Early the next morning, Kelsey went straight to Michael's office before the morning briefing to discuss their latest discovery in the Amanda Desser case. 

"So James Murdock married Amanda and they were divorced 2 months later, then James was arrested 3 days after that for fraud and embezzlement of funds," Kelsey summarised as she read through the rap sheet Michael's friend had sent him. 

"Yep."

"And the police docket says the information leading to the discovery of the evidence against James was submitted anonymously by 'an individual who only identified herself as Veritas.'"

Michael nodded, drumming his fingers absentmindedly on his desk. 

"Knowing what we know about Amanda's extracurricular activities as a hacktivist who digs up the truth about people, is it crazy to think she's this Veritas, the goddess of truth?"

"No, it's not. Especially if you consider the lifespan of her marriage to James. It's possible she only married him to get close enough to get the information needed to expose him and send him to jail."

"Wow," Kelsey said, rubbing her temples. "That's pretty messed up."

"Yeah, but if it is her, how come she exposed James and not the Bandieers?"

"Maybe James couldn't afford her silence?" Kelsey shrugged. 

"Maybe. I was also thinking if it wasn't for his air-tight alibi, James kind of fits the killer profile you came up with."

"How so?"

"He was a bank manager at a bank where Amanda had an account, which might explain why she didn't like using her credit card because he could access the records and track her movements."

"Yeah," Kelsey said slowly, "But after James was arrested, he couldn't check her credit card records to track her down. Why did she still avoid using it?"

"Maybe she was hiding from someone else who could access the records as well."

"It still baffles me that she used to use the card for some purchases like she didn't care about exposing herself sometimes, which doesn't make sense."

"A lot of things about this case don't make sense. One thing that's for sure though, is that James Murdock didn't kill her. His history of crime is limited to white-collar stuff."

"It still could have been a crime of passion, but anyway, James has an alibi so he's definitely out."

"Yeah," Michael said, checking the watch on his wrist. "Time to go for the briefing." He sighed and held his hand in his hands. 

"Doesn't seem like you're looking forward to that."

"I have to throw Lydia under the bus and paint her as some criminal who destroyed evidence and went on the run, even though I know she's the complete opposite."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "You're doing it to protect her and Scottie from whichever cop might have been involved in her disappearance. When we get them back, she'll understand why you had to do it."

He smiled appreciatively at her words and they walked out together, heading to the briefing room. Michael gave updates on the latest crime stats and open cases, before talking about Lydia. He gave details of the plan to search for her and Scottie and delegated a task force to work with other stations around the city and state to track her down. When he was done, he dismissed everyone and went back to his office where Kelsey joined him again. 

"I'm heading for my morning shift at Dispatch, then classes, and I'll be back here for training. Since I no longer have to hang around Lydia's lab, is training going back to the original time?"

"Actually, I might have something else to fill that gap," Michael said with an apologetic look. 

"What are you talking about?" she narrowed her eyes at him, full of suspicion. 

Luke knocked briefly on the open door and walked in carrying a tablet before Michael could answer her. 

"I asked Luke to come over with the evidence log from the Louis Hughes crime scene to see if anything there can give us a clue or something," he explained to Kelsey after they'd exchanged pleasantries.

"I'm not sure what you're hoping to find, Chief," Luke said, tapping away at his tablet. "There wasn't much there except the gun Louis supposedly used to off himself." He handed Michael the tablet.

"What about the weapon used on his wife?" Michael asked, scrolling through the short list written on an Excel sheet. When he was done, he passed the tablet over to Kelsey.

"We established she suffered a fatal wound from blunt force trauma. Lydia was working on identifying the weapon, but as far as I know, she hadn't gotten around to it when she disappeared." He paused and then carefully asked, "Any idea why she sabotaged the lab?"

Kelsey kept her eyes on the tablet even though she'd already read all 6 items on the list, but her ears perked up, listening attentively to what Michael would say. Even though Luke was part of their Suicide Squad and he'd been there when they figured out Lydia had set Kelsey up to take the fall for destroying evidence in the lab, he didn't know all the nitty-gritty, like how she'd found out Jane Doe was Amanda Desser and left that information for them secretly. Or how they suspected a cop, or several, from the station were involved.

"No clue. Looks like she just went rogue," Michael replied.

"That's so strange. I always thought she was one of the good ones."

Michael nodded in agreement. "Did you find any information about Louis' daughter by the way?"

"Just her name for now; Sadie Hughes. Our local databases didn't have much on her apart from birth records for her and her daughter, Annie. So, I sent the pictures you asked me to take around stations in the state and asked them to check their databases but nothing's turned up yet."

"Criminal databases?" Kelsey asked surprised.

"Not exactly," Luke replied. "Government databases to be precise, like social security, passports, driver's license, hospital admissions, mortuaries, and the mail isolation and control program records."

