Patrick Radden Keefe

And the guy on the doorstep took off.

And at that point, she became quite nervous.

She tried to get in touch with Zach.

He didn't get back.

And so she called the police.

Well, it's interesting.

I mentioned earlier that I had access to these recordings that the Brettlers did.

And as a reporter, nothing quite matches a real-time recording of conversations.

When I first asked the Brettlers about that initial meeting with Akbar, they described it to me one way.

They said, well, he seemed very suspicious to us, and we were suspicious of him, and we didn't trust him.

And how does the recording sound?

Then I listened to the recording, and...

The recording tells a very different story.

You know, Akbar is a kind of polished, polite, reassuring presence.

And when he saw the Bretlers, this is a couple days after Zach's disappeared, he said, I'm desperate to help find your son.

I've been a mentor to him.

I'm going to help.

And he also told them, you know, Zach had been claiming that he was the son of a Russian oligarch.

So there's this kind of huge revelation there.

But what I think comes through in that recording is the Brettlers primarily are grateful to Akbar because they feel as though here's this guy who our son has duped.