Brianna was ten when her mother married Steve. She loved him as if he had always been her dad. Brianna never knew her father. Her mother had only told her it was a one-night stand, and she didn’t know his name or how to get in touch with him. Steve gave the signed adoption papers to Audrey on the day of their wedding. He told her they would be a complete family. Unfortunately, he was taken from her when Lisa was only two years old. A sudden heart attack had left Audrey devastated and lost. She threw herself into her career and became an Honorable Judge before she turned sixty. It was the only part of Audrey’s life that meant something besides being a mom. Brianna was ten years senior to Lisa and more like another mother. Lisa was well loved and protected. The three women were very close.
After Lisa’s funeral, Brianna plunked herself down on Lisa’s bed and cried. She held tightly onto the teddy bear on Lisa’s bed. Brianna had given it to her the day she was born. Angrily, Brianna tossed the bear off the bed and then felt bad for doing so. She reached down to pick up the bear and felt something underneath Lisa’s bed. Curious, she leaned over to grab it. It was Lisa’s tablet. Brianna had forgotten about the device she’d given her sister for Christmas. She already searched her laptop and found nothing in there. She turned it on, only to discover it was password protected. Brianna looked around the room and wondered what her sister would have used. She looked at the teddy bear and smiled. That would be Lisa. Brianna was stunned with what she discovered. “Mom, come here!” Brianna shouted as she read her sister’s tablet in horror. Audrey entered Lisa’s room, “What’s the matter?” Brianna looked up at her mother and motioned for her to sit on the bed. She waved the tablet in one hand. “I found this under Lisa’s bed. Mom, she’d been on a chat line. I’ve warned her so many times. She chatted with a man she didn’t know. And the last entry is dated three nights ago. She went to meet him in the park.” Brianna cried, “Oh, Mom, it’s my fault. I should have stayed home with her.” Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, sweetie, there’s only one person to blame; the man who did this to her.” Audrey Wilson held her daughter and cried with her. Brianna swore to her mother, between gasps of air, that she would find the man responsible. Neither Brianna nor her mom believed Lisa just went for a walk in the park that night. Brianna knew there had to be a reason. She brought that information to the homicide constable she knew from the training academy. He promised to look into it. Anxious to find her sister’s murderer, she began to investigate the chat group on her own. The man Lisa chatted with had been clever to hide his IP address. Brianna figured he used a proxy server to make indirect network connections to the Internet to hide the IP address. Brianna’s promise became an obsession, which forced her inspector to release her from her duties. It wasn’t a suspension without pay but more of a leave for her to take the time to grieve her loss and let homicide do their job. She didn’t listen. Homicide didn’t work fast enough for Brianna. She knew their workload and the little information they had to work with. She was determined to solve this crime on her own. She even kept it from her mother. Brianna began to chat in the same group Lisa had. She hoped to flag his interest. A couple of weeks later it happened. She received a message from the same name that had appeared in her sister’s chats. Brianna smiled. She was ready to lure him in.
Chapter Three
“What the hell happened to you?” Audrey opened the front door. Brianna stood before her with dirt and scratches on her face and hands. Brianna took a deep breath. “I was in the park.” “At this time of the night?” Her mother looked terrified and didn’t wait for Brianna to respond. “It’s