Chapter 2:

Louise Thomas looked like a woman having the strong believe that everything was possible by will and discipline. About 5 feet 8 of height, with long dark brown hair, that already showed traces of gray and had been strictly pinned up to a bun, she could have been a school teacher from last century or the principal of an only-girls-college. She was wearing a dark gray costume and her face showed absolutely no signs of emotion. Like not only disorder, but showing the slightest emotion at any time, was a weakness – a sacrilege.

Her daughter had just rather been kidnapped or ran away from home and her mother wasn't even upset or scared. Maybe she was, but she wouldn't show it, not for a second and that's what made her seem that unnatural. Like she wasn't human after all – and that didn't leave the best first expression with the federal agents that were entering her house to question her about her daughter.

She had a polite smile for all of them when she invited them to come inside in a low, balanced voice, which – as her face – had no audible sound of anger, frustration or fear in it. She acted like the whole situation was normal to her, like she had everything under control. That probably was the crux of the matter – she hadn't. The whole situation was out of her hands, out of her range and there was nothing she could do about that. But she simply didn't accept it as the truth – things like this didn't happen to her and they definitely wouldn't bring her down. That was exactly the way she probably believed, that was, what her behavior pointed to.

Miranda's father on the other hand, seemed to be a completely different character. He was right behind his wife and he seemed pretty upset and afraid about his daughter's fate. One could literally see the hope enlighten in his eyes when they entered the house – like they would be his saviors, the saviors of his daughter. He seemed to be extremely happy and relieved to finally have someone inside his house, who would be able to help, would be able to tell him what was going to happen next and end his nagging uncertainty about the steps that would be taken to find his daughter.

The fact that Miranda's parents had reacted that completely different to their daughter's disappearance assured Jack in separating them and talking to each of them alone. He was pretty sure the mother would hold back information – she seemed to be proud of the fact what a great life she had established due to her own skills. She was that type of person that considered herself the perfect mother, one of this persons that never makes a mistake – she definitely wouldn't admit that there had been any problems with her daughter. The father on the other hand seemed to have only one wish and that was getting back his child safely and as soon as possible and although it probably was hard for him too – admitting a troubled situation was a hard thing for everybody – he would tell them. For his daughter's sake.

"Mrs. Thomas – I would like to ask you to join me and Agent Johnson. Mr. Thomas, if you would join Agent Fitzgerald then?"

Jack addressed the couple and immediately there rose disgust in Mrs. Thomas as she crossed her arms before her chest and shot him a slightly – barely visible – angry look. Her voice was still calm and polite none the less.

"You want to talk to us in separation?"

"Is there any problem about it?"

He directly had pointed to the mother's one weakness – her inability to admit failures. If she would've insisted against Jack's proposal to separate them, so she could keep control of her husbands answers, she would've been admitting that something was wrong. That there was something her husband would talk about, that she didn't want to be revealed. She couldn't do that, she couldn't admit the darker secrets of her family. One could see how her will to insist and argue died down almost immediately.

"No, of course not."

"Thanks Mrs. Thomas. There is another favor I have to ask you for – I would like to have Miranda's room checked, maybe it gives us a hint why she disappeared – a diary or some personal things that point to..."

"She wasn't hiding anything from us, Agent Malone!"

"I didn't say that, I said it's just an opportunity to find some evidence that points to your daughter's current residence. I believe that's in favor with what you want?"

"Of course it is! If it's absolutely necessary... but I have to warn you – the girl hasn't been cleaning up, as she was supposed to."

"I don't think that's a problem."

"When you say so. It's upstairs, second floor – she has the whole space underneath the roof for herself. She locked the room's door when she left for school that morning. I'll go get the keys for you."

That was an interesting point – the girl didn't seem to really have something like privacy. Of course she had her own room and she had the chance to lock herself inside of it and keep the outside world shut out. But what kind of a use was that, when her mother had a key to her room and had the possibility to get in there whenever she wanted to sneak around and spy through her daughter's personal stuff. Jack was pretty sure that Miranda hadn't know about that second key to her room her mother had. Louise Thomas came back with the key to Miranda's room and handed it to Jack, who reached it past to Samantha. She and Danny would be scanning through the girls personal things, while they were interviewing the parents.

"May we have a start then?"

Miranda's mother nodded and guided them to the living room, having a last look at her husband, who disappeared into direction of the kitchen with Martin. Whatever he would say up from this point, it was out of her control and Jack considered that a good thing. Louise Thomas didn't seem nervous after all, as she sat down, wearing that polite smile on her lips once again and waiting for Jack to ask her, whatever he wanted to know.

Martin – right on the other end of the house in the kitchen – gave Miranda's father, who was nervously pacing through his house's kitchen, a look full of empathy. The man was at the edge of a nervous breakdown and he definitely wouldn't calm that soon. He was terrified, probably having hundreds of thoughts of what might have happened to his daughter in mind. His nervousness was plain to see and he didn't make any afford to hide it, he probably wasn't even capable of it right at the moment. But as lost in thought as he seemed, he still caught Martin's gaze and a nervous, sad laugh emerged from his lips.

"I'm sorry – I'm running around like a damn rat in it's cage. As if it would help..."

"It's okay Mr. Thomas – may we have a start then?"

In the living room Jack had passed the same question to Mrs. Thomas already, who had agreed. Now he was up to a questioning of which he already knew, that it wouldn't get them any further and of which he also knew, that he would hear a lot of lies.

"Mrs. Thomas – you informed police, that you last saw your daughter this morning when she went to school?"

"That's correct, that was about 7.30 this morning. She was running late."

"Did you realize anything that seemed conspicuous to you, anything extraordinary?"

"No, I wouldn't say that. It was a normal morning routine – like on every other day."

