"Then I realized these others haven’t been kidnapped, but their spouses have been. They’re all married. Oh, that applied to the woman too; her husband was taken eleven months ago. That’s the coding digit; it’s present for every case where the spouse has been kidnapped. So! Ridiculously simple. Just a decoy. One would hardly think it worth the bother, except for the fact that such a simple thing is so easy to overlook. It worked with me, after all."