‘Then one evening, after Alex got in trouble for something, Helen grounded her and sent her to bed early. The next morning, both my wife’s cockatiels were floating in the bathtub with broken necks. Helen and I got into a heated fight which ended with me pleading for her to wake up before something worse happened. Later that night I woke to Alexandra standing at my bedside…’ Sweat not caused by the heat of the woodburning stove glistened over Mr. Greene’s skin as his eyes darted around the room. ‘One of my hunting knives was clutched in both her hands. I remember thinking she was too tiny for something so large, that it looked more like a sword. But when my brain finally accepted what I was seeing, I realized that my seven-year-old daughter had the business end of a knife aimed just above my chest, waving it back and forth from my head to my heart as if deciding where she wanted to stab me first.’

Alexander uncapped the water bottle beside his chair and guzzled the contents before crinkling the plastic and tossing it into a trashcan a few feet away. ‘Even then, Helen wouldn’t relent. I’m not proud of it, but while she was at the grocery store, I packed my things and threw them in my truck. She came home before I could take off. She said she was hurt but understood.’

‘What did you do regarding custody of Alexandra?’ Alyssa asked.

‘I didn’t fight her, nor did she expect me to. I offered financial assistance, but she declined. I continued pleading with her to at least get Alex in to see a therapist, but she not only refused, she started shutting me down whenever I brought it up.’ His right hand scrubbed at the top of his head. ‘She was a good woman, Detectives, but she was the very definition of pride goeth before the fall, if you know what I mean.’

‘Mr. Greene, you said the last time you spoke to your ex-wife was in 2012. Did that mean you also spoke to your daughter once in a while?’

‘Absolutely not. At first I tried to stay on friendly terms with Helen, but she remarried quite quickly, and I kind of melted into the background. I’ll admit I was actually relieved because, even hundreds of miles and a state away, I, a grown man, a veteran of the armed forces, was still terrified of my own child, and if there’s anything that can make a man feel more pathetic, I sure don’t know what it is.’

‘You wouldn’t happen to know the name of Helen’s new husband would you?’ Cord asked.

Alexander used his thumb and forefinger to smooth his beard, snapping them together when he remembered. ‘Campbell was the last name. Couldn’t say for sure about the first. But that marriage didn’t last much longer after her son was born.’

‘Son?’