Chapter 10:

It was three a clock in the morning when Martin was woken by the ringing of his cell phone beside his bed. He needed a few moment of adjustment before he even realized what was going on around him. The look at the digital numbers of the watch however caused him to sigh before he picked up the phone.

"Fitzgerald?"

"Agent Fitzgerald? This is Helen Shriver – I'm sorry to wake you that early, but my roommate informed me that you asked her to call you as soon as I would come back home."

It took some more moments to put the name he had just heard into a context. His brain was working a little slow at three a clock in the morning when just being pulled out of his sleep. But he wasn't really to blame for that particular weakness, which he probably shared with the whole rest of humanity.

The woman he was talking to however seemed like she was highly awake and – as she had told him – had just gotten home from her hiking trip. He actually hadn't expected her to call in that soon. But for the sake of Miranda Thomas it was actually a good thing she had done so.

"Uhm – yeah... as she probably told you, I'm with the FBI. We need to ask you a few questions about Miranda Thomas."

"Miranda? What happened to her? Is she alright?"

Martin felt almost surprised by the reaction. There actually seemed to be one person in the world who cared at least a little bit for Miranda Thomas. She was the first they came up to meet with however – well, except for the girl's father. But as eager as the young woman seemed about helping them, he really didn't want to question her all on the phone.

"I cannot tell you right now, but I would like you to meet with me and another agent at our office in downtown Manhattan. Is that okay with you?"

"I'm fine with that. I could come over immediately if you want me to..."

She definitely cared for Miranda, seeming to understand that whatever had happened to her, the fact that FBI was involved pointed to the conclusion that losing time on this matter wasn't much of an option. And as he was already awake it seemed like a good idea. Waking Jack in the middle of the night however, wasn't a thing he really wanted to do.

"That's okay – could you be there in about 45 minutes?"

"I'll be there."

The young woman hung up on him and gave him a chance to yawn deeply before he picked up the phone once again, dialing Jack's number and informing him about the call he had just received. He seemed grumpy, but Martin had expected nothing else. He shared Martin's opinion about the young woman who had been willing to call and come over for a questioning in the middle of the night – she definitely cared for Miranda Thomas.

Meeting the NYU student almost an hour later as she was sitting in Jack's private office, they found themselves looking at a tall, slim, darkhaired woman with green eyes and a pretty dark skin colour. Taking the fact into consideration that she had just come back from a hiking trip there wasn't much of a surprise about that.

She seemed pretty much awake for the time of the morning – better said middle of the night – that it was and was actually looking pretty much better than the two federal agents she had gotten out of bed due to her return. She seemed slightly nervous – but taking into consideration where she just was, neither was this much of a surprise.

"Miss Shriver – what was your relation with Miranda Thomas."

"Would you please first tell me what is going on? What happened to her? Is she okay?"

"She's missing. She didn't show up for school two days ago and nobody has seen her since."

"Oh my gosh – I had no idea. And you haven't any idea where she might have gone to?"

"No, not so far. We were actually hoping that you might be able to help us with that."

"Well – I don't know. Miranda and I got to know each other at a college course for psychology. She was a very interested student and we came to talk a lot after classes, even meet at the one or other spot privately for a couple of times. Actually we became pretty close friends after a while. She was telling me about her parents, trouble at school, stuff like that. But it all suddenly stopped."

"When?"

"Shortly after the last summer holidays. All of a sudden she stopped calling me and wouldn't answer my phone calls as well. I tried to get in touch with her, you know waiting at her home, taking her to school several times, but she wouldn't talk to me."

"Do you have any idea what might have happened to her?"

"I'm not sure... I mean there were signs for a psychological disorder, but I'm just a student so it's really just a guess. I cannot say anything for certain."

"Miss Shriver – Miranda was medicated with an antipsychotic that is especially used on schizophrenic patients. Does that fit your guess?"

The young woman's face seemed to somehow enlighten by the question, although the general emotion of concern wouldn't leave her features. But obviously she had been of exactly the same professional opinion as the school psychologist.

"Yes, yes it does. It was exactly what I thought. So she luckily has seen a therapist... But what made her run away or whatever she did then?"

"She stopped taking the medication."

"Oh good lord – no she didn't? I mean she could've done almost everything to herself if she stopped doing so. She's most definitely a danger to herself then."

"We are very well aware of that fact. Miss Shriver, did Miranda ever mention some sort of hiding place, a place where she would go to if she wanted to run away?"

"No, not really. She was complaining about her mother and some of the pupils at her high school, but she never talked about running away or hiding somewhere. Well and after that incident in the summer she stopped talking to me after all..."

"Do you have any idea what caused her sudden change?"

"I really don't know. The only thing I can think of is that boy, she used to have a crush on. But I don't recall his name."

"Lukas Wilson?"

"Yeah – that was it. She however called him Luke. Anyways – I was asking her about him after summer holidays when I was driving her to school and she reacted pretty violently, yelling at me and telling me to keep my nose focused on my own stuff... I never before had experienced her like that."

"Alright. Thank you Miss Shriver, you've been a great help."

She nodded, got up from the chair she was sitting at and shook the hand Jack was offering her. Then she made her way to the door, leaving the office. Martin and Jack however stayed seated until Helen Shriver was out of hearing range before Martin started to ask.

"What do you think?"

"I think Lukas Wilson has been lying to us. He didn't just tease Miranda – she wouldn't have reacted that way if it would be that simple. There must have been something else, something way more grave. There's no other explanation for her sudden change, no explanation for her mental trauma."

"So what do you think it was?"

"I don't know, I really don't. But Lukas is going to tell us, if he wants to or not..."