The voice on the phone, the silence of his father, the pounding of his own heart - these echo in Edgar's ears so loudly that he doesn't hear someone enter the room. He sees movement out of the corner of his eye, some part of his brain registering the motion even as the rest of it is too numb to respond.

A voice cuts through the din in his mind even as his brain catches up to what's going on, fast forwarding to the present. As soon as it hits him that someone else is in the room and talking to him, his head snaps around, eyes locking with hers.

His eyes want to flicker back to his father's body, but he won't let himself. Instead, he focuses on the young woman's face. It's a pleasant face, with a worried, searching gaze that it takes Edgar a few seconds to realize is at his expense.