Free Night Realm by Darren G. Burton

able to do that.”
    *  *  *
    “How old was your daughter?” Marks asked.
    Sean Answered, “She’d just turned twenty a few weeks ago.”
    They were sitting in an interview room back at the precinct. This wasn’t a formal interrogation, just preliminary questions to obtain some background on the victim. A coffee rested on the table in front of Sean. Stacey had only wanted water. Marks had opted for black tea. He had his digital recorder on the table and set to Record .
    “Was she seeing anyone? A love interest? Did she have a boyfriend? Girlfriend?”
    “You mean, was she gay?” Stacey looked incredulous. “Amanda was not a lesbian.”
    Marks held up his hands in a gesture of supplication. “In this day and age I’ve gotta ask things like that.”
    “She didn’t have a partner that I know of,” Sean said. “But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t seeing someone without our knowledge.”
    “Was it common for her to have friends come over to the house?”
    Sean said, “Sometimes.”
    “Men?”
    “Male friends, yes.”
    “Lovers?”
    Stacey shook her head. “Our daughter never had sex in the family home. I’m not saying she wasn’t sexually active. Hell, she was twenty.”
    “Not to our knowledge,” Sean added. He stared hard into the detective’s eyes. “Do you think some guy who was keen on Amanda may have killed her?”
    Marks shrugged. “It’s a distinct possibility. Maybe he was a jilted lover? Or someone who fancied her but she didn’t feel the same way? Many murders are crimes of passion, and with most murders, the perpetrator is known to the victim. We have to look at all possibilities.”
    “Are we suspects?” Stacey asked pointedly.
    Marks hesitated before answer ing. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and tenting his hands. “When a murder first occurs, virtually everyone known to the victim starts out as a person of interest. It’s a process of elimination. So, where exactly were you two when Amanda disappeared?”
    “We were on the Sunshine Coast at a health spa , from Friday afternoon until Monday,” it was Stacey who answered.
    “Can that be verified?”
    Sean said, “Absolutely.”
    “Okay. Leave me details of the place and I’ll look into it.”
    “Detective, this is all wasting time,” Stacey said. “You really need to speak to Amanda’s friend, Rebecca. They were out together on Saturday night and Rebecca saw her leave the night club with some guy.”
    Marks sat back with a sigh. He scratched at his goatee. “Well, I wish I was told this a little sooner.”
    Stacey shook her head, tears welling in her eyes again. “I’m sorry. With everything that’s happened, and seeing our daughter lying there dead on that table...” Her voice trailed off.
    “It momentarily slipped our minds,” Sean explained. “We did mention it to the officer who took our missing person’s report last night. ”
    A reprimand for him, Marks thought and leaned forward on the desk again. “Did this Rebecca know the guy? Was it someone either she or Amanda were familiar with?”
    Stacey shook her head and wiped her eyes. “I don’t think so, but you need to talk to her.”
    After a few more questions and issuing them each with a business card, Marks sent them on their way and arranged for a uniformed officer to locate Rebecca Winston and have her brought into the station to make a statement.
    As it turned out she’d never seen the young man before, and she was pretty certain Amanda had only met him for the very first time that night.
    Deeply distressed over her best friend’s death, Rebecca was taken before a forensic artist, who utilized a computer program to form a fairly accurate rendition of the possible offender. Copies were printed off and distributed in hardcopy, by fax and by email to staff in all stations in the local precinct and beyond. An APB was put out on the suspect.
    Marks kept several copies for himself and decided tonight was a good night to do some night