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She pulled the box and placed it on one of the tables.

She slowly opened the lid and pulled out a file that contained interviews and notes similar to those in Megan’s box.

More than a year before, Livia had given her statement to the two detectives who had come to her house and talked with Livia and her parents.

She and her parents had received updates from these two detectives for the first few weeks of the investigation, but after a while the calls slowed and the updates became more random.

Eventually, they stopped altogether. No one ever came out to the house to tell Livia and her parents that the case was stalled.

But today, Nicole’s case, sitting quietly on the shelf in the basement of the Federal Building, felt as cold as a body kept overnight in the morgue’s cooler.

At the back of the folder were pictures that Livia flipped through.

They were of Nicole’s car, which was found abandoned on a frontage road near the beach where the end-of-summer party took place and from where Megan had established her abduction took place.

Jessica Tanner and Rachel Ryan had confirmed having been in the car that night with Nicole when they all drove to the party together.

The photos of the car made Livia’s heart ache.

It sat parked on the side of the road, pitched slightly to the right as the passenger-side tires rested on the gravel shoulder.

The car looked ominous and lonely, and Livia fought hard to block the images her mind tried to produce about what her sister had gone through on this isolated frontage road.

How soon after she placed her call to Livia, a call Livia overtly ignored, had Nicole’s car become a crime scene?

The photos were of the outside of the car from every angle.

Then, with the doors and trunk open, every inch was documented, inside and out.

The tread of Nicole’s tires was captured in the photos and imprints were taken.

Prints were lifted from both inside the vehicle and from the door handle, but matched no one in particular besides Nicole.

Fibers were taken from the floorboards, seats, and trunk.

From the area around the car, items had been seized and included a can of Diet Coke and a Red Bull, cigarette butts, and the cap to a canister of lipstick.

Shoe prints were found in the parking lot and captured with the use of a gelatin lifter.

A random item was discovered from under the vehicle—a torn piece of green cloth had been recovered from the carriage of the car, just under the right front bumper.

Looking in the box, Livia located the sealed bag containing the green cloth lifted from the bottom side of Nicole’s car. She removed it from the box and held it with her fingers. She studied it for several seconds as her mind worked.

“How much trouble would there be if we took this?” she asked Megan .

“Lots. What is it?”

“Something they pulled from Nicole’s car. What if we get it back before anyone knows it’s gone?”

“You’re the medical examiner. But it breaks the evidence chain of custody,” she said, spoken like the sheriff’s daughter she was.

Megan looked down the fluorescent-lit row of shelves to the closed door where Greg was keeping watch for her.

They’d been at it for close to the allotted thirty minutes and she expected him to pop his head in any minute to tell them to wrap it up.

She pointed to Livia’s purse. “Take it. Just get it back to me soon.”

Livia slipped the clear plastic bag into her purse.

“Anything else?” Megan said. “Greg’s gonna be pressing us soon.”

Livia took a minute to look through the evidence log, reading through the other items confiscated from her sister’s car. Nicole’s sweatshirt and purse were in the front passenger seat. The rest of the car was empty besides the trunk. Livia stopped when she read the items found there.

Megan stirred next to her, walking closer when she sensed that Livia was interested in something else. “Find something?” she asked.

Dropping the evidence log onto the table, Livia reached back into the box to retrieve the photos again. She flipped quickly through them until she found it. Documented on the log, and captured in the photos, was a rectangular wooden box of barbecue tools. She looked at Megan.

“Where do they keep this stuff? The bigger pieces of evidence? Like this.” Livia showed Megan the picture of the wooden barbecue set .

“In the property section.” She pointed to the other side the room.

“Take me there.”

Greg stuck his head in. “Wrap it up. One more minute. It’s my ass on the line.”

They stuffed Nicole’s box back onto the shelf and walked quickly to the other side of the evidence room, where large items were stored in plastic bags and meticulously logged.

It took them a long minute to find the C section and another few seconds before Livia found, wrapped and sealed in a clear plastic bag, the barbecue set taken from Nicole’s trunk. She unzipped the bag and pulled out the worn wooden box.

She opened it and stared at the contents. Cased inside, seated within the contoured velvet mold, were a spatula, tongs, and an empty outline where a long, two-pronged barbecue fork once rested.

“Son of a bitch,” Livia whispered to herself.