| The first person Frank Ahearn ever | | | | later, he was gone. And Frank neversaw him |
| disappeared was Ken. He spotted him at a | | | | again. |
| Borders in north Jersey about three years ago | | | | |
| - a pale, geeky-looking guy in a golf shirt | | | | According to the FBI, nearly 60,000 to 80,000 |
| and khakis, thumbing through a pile of books | | | | Americans disappear every month. Only a |
| about Central America andoffshore banking. It | | | | fraction of these are involuntary |
| took Frank about a half second to figure him | | | | disappearances, like children who are |
| out: Ken was skipping town. | | | | abducted. Many people disappear because they |
| | | | want to. A lot of times these disappearances |
| "I betcha you're going to buy a condo in | | | | go unreported, because the individual doesn't |
| Costa Rica," Frank said to the man, hisvoice | | | | have strong ties tohis or her community, like |
| low, so no one else could hear. "And bank in | | | | a family, or a prominent job, and doesn't |
| Belize." | | | | have someonelooking out for them. To be |
| | | | harsh: nobody cares. |
| Ken's slackened mouth curled into a big dumb | | | | |
| O that almost made Frank laugh. He looked at | | | | But one needn't be on the run or anonymous to |
| Frank - a tall, longhaired guy dressed in | | | | harbor a fantasy of disappearing. |
| black with a cartoonish goatee, thick | | | | |
| tattooed arms and a twisted and discolored | | | | Who hasn't once dreamed of fleeing his life - |
| front tooth - and fumbled for a response. But | | | | no matter how contented it is - just forthe |
| now Frank was talking again, running his | | | | chance to start anew? Several years ago, |
| mouth in his thick New York accent. | | | | Money magazine published a studythat found |
| | | | that one in five Americans had considered |
| "The problem is, if you're running from | | | | leaving the United States. The same survey |
| someone," he rattled on, "they're going to | | | | stated that three million Americans would |
| find you." | | | | leave immediately if theyknew how. |
| | | | |
| Ken looked like he might faint right there in | | | | "Lots of people have the feeling," Frank |
| the café part of Borders. So Frankdecided | | | | tells me. "You want to shoot yourself or run. |
| to explain himself. He was a "skip tracer," | | | | It's called freedom. I'm teaching people how |
| he told Ken - a slippery sort of business | | | | to be free." That word freedom gets |
| that specialized in finding people. Mobsters, | | | | |
| drug lords, wife beaters, rock stars - Frank | | | | Frank jumping. In fact, he has the word |
| found guys for a living. He'd hunted as far | | | | tattooed in script across his back. |
| as Bali to bring them back. | | | | |
| | | | Of course, it's harder than ever to |
| He knew all the tricks, and he couldn't help | | | | disappear. People have never been more |
| but notice that Ken was already fuckingup. | | | | closely monitored. It may not yet have |
| | | | reached Orwellian proportions, but chances |
| "You bought your books with a credit card and | | | | are someone is almost always watching you - |
| discount card," Frank told Ken. Itwas a | | | | from subway stations to airports to football |
| rookie mistake - both were easily traceable. | | | | games to Internet spyware checking in on the |
| A couple of well-placed phone calls, and any | | | | whereabouts of your computerized mouse. |
| respectable private eye could find Ken in the | | | | Credit cards, bank accounts and utility bills |
| time it took to microwave popcorn. | | | | all leave a trail. Cell phones are even |
| | | | worse. If the average American tried to leave |
| Ken shifted uncomfortably in his sandals, | | | | town tomorrow, they'd likely be found in 24 |
| still not believing this guy, wondering if he | | | | hours. "When you're looking for someone, the |
| was for real - or if Frank, in fact, had been | | | | world is like a gigantic database," says |
| sent to hunt him down. But then Frank offered | | | | Frank. "Data is like a bad disease, it will |
| him a business card - depicting a De | | | | never go away." |
| Chirico-esque mannequin standingalone on a | | | | |
| white beach, staring out at a big blue ocean | | | | After he disappeared Ken, Frank thought about |
| and a headline that asked simply "Are you | | | | how he could make it part of his business. It |
| looking for someone?" - and walked away, just | | | | seemed so outlandish, so improbable - working |
| like that. | | | | the other side of the grid. He'd think about |
| | | | it on his ride to Starbucks in the morning, |
| Two weeks later, Ken emailed. Frank was | | | | all through the afternoonas he tracked down |
| right: Ken was trying to run away. He was in | | | | crazies and deadbeats, and late at night in |
