Turning on her expensive high heels, Mrs. Otis led the way to Rachel’s room. At the bedroom door, with her hand on the knob, she turned to Alyssa and Cord. ‘Please touch nothing.’ The way she said it made it sound as if she expected them to abscond with half their daughter’s belongings tucked beneath their shirts.

It was impossible not to notice the woman was far more concerned with her daughter’s belongings possibly disappearing than she was with the daughter herself. If Rachel had to come home to this for an entire summer, maybe she had run off. Alyssa couldn’t say she’d blame her. She didn’t try to hide her sarcasm when she responded. ‘We’ll try not to.’

Opening the door, Mrs. Otis ushered the detectives in with a wave of her arm. ‘My husband will attend you here. I’ll be downstairs.’ And then she was gone, leaving Cord and Alyssa to explore the room under the eagle-eyed glower of Mr. Otis and the anxious eyes of Nick.

She wasn’t sure what she expected, but what Alyssa found was nothing short of a typical young female’s room. Clothes, pricier than the ones her own daughter had, hung in an oversized closet; both framed and loose photos, mostly from her high school days, adorned the walls, shelves, and corkboards; and expensive knickknacks from all over the globe were on display in a rather large, ornate curio cabinet. Aside from that, there was nothing that offered any clues as to where Rachel may have gone, or with whom.

‘Angela mentioned something about a new friend Rachel had begun hanging out with. You wouldn’t happen to know who that person is, would you?’ Alyssa directed the question to Nick but darted her eyes to Mr. Otis for his reaction. Aside from reaching up to rub his chin, his face remained blank, and he too glanced at his son to hear his response.

‘Come to think of it, she did mention meeting someone not too long ago. Not really sure of the timing, to be honest. Anna somebody or another.’ Like Angela, Nick turned a light shade of pink as he admitted he’d been distracted. ‘Rachel was in one of her moods where she just rambled on and on, and since I was the one who answered my phone…’ He let his sentence trail off, slowly shaking his head. ‘I guess I should’ve paid closer attention.’

And then, as if something had just occurred to him, he jerked his head up. ‘Wait, do you think this friend might know something? Maybe I could ask around.’

The last thing Alyssa needed was a civilian scaring off potential witnesses by hammering them with questions. No, she’d rather find this mysterious friend and question her herself. ‘Actually, what would be helpful is if you could give us a list of friends your sister usually hung out with. Do you think you could do that?’

Nick was already pulling out his phone, and then he walked over to his sister’s desk, opened a drawer, pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen, and began scribbling names and numbers down.