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taken a seat on the other side of the coffee table. “Is this your niece?”
    “Tala . . .” Mrs. Sourn grasped the photo. “Yes. That’s her. She told us she was going out with friends.”
    “I truly am sorry, but your niece was found murdered yesterday morning.”
    “Dead?” Mrs. Sourn stood and turned to face the long wall of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the green, taking the time to compose herself before turning back to them. “I thought maybe she’d gotten into some trouble, but . . . I can’t believe that. Who would murder her?”
    “That’s one of the reasons we’re here, ma’am,” Mitch said. “And what we intend to find out.”
    Mrs. Sourn sank back into her chair. “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand.”
    “Where is your husband?”
    “He . . . he’s meeting with a number of overseas clients. He told me this morning that I wouldn’t be able to reach him.”
    “He went in to work, even with your niece missing?”
    “We never imagined anything like this happening.” The woman’s fingers gripped the arms of the chair until her knuckles turned white. “I told him not to worry. That she’d probably spent the night with a friend. I decided to let the police know just in case, but I was so sure that she’d be home by now.”
    “When was the last time you saw her?”
    “We ate dinner together Sunday night. She left right after we finished.”
    “She has a car?”
    “No, someone picked her up.”
    “Who?”
    “I don’t know. Tala was a very private person.”
    “Tell me about your niece.”
    “Like I said, she was a quiet, private girl. Didn’t have many friends.” Mrs. Sourn cleaned her glasses on the hem of her shirt, then slid them back on. “She never caused us any problems.”
    “Did you try to call her?”
    “Her cell phone . . . it must have been dead. I never got through.”
    “You said she didn’t come home,” Mitch said. “Was that normal?”
    “No. She was a good girl. Cheerful. Responsible.”
    “Was there a change in her behavior?”
    “She’d been moody the past few weeks, but not enough for me to really worry. I should have worried. I should have said something and tried to talk to her.”
    “How long had your niece been living with you?”
    “Just a few months, since she graduated from high school. She planned to take some time off, then start college in January.”
    “I’m going to need a list of her friends with their phone numbers. Anyone who might know where she was Sunday night.”
    Mrs. Sourn slowly shook her head. “I’m not sure I will be a lot of help with that.”
    “Why not?”
    “She’d made a few friends since moving here, but she didn’t bring them here, and I didn’t ask. She was over eighteen. I felt as if she had the right to live as she pleased. I could show you her room.”
    Avery nodded, then stood. “That would help.”
    Tala’s room was located on the second floor, elegant like the rest of the house, but simple. A few scatterings of personal things filled the room. A stuffed frog on the bed, high school diploma hanging on the wall, and a jewelry box. Neat. Spotless.
    Avery ran her fingers across the top of the built-in desk next to the window where a row of romance and mystery novels sat. “You mentioned a cell phone, what about a computer?”
    “Tala wasn’t into computers or electronic things. She reads a lot and watches TV. As for her cell phone, I assumed she had it with her.”
    Avery made a mental note to get a trace going on the missing phone as soon as they left. “Did she work?”
    “No, like I said, she was planning to start college in a few months. My husband and I had agreed to take care of any financial needs she had.”
    “That’s very generous of you.”
    “She was family. We didn’t mind.”
    Avery pulled the second photo from her pocket. “This photo was found on her body. Her face is partially hidden, but do you recognize the other girl?”
    Mrs. Sourn adjusted her glasses.