| trouble. Not long ago the government had paid | | | | bed, as he watched the 11 PM news. He |
| him big money to testify in a fraud case | | | | developed plans, obsessed - and obsessed some |
| against his former employer, a mid-sized | | | | more. |
| supplies company with government contracts. | | | | |
| Ken had been one of the company's | | | | Talking about it today, he can sound like the |
| accountants. Somehow his namehad leaked, and | | | | blind oracle from the Matrix movies, speaking |
| he was targeted as a rat. He got mysterious | | | | rhapsodically with his thick arms cutting the |
| phone calls. Threats were made. A man | | | | air and his goatee dancing off his face about |
| approached him on the street and announced, | | | | giving people new lives, with new names, in |
| cryptically, your | | | | new dimensions. "Disappearing," says Frank, |
| | | | "is like peeling off all of those old layers |
| "life will be made uncomfortable." An | | | | that define you and putting up new ones." |
| ex-colleague warned "I'm gonna get you." | | | | |
| | | | In time Frank developed a disappearance |
| Ken told Frank he feared for his life. He'd | | | | strategy that he broke into three stages. The |
| thought about calling the police - butworried | | | | first stage was misinformation - the total |
| the police would never be able to fully | | | | obliteration of personal information files, |
| protect him. He didn't have any big | | | | from phone bills to apartment leases to |
| attachments - no wife, no children. He felt | | | | health club memberships. The second stage was |
| there was only one option. But Ken had no | | | | disinformation - the creation of a Byzantine |
| idea how to do it. | | | | web of false data to lead someone's pursuers |
| | | | astray while exhausting their personnel and |
| Finally Ken summoned the nerve to ask Frank a | | | | financial resources. The final stage was |
| question that changed both of their lives. | | | | reformation - the creation of dummy |
| | | | corporations to hold and spendmoney and then |
| "Can you help me disappear?" | | | | getting to where you want to go and making |
| | | | sure you don't gettraced there. |
| Frank Ahearn never thought he'd wind up | | | | |
| helping people disappear. From the beginning, | | | | Finally, Frank felt ready to go public with |
| he'd always worked the other side. It was | | | | his disappearing plan. He penned an article |
| thrilling, sometimes dangerous work, finding | | | | about his idea on the web site - a site for |
| people. Challenging, too. Usually, all Frank | | | | living, banking and buying property offshore |
| got was an old phonenumber or an abandoned | | | | - spoke at some mystery writer's conferences, |
| address. Sometimes it was just a name and a | | | | and launched a website offering his services. |
| city, an exceptionally tough request, but one | | | | The emails came in almost immediately. Many |
| that he could almost do with his eyes closed. | | | | were from window-shopping customers that |
| | | | Frank calls "Dear Abbys." "They're |
| To find someone, you had to fool people. | | | | fantasizing about disappearing," he explains. |
| Frank had an instinctive talent for | | | | "They want to feel it out and see if it's |
| | | | possible. A lot go through all their problems |
| "gagging" - devising elaborate, phony stories | | | | and how life sucks. Then I won't hear from |
| designed to elicit information out of | | | | them ever again." |
| individuals or companies that weren't | | | | |
| supposed to give it to him. "Professional | | | | Some potential customers, naturally, turned |
| lying," he dubbed it. For instance, he'd call | | | | out to be criminals. One admitted that he was |
| a utilities company, like Con Edison, and, | | | | facing a charge of violating the federal |
| posing as a collection agency, he'd ask for | | | | Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt |
| his victim's forwarding address. Or he'd call | | | | Organizations Act, or RICO, and needed an |
| a relative, tell them he was FedEx trying to | | | | exit. Dozens requested fake passports, how to |
| deliver a package and extract the victim's | | | | change an identity or appropriate a dead |
| address that way. Sometimes the work was | | | | cousin's Social Security number. Asked if he |
| mind-numbingly rote - toiling through miles | | | | takes on criminal cases, he says |
| of data, scouring records, flipping through | | | | categorically no, adding, "I don't like |
| the White Pages. If the person who | | | | showering with men." He got adulterers, too: |
| disappeared knew what he was doing, it made | | | | a woman who wanted to know how to rent an |