"Wait, mail?" she questioned further.

"Ever since the issue of mail and packages containing Anthrax spores that nearly wiped out an entire newsroom in the Capital, every bit of mail going through the post office is recorded."

"Do we know anything about the kid's father? Sadie might have left home to stay with him," Michael suggested.

"There was no record of him on Annie's birth certificate and the neighbours didn't know him either."

"If she was using the name Hughes, maybe you can check school registration records in the State?" Kelsey said.

"Good idea," Luke smiled appreciatively at her. "Her birth certificate should help us figure out what stage she might be in and narrow down the number of schools we need to search through."

"Great!" She checked the time on her phone and scrambled to her feet. "I really have to get going or I'll be late for my Dispatch shift."

"Before you go," Michael said stopping her in her tracks just when she'd grabbed the door handle, "There's another reason I called Luke here and it's about you."

She stared at him, confused, while Luke looked from one to the other. 

"Since you won't be helping out in the lab anymore, I'll be replacing your lab shifts with CSI shifts. You'll spend some time with Luke at crime scenes. They're an important part of the investigation process that will help with your Criminal Profiling training."

"Those lab shifts with Lydia were only meant to be temporary, Chief, or have you conveniently forgotten that?"

"I didn't forget," he replied. "I know you'll benefit a lot from this, which is why I'm adding it to your program and I'm extending that time to 1 hour instead of 30 minutes, and we'll take the time from our training session so those will be shorter. I'm sure spending less time with me will be a comfort."

Kelsey gripped the door handle in her hand tighter until the cold metal turned warm from her touch.

Michael turned to Luke, ignoring her reaction. "I don't want to traumatise her so don't take her to any gruesome crime scenes. Maybe for the first couple of days while she's learning the ropes, you can take her to a crime scene she's already familiar with, like the Louis Hughes one. Let her go through the place and pick out things that could count as evidence for the case, besides what you already picked out."

"Sure thing, boss," Luke said, looking uncertainly at the furious expression on Kelsey's face. "Just let me know when we begin and I'll take her there." He saluted them and turned to leave. 

Kelsey opened the door for him then slammed it shut behind him and stormed back over to Michael's desk. 

"What the hell?"

Michael raised his brow in response. 

"It's not enough that you've piled me with so many duties I barely have time to even see my boyfriend, now you're throwing poking around crime scenes into the mix. That too without discussing it with me beforehand."

"Calm down, Harris. It's just--"

"No, you can't tell me to calm down every time I voice a complaint about something you've done," she cut in. "You did it when you stuck me in Lydia's lab and you're doing it again. I thought we were partners and partners make decisions together. Clearly, I was wrong."

"I'm also your boss, which means I have the prerogative to make such decisions," Michael countered. 

"Wow. You are unbelievable. Do you have any--?"

"But," he continued, interrupting her rant. "You're right. As far as this case is concerned, we're partners and I should have talked to you about this first, so I'm sorry. I just thought of a way for us to search Louis' home for the memory card without raising suspicion in case someone here is monitoring our moves and I rushed to get the ball rolling before clearing it with you. I'm sorry."

Kelsey was thrown by his apology and simply stared at him, speechless. 

"If you don't want to do it, I'll understand and I won't hold it against you. I don't want to keep you from spending time with your boyfriend." He fiddled with the papers on his desk as he spoke, arranging them so they were neatly stacked on top of each other.

She let out a deep sigh. "My issue was that you made the decision without any discussion. I don't mind going there, especially if it might help Lydia and her son in the long run. But next time, talk to me first?"

"Sure," he nodded, looking up from his papers with a subtle smile. "And to make up for delaying you, I'll get someone to accompany you, 10-40 and all, so you can get through traffic fast and get to Dispatch on time."

Kelsey stared at him in surprise. "Lights and siren? Wow, you must really be sorry."

Michael laughed it off and made a call then told her to meet Officer Lennix out front so he could take her to the Dispatch Center before he started his rounds. Once she was gone, he called Pam to his office. 

"You summoned?" she said when she walked in and took a seat.

"Did Harris put you up to that?" he asked warily.

"No," Pam laughed, "But the demanding way you called me down here warranted that kind of a reaction."

"Sorry about that," he shook his head absentmindedly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well," Pam began, "Uncle Victor came by my office yesterday and he mentioned that he was coming from yours. I can't imagine that was a pleasant visit for either of you."

"I'd rather not talk about it," Michael replied sourly.

"Okay," she said, raising her hands in mock surrender, "So what did you call me to talk about?"

"Remember the camera from the Jane Doe-Louis Hughes case?"

Pam nodded.

