Nikki entered the temporary operations center with Mike, which was manned around the clock. The first detectives of the day shift were also already present. She was informed that there was no news, but Micaela Barboza had already called thirty minutes earlier to inquire about the status of the investigation.

"Barboza didn't sound happy," Thune explained. 'And she was surprised that the lead detective wasn't in the office at 7:30 in the morning.'

Nikki rolled her eyes and waved it off. "Barboza wouldn't sound happy even if she won the lottery."

Mike sat down at a desk with his steaming coffee cup and raised an eyebrow. "How was your police training, by the way?"

"Very good," she replied, unable to suppress a grin. Mike was satisfied with the brief answer and didn't ask any further.

"We need to talk to the apartment owner again, Diana Martiny. And I want her to come here. She's the only one we haven't spoken to in person yet."

Nikki took her laptop out of her shoulder bag and opened it with a frown. "I thought of that too. But I couldn't reach her yesterday. I can't help but feel that this Miriam Labo is the key figure in this whole story."

"The only problem is that we don't know where to find her. Or her body. But we have her blood. In her best friend's apartment, and we should definitely talk to her again."

But again, Nikki only reached Diana Martiny's voicemail, which seemed strange. "I don't understand it," she said, putting the phone down. "The first few times I called her, she answered immediately. She either turned off her cell phone again or hasn't turned for almost a week."

"Try the theater. Maybe they know more," Mike replied.

Nikki found the phone number of the Thalia Theater in Los Angeles in less than two minutes. However, it took another ten minutes for her to reach someone who knew Diana Martiny.

"Detective Veronica O'Laighin, Boston Police Department," she introduced herself again after being transferred three times, and a woman's voice answered. "I'm calling about Diana Martiny."

"Boston Police? Oh my God, I knew it." The woman spoke quickly; her voice had a slightly hysterical tone. "Something happened to Diana. I already told your colleagues yesterday, but they didn't want to listen. They told me something about adults who want a day off and to disappear for a while --"

"Wait a minute," Nikki tried to interrupt the woman's torrent of words, but she continued to prattle on unabashedly. 'But not Diana Martiny, I told them. She'd show up at rehearsals with her head under her arm. There's no way Diana would just...'

"Stop it now!" Nikki shouted into the phone.

That worked. The woman fell silent so abruptly that Nikki feared the line had been disconnected. "Are you still there?"

"Of course, I'm still here," the woman replied, offended. 'But you were shouting at me.'

"Now, just a minute. Please tell me your name again?"

"Schuster. Beatrice Schuster."

"All right, Ms. Schuster --"

"Mrs. Schuster!"

Nikki paused and rolled her eyes. "Mrs. Schuster, you say you spoke to our colleagues yesterday. Who? And why?"

"I don't know the name. I dialed the LAPD number and got a man on the phone. But now tell me what's going on with Diana. Something must have happened to her; otherwise, you wouldn't have called."

"No, it's... I didn't call because something happened to her but because I couldn't reach her on her cell phone. So again, Why did you contact the LAPD?"

"Because Diana was absent from rehearsal for nearly a week and didn't attend the performance either. Just like that, without calling and letting me know. That's not her style at all. I've rarely seen such a conscientious actress. They're often a bit... well, never mind. Anyway, I tried to reach her several times. Without success. Then I knew something must have happened."

"And the LAPD colleagues didn't react?" Nikki knew that wasn't unusual. It was different with missing children, but if an adult didn't keep an appointment and couldn't be reached, no cop would immediately start a search.

"No, I already said that. I also explained to the cops that Diana was from Boston and maybe she was there for some important reason, but I don't think so because she would have called. I still think that something must have happened to her."

"I can assure you that we'll take care of it. Why don't you write down my cell phone number and call me immediately when Ms. Martiny turns up, okay?"

Schuster promised and wrote down Nikki's cell phone number.

Mike looked at his wife with narrowed eyebrows. "What's going on?"

She filled him in, whereupon he banged on the table. The muttering of the other detectives in the room stopped.

"Damn sloppiness. And the LAPD knew that Martiny was living in Boston?"

"Yes, that's what the Schuster woman said."

Mike's face turned darker as he pecked at the laptop keyboard. After a while, he reached for his cell phone and dialed a number. What followed was a tirade of abuse the likes of which Nikki had never heard her husband use before. Incompetent was one of the more flattering terms he used for the person he was talking to. Among other things, he loudly pointed out that Diana Martiny was a witness in a murder case and had to be considered potentially endangered. And that if anything had happened to the woman, they'd better watch their backs in Los Angeles because, on the West Coast, they apparently thought they were too good to make a quick call to Boston and ask a few questions. He really hoped that a search operation would be set up immediately. A moment later, he called out 'Hello' twice in succession, then let the cell phone drop and looked at the device and then at Nikki in disbelief. "He hung up. The asshole just hung up. Can you believe that?"

Nikki pulled down the corners of her mouth. "Well, that was pretty intense just now."

"Intense? I meant everything I said absolutely seriously. What if the woman is the next victim?"

"That would be --," she searched for the right word, '... a disaster."

Mike buried his face in his hands and took several deep breaths, then he let them drop again and rose from his chair. 'I'm going to see if Nick is here yet. I think it makes sense for him to call the LAPD and give them a little push."

Nikki fiddled with her pen and pulled down the corners of her mouth as Thune and Becker looked at her in confusion.

It wasn't even thirty minutes before Mike came back. "Nick's calling the LAPD."

