The traffic on my forty-five-minute drive up to the Columbia campus was far more tolerable than normal in my current mood. I found a decent parking spot and ran inside the old dorm to retrieve the first of my two remaining boxes. When I walked back to my car with the second box, a middle-aged man in aviator sunglasses and a thin leather jacket stood with his hip leaned against my car.

I’d lived in New York my entire life and was decently equipped to handle your average oddball, but my steps still faltered at the sight of him. I wasn’t a fan of confrontation, and the man gave off an aggressive vibe that instantly had me on alert.

“Excuse me,” I offered with a tight smile, hoping the man would step aside and allow me to get in my car without a scene.

He slowly came off the car but stayed in my path, dropping his chin in acknowledgement. “Ma’am, my name is Detective James Breechner. You mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

I glanced around nervously, unsure what I was searching for—a parent, a witness, maybe a video camera to suggest this was a joke. Why did a cop want to question me? Had there been an issue at the dorm? I’d been so wrapped up in finals that World War III could have started, and I wouldn’t have known.

Then I was slammed with the recollection of what had happened just the day before. My mom had called in the evening to tell me after the fact that my sister Alessia had been abducted. The entire incident had only lasted a matter of hours, and by the time I was informed, she had been located and safely returned home. I hadn’t had a chance to visit or even talk to her yet, so the entire event felt surreal. Mom said Alessia was doing well and explained away the incident as a random kidnapping.

There wasn’t an ice cube’s chance in hell anything was random about the kidnapping.

I didn’t know what exactly had happened; however, I couldn’t help but wonder if Alessia would have been safe had my parents not kept so many secrets from us. They were trying to protect us but keeping us in the dark only made us vulnerable.

Whatever the actual cause was behind her kidnapping, I couldn’t imagine my father would have informed the police, but stranger things had been known to happen. It was within a distant realm of possibilities that the cop was investigating the incident, and I definitely wanted to do what I could to help if that was the case.

“Um, sure,” I offered warily, realizing I had yet to reply. I slung the box over to my hip, so it was no longer between us and waited anxiously for his first question.

“How well do you know Michael Garin?” he asked tonelessly, sending a tendril of unease ghosting down my spine. This wasn’t a random questioning about a dorm incident. The man had been looking for me but not because of my sister.