| Frank's work even harder. | | | | apartment without her husband knowing. Once a |
| | | | sixteen-year-old boy wrote: "I hate my life, |
| But Frank was first-rate. "Frank has helped | | | | I have 27 bucks, can you help me get away?" |
| me track down hundreds of individuals,all of | | | | Frank politely declined. "Your life will get |
| whom did not want to be located," says Robert | | | | better, I promise," he wrote back. "It's only |
| Jerlow, a private investigatorfrom Orange, | | | | the beginning." |
| California, who specializes in fraud and | | | | |
| organized crime. "He finds my guys and gals | | | | Roughly one in 100 of the initial inquirers |
| hiding under rocks all over the world." | | | | were truly serious. Frank called the serious |
| | | | ones "The Disappearers." He had three of them |
| He was so damned good that clients | | | | in his first year, and six the second, and |
| occasionally wondered if he'd been a New York | | | | charged them as much as $30,000 apiece, plus |
| City detective - or an FBI agent. Which made | | | | expenses, depending upon their situation. |
| him chuckle a bit. Years ago, he was accepted | | | | |
| to the NYC police academy, but, at the last | | | | Jennifer came along not long after Ken. She |
| minute, he decided not to go. | | | | was a 40-something criminal defense attorney |
| | | | from New England ("the lesbian," Frank calls |
| "I guess I didn't like the uniformity of that | | | | her). For twenty years, she'd been arguing |
| sort of thing," he says. "And the money | | | | and winning cases. But then she lost a major |
| wasn't very good." | | | | one with her client getting hit with a hefty |
| | | | sentence. The client, whom she called "the |
| In the early 1990s, Frank was hired by a | | | | asshole who couldn't take what was coming his |
| private investigator (who was working foran | | | | way," blamed her for losing, and threatened |
| insurance company) to hunt down Robert | | | | her. When Jennifer contacted Frank, she was |
| Scarletta and his wife who owned the national | | | | distraught. "I should have stuck to [real |
| armored truck company Revere Armored. As | | | | estate] closings," she said to him. |
| Frank remembers it, Scarletta and his wife | | | | |
| went on the run after authorities started | | | | Frank took her on. First he gave Jennifer the |
| asking questions about missing millions. | | | | tools to wage informational warfare, |
| Before leaving, they'd stuffed their private | | | | deviating and canceling her accounts. Then, |
| plane with cash, according to Frank. By | | | | using an old friend's name and a ghost |
| gagging small airports, Frank tracked that | | | | address on the West Coast (a Mail Box Etc |
| plane all over the country. He then lied to | | | | account), Jennifer set up a shelf corporation |
| casinos to get win loss statements, which | | | | in a midwestern state to spend her money and |
| showed that Scarletta was a heavy gambler, | | | | hold assets. Known as corporate cloaking, she |
| spending millions of dollars he didn't have. | | | | would use the corporation to pay for |
| And after four months orso of hunting, after | | | | everything - from renting an apartment to |
| compiling miles of incriminating data, the | | | | opening a bank account, signing up for cable |
| Scarlettas must havefelt the pressure of the | | | | and buying new shoes. As a consumer, Jennifer |
| situation because, as Frank says, they | | | | would be just as good as dead. |
| finally negotiated their surrender to | | | | |
| authorities. | | | | But unlike Ken, Jennifer did not want to flee |
| | | | the country. She wanted to stay on the East |
| Sometimes Frank's assignments were glitzy. | | | | Coast. Frank recommended she move to a |
| When the Oscars statues were stolenin 2000, | | | | medium-sized city, one that wouldbe big |
| Frank hunted down one of the key players. He | | | | enough to get lost in. Jennifer did, and |
| says he found Monica Lewinsky before anyone | | | | stopped working as an attorney. But there was |
| else. ("I got her phone record framed on my | | | | a wrinkle. She didn't have Ken's financial |
| wall," he boasts.) Earlier this year, he was | | | | resources, and needed to work again, which |
| hired to locate the hotel clerk whom Russell | | | | presented Frank with a new hurdle. When |
| Crowe cracked over the head with a phone. | | | | Jennifer got a job, she would be required to |
| That one was child's play says Frank. | | | | pay taxes in the new state. That would send |
| Heturned the guy up in fifteen minutes flat. | | | | her name and address to the IRS and make her |
| | | | vulnerable to dirty investigators. To keep |
| Were all of Frank's techniques lawful? "A | | | | off the radar, she could - illegally - pay |
