It was why he’d become a detective, after all – to help people.

With that thought in mind, Micah determinedly tucked Nico’s folder under his arm and made his way to the interview room Jensen had indicated, not wanting to leave Nico’s parents waiting.

In short order, Micah was cursing Jensen both in his mind and under his breath. It would have been nice of the man to mention that neither Nico’s mother nor father – Juanita and Jorge Sanchez, first-generation immigrants – spoke a lick of English.

Luckily, Manny Rivera – one of the precinct’s interpreters, who had helped the couple fill out the missing persons form – was still around, and it was only after a handful of embarrassing attempts to communicate that Micah was smart enough to fetch him.

From then on, the interview ran much more smoothly.

The thrill – the small tendril of joy – that had shot through him at being assigned to Nico’s case, however, quickly evaporated. Watching Mrs. Sanchez sob as she described her last phone call with her son was heartbreaking. According to Juanita, they hadn’t spoken of anything unusual, and that while Nico had seemed somewhat distracted, he’d been in overall good spirits.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez went to great lengths to make sure Micah understood that Nico was a “good boy” who was doing very well in his studies – the first of their family to go to college – and that he wouldn’t ignore calls from his mother on purpose.

Micah didn’t hear a speck of shame in Nico’s father’s voice when he revealed that his son was gay.

Luckily, because they seemed to have such a close relationship with Nico, they were able to provide Micah with a list of a dozen names of people that Nico was close to, either in the past or present. Included on that list was his roommate and an ex-boyfriend he was still friendly with.

As far as they knew, Nico was currently single.

Towards the end of the interview, Micah found himself tempted to console them – to explain to them that there was a good chance Nico had simply partied too hard, or perhaps run off – but hearing the pride in their voices as they spoke of their son, Micah knew intrinsically that there was no way they would accept such a simple answer to their son’s disappearance, and the last thing Micah wanted to do was minimalize their concerns.

So he shook Mr. Sanchez’s hand when the interview wrapped up, and accepted a surprisingly firm hug from the tiny Mrs. Sanchez, who was so short she didn’t even reach Micah’s shoulder.

“I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find him,” he told them, and he meant it.

The first thing he did after the interview was put out a BOLO (Be on the Lookout) for Nico.

The rest of Micah’s morning was spent looking into the list of friends the young man’s parents had given him. Only half, including Nico’s roommate, picked up their phones – a result of seeing NYPD on their caller ID no doubt. He conducted phone interviews with everyone who’d picked up, and scheduled a time for them to come down to the precinct for in-person interviews later in the week if Nico still hadn’t returned by then. He left messages for the rest.