son of Victoria was. And I knew she was staying with someone named Shawn.

I opened Google and began searching for Victoria + Vitality. The first things to come up were Liza's video. It was everywhere. I smiled to myself as I continued scrolling down. Some articles about a woman that worked for Vitality named Victoria Allen came up, and I clicked on one. 

"Victoria Allen, pictured above, was found dead yesterday. A young jogger found Victoria while on his run down a country road just outside of Dallas. Victoria was reported missing two months prior from  her home near downtown Dallas by her husband and two children. Reports say that Allen didn't return home after work one night, leading the family to believe something had happened to the woman. Before her disappearance, Allen served as the Chief Operations Officer at Vitality."

She was definitely important. How could she go missing? And why? I shook my head, backing out to the search results page. A few articles later and I found a picture of her with her family. It was taken about five years ago, but I still recognized the children.

I texted Fiona. I think I know who Liza was staying with.

Oh my gosh! Who?

The woman she mentioned in her video? She has two kids, and I recognize them.

Oh no.

What?

She must have known.

I froze. I had to admit, it made sense. What if she did know who she was staying with? She might have found these articles when she was researching our last debate. After all, this is what she was talking about in her video, wasn't it? She thought Vitality was responsible for Victoria Allen's death.

How? What was the connection other than the woman worked for them? How would Liz even make such a connection? She was smart, but this made her look a little insane.

I rubbed my face and felt Dave sit next to me. "You okay?"

"No," I said, looking up at him. His eyes were questioning me, but how do you tell someone you think the girl you're in love with might be a little crazy? Answer: you can't. Or, at least, I couldn't. I sighed and looked at my phone again. "But I have to be." Can you research something for me? I texted Fiona.

Sure. What do you need?

Look up Victoria Allen's children, and I need to know their names and if there's any way I can get in touch with them.

Why?

I have a hunch.

Can't you do it yourself?

I could, but I can't think straight right now.

Ugh. Fine. Brb.

I stood and stretched. "I think I'm going for a walk," I told Dave. He didn't say anything as I walked to the door and grabbed my shoes.

Truthfully, I could think. I just didn't want to think about that. Over the years, I'd pretty much perfected avoiding thinking about things I find distressing. Still, I was worried sick about her. Who was the guy they were looking for that drove the car? Was she with him right now?

I felt the beginning of jealousy stir up, and I sighed. She had to be, right? Where did he take her? Who else was she with?

Thirty minutes of walking didn't help, so I went back to my apartment. On the way up to my floor, my phone trilled and I pulled it out of my pocket. Fiona. Hey, got the names for you. It's a bit harder finding the numbers and stuff, but I got some contact info on the boy.

Thanks. I owe you.

No prob. You can repay me by making sure Liza's safe.

I smiled at my phone. "I was gonna do that anyway," I muttered to myself as I typed back, Will do.

Once I was safely inside my bedroom, I pulled up the email Fiona had sent me and followed one of the links to a programmer's website. A quick peruse of it was kind of boring since I knew next to nothing about anything on there, but the About Me page piqued my interest.

A picture of a guy I recognized said his name was Shawn and he aspired to be like some sort of hacker. I scoured the website for any means of contact, but turned up nothing. He wasn't giving out anything, which made sense. If I were doing that sort of thing, I wouldn't want anyone to know where I was, either.

I knew simply Googling him wouldn't work, but I tried it anyway. To my surprise, I found his Vitality account. It hadn't been used recently, but I still perused it. His location said Dallas, but I knew he was there, anyway. He'd been recently tagged in some photos, but they were in Fort Worth. None of them showed his house, except for a few pictures of the inside, but that didn't really help me.

A few more minutes or so of scrolling and I realized that he'd moved a year before. Knowing it was a long shot, I searched for houses recently bought in the Dallas area. Several listings - well over 200 - came up. I scanned the list for anyone with the last name of Allen. It took a minute, but I found a house bought by Shawn and Trina Allen in Dallas. I wrote down the address in my phone and closed my laptop.