| gray area," he tells me, which is his coyway | | | | taxes in the state where her ghost address is |
| of confessing to the slipperiness of the job. | | | | located. Frank says he simply explained this |
| He then cites the "Gram Leach Biley Act," a | | | | to Jennifer, and doesn't know what she |
| federal law, which forbids people from lying | | | | decided to do. |
| about anything regarding afinancial | | | | |
| institution. In other words, Frank can't call | | | | Ada was next. A pretty grey-blond in her late |
| up someone and pretend he's a bank. "I follow | | | | twenties, she had a psychopath ex-husband |
| this strictly," he declares. | | | | with an epic history of drug and assault |
| | | | charges. Even though they were divorced, the |
| Over the years Frank has worked for everyone | | | | man still came around - and beat her. She |
| - insurance companies, government agencies, | | | | feared that one night her husband would kill |
| private eyes, attorneys, tabloids. He did | | | | her and her 5-year old son. She wanted to go, |
| thousands of cases. Which, when he thought of | | | | but she also trembled at the thought of |
| it, meant that he also had thousands of | | | | completely leaving her life behind. |
| enemies. He began to losesleep, worried about | | | | |
| hang-up phone calls he got and jumped when he | | | | "She found the idea [of disappearing] |
| heard noisesin the night. "Did the crazy | | | | extremely scary," remembers Frank. "The idea |
| biker who got his MC repo'd figure out it was | | | | of going someplace and not knowing people and |
| me?" he'dask himself. "Did the husband that | | | | also the isolation from her family and |
| got caught cheating know I was the one | | | | missing holidays. She talked about scenarios |
| thatpulled his phone records? Did we leave a | | | | like missing weddings, and what if there is a |
| trail?" | | | | death." |
| | | | |
| He became fanatical about his privacy - still | | | | Between Ada and her mother, she had $3,000. |
| is today. Phone directories have nolisting | | | | But after showing Frank police records, |
| for him. He has a P.O. box, but no official | | | | hospital pictures, and divorce and custody |
| home address. Almost everything is paid for | | | | papers, he took on the case pro bono. Ada's |
| in cash. His sleek black Cadillac? Registered | | | | bills were altered. But because of the small |
| to an old address. When he travels, he | | | | budget, she couldn't fly anywhere to fake an |
| switches hotels nightly - which is also a | | | | apartment search. Instead, for the |
| symptom of his interminable restlessness. | | | | misinformation stage, Frank had her mother |
| Call one of the five world numbers listed on | | | | make a phone call every Thursday night at |
| his website and you go straight to a voice | | | | around 6 to a random home in a northern |
| mail. When I talked to him the first time, he | | | | Plains state. For 10 minutes, the mother |
| said he had an office in Manhattan. Later, I | | | | talked with the same stranger about how weird |
| learned he didn't. Some private dick's joke | | | | it was that she got the wrong number again |
| that Frank might not even exist. "I talk to | | | | and how sorry she was about it. Later she |
| guys a lot of guys on the phone, other PIs, | | | | joked with the stranger about the repeat |
| and they're like | | | | misdial, maybe mentioned the weather. This |
| | | | act would help distract anyone looking for |
| 'you've met this guy Frank, you know him?'" | | | | Ada. Finally, Frank set up a shelf |
| says Jerry Palace, a former NYPD detective | | | | corporation for the girl and linked it to a |
| and now running his own investigative outfit | | | | fake Mail Box Etc address. Frank told Ada to |
| in Westchester. "Frankie Boy is a legend. And | | | | move and take a job that mostly paid cash. He |
| it's funny, I'm probably one of the only | | | | told herthat when her son enrolled in school |
| freakin' guys who've met him." | | | | to use a different last name. |
| | | | |
| One sweaty morning in late June I meet him on | | | | Like many of Frank's clients, Ada was |
| a grimy highway overpass innowhere, New | | | | conflicted, even melancholy when the process |
| Jersey, not far from the George Washington | | | | was finally over. She was free, but "she |
| Bridge. We meet there because it's an | | | | would never see her family again," Frank |
| anonymous place, and Frank appreciates | | | | says. "And when her mother dies, she is going |
| anonymous places. Frank, 41, with his brown | | | | to have to make a very hard decision of |
| heavy metal hair and sizeable frame, is | | | | whether or not to go back. If she goes back, |
| sometimes mistaken forthe professional | | | | it could be very bad." |
