Chapter 3

How to make bacon in the oven.

Alex recalls Charlotte prefers bacon that way, and he preheats the oven as Google tells him to. Eggs and toast will cook more quickly than that, he presumes, and double checks that assumption on his phone. That gives him time. Besides, she’ll want to relax in the tub for a while. Still, he starts cracking an egg into a large bowl.

Last night, he took the first steps of what he’s dreamed of most of his life: Cracking a mystery. He thinks back to when he watched Netflix with Charlotte, how he’d carefully examined any clue he could. He spent the whole time with a notebook, pausing frequently, Googling for information, sharing ideas with her. He’d had theories. She’d listened without contributing much. But she heard his theories. That they walked into the ocean. That they bribed the police. That there was a secret passageway in the building. None of them turned out to be even close to the truth.

He beats the eggs. It’s calming. But the oven isn’t even ready yet, and for the first time this morning, he’s alone with only his thoughts. How does he feel now? Now that he’s a true explorer. He’d imagine it would mark a shift in his identity or his perception of reality. Of course, there’s a joy in his heart. All over him, in fact. It’s tingly. At the same time, it doesn’t feel climactic the way he’d expected. Maybe the full realization hasn’t set in yet. Or maybe he realizes that this might not be the kind of thing he can tell people. His name won’t be remembered for this like Carter or Jean-François Champollion, who cracked the Rosetta Stone.