The decision to contact Yvonne was not impulsive. I weighed it for two weeks. She was either complicit or being used, and the distinction mattered enormously, both morally and strategically. If she was complicit, I needed to know how much. If she were being used, she might have access to things I didn’t. Either way, I needed her.
I sent her a message from a name she wouldn’t recognize, on a platform Gary didn’t know I used. Nine words: I think we’ve both been working with the same man. I watched the message sit unread for six hours. Then the check mark turned blue. Then, after a very long pause that I spent not breathing, she replied. Two words. I know…