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They arrived at the Thomas' house which was in a nice suburban area. Everything seemed peaceful and quiet. Vivian watched curiously as Agent Taylor took a look around and sighed after he got out of the car. They walked up the path the lead through the garden up to the house and Vivian rang the doorbell.

It was only half minute before the door was opened by a teenage girl who greeted the two agents with a somewhat relieved smile.

There was a long silence as Agent Taylor looked at Viv obviously waiting for her to say something. But she remained silent, and the silence was beginning to get uncomfortable but Vivian didn't mind. She could tell that the young agent was a bit nervous; he obviously really had very little experience working in the field. She gave him an encouraging smile. And silently cursed Jack.

Finally Agent Taylor spoke: "We're… with the FBI. Are you Sylvie Thomas?"

"Yes", the girl answered.

Vivian showed her her badge and introduced herself. "My name is Vivian Johnson, this is Agent Taylor. We need to speak to you about your friend Laura McFadden. She's missing as you know."

"Yes, and I'm happy you're here. We're all worried about Laura."

"Why? D'you think she's in trouble?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't seen her much lately."

"I thought you were her best friend", Agent Taylor remarked.

"Yes. Well… at least … I used to be…"

"Sylvie, would you mind if we come inside and talk there. We would like to speak to you and your parents if that's possible."

"Yeah, sure. Well, my Dad's not home yet, but my Mum is in the living-room."

Five minutes they're we all sitting in a comfortable living-room, Sylvie and her mother sitting on the couch while two agents had taken a seat opposite them on old fashioned arm-chairs. The air was a bit tense but Vivian was used to this. Meanwhile Danny Taylor looked as uncomfortable as Sylvie and her mother.

"When was the last time you saw your friend Laura?" Vivian started questioning in her usual calm way.

Sylvie shrugged. "I think that must have been a while ago. I've been neglecting her for a while I'm afraid…"

"Why?"

"I've just got together with my first boyfriend, four weeks ago. We've spent most of our time together since then. For a while I kept inviting Laurie along but she didn't wanna come. So I left her to herself."

"Well, it's not a surprise she didn't wanna come, is it?" Vivian asked, softly.

"No, but what was I supposed to do?"

"What did you do?" Agent Taylor suddenly got involved in the conversation. It was the first time he spoke since they'd gone into the house. "I mean, you just invited her along with you and your boyfriend and when she didn't wanna come you just decided to ignore her?"

Mrs Thomas looked as if she wanted to say something, but her daughter was quicker. "Not at first. But she kept acting strange. As if she had a secret. And we used to have no secrets in our friendship. But there was definitely something she didn't wanna tell me. And, well, I guess, I was somewhat pissed off. So I started to ignore her, yes."

"Sylvie, do you think that this secret she had could have had anything to do with a boy she was in love with, maybe?" Vivian asked.

The girl shrugged.

"D'you have any idea at all, what it could have been?"

"Well…", finally Sylvie started to speak hesitantly. "…I think she could have met someone on the internet…"

"What makes you think that?"

"The other day when I went over to hers she was at the computer and when I entered the room she shut down the program at once. But I could see she was writing an email."

"That email could have been addressed to anyone…", her mother said.

"No, she doesn't usually write emails. Not that I know of at least. She's only got the computer to do researches on the internet for school homework."

"Ok, thank you Sylvie." It was obvious that the girl didn't know much more of any importance so Vivian ended the conversation with a reassuring smile. "You've helped us a lot. I'm sure we'll soon have her back."

"I sure hope so. I feel really bad about how I've treated her. Especially thinking that she could have been in trouble and I didn't know it."

"You done your best today", Viv said before the two agents left.

Back in the car – this time Vivian was driving – she turned to her new co-worker and remarked: "Well, seems as though not everything is quite the way it seems to be. This girl certainly had some secrets."