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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