They were on the road since six in the morning. That was nearly two hours ago, and in spite of the two coffees they already had Kate still did not feel ready to face the dead girl’s family. With her forehead resting on the cool window she stared out at the trees giving way to habitation, people hurrying down unfamiliar streets.

“You are awfully quiet,” said Ben, keeping his eyes on the road.

She shrugged. “How do you tell someone that their twenty-one year old daughter had been murdered, we have no clue about anything, and then look them in the eye?”

“I’ll do the talking, don’t worry”. Ben turned to her briefly, giving her a reassuring smile.

Kate made an exasperated huff. “That’s not the point. You shouldn’t be doing this all the time, just because I’m too awkward for this. I should be able to do it too!”

Ben didn’t reply for a few moments, then just pointed at a house. “We are here.”

The face that appeared in the doorway when they pressed the bell belonged to a young man. Kate estimated him to be her age. His lips were pressed together and his paleness made him look ghostly under the white blond hair.

“I’m Chris,” he said and offered his hand. His voice rang with more confidence than she felt her own.

“I’m Detective Robbins,” she said as she shook his hand, then introduced Ben as well.

Chris led them to the back of the house, into a living room. At first Kate didn’t even notice the man seated in the arm chair, until he motioned them with a glass in one hand to take a seat on the sofa. The melting ice cubes made a clinking sound. The man leaned forward to shake their hands, then instructed his son to bring refreshments to the detectives.

When Chris left the room, he turned to Ben. “So what happened? I didn’t want you to say it in front of my son.”

“Mr. Draper… Richard,” Ben said, his voice quiet and calm. “Your daughter was found yesterday morning in Pine Creek. We have yet to determine the cause of death, but it appears that she was abducted from her car, then strangled. I’m very sorry to have to do this, but we need to go through a few details concerning your daughter. It would be good if your wife could be present too.”

“Donna, my wife… she…” the man said, then drained his glass. “I don’t know what use she could be right now. She took some sleeping pills this morning again. She can’t face what happened. I’m sure you have seen this before.”

“I see,” Ben said just when Chris appeared with a trey full of coffee, cookies, sugar and milk. “Later then.”

Kate ignored the cup of coffee Chris put in front of her, and turned to him with a question instead. “On the phone you mentioned something about a guy named Tommy. Is there anything you can tell us about him?”

“Not really,” Chris said, not looking at his father who leaner forward in his chair. “Alice hadn’t really told me anything. It was strange though… We used to be really close. Then not much later we moved down here, she stopped talking to me about herself. I had no idea what’s going on with her.”

Kate stole a glance at Ben who appeared to be deep in thoughts, leafing through his notebook he carried around everywhere.

“So no boyfriend you know of,” Kate said.

Chris shook his head. The blue eyes filled with sadness. “Nope. When I heard her on the phone, talking to that Tommy I did ask who he was. But she got upset and told me to mind my own business.”

“What about ex boyfriends?”

A perturbed expression appeared on Chris’s face. “I don’t think so…”

Kate leaned forward. “Do you think it’s possible the guy’s name was actually Tony, not Tommy?”

Chris seemed to consider this, then shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but now that you mention…”

Kate waved a hand. “That’s all right. Could it be someone from work?” she said, changing the subject.

“It is possible. We didn’t really know her new colleagues.”

“Did she go out often?” Kate asked.

A bitter laugh came from the left and she turned to Alice’s father. “She was barely home. She worked odd hours. Stayed out late… We used to know all her friends, back up north. Not anymore. Don’t know what got into that girl…”

“We’d like to see your daughter’s room. There might be something that helps us get closer to her,” Ben said.

Richard Draper shrugged and poured himself another whiskey. “Chris will show you around.”

Alice’s room was like a snug little nest, with lots of light. A desk stood in front of the window, overlooking the garden. Kate could imagine the girl sitting here, daydreaming. All the shelves looked tidy, the books in order.

“Did your sister have a journal or something?” Kate asked. Chris moved his gaze around the room like he saw it for the first time. He seemed lost, and Kate wanted to do something to give him some comfort, but nothing seemed appropriate. She waited in silence until Chris spoke again.

“I’m not sure. She did have some sort of a blog though I think. Spent a lot of time typing away on her laptop.”

“Did she take the laptop with her?”

Chris nodded. “Never went anywhere without it.”

“Must be in the car,” Ben said under his nose.

Kate had another thought. “This Tommy… you think it could be someone he met online? Through her blog maybe…”

“Alice haven’t told me… it was strange. She became… I don’t know…,” he said, looking for words.

“Secretive?” Kate offered.

Chris nodded again. “Yes, that’s it. It’s like I didn’t even know her anymore.”

Kate ran her fingers across the spines of the books on a shelf and paused at one with no title. She pulled it out and opened it. It turned out to be a sketchbook.

“Do you recognize this?” Kate offered the book to Chris.

“It’s our old house. Alice loved drawing.”

There were a few more sketches of the same house, then there was an ink drawing of a park.

“That’s Brookdale Park. It’s not far from where she worked.”

“Had your sister go there often?” Kate noted a few more images depicting the same leafy area.

Chris nodded once more.

“The last time I heard her talk to that Tommy guy, I think they were talking about the park. Maybe they were meeting there or something.”

Kate was randomly pulling out some drawers when she heard Ben’s phone ring.

“Petersen,” he said as he picked it up. “Aruna, hi… You finished?… One hour? Sounds great… What?… Yes, I mean…” Then he just stood there, staring at his phone.

“What’s wrong?” Kate asked.

“She just hung up on me,” he said, quite amused. When Kate raised an eyebrow, he continued. “But we’ll have a video call with her in an hour.”

“A video–?”

“Don’t ask,” said Ben and held up his palms.

They were about to leave, saying their goodbyes at the door, when they heard a faint sound from upstairs. A woman, clutching the railing, swayed ever so slightly at the top of the stairs, tears running down her cheeks. Kate couldn’t make out exactly what she said, but then she repeated it.

“Please find them… find the ones who hurt my baby.” Her voice broke into a sob and Richard Draper raced up to her.

“Honey, I think you should go back to bed,” he said, and put his arms around his wife’s shoulder. She flinched at his touch.

“Don’t touch me!” She spat. “It’s all your fault!”

“Donna, please… Just come with me.” Reluctantly the woman gave in and the two disappeared behind a door.

Kate turned to Chris. “What was that about?”

Chris shifted his weight from one foot to another and scratched the back of his neck. “My mother… Well, she’s blaming my father for what happened to Alice. I mean, he’s not directly responsible, before you ask.”

“I wasn’t about to…” Kate said, but Chris gave her an ‘oh, please’ look.

Chris continued. “My mother thinks Alice stayed out so often just to avoid our father. With this trip as well…? She could have driven up there Saturday morning. But no… she wanted to leave right after work on Friday… The less time at home the better, she said.”

Kate found this odd. “What was her reason?”

“I don’t know,” he said, and rubbed his neck. “They used to have a good relationship. But then we moved and everything changed. Not so much later we noticed this tension between my father and Alice.”

“What about?” Ben asked.

Chris shrugged. “She was twenty-one, she wanted to be independent. That’s what my mum thinks anyway. My father treated her like she was still his little princess. I’m sure you know how it is.”

Ben nodded, but Kate had no clue. She lived on her own ever since she turned nineteen, and there was no father to treat her like a princess since she could remember. But she got the general idea.