Chapter 4

"Time is running out, Mr. Shannon." My voice was a low growl. "Are you really willing to sacrifice your daughter for a killer?"

He flinched as if I' d slapped him. His body trembled, and he couldn't form words. His wife, Chelsi, had finally succumbed to the horror and fainted. Medics were rushing to her side.

The police tried a new tactic. A new face appeared on the screen. He was older, with kind eyes and a familiar, weary expression. Dr. Gilmore Hooper. My mentor.

"Carolynn," he said, his voice gentle, paternal. "Carolynn, listen to me. This isn't you. The woman I trained, the best CSI I ever had, she would never harm an innocent child."

He leaned closer to the camera, his eyes pleading. "I know you're in pain. Unimaginable pain. I saw Dustin on my table. I prepared his body myself. Please, for his memory, stop this. Don't dishonor him like this."

For a moment, his words hit me. This was Dr. Hooper, the man who had guided me, who had celebrated my successes and comforted me through my failures. A wave of gut-wrenching pain washed over me.

And then I saw it. A quick, almost imperceptible glance he shot toward Bentley Shannon. It was a look of confirmation. A look between conspirators.

He was one of them. The betrayal was so profound it stole my breath.

"You?" I whispered, the word ragged. "You were his medical examiner. You looked me in the eye and told me my son died of an overdose. Why, Gilmore? Why would you lie?"

I couldn't understand. Why would he do it? Why would all these people line up to protect a murderer and condemn an innocent boy?

"Carolynn, I'm not lying," he insisted, his face a perfect picture of sorrowful sincerity. "Dustin was a good kid, but he was struggling. He was depressed. We have a witness."

He and Bentley exchanged another look. Then, another person was brought into the frame.

My blood ran cold.

It was Alexandra Terry. Dustin' s girlfriend. The girl he was going to marry. The girl who was on the phone with him just moments before he died.

She stood there, pale and trembling, refusing to meet my eyes.

"Tell her, Alex," Dr. Hooper said softly. "Tell Carolynn the truth."

Alexandra took a shaky breath. "Dustin... he was depressed," she stammered, her voice barely audible. "He had been for a while. The pressure of his scholarship, of trying to live up to... to your expectations. He told me he felt like life was meaningless."

I stood frozen, the cauterizing pen still in my hand. It couldn't be true.

I remembered Dustin just last Christmas. He'd been so full of life, laughing as he described the campus, the team, the future he was building. He talked about his plans to go pro, to buy me a house, to travel the world with Alexandra. That was not a boy who thought life was meaningless.

This was a lie. Another, more cruel, more calculated lie.