The Missing

Kate

"Hey Kate," Jennifer said as she slipped into the bar stool next to her friend.

"Hi, Jenn," Kate said. "Want a drink?" Looking over, she quickly amended her statement, "or a couple drinks."

"Nah, I'm fine." Jennifer said unconvincingly.

"Okay... Well in that case, how are things with Brandon?"

"You know, Maybe I'll just have one." Laughing, Kate passed her a beer with a look that totally said, I told you so.

After downing a couple more drinks, Kate turned to Jenn, leaned forward onto her elbows and asked, "so, what's new with work? Any interesting cases."

Smiling and shaking her head, Jenn looked down at the untouched drink in her hand and said, "You know, Kate, I can always count on you to butt into my life," she said good naturedly.

"Come on, Jenn, please. Pretty please? You have to give me some of the gory details."

"Kate," Jenn started, "you know I can't-"

"Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top! With extra whipped cream and sprinkles, please!" Kate interrupted begging.

"Why do you want to know so bad?" Jenn relented.

"I dunno," Kate shrugged. "I like helping you with this stuff. Like... The time I helped you solve the case with the, with the...the...oh! With the thief that robbed the jewelry store, and I figured out where his stash was by hacking into his computer!"

When Jennifer still looked unconvinced, Kate went on.

"Oh! Remember that one you had, with the, with the girl that went missing, and, and they never found her, and it was all over the news! I mean, I didn't help with that one but I really wish I had because you were on the news and amazing and I really want to be amazing on the news! She rambled on, her eyes pleading.

With a sigh, Jennifer proceed to tell Kate everything she knew about the Emma Jones case. When she finished, Kate just sat there thinking so Jenn felt she had to explain herself.

"I know it's not much to go off of, but I just got it today."

"Hmm," Kate mused, "well, what if you did have something more. Kate raised her eyebrow mischievously.

"Like what?" Jenn said skeptical, even though she was intrigued.

"Well I mean, what if your two cases are connected? Then you won't have to start from scratch, right? Oh, don't give me that look Jenn, I'm not crazy. I'm not!" Kate insisted.

Jenn smiled and shook her head. "you don't know how much I wish that was true, but even if it was, unless there were more cases like mine, it's not enough proof of anything." As she said that, her mind immediately chose to remember her previous conversation with Jesse.

"Yea, I guess you're right," Kate sighed defeatedly. Then she made a funny face and said, "At least I'm not 37 years old!"

"Hey!" Jenn slapped her arm playfully.

Laughing, the two of them dropped the subject and went back to talking about other things until finally Jennifer looked at the time, said goodbye to her friend, and went home to try to sleep before work tomorrow.