Chapter 1

That morning, as every morning since the birth of their twins seven months earlier, Rick got up as soon as he heard the first cries of his sons which indicated that they were awake and hungry. He was always the one who got up in the morning.

Kate had returned to her job with the police a few weeks earlier and she needed some sleep to recover from her stressful days.

He went up to the bedroom where his sons were sleeping and carried them to have their breakfast bottle. He had always loved those special moments he shared with Kate and their children when the city could be heard slowly waking up.

A few moments later, Kate joined them before going to pick up Lily, their eldest daughter, who had just woken up as well. The family had breakfast, happy to be together and to share these moments of uncomplicated happiness.

Around eight o'clock, Kate was informed by text message from the police station that a fire had occurred in New York City.

"New case?" Rick asked as he fed their daughter.

"Yes, there was a fire last night." Kate replied by reading the message to her husband. "Bodies have been found in the house and there is evidence that the fire resulted from arson."

"Are Lanie and the guys in the scene yet?"

"Yes, they just arrived and they're looking for elements! I still have a little time left before I have to go."

The young woman peacefully finished her breakfast and took a shower before heading for the place where the fire had taken place.

Since their children were born, Rick had stopped his collaboration with his wife to have enough time to take care of the kids. Kate always struggled to get to work in the morning: she felt she was leaving her husband to look after their children on his own, and she missed her collaboration with her husband. She felt far away from her family during her working days.

When she arrived in front of the place where the fire had taken place, Kate saw directly that it was a wealthy house in a posh Manhattan neighborhood. She reunited with the two cops and with Lanie.

"Have you been able to find out anything about the family that lives in the house?" The captain asked.

"The house belongs to Ralph and Lyn Nicolaus." Ryan explained. "The husband works as a surgeon and the wife runs a large accounting firm. They have two children: Ralph Junior, aged eight, and Lisa, aged five."

"In short," Esposito summarized, "we are talking about the exemplary family. We didn't find anything wrong with them, not even a parking violation."

"Lanie," Kate asked as she turned to the coroner, "have you been able to identify the bodies we found?"

"Three corpses were found: one in the hallway, one in the dining room and one in the master bedroom. The body in the hallway matches the size of Lyn Nicolaus and the one in the bedroom the size of her husband. We'll collect samples for DNA testing to ascertain the identity of the bodies and we'll know more about the identity of the third body when we get back to the morgue."

"Do we know where both of the kids are?" Kate asked as she turned to the two policemen.

"Not for the moment!" Esposito responded. "We've issued an Amber Alert!"

"Great initiative!" Kate agreed. "Have you managed to establish a timeline for the evening?"

"One of the neighbors who lives across the street from the house of the Nicolaus family said she saw the family go home last night at around nine o'clock." Ryan stated in reading his notes. "They were apparently out to dinner at some restaurant in the neighborhood. Half an hour later, Lyn Nicolaus picked up from a neighbor's house a package that had been delivered to the wrong house. The two women talked for about ten minutes and then Lyn went home. We know the fire started around midnight."

"This really ought to be a safe neighborhood!" Kate remarked, thinking aloud. "Usually this kind of neighborhood is crawling with surveillance cameras. Do you know if that's the case here?"

"Yes, it is!" Ryan explained. "There' s a camera right there in front of the house, but we just got access to the files. Vikram is retrieving the recordings and analyzing them!"

"All right, put every brigade in the city on high alert!" Kate commanded her team. "We need to locate the children as quickly as possible! Lanie, try to identify the bodies as fast as you can. We need to know if it's the Nicolaus or if it's other people."

"In the meantime," Esposito added, "the brother of Ralph Nicolaus is on his way to the precinct. You were always the best at interrogations!"