“I’ll check with the school to get more info about her. Is there anyone else I should be looking at who might know where she was tonight?”

“It’s embarrassing to admit that I don’t know a lot of her other friends. When things between us began to go bad, she kept her friends away from us because she knew we wouldn’t approve.”

“I’ll figure this out, Trace. I promise.”

Harry emerged from the treatment area through double doors. “They’re ready to do the rape exam, and since she’s a minor, they need a parent or parents’ designate in there for that.”

“I can’t,” Tracy said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can’t hold it together, and that’s what she needs.”

“I’ll do it,” Sam said, glancing at her brother-in-law, who nodded in agreement. Her stomach knotted with fear and nerves as she remembered holding the hand of her detective and friend Jeannie McBride through a rape exam after a vicious assault earlier in the year.

“Are you sure?” Tracy asked.

“I got it, Trace. Try to calm down. When she wakes up, she’s going to need you.”

“I know.” Tracy wiped the tears from her face. “You’re right.”

Mike put his arm around his wife, who turned into his embrace.

Sam stood and wiped sweaty palms on her jeans.

Nick came over to her. “Are you sure about this, babe?”

“Hell, no, but I’d like to make sure it gets done right.”

“Harry’s in there and can make sure it gets done right. They can designate him as easily as they designated you.”

Sam shook her head. “She needs her family with her right now.”

“Harry said she’s totally out of it.”

“What if she comes out of it in the middle of a rape exam? She needs someone there with her.”

Her cell phone chimed with a text from Freddie. Six dead teens, all of them naked and stabbed while having sex. Drug stuff and booze all over the place. Two vics ID’d: Hugo Springer, son of home owners William and Marissa Springer, and Michael Chastain. More to come.

Sam’s entire body went cold with fear for her niece as she read and reread the text.

“What is it?” Nick asked.

She showed him the text.

“Jesus. You don’t think...Brooke...”

Sam blew out a deep breath. “I don’t know what to think right now. William Springer is a lawyer. He’s always defending the scumbags I arrest, and now his kid is dead, and my niece is in the hospital.”

“Babe, listen to me. I know you feel like you have to do this for Tracy and for Brooke, but you don’t. As much as you love her, she’s not your kid, and I hate to see you put yourself through such an ordeal.”