"We discovered it was the property of H.B. Media at some point and when we questioned them, they provided proof that it once belonged to them but was stolen. They also said they de-commissioned it and many others like it because it had a flaw that allowed anyone using it to automatically upload whatever media was recorded through it to a destination of their choice."

"Interesting, and?" Pam asked, taking a pencil from Michael's desk and attempting to balance it on her nose.

"Is it possible to find out where this particular camera was uploading files to?"

"Hmm," she mumbled, her entire focus on the wobbling pencil on the bridge of her nose.

"After all the years we spent competing over who could keep a pencil on their nose longer, you still can't do it right."

Pam picked up the pencil and stabbed the desk with it, just an inch away from his hand.

"And you're still a sore loser," he snotted drawing his hands away from the table and folding them over his chest.

Pam rolled her eyes. "I might be able to find out where the files from the camera go but the water damage will make things a little difficult. I'll need to take it apart and see if I can salvage anything that can give us the camera's digital footprint, so to speak."

"Thank you, I'd appreciate it if you could get right on that and see what you find."

"Sure, I'll move it up my work pile." She stood and went round to his side, reaching for a hug.

He drew back, giving a pointed look at the pencil in her hand. She let out an exasperated sigh before slamming the pencil down on his desk and wrapping her arms around him with her chin on his head.

"What's this for?" Michael asked, awkwardly patting the arm she had around his neck.

"You might act like this big scary boss when you're here at work, but you're still my favorite cousin and I know when you need a hug," Pam replied, giving him a squeeze. "Your mum will be fine, okay?"

***

Kelsey's Dispatch shift and classes went by fast, and before long she was on her way to meet Luke at Louis' home as they'd arranged over the phone. During her taxi ride, she called Liam.

"Sorry, I'm only seeing your messages now," she apologised when he answered her call.

"Busy day?"

"Always," she sighed. "How about you? How are you feeling about your last day of residency?"

"Excited, nervous, and everything in between," Liam replied with a nervous laugh.

"You're going to be an amazing doctor, love," she assured him. 

"We still on for a mini-celebration later?" he asked. 

"Yep. I'll meet you at the hospital so I can take some pictures of you in your intern scrubs for the last time before we go."

Liam laughed. "Okay, I'll see you when you get here then. Love you."

"Love you too," she said, then hung up. 

When she dropped off, she found Luke parked by the curb, waiting for her. She took a deep breath, trying to push away the memory of the dead bodies she'd seen the last time she was there, then walked up to him. 

"Don't worry. We've cleaned the place up since you last saw it," Luke told her.

"Thank goodness!"

Luke unlocked the house and she followed him in, remembering the joke Michael had made last time she went in about safety coming before chivalry. The house had a strong antiseptic smell and it filled her throat up, choking her.  Luke threw open a couple of windows and left the door open to let in some fresh air. 

"Sorry, I should have warned you. The chemicals we used to clean up the place can be a bit overwhelming, especially for a first-timer. The scent will become a little less overpowering in a few minutes, just stand by the window and breathe in the fresh air in the meantime."

Kelsey did as she was told and in a few minutes, she was able to stand in the room without feeling like her nostrils, eyes, and throat were burning. "So, where do we start?"

"Generally with a crime scene, you take a look at what's there and try to recreate the events that led to the place looking the way it is. You know how they say a picture paints a thousand words? Well, a crime scene can tell you almost everything you need to know about the crime."

"That's accurate," she replied.

"Okay, so once you have a picture of what might have happened, you start picking out evidence based on those events. Say there's a robbery somewhere, first you determine what entrance the robbers used. Whether it was a forced entry or not, what objects they might have touched, and things like that."

"I hear you," Kelsey said with a nod. "Can I try and reconstruct the crime from the scene I remember?"

"By all means," Luke waved her forward. "I have pictures on my tablet of the scene before we cleaned it up if you need help remembering."

"I'm going to do my best to not need that," she said with a shudder, prompting a chuckle from Luke. After taking a deep breath and looking around the room, she said, "The door wasn't broken down and none of the windows and other entrances were damaged either, so either they picked the lock or Louis and his wife willingly let them in."

Luke nodded but remained silent, watching her map out her thoughts.

"If that's the case, their prints might have been on the door handle, maybe even on the couch if they came in and sat down for a chat. If they snuck in, that would explain how Mrs. Hughes died. She was sitting on the couch and hit on the head from behind. So someone must have snuck up on her and hit her."

"Good observation."

"Thanks." She went on, walking around the room. "From what you told me last time, Louis wasn't shot on the spot he was lying on, so either they grabbed him, went and shot him somewhere else, then brought him back, which I find hard to believe because someone would have spotted them carrying his body into the house. Or they shot him here then set him up to look like he'd killed himself, but the neighbours would have heard the shot...I don't know," she huffed, frustrated.

