I bit my lip, looking out the window across the room. A pigeon on the ledge was cooing, its sounds softly crossing the threshold of the old poorly sealed window.

‘When we drove past your grand uncle’s home,’ Hannigan said, ‘we noticed an elaborate rock garden in his yard that had a variety of pebbles in it. I’m sure you’ve noticed it during your time there.’ Their ability to read me was making this difficult. I glanced at the clock above the dining table, realizing how close I was to missing my work deadline.

‘What kind of pebbles were in the containers?’ I asked, buying myself some time to think.

‘Grey rocks, about the size of pennies and smaller,’ Hannigan said, closing his notebook and slipping it into his inside pocket.

‘I don’t know a whole lot about pebbles,’ I said with a feeble, unconvincing laugh. ‘But yeah, I guess maybe there were some filler rocks like that in his garden.’ My fear was growing with each new piece of evidence stacking against Cris. It was getting to be too much to explain away.

‘We know this is a lot to digest, Liz,’ Beck said, ‘but can you see that a lot of what we know has possible connections to your grand uncle and that’s why we have to continue our line of inquiry?’

I nodded, worried and conflicted. I couldn’t deny the level of coincidence it would take for this all to match with one person who also happens to share DNA markers with the killer. Suspicion was seeping into my veins like ice water, chilling me more with each new sliver of information.

‘I guess I can see how there are a lot of similarities between the profile and him,’ I said, hesitant to give way to these new feelings of fear and familial betrayal. But I was also angry. Angry that he had manipulated me too. Angry that I’d found a family member willing to let me in, only for that connection to be ripped away from me. ‘Have you found anyone else on the Dominio side that could fit the bill? You said you were investigating my 23andMe results, right?’

‘We’ve ruled out most relatives by age, location, and alibies,’ Beck replied.

‘With the information we have available,’ Hannigan said, ‘Cristian checks all the boxes. I’m sorry, Liz. Since we now know TSK comes from the Dominio side of the family, there aren’t really any other male Dominios that meet the specifications of TSK. We aren’t quite ready to bring him in for questioning yet, as we don’t want to spook him before we are sure there’s enough concrete evidence to hold him. But we’re getting closer.’