"Has there been anything about your daughter's behavior that caught your eye, something that disturbed you? Have their been any changes?"

"No, not really. I mean, she's a teenager – a female teenager to be exact. She has her moods and she acts a bit weird or cool from time to time, but nothing that I would consider as unnatural. She was fine."

In the kitchen, Martin had the same question to Miranda's father, but he received a completely different answer. The father sighed deeply in desperation and wouldn't rise his gaze from the kitchen table as he spoke.

"Any? Good lord – she changed completely! I was that concerned, that worried about her! I couldn't believe she still was the same girl that was laughing about my jokes on summer holidays. I have no idea what happened or how, but she changed her mood from one day to the other. All of a sudden she seemed so lost, so sad, so desperate and I still don't know why. She wouldn't talk about it, she wouldn't talk about anything with us anymore. She started to lock herself in her room for days and I haven't spoken a single word with her in the past two weeks. But we haven't been fighting about anything. I don't know what happened to her, I have no idea, but whatever it was, it affected her that deeply – she changed into a different person, a lost and sad person."

Jack continued his questioning with Miranda's mother – hoping for her to finally start to understand that she wasn't helping her daughter when she didn't reveal what she was knowing. But he already knew he wouldn't be very lucky.

"Any troubles at school?"

"Nothing that I know about. She's a good student, she learns a lot, her marks have always been the best... She's good at school."

"That's not what I meant, Mrs. Thomas."

"What is it that you want to know?"

"Have there been any troubles with other students or with her teachers. Did she ever mention that she felt persecuted by anyone or that she frequently was having fights?"

"Miranda doesn't fight – not with anyone. She's a well educated young woman, she wouldn't do that. She didn't have troubles with the pupils in her class and I never heard any word of trouble from one of her teachers. She liked to go to school and she neither was persecuted nor harassed by anybody."

"Before this happened – that situation that made her close in that much, she told me that she was having troubles with the girls at school. That blonde, blue-eyed Barbie type of girls, you know... Andy – uhm – Miranda,..., she is a pretty girl, but she doesn't have the looks most of the guys at her school feel attracted to. I guess she felt pretty bad about it – she frequently had to hear from these girls that she would never ever have a boyfriend – stuff like that. She never asked to get the chance to change schools, but I know she wasn't happy where she was. Apart from that she really is a good student, I'm proud of her... But I never got rid of that feeling that she has to much pressure put on her shoulders. My wife is proud of her to be that good in school too, but she pushes her and – as I believe – to an extend that isn't good for Andy. But she hasn't been harassed, not from the teacher's I mean – there was nobody she was saying anything bad about, no teacher who disliked her or something."

"What about friends?"

"Miranda is very chary when it comes to friends and I don't see that as a problem. I actually appreciate it – who knows who she would invite into this house if she would be less careful! But I don't really like it, when she takes people home with her – I mean, these are strangers and I don't really want them to invade the privacy of my home. Therefor she doesn't see her friends here at home. The only one, who ever has been here – to take her to school in the mornings when she didn't have her driver's license, was a young woman. I don't know her name, but she was some way older than Miranda, probably already studying... Miranda has a list of phone numbers in her room – I guess she's on that list."

"Friends? I have to admit that Andy doesn't have any friends, no real friends at least. Nobody she would be talking to about everything, hanging on the phone with for hours – stuff girls normally do with their best friend. She was seeing a few other student's from her school from time to time, but it was nothing major – they always were a group of four to six people and I don't think Andy really felt that happy among them. More like she was tolerated... But there is someone else I can recall – a student from NYU – Helen, yeah, that's her name – Helen Shriver I believe. She was leading one of the voluntary after-school courses Andy was going to. They were pretty close and I remember she was on the phone with her pretty often in the summertime... But I don't think she has seen her or talked to her lately. She wouldn't ever come out of her room and my wife doesn't want to have strangers in the house..."

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

"A boyfriend? That's ridiculous. She just turned 16 – she's way too young for a boyfriend. She's interested in more serious and important things than boys right now. She has not been seeing any boy at any time at least not under my watchful eyes. I don't know if she secretly has been meeting someone, but I would've noticed that I guess. She's my daughter – I know when she lies to me. And if you want to point to the question if she may be pregnant and ran away because of that – that's impossible, it simply is like that. She wouldn't ever,..., have an intimate relationship with a boy before she gets married and is old and responsible enough to take the challenge."

"No, I don't believe she has a boyfriend, but I know that she had a crush on someone at school. I still see her cheeks flush red as she told me about him. I believe his name was Lukas..., but I don't recall his last name. He was older than her – a year probably, being one grade above her and his girlfriend was giving her a pretty hard time. She had realized Andy had a srush on him and she told her to keep away from him. She was pretty sad about that and I guess she still has that crush, but it's nothing serious – just as teenagers are..."

"What about you and your husband – has she been fighting with you. Have there been any troubles?"

"As I already told the police – she had no reason to run away. I can't recall a single time I had an argument with her. What about after all? She has everything she wanted and ever needed – her own room, her own car, enough allowance to spent and whenever she asked for anything she received it. She has everything she needs for her young life and the only thing I expected from her in exchange was to show benefit in school and to obey to this family's rules. I don't think there is anything wrong about that."

"She never has been fighting with us or with her mother let's say, but that wouldn't mean she was happy. She was just too afraid to insist against her mother, because she knew she could never win a fight against her. She once asked me if her mother even loved her. I believe she was deeply troubled about my wife's emotional coldness. I mean she doesn't do anything wrong – she's a good mother and she loves Andy, but she can't show it to her, she just can't and that's what made my girl that sad. She was unhappy with her life and she knew that wouldn't change, so she stopped arguing. She just tried to get along with the situation and make the best out of it."