| wrestler Kevin Nash, who also played "The | | | | |
| Russian" in the movie "The Punisher." Today, | | | | Not all of Frank's clients are as sympathetic |
| he sports faded jean shorts, leather boat | | | | as Ada. From time to time, he hashelped |
| shoes and an oversized white wife beater with | | | | people who probably didn't deserve it. He |
| a picture of Bob Marley. "I'm a huge Bob | | | | once disappeared a man who was amid a divorce |
| Marley fan," he hollers over ninety-mile per | | | | case, and wanted to hide money that could be |
| hour traffic, as we walk towards his | | | | taken in a settlement. Frank claims he |
| just-washedblack Cadillac. "He was always | | | | checked to see if the man had a criminal |
| singing about freedom." | | | | record of any kind,including incidents of |
| | | | spousal abuse, but found nothing. These are |
| When Frank talks - and he's always talking - | | | | not the cases that make Frank the proudest. |
| his head and arms move rapidly as ifto | | | | But that doesn't mean he sweats the ethics |
| punctuate his points. "You can't keep me | | | | too much. "Nothing in life is black and |
| still," he says as he points the car south on | | | | white," he says. "Starting over is having the |
| the highway, his thumbs drumming the steering | | | | ability to recognize that life is filled with |
| wheel to the radio. "I have to be constantly | | | | grey." |
| going." | | | | |
| | | | Recently, an evangelical Christian woman |
| By the late 90's, Frank was making it big in | | | | contacted Frank and told him that what he did |
| the skip tracing business. He says hewas | | | | "was horrible that everybody should face |
| raking in $40,000, $50,000 a month, employed | | | | their problems and not hide," he recalls. |
| eight people, and owned a speedboat, a zippy | | | | "She ran her whole Jesus Christ rant on me." |
| crotch rocket, and a 924 Porsche. He ate at | | | | Frank was nonplussed. "I told her |
| expensive restaurants and drank expensive | | | | |
| wine. "A gluttonous time," he calls it. | | | | Peter himself ran and denied who he was in |
| | | | the garden." |
| But trouble followed. In 2000, the IRS told | | | | |
| Frank he owed over $100,000 in back taxes, | | | | Frank says he's ready to pull off a |
| money he didn't have. He claimed bankruptcy. | | | | disappearing act himself. "We're leaving this |
| He got divorced. In 2002, he shuttered the | | | | place, just as soon as it sells," he tells me |
| office and let his staff go. "There was a lot | | | | as we drive to a pale yellow prefab that |
| gained and a lot was lost,"he recalls. At | | | | Frank shares the house with his fiancée |
| that time, he started missing life in New | | | | and skip tracing partner, Eileen. Inside, it |
| York City, after having moved away to a | | | | is sparkling, the wall-to-wall carpets just |
| distant shady suburb of New Jersey to be with | | | | washed, but full of boxes with very little on |
| his now ex-wife. He wrote some poetry about | | | | any of the white walls. The only room not |
| his troubles. One night he ended up at a | | | | boxed up is the one-window office, where they |
| poetry slam in | | | | sometimes work. |
| | | | |
| Greenwich Village, where he took the | | | | "We've been living like this, in boxes, for a |
| microphone. Everything concerning these | | | | little while now," Eileen says to me. She is |
| tumultuous times poured out in one flowing, | | | | pretty in a biker chick kind of way - tough, |
| if not unusual, poetic song ("I do a lot of | | | | thin as a chopstick, white blond, with a |
| weird stuff like that," he says about | | | | bunch of tattoos, including a butterfly on |
| slamming that night. "It occupies me."). | | | | her chest, a large wizard on her back and a |
| | | | thorny vine that winds up one arm. "I'm not |
| It took him two years to get his life back on | | | | used to it. But it doesn't bother Frank. |
| track and his business above water. | | | | That's the way he is. Always in motion." I |
| | | | ask Frank where he's headed. Before he |
| Not long after, Frank met Ken. | | | | answers, he takes a swig of black coffee, his |
| | | | fifth cup of the day. "Let's just say it's |
| A few days after Ken's phone call, Frank met | | | | gonna be a nice place on the ocean and not a |
| him again at Borders and laid out what needed | | | | trailer park." |
| to be done. For starters, they would never | | | | |
| meet again in person in the States. They'd | | | | Frank never sees the people he disappears |
| speak only by telephone, and only using | | | | once their gone. That's his policy. The less |
| prepaid phone cards bought with cash. Frank | | | | he knows the better. Have any of them ever |
| ordered Ken to cancel all his credit cards | | | | been caught? He doesn't know. |
