I just checked in to see if I had any PMs from Monkey. None. If anyone else has any, I'd appreciate them forwarding them to me in private.

Here's the story, or what there is of it.

We set up a secure channel of communication "just in case." I had presumed "just in case" would mean a hostile takeover of the board by well-heeled fratboys who worship Fayner, but I guess I was optimistic. I sure wasn't expecting this.

I checked the account once every four or five days, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Thursday, it looks like it was, this came in:

Quote:

its over. i cant take the pain anymore. klute was a great movie though
love, monkey




I panicked so a few hours later I called a number he had given me a long time ago when Fayner was threatening to sue him. Some really loud woman answered.

It turns out that it was his mother. Monkey is all of 17 years old.

It was hard to communicate to her who I was calling for (figuring he didn't go by "smelly monkey" around the dinner table). When I finally did, she said he had taken off the night before. She said he did this a lot--"Ricky keeps weird hours"--but that if he didn't show up by tomorrow she'd call the police. She said she'd done that before and mentioned at another point that he got out of "juvee" about a year ago for running away.

I urged her to keep in touch with me, whatever happens. And that's the latest. You know as much as I know now, but I'm still worried.
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