Bill said nothing.

His eyes had stopped on the last line.

The strokes there were heavier than anything above them.

As if she'd written it over and over.

*There's one more person.*

*After I graduate.*

*I have to go see him.*

*I have to.*

After that, not a single word.

And turning back a few pages, several entries had been torn clean out.

Martha stared for a moment.

"Who is this 'him,' anyway?"

No one answered.

Who was this "him"?

Even I had forgotten.

And just then—a shrill ring.

A phone had started to ring.

Everyone turned at once.

The sound came from the desk drawer.

Gloved, Martha eased the drawer open.

A white phone lay inside.

Its screen flashed on and off.

"Whose phone is this?"

Bill asked my mother, but she only shook her head.

"I don't know. I've never seen this phone before."

The ringing stopped, and the lock screen showed itself.

A bottle of whiskey.

Then the phone rang again.

Bill's head snapped toward Martha.

"Answer it."

The second she pressed the button.

A young man's voice came through from the other end.

"Elaine?"

The whole room went quiet in an instant.

Bill shot my mother a look.

She took the phone at once.

"This is Elaine's mother. Who is this, please?"

Two seconds of silence on the line.

Then a click, and the call went dead.

Bill's expression darkened.

"Run that number now, get the account holder notified, and get them down to the station to cooperate. Immediately."

"Yes, sir."

Martha turned and hurried out.

Bill looked back at my mother.

"This person—do you know him?"

She shook her head.

He didn't press her. He turned and walked out of the apartment.

Beyond the tape, a crowd of gawkers had already gathered.

Other detectives were working the building, door to door.

As Bill passed, he happened to catch an older woman out walking her dog.

"Is it the daughter of that high-school-teacher couple who died?"

"A few nights ago, I think I saw Elaine arguing with some man."

Bill stopped in his tracks.

"When was this?"

"Around eleven at night, right downstairs."

"Tall fellow, about five-nine, wore glasses."

"Elaine was always such a quiet girl, but that night she up and slapped him across the face. Gave me a real fright."

Just then, the tech unit sent over the ID tied to the phone number.

The man in the photo was young and handsome, glasses on his face.

Bill held the phone out.

"Is this him?"

The woman peered at it for a few seconds, then shook her head.

"Too dark that night. Couldn't make out his face."

Bill pocketed the phone.

A full round of the building turned up nothing else worth having.

Back at the station, Martha came to meet him.

"Captain, the guy who was in contact with Elaine is here."

"Also, we've finished statements from everyone at the celebration dinner. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Elaine's parents are getting ready to head back too."

Bill nodded.

Crossing the lobby, he saw my father and mother sitting side by side on the long bench.

My father's head was bowed. Overnight he'd aged ten years.

The neighbor couple sat beside them, pressing tissues into their hands, murmuring comfort.

When they saw Bill go by, the two of them even gave him a nod.

Bill didn't stop. He walked straight into the interview room, where a young man was already seated.

White shirt, black-framed glasses, tall and lean.

Standing, he had to be around five-nine.

Exactly what the neighbor lady had described.

Bill flipped open the ID file Martha handed him.

"Percy Cobb, twenty-five, math grad student at Ashford University, currently interning at a tech company over in Ridgefield. What was your relationship to the victim?"

"Online friends."

"Just online friends?"

"Yes."

"Never met in person?"

"No."

Bill smiled.

"Then tell me this. Why, less than an hour after Elaine Fox died, did you call that phone?"

"Why is it that her mother didn't know that phone existed, but you did?"

"There was nothing on that phone. One backup account to stay in touch with you, and the chat history wiped clean."

The questions came one after another, but Percy didn't flinch.

"I don't know anything about Elaine's home life."

"As for the call this afternoon, Elaine told me to make it."

Bill's brow drew together.

"When?"

"Last night. She told me to dial that number today at exactly one o'clock."

"She also said that if the person who answered wasn't her, it meant she was already dead."

Bill went still for a beat and was about to press further when Percy cut him off.

"Officer, are Elaine's parents still at the station?"

Percy dropped his eyes and gave a small laugh.

"If I were you, I'd go stop them right now."

"The moment they leave this station, they're going to take the younger sister and get out of the city."

"They're probably already on the highway."

"Want to guess why they're running?"

Bill's expression shifted. He turned to Martha.

"Verify this. Now!"

Martha bolted out of the interview room.

Less than two minutes later, she shoved the door open and rushed back in.

"Captain, got it!"

"The car registered to Ina Dickerson hit the highway ten minutes ago!"

Bill dialed the mother's number at once.

It connected fast.

"Ms. Dickerson, the investigation isn't finished. Why are you leaving the city?"

There was a silence on the other end, then came Ina's voice, hoarse and worn out.

"Officer, my younger daughter has an appointment tomorrow with a cardiac surgery specialist in New York."

"We waited half a year for that slot."

"This fever set off her heart condition too. We can't put it off any longer."

"We've already lost one daughter. We can't lose the other one."

Bill's voice dropped low.

"And Elaine?"

"What about her arrangements?"

Silence again on the other end.

More than ten seconds passed before Ina spoke, slowly.

"Libby will help us. She's my neighbor, and my best friend."

"She watched Ellie grow up. She'll handle everything that comes after for us."

"Officer, I'm sorry."

"Once my younger one has been seen, we'll come straight back and cooperate with the investigation."

The line went dead.

The interview room fell quiet. Martha couldn't hold back.

"Captain, should we have highway patrol stop the car?"

Percy suddenly broke in.

"Officer."

"If you stop Elaine's parents, her sister misses this specialist appointment, and she very likely won't make it."

"But if you just let Elaine's parents go, the truth about her death will never come to light."

"So. Will you choose the living, or the dead?"

Bill's head snapped toward Percy.

"How do you know Elaine's parents were going to leave?"

"What else do you know?"

Percy only fell silent, staring straight at Bill, waiting for his answer.

"I'm not making that choice."

"I'll send people to bring Elaine's mother back, and we'll get Elaine's sister to the hospital ourselves."

"No one gets held up."

With that, Bill turned and headed for the door.

At the threshold, he stopped.

"One more thing."

He turned back.

Set Elaine's phone down on the table.

On the screen, that wallpaper of a whiskey bottle was jarring to look at.

"Why whiskey?"

"What does Elaine have to do with whiskey?"

Percy looked at the phone.

Said nothing for a long time.

In the end he only gave a slight shake of his head.

"It isn't time yet. You haven't found the most important thing."

"And what is the most important thing?"

Percy said nothing more.

I don't know either.

But I think Bill was close.

Bill left the interview room with his brow still furrowed.

Martha hurried after him, laptop in her arms.

"Captain, I've pulled all the security footage from around Elaine's building."

"Also, the department's pushing us. The case has already made it online. They want a statement out fast."

Bill nodded.

He lined up three clips side by side on the screen.

One from the stairwell camera.

One from the entrance of the complex.

The last, the indoor footage from the day of the celebration dinner.

He watched them through three full times.

Just as the fourth pass was about to start, his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Wait!"

"Martha, the bottom-right corner of the celebration footage. Zoom it in all the way!"

The moment he saw what was there, he shot to his feet.

"I know what happened!"