| and get rid of his cell phone, too. He | | | | |
| instructed him to change the spelling of his | | | | The fact is, he can help erase the things |
| name - not a total name change, just add a | | | | that identified a person, hide their |
| few wrong letters here and there - on all his | | | | tracks,and get them moved away safely -- once |
| utility bills and have everything forwarded | | | | they're gone it's another story. They're on |
| to an address Frank had set up in Salt Lake | | | | their own. |
| City. A month later, Kenmoved his mail from | | | | |
| Salt Lake to Boise. A month after that, he | | | | Staying disappeared isn't easy. Loneliness |
| moved it to Los Angeles. He kept all his | | | | hits hard, makes you start thinking about |
| balances current and paid in full. | | | | what you left behind - the old friends, the |
| | | | family, a meal at a particular restaurant, |
| Next Frank sent Ken to middling town in | | | | the friendly wave of a neighbor. As a |
| Colorado, where he had him apply for an | | | | disappeared person, you are stripped of your |
| apartment rental and run a credit check. That | | | | history, even your personality. "Disappearing |
| would be one of the first of what Frank | | | | is a lifestyle," says Frank. "Mr. Miami can't |
| called Ken's "false leads." The credit check | | | | be Mr. Miami anymore. He's gotta be Mr. Des |
| would enter Ken's name in a national | | | | Moines." Sometimes there are failures. Frank |
| database, so if someone started looking for | | | | cites the case of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, |
| him, they'd see the Colorado inquiry and head | | | | the Mafia turncoat who moved to Arizona under |
| there. But they'd find nothing since Ken | | | | the Federal Witness Relocation program, only |
| hadn't rented an apartment in that state, of | | | | to chafe at the quiet life. He wrote an |
| course. Frank also told Ken to deposit $300 | | | | autobiography, jetting around the world and |
| in an ATM account. Then Frank took Ken's ATM | | | | signing autographs like a superstar, and |
| card and moved it around the globe - asking | | | | eventually returned to crime. In 2000, he was |
| trusted colleagues to use it and take out | | | | arrested for distributing ecstasy pills and |
| money in places like Florida, California and | | | | sentenced to 15 years. |
| England. | | | | |
| | | | "What I tell people in the end is 'this is |
| Finally, Frank migrated Ken's money offshore | | | | it,'" Frank says. "Don't slack. The guy |
| (from Canada) and created three International | | | | looking for you can make a million mistakes. |
| Business Corporations, which could not be | | | | If you make one mistake, it's over.'" |
| traced - not even by policeor foreign | | | | |
| governments. That's because Frank smartly | | | | Of course, one of the difficulties with |
| placed the money in countries that didn't | | | | Frank's business is that it's impossible to |
| recognize the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty | | | | get client testimonials. You don't see Ada's |
| - meaning that the banks in these countries | | | | face on a brochure saying, "Frank changed my |
| were the equivalent of Fort Knox. From then | | | | life," and when I ask Frank if there's any |
| on, Ken would only use the corporations to | | | | way at all I could reach out to any of his |
| buy things. Frank had successfully ended | | | | disappeared clients, he just laughs. But I |
| Ken's life as a private individual; he was | | | | persist, and finally he tells me he'll try to |
| now a phantom corporation. | | | | geta message out to one of them: Ken. |
| | | | |
| A little more than three months after their | | | | A few weeks later, Frank and I receive an |
| first encounter in the bookstore, Ken was | | | | email from an anonymous overseas e-mail |
| ready to be disappeared. As his destination | | | | account. |
| he'd picked a tropical island country, | | | | |
| dreaming of lazy living and frozen | | | | Sirs, |
| margaritas. But at Frank's instruction, he | | | | |
| would travel a circuitous route. He took a | | | | Frank has shown me freedom. Life is good at |
| plane to one country, before buying a ticket | | | | the beach. |
| there with cash and heading to a second | | | | |
| country, where he met Frank and purchased a | | | | Signedunder the sun |
| ticket to his final destination. To this day, | | | | |
| Frank remembers Ken - still geeked out ina | | | | I do not, of course, have any way of knowing |
| golf shirt and khakis - beaming like the | | | | if the email is phony or for real. But I like |
| Cheshire cat as he entered a cab for the | | | | happy endings, so I hope it is from Ken. |
| airport and to his new home. A few seconds | | | | |