Alyssa’s gaze traveled the room, connecting with each of her teammates. ‘So, between the call logs and tracking the girls’ movements, I think we can safely assume the murders occurred after eight but before nine-forty when Addis and Emerson arrived at the Kensington house. Does everyone agree?’

An echo of yeses filled the room, so she continued. ‘One of the things bothering me is that neither Gabriel nor Lydia’s phones turned up either in a search of the house or in their vehicles, despite both of them pinging the Kensington residence as their last known location. Let’s assume the killer took both phones. If that’s the case, it’s possible – probable, even – that he was knowledgeable enough to know he needed to power off the phones so that the GPS couldn’t track them.’

Hal shrugged. ‘All he’d have to do to know that is watch any true or fictional crime show on television. Doesn’t really help us narrow down the field of suspects.’

‘That’s true. There’s something else, though. Last night, Cord noted there were no signs of a forced entry, making us wonder if either Gabriel or Lydia knew their killer and allowed him inside. Add that to the fact that just before we left, we learned the Kensingtons’ security system had been tinkered with – or hacked, to be more specific – so whoever we’re after is clearly tech savvy.’

The team grew quiet, the only noise coming from Hal’s drumming fingers until he finally broke the silence with, ‘If the Kensingtons allowed their attacker entry into their home, maybe it was someone who knew them well enough to know they needed to disable the security system beforehand? So, we could be looking at someone close to the family, perhaps?’

‘It’s definitely one angle we need to consider,’ Alyssa agreed. Joe raised his hand as if he were in a classroom, and she couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘Yes, Officer Roe.’

Joe smiled and lowered his arm. ‘I know this seems like an obvious question, but I’m assuming the neighborhood was canvassed last night. The Kensingtons live in a pretty affluent area, so it stands to reason that at least one of their neighbors had a working security system. Did any of them pick anything up?’

‘The area was canvassed,’ Cord said, ‘but it was late, and a lot of the neighbors either didn’t answer the door at all or claimed not to have seen or heard anything. With the acreage between the houses, that makes sense. It also explains why, of the security cameras we were allowed access to, none picked up any suspicious activity – that we noticed anyway.’

‘Well, that just sucks.’ Joe wadded up a piece of paper and tossed it across the room into the wastebasket.