“Here you go, pretty girl. Now she isn’t lonely anymore.”

Kitty took the doll, holding it like it was burning, barely touching it, to not make it dirty. Ken was so perfect and now she could play family with them. They could get married and live in a house that she could make out of a cardboard box and color with crayons. She could even make them a yard. They were going to be so happy.

Police Officer Damian bent down and touched her curls. “Everyone should have a special someone in their lives, don’t you think?”

Her stepdad called for him to come out on the patio and have a beer. He told him to stop playing with the girl.

Officer Damian stroked Kitty’s cheek gently with his finger, then winked at her before he disappeared.

NINEBILLIE ANN

Mrs. Perez’s hazel eyes stared up at me. She looked puzzled at first, then worried. She was a small woman, but with strong features. Her body looked tiny as she stood in the doorway of her home, but she wasn’t skinny. Her muscles were bulging in the tank top she was wearing. Her brown hair was pulled up in a tight ponytail and her bangs needed to be trimmed. They fell into her eyes, and she swept them to the side.

“Yes?”

I showed her my badge. My heart was throbbing, and I still had a huge knot in my throat. I recognized her instantly, having seen her around the school at recitals and other events. I wondered for a second if Charlene or William knew Cassandra. They had to. It was a small high school. And a small town. This was going to hit hard everywhere.

Her worried eyes became terrified as she looked at my badge, and I could tell she was going through all the scenarios in her mind. Imagining all kinds of things.

“Can we come in?” I asked.

“Yes, yes, of course,” she said and stepped aside. Tom followed me, and he nodded politely at her as he passed her with a quiet ma’am.

She closed the door behind us.

“We can go in the kitchen,” she said.

We sat in her white kitchen chairs, and she looked at me nervously.

“Is Mr. Perez home?” I asked.

She shook her head. “He’s traveling with his work as a sales representative for Q-Fib, a company that sells laser equipment for cosmetic surgery. He’s in Chicago right now. W-what is this about?”

“It’s about your daughter,” I said, folding my hands on the wooden table.

“Cassandra?” her voice became high pitched as she said the name.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“W-what about her? Is she in some kind of trouble?”

“Mrs. Perez… I’m… so sorry to have to inform you that earlier this morning we recovered the body of a young girl in the area by South Brevard Avenue and Tenth Street. We believe it is Cassandra, as an officer on scene was able to identify her, but we will need your positive identification to be certain.”

She looked puzzled. “Cassandra? But… but she’s at school. No, no, no. You must have gotten it wrong.”

Her fingers fiddled with the phone in her hand.

“Mrs. Perez, when was the last time you saw or heard from your daughter?” I asked. “A call or a text?”

She swallowed. “Well, I… I just… it was this morning, see?”

She opened her text messages and showed me.

Good morning, sweetie. I hope you’ll have a great day. Don’t forget you have track meet this afternoon. Love, Mom.

“I see you texted her, but not her answering,” I said. “When was the last time you saw her?”

She seemed confused. Shock was beginning to set in. You never knew how next of kin would react in these situations, when giving a death notification. Some got aggressive, others paralyzed. I once had to take a mother to the ER to be treated for shock.

“I… I saw her yesterday, in the afternoon,” she said, her voice shivering. “I kissed her on the cheek, and she left.”

“What time was that?”

“Just before three o’clock.”

I wrote it down on my notepad. “Did you hear from her later in the day?”

“She… she had a babysitting job and said that she would be home late. So, no. I texted her good night at about ten and went to bed.”

“Who did she babysit for?” I asked.

“She had several families she helped out.”

“Do you know who she went to babysit for yesterday?”

She looked confused. “I think it was for a lady who my husband set her up with recently. I don’t know her myself, but I can get her name and number from Pete as soon as I talk to him.”

“Okay, and we will need a list of her best friends as well and their phone numbers. They might know more of her whereabouts before her death.”

Mrs. Perez stared at me, her eyes in shock, while the word hung in the air. Death.

“Yes, yes, of course.”

I looked at my notepad.

“Did she answer your text last night?”

Mrs. Perez scrolled back in her messages. “No. I guess…” She paused. “She didn’t. But I didn’t ask her a question, only said good night, sleep tight. It wasn’t that strange, I thought.”

“And this morning?” Tom asked. “Didn’t you notice that she wasn’t in her room?”

Mrs. Perez looked up at us, then shook her head. “I… I mean no. She usually gets up at the crack of dawn to go to school. She runs track and they practice at six a.m., before it gets hot out. I just assumed that she had already left.”

Mrs. Perez stared blankly into the air. “I was wondering why she didn’t answer last night, but I just thought she was being a teenager, you know?” She was talking faster now, and I could almost feel the panic building in her body. Her breathing grew heavier, and she clasped her chest as if she was in pain, but I knew it was just the realization settling in.

I nodded. Yes, I knew a little too well what it was like having teenagers.

“So, what exactly are you telling me?” Mrs. Perez asked with a light whimper.