Without A Trace(Luke Hemmings FF)

One

Luke's pov:
I'm on my way out of the front door, when my mum stopped me.

"Luke!" She calls. I exhale in annoyance as I turn away from the front door and walk into the kitchen where she is neatly layering cookies onto a platter.

"It has been exactly a year today since Zoey Delany went missing. I want us to bring these cookies over to her parents' house. I'm making a lasagna to take over there for them too." She tells me.

"Why do I have to come?" I ask.

"Because it's a nice thing to do. After all, you guys did go to school together since kindergarten." She reaches into the fridge for something.

"It's not like we were friends or anything." I shrug.

"Luke, have a little respect!" She scolds. I sigh.

"I mean, it's terrible what happened, but I'm not close to her, so I'm not really too torn up about it." I say, honestly. She rolls her eyes.

"You're going with me, Luke. Be home by 4." She orders and I sigh.

"Fine." I say, then walk off.

...

"Wait. Why do you have to go?" My friend, Calum, asks. I shrug.

"My mum's making me." I groan before shoving a few fries in my mouth.

"It's not like she was your friend or anything." Michael states and I laugh.

"That's exactly what I said." I reply.

"I guess it's probably partly because my mum went to school with Zoey's dad." I add and they nod.

"That makes sense." Ashton responds.

"You should probably get going, mate. It's 3:50." Calum says and I stand to my feet.

"I'll catch you guys later." I say before leaving.

...

I'm standing next to my mum, holding a pan of lasagna as she knocks on The Delany's door. A woman with tears in her eyes, clutching a ball of tissue, answers the door. She has obviously been crying.

"Hi. I thought you guys could use some food." My mum says softly. The woman smiles slightly.

"Oh, you're too sweet. Please, come in." The woman sniffles. We both step inside and the woman leads us to the kitchen to sits the lasagna and cookies down and then into the living room where we sit down on the sofas.

"How are you feeling, Karen?" My mum asks, sympathetically.

"It doesn't get easier. I think that if I at least knew if she was alive or dead then it would be easier to allow myself peace, but I just keep watching the door, hoping that she'll walk through it." She chokes. back tears. Okay, that was really sad. My mum set her hand on Karen's hand to comfort her.

"I just want to know; you know? I mean, it just didn't make sense. There weren't even any suspects. She just disappeared." Karen sniffles.

"Do you know where she was the night she went missing?" My mum investigates.

"Yeah, she, uh... She was going to go walk along the beach. It was her favorite thing to do." Karen responds. I feel my phone vibrate. It's a text from my girlfriend, Maya.

'Come over, baby. We haven't had sex in almost two weeks. It's long overdue!(;'-Maya

I ignore it.

"The police suspect that she went missing around 2:30pm that day. I'll never forget that day. August 17th. The worst day of my life." She weeps. I think for a minute. I vaguely remember being at the beach on that day. I saw her, but since we're not friends, I didn't say anything to her. I saw her talking to another guy from school, but I didn't think anything of it.

"Hey, uh, mum? I'm going to walk home. I have to do my homework." I lie and she nods. I walk out of the house and down the sidewalk. I feel my phone vibrate again. I look at it. It's a picture message from Maya. God, this girl doesn't quit! I open the picture and chuckle softly to myself as I see her naked body on my phone. I stick my phone back into my pocket and walk the rest of the way home. When I get home, I decide to call the guy that she was talking to that day. I have a feeling that he'll know something useful. He's a year older, so whenever I needed cigarettes, I'd call him and he'd sell me a pack when I was 17 and couldn't buy them by myself.

"Hello?" He answers.

"Hey, Brad. It's Luke." I begin.

"Oh, hey, Luke. I haven't heard from you since you turned 18 and could by your own cigarettes." He jokes and I laugh.

"Listen, I have a question for you. What were you and Zoey Delany talking about the day she went missing?" I ask.

"I-I-I don't know, man. I-It was a year ago." He stammers.

"I think you do know." I pry.

"I-I can't r-remem-member." He stutters. He's not subtle at all.

"Then, why are you stuttering?" I press.

"I'm not. I-I gotta go." He says quickly. Suspiciously quick.

"I sure would hate if the word got out that you were smoking and selling crack..." I threaten.

"No, please!" He begs.

"What were you guys talking about?" I ask again.

"Fine, I was upset because I asked her out and she told me that she doesn't date drug addicts. It pissed me off, but I'm not responsible for her disappearance, I swear!" He promises.

"Then who is?" I ask, my voice still calm. I have a feeling that I can get to the bottom of what happened. I'm normally just a chill, go with the flow, party guy, but I do have a heart and after seeing the way Mrs. Delany looked talking about her daughter, I feel like I should at least try.

"I don't know!" His voice rises in panic. He does know.

"I think you do." I say, casually.

"I promise I don't. All I know is that I saw her talking to a tall man. He looked angry, but I didn't hear anything. He showed her something inside of his jacket, but I couldn't see what it was. Next thing I knew, she got into his black Mercedes. I couldn't see anything else because his windows were tinted." He says and I sigh before hanging up. What the hell have I gotten myself into?