Chapter 2

When the three policemen returned to the precinct, they found James Nicolaus waiting for them with a blank stare. Kate walked into the break room to talk with Ralph Nicolaus's brother, a distinguished young man who worked as a schoolteacher.

"Mister Nicolaus," the policewoman asked, "I'm sorry for what happened to your brother, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you a few questions to find out what happened and where your nephews are."

"Our parents died when we were kids, so we had to spend our childhood in foster care, and Ralph became my only home base at that time. He's my rock, my lighthouse in the darkness. He's the one who showed me the way and made me what I am today. When we were in foster care, I would often find it difficult to do my homework, as there was a lot of noise and excitement around us. One night I came home from school and Ralph had built me some kind of a cavern in the closet. He had purchased noise insulation and placed it on the walls. He had even added cushions to keep me comfortable while I worked!"

"Do you know if your brother and your sister-in-law had any enemies?"

"No, everybody liked Ralph and Lyn. They were very generous, and they never lost sight of where they originated."

"Any chance they could've formed any enemies during their careers?"

"Ralph worked as a plastic surgeon, and he did mostly reconstructive procedures. Lyn is an accountant, nobody's enemies with an accountant. Furthermore, she does not administrate large organizations, she mainly deals with medical firms."

"Do you know where your nephews are?"

"No, I don't have a clue! You must find them! You absolutely must find them as fast there as possible! Since he was born, Junior has been suffering from a severe form of asthma. If he has a seizure and doesn't get his medication, he may not survive it! We must find him, and I must protect him. Ralph protected me and I have to protect Ralph Junior."

"Sir, I can assure you that every police force in this city is looking for your nephews! You know, I've got kids myself, and I'll do anything to make sure nothing happens to your brother's kids. We are the most powerful police force in the United States, we will find them! I promise, I swear to you."

"I'm counting on you, Captain Beckett."

"I'm just going to need to ask you a few final questions. First, do you know who the third person who died in the fire might be?"

"It's probably Ethel, Ethel James. She's a young girl who works as a nanny for my brother and his wife. In return for her work, my brother offered her accommodation and payed for her to attend daytime classes so that she could become a nurse."

"To finish, would you have noticed any changes in the behavior of your brother and his wife over the last while?"

"To be completely honest, something pretty weird happened a few months ago. Ralph came to me and asked me to agree to run some kind of association. I told him I didn't have time to have any responsibilities, he said he would do fine without my help and we never talked about it again!"

"Do you remember the name of that association?"

"As I remember it, that association was called the Regina Reeves Foundation! I do remember it because it felt like an unusual name and because I didn't know who exactly that Regina Reeves was!"

"Thank you for answering my questions, Mr. Nicolaus!" Kate said as she got up. "We will call you back if we have any other questions."

When she came out of the room, Kate saw that Ryan and Esposito were talking to Vikram. She joined them to see what they found.

"Well," Kate asked Vikram, "have you managed to get access to the security camera footage?"

"Yes, I've extracted the footage in which we can see the house of the Nicolaus." Vikram said as he opened the video player. "That way, we can establish a timeline of events from last night. At six o'clock Ralph Nicolaus drives his children home after school. Twenty minutes later Ethel James arrived as she was back from her classes for her nursing degree. At 18:54, they all leave to join Lyn at a restaurant called The New York Grill. However, if you follow the route followed by the Nikolaus's car, you can see that Ralph Nicolaus took a break on his way, entered an office building, stayed there for almost twenty minutes and came out carrying a sports bag!"

"What kind of companies are based in that office building?" Kate asked as she looked consciously at the footage, as if the answer would magically appear to her.

"A logistics firm, a company specialized in mail-order sales and a web development firm." Vikram said as he looked at the contents of his tablet. "Nothing special or related to the life of the Nikolaus!"

"Do we know what he did when he got into that building?" Ryan questioned.

"No, we don't!" Vikram replied. "There are monitoring cameras all over the building, but that night the systems were under maintenance, so the cameras were disabled."

"What happened when Ralph Nicolaus came out of the building?" Kate asked the investigators. "Did they straight to the restaurant?"

"Yes, they did!" Vikram replied, scrolling through the CCTV footage. "They all reached the New York Grill at 7:37 pm. They all settled down at a table, had dinner there and finished their dinner at 8:42 pm. They drove back and arrived home at 9:00 pm. As the neighbor said, Lisa retrieved the parcel at 9:13pm and then the whole family went home! We see all the lights in the house slowly turning off and at 23:00, everything is in darkness except for the living room. We see the first flames appear an hour later."

"Do we see people going in or out of the house?" Esposito asked. "The point is to find out whether the person who started the fire was already in the house and whether the children have left the house."

"No one can be seen going in or out the front door!" Vikram responded. "Still, there's a back door that the arsonist or the children could have used. Unfortunately for us, there are no cameras covering this area!"

"Kate, I just received a text from Lanie!" Esposito said looking at his phone. "They just finished autopsying the bodies!"