"You make valid points with both scenarios actually," Luke said to her surprise. He beckoned her over to follow him down a passage leading deeper into the house. Halfway down the passage, he stopped and switched on the torch on his phone, then pointed it at a spot on the wall and Kelsey drew closer to see what it was.

"Is there something special about the hole in the wall?" she asked.

"Yes. This is where Louis was shot."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"When I examined Louis' body that day, I discovered that there were two holes in his head, an entrance and exit wound. That's what we call a perforating wound, when the bullet goes in and out of the body, as opposed to a penetrating wound where it'd just hit and stay in the body."

"Whoa, that actually happens?"

"Sometimes," Luke nodded. "Depending on the type of gun, the distance between the shooter and the victim, and other factors, a bullet can go through the body, exit it, and hit something else."

"Wow, okay. So Louis was shot here, then carried into the lounge and made to look like he'd killed his wife and shot himself right after?"

"It looks that way."

"But didn't you say whatever location Louis was shot at, there would be a blood splatter? I don't remember seeing any blood anywhere else in the house except for the lounge, granted I didn't really care much for exploring that day."

"You're right. The area was cleaned of all the blood, but not professionally, so we still found traces of it using a black light and confirmed that Louis was shot there."

"That also confirms that there was more than one person here that night too, right? I can't imagine anyone would be able to carry Louis on their own into the lounge and then clean up all the blood before the cops got here."

"That's another good observation."

"But what about the gunshot? If Louis really was shot here, why didn't the neighbours hear it?"

"It's possible the gun had a silencer."

"Oh, well, that makes sense."

She looked around the passage, trying to figure out how she'd start searching for the memory card without raising suspicion. 

"While we're here, I guess we could try and find something to help us track down his daughter, like letters or something."

"Great idea. Shall we split up? Cover more ground?" he suggested.

She almost jumped up and hugged him. This was going better than she'd expected. "Yes, totally. Dibs on the main bedroom!"

She opened the door to the bedroom and looked around, trying to figure out where Louis would hide a memory card if he kept it there. She'd chosen the bedroom because it seemed like the most likely place to keep something valuable.

Like the lounge, the bedroom had more pictures of Louis and his family on the bedside table, dressing table, and the wall above the bed. The decor was simple and neat, with demure colors on the bedding and drapes. 

Kelsey pulled out the drawers on the bedside table and sifted through the contents. The drawers were mostly filled with pill bottles, prescribed to Louis and his wife. A majority of them were empty but some recently dispensed ones still had pills. She took out her phone and made a note of the different types of pills in case it came in handy later. 

Besides the pill bottles, there were receipts from different stores, going several months back. The stores on the receipts were mostly the same; the supermarket, pharmacy, and plant nursery. She opened the wardrobe next and searched through every pocket in the shirts and jackets she found hanging in there. All she came up with from there were a couple of loose bills, some coins, a prescription, and more receipts. 

She turned to the dressing table next, but the drawers in there mostly had extra linen, cosmetics, a disturbing number of socks, and more pills. Frustrated and tempted to give up and search another room, she checked under the bed as a last resort. There was nothing there apart from several pairs of shoes, most of which were covered in a thick layer of dust. 

Tired and disappointed, she left the bedroom and joined Luke in Sadie's room.

"I struck out," she told him, "Did you find anything?"

Luke waved a pink notebook at her. "Just an old journal. If we're lucky, we might find the name of the man who fathered Sadie's child in here. He might be able to help us find her."

"Great. I'll go look around the lounge too," Kelsey said, praying she found the memory card there or something that would reveal where Louis hid it.

An hour later, she'd gone through the lounge and kitchen and the memory card still hadn't turned up. While they were closing up the windows Luke had opened upon their arrival, Kelsey realised something odd.

"Hey, Luke. Was that wall always there?" she asked, pointing through the open window at the towering, grey concrete wall at the back of Louis' house. It ran the entire width of the house, extending past his neighbour's house until she couldn't see it.

"Yeah," Luke said, giving her a strange look. "Why?"

"And there's no gate or something that someone can use to get into the backyard?" she asked again.

"If you're thinking the culprits might have snuck in through the back, it's impossible. The wall is too high and smooth to climb and there isn't a gate on it. Good theory though." He patted her shoulder then closed the window for her before leading the way out.

Kelsey's mind was racing a mile a minute, going over her memories of that first day at the crime scene. She'd gone out to answer a call from Liam and went to the side of the house to avoid the crowds and the reporters up front. Daniel had approached her from the back of the house and given her a fright, then explained that he'd come in through the back to avoid the press.

But if there was no way to get in from the back as Luke had made clear, had Daniel lied?

And most importantly, had he been hiding at the back of the house the whole time?

***

Did you miss me?