‘Well, all the same, if you think of anything at all that may help us bring the person responsible for the murders of all those young women to justice, please give me a call. I know this is overwhelming but even the smallest things that seem insignificant may be of help. So many victims and their families have been terrorized by TSK, and this match to your family’s DNA is the first real lead we’ve had in years,’ Hannigan said.

I nodded, frozen by the severity of that implication, fear overtaking my desire to protect my new family. This didn’t just affect my life, but the lives of everyone hurt by TSK. I couldn’t brush off their request no matter how much I wanted to. It wasn’t their fault I was related to a serial killer. If I didn’t help them and other women were killed by TSK in the future, I would never forgive myself. I had to keep digging.

‘You’re not just looking into Cris, though, right? I know as of now you think he’s a better fit than Adam but is there a chance it could be someone else who we don’t know about yet?’ I asked urgently.

‘Our team is working hard to develop your family tree. Based on the information you’ve given us access to, as of now, Cristian and Adam are the only males that match the profile, but we are exploring all avenues,’ Hannigan said. ‘We can’t share further details with you at this stage but rest assured, we will thoroughly vet all possibilities. We just want to get to the truth, Liz.’

‘Have you looked into Adam beyond just getting his DNA?’ I asked, trying to pull more details out of them before they left.

‘Ah,’ Hannigan said, looking thoughtful, as if trying to decide how much to share. ‘We have conducted a brief interview with him and are continuing to assess his background. As you can imagine, there’s a lot to track down as far as potential alibis and evidence over such a long span of time, but we haven’t stopped vetting either Adam or Cristian.’

I nodded, taking some comfort in his words.

‘We’ll show ourselves out,’ Beck said, giving me a small but grim smile.

They exited the room followed by the sound of the apartment door slamming shut. I stood silently next to my chair, staring after them. Even though they were looking at Adam and remaining open to other possible avenues, the conversation had me second-guessing everything about Cris.

‘Damn,’ Andie said, breaking the tension. ‘You need this?’ she said, reaching her drink out in my direction.