Tweetie

5

It had officially been one week since the start of the new investigation. That was a whole 168 hours it took for the media to somehow catch wind of her activities.

No matter how quiet she was, how subtle she tried to be, they always found out.

She knew it was likely because of the police. She couldn't hide everything from them. While she never went by Hazel while there, nor while out and about, they did take notice of some things. They were mostly oblivious, thinking she was only Roderick's niece interested in detective work and accompanying him to work every once in a while, she knew that they likely found out through the missing evidence. They would see cold cases had things missing, questions were asked, then, they figured that Hazel White was on the case again and a few officers looking for extra cash would turn to the media and any journalist who would buy their information.

She was lucky she wasn't found out yet. But, she was safe in the knowledge that nothing about her was known and only that news would spread of her investigation. Usually, nothing else came of it, just a few headlines about 'X-year-old case picked up again' or 'Hazel White returns to work'.

But this was different.

Radio hosts were talking about it, it was on the news, headlining newspapers and it trailed in the general buzz of gossip. This felt bigger like a weight was pushing on her as she searched the name Jason Barber and found articles about his resurrected case instead. Nobody liked missing kids staying missing, this was a big deal. They were trusting her to finally find him after years.

She hoped it wouldn't ruin her investigation.

"...Nothing..." She uttered, her head in her hands as she flicked through another transcript of an interview between a pair of police officers and Jason's parents. "His parents last saw him before he went to school, they got a text from him telling them he was going to be home late with no details of why or where he would be, then he was gone. No problems at home, no argument, save for typical family squabbles, he even made plans with his dad to buy a car the day after he went missing to celebrate getting his license. Why would he run away from that?"

"You never know," Archie said from the couch, hunched over a laptop, scrolling and typing as she sat on the floor beneath the window, the sky brightened and the day beginning over her head. It was early, but not too early. "It could've been triggered by friends, school, maybe his parents are lying."

"I suppose... if there were more interviews with people close to him, we might know..."

"How many are there?"

"Two. One with his parents, another with his teacher. Neither are helpful." She huffed and pushed the file to the side. "It doesn't make sense. They would have questioned his friends, he had plenty from the pictures we've seen."

She shook her head and slumped a little lower.

It had been two years since he went missing, making him likely to be nineteen at this point and any friends he had around the same age. They would still be around, hopefully at least. Maybe she would search around and find that somebody potentially involved suddenly up and left to another country. Either way, she needed to look. But it just didn't make sense. How could so much evidence have been lost?

"Hazy, are you sure you should be doing this case?"

"Hm?" She looked up, meeting Archie's eyes for just a moment before he retreated behind his laptop again.

"I really don't like this case, something doesn't sit well with me. If whoever was involved is still around, who's to say they won't do something to you?"

He shuffled in his seat, his typing had stopped altogether by this point, there wasn't a single click of his mouse. Then, there was a sigh that escaped him and he sat up again and met her gaze as he continued.