her she wouldn’t miss too many games. The hours would let up when the project was completed.
At least it had worked out well that Dave lived close to West Corp and had invited her to stay with him. The relationship was still fresh and exciting, and in the two weeks since their first date, they’d spent a lot of hours together and hadn’t had a disagreement. Though Dave had yet to find flaws in Cari, he realized people are on their best behavior at the start of relationships. Obviously, she was brilliant and gorgeous, and he could tell by the way her eyes shined when she spoke about her son that she was a dedicated mom. But only the passage of time can reveal true character.
If he had known Cari better, he would have been even more impressed. She was tenderhearted and loyal, and one of her most admirable traits was her tolerance for all types of people, no matter how strange their idiosyncrasies. A defender of the underdog from the time she was a little girl, she stood up to bullies on the playground when they picked on other kids.
Cari’s mom recalls that as a child she was naturally fastidious and always kept her room neat, but she never criticized others’ sloppiness. When Cari was eleven years old and babysitting for a family they didn’t know well, “She called me and said, ‘Mom, there’s not much to eat here, and the kids are hungry!’”
Nancy rushed over with cookies for the children, and when she walked into the house, she was shocked. It was the filthiest home she had ever seen. “I walked into the place, and it was just awful,” she says, remembering the garbage piled up in the corners and the sink stacked high with dirty dishes.
Cari must have noticed the mess, but she did not say one word about it to her mother. She was too nice of a girl to speak badly about anyone, even when they were out of earshot. Almost anyone else would have made a snide comment, but not Cari. She didn’t say mean things about people because she thought kindly of everyone. Her nonjudgmental attitude was one of the things that made her many friends love her so much. They knew they could tell her anything, and she wouldn’t criticize them or raise her eyebrows. She listened, and she offered advice only if they asked for it.
It is a tragic irony that the kindest people are most easily manipulated by those with dark intentions. Cari had probably never thought about that and what it might mean for her. She was certainly not worrying about it on the morning of Tuesday, November 13. She got up very early with Dave because he had to be at work by 6:30, and she immediately fired up her computer and started working on the coding that her bosses expected her to complete soon.
Six years later, Dave still remembers his last glimpse of Cari that morning. “She was on the couch in her pajamas, with her laptop out. She had all of her work-related stuff surrounding her on the couch.” Cari was focused on something on her computer screen. “She showed it to me, but I didn’t understand it,” he says, remembering how impressed he was by her ability to grasp the complexities of computer coding.
Dave went out the door, headed to Hyatt Tire, at around 6:25, telling Cari he’d see her that night. She seemed as happy and carefree as always, and he was looking forward to the end of his workday, so they could spend the evening together. If anyone had told him right then and there that he would soon come to detest her, he wouldn’t have believed it. And neither would those who loved her.
* * *
When Cari Farver didn’t show up for work on November 13, her supervisor, Colleen Whitner, was puzzled. Cari was one of West Corp’s most reliable employees, and she always alerted them if she was going to be delayed. Colleen discovered that Cari had called in at 6:15 A.M. with an update on the coding she was writing. Cari was to verify the accuracy of her work upon her arrival, and her coworkers were counting on her. Her input was crucial if they were to make the deadline for the next step of production.
Cari had not made an appearance by mid-morning, so Colleen called her but got her voice mail. Where was she? Had she fallen back to