The phone came out again. "I'll call her, but she didn't mention anything. She's the one who gave us the APB that you were dead in the first place." Dialing 'A'.

"Hey. Yeah. The boyfriend's alive. Yeah, I'm looking right at him. No, because we can't fucking find the bastard. When'd you last see him? Okay, yeah. His iPod's still here--yes, it's his iPod, it's got the thing on it. Yeah. I'm putting Ragdoll on now, he wants to talk to you."

She offered him the phone. The voice on the other end was high-pitched and vaguely Chicagoan.

"Mr. Merkel? Is that really you?"