I yanked a suitcase out of my closet and began haphazardly throwing clothes into it. The police said to not leave town, but I couldn't just sit here - I needed to find Liza and I had a feeling they weren't going to be able to. I had a feeling Shawn was more likely to talk to me than to an officer. Besides, he was a fan of mine. That automatically meant he would be willing to tell me what's up, right?

Davis couldn't know I was leaving, though. Knowing him, he'd go right away to the police and tell them what I was doing. I couldn't risk that, so I'd have to do it while he was sleeping. There was a problem with that, though: he's a light sleeper.

My phone buzzed loudly on my dresser and I jumped before checking it.

Well?

I sighed and bit my lip. Fiona didn't say she wanted color commentary on what I was doing, but I still decided to give it to her.

I'm going to Dallas. I found his address.

I'm going with you.

Why? You don't have to.

Dude. She's my best friend, too. I think you forget that sometimes. You need to share.

I bristled at her words, but I couldn't deny the truth behind them. You shouldn't get in trouble too. It's bad enough I will.

With who? The cops? They won't arrest you or anything. They're not investigating US.

Fine. When are you leaving?

Checking tickets now.

Thirty minutes later, I'd bought tickets for a flight that left at 6 AM and would land just short of two hours later. Fiona somehow managed to find a flight that landed about the same time. We agreed on a place to meet and a time. The plan was to meet up and take an Uber to Shawn's where we would basically, well, make him tell us where Liza was.

We hadn't thought that far ahead, actually, but we had a few hours to talk it over while we were packing.

---

The terminal was more busy than I thought it would have been as I made my way out the front doors. Almost immediately upon walking out the Dallas heat hit me and I stepped right back into the cooler air. Fifteen minutes of awkwardly standing in a main thoroughfare in and out of the place while hoping I wouldn't be recognized later, Fiona showed up.

"There you are," I said irritably.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Here I am, so why are we still standing here? Did you forget to call an Uber or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "I've been standing here for fifteen minutes, Fiona. Of course I didn't. They're just late."

She sighed and shook her head. "Okay," she said, not sounding like she believed me. I let it go - I wanted to pick my battles, and fighting this one seemed pretty pointless.

We stood there, not sure what to say, for another five minutes. When no car showed up Fiona pulled out her phone. "Are you sure you gave them the right location?" she asked.

"I'm sure," I said firmly. I pulled out my phone. A quick check and I had given them the airport as the location. It showed my car as being en route. I showed it to Fiona, and she pursed her lips. "I ordered it, it's just not here." I rolled my eyes.

Another few minutes of standing around with growing awkwardness passed. Finally, the car came and we began bickering about how we were going to pursue this.

"What if he doesn't know?" she asked as we turned onto Shawn's street. She gripped my arm as her eyes widened. "What if this is all pointless?"

I tried to ignore how tightly her hand was wrapped around me. "It's not pointless, Fiona, if the point is to find her. He may know, he may not know, but either way, he knows more than we do. We'll just have to be happy with that, okay?"

She sighed but released me. "Okay." She was taking several deep breaths. I knew she sometimes got worked up over little things, so I pat her shoulder. She smiled at me - the first one I'd gotten all day - and leaned forward a little. I rubbed the upper part of her back soothingly as we came to a stop. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"Welcome," I said quickly as I opened my door. "Wait for a minute, please," I told the driver as I got out. She nodded and began scrolling on her phone.

I walked up to the house, Fiona by my side, and pressed the doorbell. Footsteps ran to the door and it was thrown open by a young guy, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "Kyle?" he said as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

I simply smiled as I nodded. "Shawn, right?" He nodded. "This is Fiona," I said, gesturing at the girl next to me. "We have a couple of bags in the car. Is it okay if we bring them in?"

His expression hardened. "What do you want?"

"Just to talk to you."

He narrowed his eyes. "About what?"

Fiona and I exchanged a glance. "What do you think?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"I don't know anything! Please, go away."

He started to close the door, but I wedged my foot into the doorway as I also pushed back with my hand, causing him to stumble back a little. "How about we bring in our bags and we have a little chat, hmm?" I said in a voice I hoped sounded like steel. Apparently it worked, since he just nodded dejectedly and stepped back.