But Jim was my little brother, the boy I’d taught to ride a bike, and I had not come this far and found this much only to watch the same trap that was meant to spring on him spring anyway, just with my fingerprints on it now too.

Then the best thing you can do for him, she wrote, is get him to cooperate the moment it’s safe.

A frightened man who was coerced and who helps the government is in a very different position from a man who stonewalls.

If what you’re telling me is true, there’s a real path for your brother.

But it runs through the truth, not around it.

I read that twice, and then I put my phone away, because the shower had stopped.