Whitney let Ginny know they would plan on staying at her parents that night, unless the CSU team cleared the place early enough, and she would call Ginny as soon as she knew anything.  Whitney also forewarned Ginny that she & the boys might have to look at a photo tomorrow to see if they recognized the poor man laying there on their kitchen floor.  "You might also have to come over here to see if there's anything missing that I haven't seen yet, but we'll deal with that later"

"Whitney, you know Mom is getting suspicious, what should I tell her if she starts asking any more questions?"  In the background Whitney heard her mom, fussing at her dad over something, she paused, "Just change the subject and if that doesn't work, tell her I had a last minute case come up, which is the truth, and.....  I don't know, just make something up about wanting to hang out there for a while, I'm sorry Ginny, I gotta go, I'll call you as soon as I can."

Now that she knew everyone was safe & SHE was surrounded with enough of Neligh's finest to call it a convention, she could begin to feel the adrenalin rush wearing off.  All her thoughts came piling in on her at once. What if Ginny or the boys had been here when, whatever this was that happened, happened?  Whitney reached for one of the kitchen chairs in the little breakfast alcove & sat down.

Ginny had been with her family, since her parents were killed in a car crash 25 years ago, when Ginny was 3 and Whitney was just a baby.  To Whitney, Ginny had always been there of course and to Whitney was her big sister, which was great since they were both stuck with Whitney's 5 old brothers!  Everyone of them a cop, just like her dad. She also had a younger sister, just entering college with plans for med school after that.  a thousand what if's started filling her head, what if's she didn't want to think about just now.  

Whitney spent the next couple of hours answering questions and going through the house for a more thorough look to see what, if anything, was missing.  Since Ginny was a great house keeper it was pretty easy to spot that the only thing that seemed to be missing downstairs was a picture of Ginny and the boys taken last year on the family float for the 4th of July.

Upstairs was much the same until she opened Kaci's bedroom door.  Tina the CSU agent going with her from room to room, just in case, gasped "Hey Al, bring the kit up here, they demolished this room!"



*********  just a note to my readers (i know you're out there even if you don't say anything!  :)  i'll be off line until sunday night.   C U THEN!   please, feel free to leave a comment anytime!  this is my first venture of this sort,  i could use a few helpful comments!  *********