Nikki leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Let's hope this turns harmless and Diana Martiny is found quickly."

Mike nodded in agreement and pointed to a file with a nod. "I took a closer look at the forensics report from Martiny's apartment last night while you were making new friends. It's all very strange. The bedroom is full of Labo's fingerprints and hair. However, there are only a few prints outside this room, nothing else. No hair, no DNA material."

Nikki's mouth dropped down a second time. "Which I don't find so unusual. If she entered the apartment and went straight to the bedroom."

"Yes, maybe." He looked at the file as if he had made notes on the cover. "There were also no signs found that a body had been removed from the apartment."

"Then the perpetrator --" Her smartphone vibrated briefly on the table. A message. 'Sorry. Just a moment.' She quickly answered the text. 'I'm sorry, where were we?'

Mike's expression spoke volumes. "I'm happy for you when you make new friends. But could you move your lively exchange of messages to another time?"

Nikki knew that Mike's complaint was justified. She herself found it extremely annoying when someone repeatedly paid attention to their cell phone, and she saw it as a sign of disrespect. "You're right. Sorry."

"What about the perpetrator?"

"What?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "You just said: Then the perpetrator... when your cell phone claimed your attention."

"Oh, yes. I wanted to say that the culprit may have put her in a plastic bag in the bedroom. Then it's clear that no traces were found outside."

"That would be one explanation. However, there are no signs of this in the bedroom either. Forensics say the bloodstains are quite strange overall. They don't match any of the known patterns for typical bloody murder methods. Stabbing, shooting, beating to death --"

"Hm ... When I think of how Leila Decker was mutilated, and apart from the fact that we're dealing with the same perpetrator, I'm not surprised. I wouldn't call what that guy did to her a typical murder method."

Mike nodded slowly, still looking thoughtfully at the file. "You're right, of course.

xxx

After Nikki took a two-hour lunch break instead of an hour and entered the office, some of the detectives looked at her, slightly surprised.

Mike looked up from his laptop only briefly. "Well, have we lost track of time?"

She licked her lips and sat down at her desk. "No, no... Yes."

He took a deep breath and looked at her intently. "Now, if you're ready to pay attention to us again, I'll keep you updated."

She nodded and registered that her guilty conscience was stirring within her.

"The LAPD is searching high and low for Diana Martiny. So far, without success. Her cell phone was logged in downtown Los Angeles late Sunday night. After that, it disappeared. Turned off. Since then, she hasn't used her credit card or done anything else that would suggest that she's okay and not reporting in voluntarily."

Nikki leaned forward a little. "The parallels to Miriam Labo are striking."

"Yes. Unless her mutilated body suddenly turns up somewhere." He paused as his cell phone started ringing. 'Fisher... Yes? ... One moment, I'll put it on speaker so Detective O'Laighin can listen in.' He pressed a button. "So, now, please again, Mr. Upton. You said you had a question."

"Yes. It's about a trip to Los Angeles."

Nikki wheeled her chair around her desk to Mike and leaned forward to hear better.

"I want to meet with a key informant there, but you keep telling me to stay on standby. So I wanted to let you know I'll be gone for two days."

"Absolutely not," Mike replied firmly.

"What? What do you mean? You know where I'll be now."

"Yes, but theoretically, you could also run away and then have two days to disappear. I'm sorry."

"Wait... does that mean you guys still suspect me? Then tell me specifically what you're accusing me of so I can tell my lawyer, who I'll call right after this."

Nikki let her shoulders drop and closed her eyes.

Mike exhaled with a snort. "All right, I'll summarize this for you and Ms. Ashlyn O'Laighin: You showed up at the BPD covered in blood, Mr. Upton. Coming from an apartment where we found a hell of a lot of Miriam Labo's blood, the same blood that was on you. That apartment had a lot of fingerprints and DNA material from you and Miriam Labo. You admitted to being there all night but don't remember what happened during that time. That alone is enough to keep you under surveillance. Besides, you don't have a watertight alibi for the time when Leila Decker was probably murdered. I think that's enough reason to want you around. Also, for Ashlyn O'Laighin."

"But that's not true. My wife confirmed that I was at home that evening. With her. If that's not an alibi…"

"Yes, she did. Until midnight. And after that? You have separate bedrooms."

"But... She would have heard me leave the house again."

"Not if you snuck out."

"Look," Upton's annoyance was audible even over the poor speakerphone, "this appointment is crucial to me. The source is a former bank employee. He's willing to give me an interview and talk about the practices used to systematically help clients evade taxes. I can't pass this up."

"You'll have to. Postpone the appointment by a week or two."

"Then the man will fucking jump ship."

Mike shrugged, making a gesture that was nonsensical on the phone. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too. You'll hear from my lawyer." With that, Upton hung up.

Mike's shoulders rose again, and then he pushed the phone away.

Nikki puffed out her cheeks. 'You think Ashlyn will really call right away?'

"She should. If necessary, I'll have Micaela cover it. Harry Upton is staying here in Boston."

Nikki nodded slowly, and a thought formed in her mind. She took her cell phone and looked up a specific number. It rang three times, and then Patrick Dunin answered. "This is Detective O'Laighin again. Mr. Dunin, would you do me another favor? It's about the image database again."

"Yes, sure, I'd be happy to."

"That's great, thanks a lot. Can I come by for a short visit towards the evening?"

"Hm... in principle, yes. I have to go out again. Tell me when you want to come by, and I'll be ready."

"That's really nice of you. Shall we say around seven?"

"Yes, I can make it."

"See you tonight, then."