Who was that man? He was nothing like PT imagined.

Whenever speaking with him through the wall of 

PO Box

es, he had not once considered the man to be scary. But  recalling their sudden encounter the night before made him feel chills.

It's not like the man did anything that could be described as overtly scary. It was rather the manner in which he carried himself. He spoke in riddles. And yet he communicated so clearly. Or was it the other way around? That he spoke so clearly but communicated nonsense.

Why the hell did he ask the man about Trevor? How could a stranger even know which Trevor he was referring to. Trevor Smith? Trevor Lee? Trevor Doe?

It'd be like running to a random person at the Kransz Mart and asking them "do you know Jane?" the person would respond quizzically, "sorry...? Jane who? I'm not sure I know what you're talking about..."

But the man had not acted surprised or confused at all. In fact the man's response made PT feel confused. For two reasons. First, what in the world drove PT to even ask this random person that he was seeing for the first time whether he knew someone he himself didn't even know. Second, why did the man sound like he did know who Trevor was.

These two points seemed connected. For some reason PT felt like maybe it was this postal employee who knew what he wanted to know. When he asked the question about Trevor, he had semi hoped that the postal worker might've simply acted confused like a normal person. Then he could've just brushed it off as a blunder of his tongue. But that's not what happened.

The man had simply said, "Hmm interesting thought. Maybe Trevor does own the box maybe he doesn’t.”

It had thrown PT off so much that he had to ask “Do I know Trevor?”

And then finally the moment that keeps replaying in PT's mind. The man howling with laughter, a quiet laughter that would not wake the neighbors. "Why are you asking me. Shouldn’t you know the answer to that question.”

PT played the conversation back in his head over and over. Trying to figure out clues. He knew his mind would forget stuff and rewrite others. So he wrote down as much of the conversation as possible.

He kept having to remind himself that the postal worker explicitly said that he had no plan. That he was simply putting boxes where they belonged. That he didn't want anything. That he was just following instructions.

But why did it feel so much like everything was deliberate and planned against him then?

It creeped him out. And then when he was no longer creeped he was frustrated. And then when he was done being frustrated he realized again that Todd was still missing.

He really ought to go find him, but he had no desire to. The only reason he felt like he should is because he was seeing himself through the eyes of others'. Cassie's. Jasmine's. How would they view him if he were sitting in here trying to reconstruct this idiotic conversation from the night before instead of trying to find the dog?

It sickened him. They would find him an aimless 

fool

. If it were for him he'd be fine Todd vanishing. So long as nobody knew that Todd vanished on his watch.