When Alyssa had suggested Holly explain her situation to her professors and ask for a few days off, she had flat-out refused to listen to reason. Exasperation swirled with fear for her daughter’s safety, and so she’d called her daughter pigheaded and stubborn.

Holly had tipped her head to the side and pursed her lips, pointing at Alyssa, ‘Pot’ – she directed the finger at herself – ‘kettle.’

Not amused, Alyssa aimed low. ‘Fine. I’ll call your dad and have him escort you to all your classes.’ It was only a mild threat.

In the end, Cord had ended their stalemate by offering a compromise. Holly would text someone when her classes were out, and she wouldn’t go anywhere alone for any reason. Period. Alyssa knew her firstborn’s acquiescence came more from the terrified expressions on her friends’ faces than anything else. Even the thought that she might be kidnapped and forced to endure the same horrors they had was more than just unimaginable.

Now, instead of heading back to the conference room to rejoin the rest of her team, Alyssa turned in the direction of her and Cord’s shared miniscule closet of an office space. When Cord stalked after her, she held up her palm to stave him off, knowing he knew her well enough to read between the lines. ‘I’m going to call Lynn to see if she has anything new on the Kensington case.’

Like she knew he would, he stopped. The same way she knew he was going to demand that explanation as to why she had held back on informing him of the first set of photographs.

Alone in her office, she dropped her head into her hands and allowed herself a moment before retrieving her phone from her pocket and dialing the medical examiner. As Sandra had pointed out the day they left Elizabeth Monroe’s home after interviewing her, it was no secret that Alyssa’s family came first. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t have a case to solve and two teenage girls to bring home. Recognizing that it still wasn’t yet seven, she placed the call anyway, knowing Lynn would be in since she preferred the stillness of the early morning hours, much like Alyssa did.

Lynn answered on the fourth ring, out of breath as if she’d been running to get to the phone on time. ‘Detective Wyatt. I’m guessing you’re calling for an update, and I’m sorry I have nothing to report for you, other than finding a smear of blood in Addis’s phone case. I’ve sent it off to the lab, but it’ll be a while yet until I even know if it’s usable. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I’m working as fast as I can. I know what’s at stake here.’