Summary

In Chapter 8, Bruce received a yellow envelope in the mail. The letter inside stated the sender had talked to Nelson about a particular topic, but he had been killed. Did Nelson think that they should talk. Included was the address of an anonymous chat room. The 22-year-old working the register told Bruce that chat room appeared legitimate and anonymous. It was one of many sites that not only encrypted messages, but also erased them after a period of just a few minutes.

Bruce received a message from his mysterious contact on the third try. The sender confirmed Bruce’s identity through a variety of literature-related questions and said they would talk at 2 p.m. the next day. The next day the sender warned Bruce a woman in Kentucky was dead because of Nelson’s novel.

Bruce flew to Washington where he and...