The Missing Teen

Chapter 2

The sound of a cell phone ringing woke Adam Cole up early on the morning after the attempted auction party robbery, much to his annoyance. It wasn't even his phone. It was Lucy Thorne's, sitting on the nightstand on the other side of the bed.

"Bloody hell," the commander groaned, rolling over to pick it up. Cole listened her groggy-sounding side of the conversation.

"Thorne."

"Hello, Ronda. Yes, you did."

"Alright, we'll be there as soon as we can. Text me the address."

"Did Rousey just apologise for waking you?" Cole asked as the call was ended.

"Yes, but I'm sure she didn't mean it," Thorne said, kicking her way out of the blanket. "Come on, get up. We've got a case." Her phone bleeped, indicating that a message had been received.

"What case?" Cole asked, slowly sitting up in the bed.

"A missing teenage girl. Uniform have been on it for two days. They suspect it isn't a runaway. I'm going to text the address to the rest of the team, and we're going to be there in half an hour. I'm first in the shower, too."

"I could just join you?" Cole suggested hopefully, looking at her gorgeous body in the dim light filtering through the curtains in her bedroom. Staying over at her place was something he could get used to. Being woken up by Sergeant Rousey, not so much.

"Nope. There's work to be done now. You'll have to hope there's an opportunity for sex tonight or something."

"I've always been an optimist," Cole called after her as she walked into the bathroom.

For the purposes of keeping their relationship secret, Cole arrived at the address a minute before Thorne. The rest of the team were also there before the commander, as she would expect of them. They were at an ordinary residential address, with no obvious signs of a crime having taken place. Cole was not surprised because he knew why they were there, but he didn't let on to the rest of the team because they did not, as yet.

"We've got a missing teenage girl," Thorne told them when they assembled at the bottom of the short driveway. There was a squad car parked on it. "Uniform have been working it for two days. Apparently they don't believe it's a runaway, and they suspect foul play. Sergeant Rousey is here. She's going to give us more information."

"This is the AJ Mendez thing," Bayley Martinez said. She was the newest Intelligence Division member, and the only one who was technically a uniform cop, not a detective. "My girlfriend is out of town on a training course, so I took overtime last night to help with the search," she explained.

The house's front door opened and Sergeant Rousey walked out to see them. "Commander," she said in greeting to Thorne.

"Sergeant," Lucy replied. "What's the deal?"

"The missing girl is April Mendez, commonly known as AJ. She's sixteen, a shy, socially awkward girl who hardly ever leaves the house apart from to go to school. She stopped texting her boyfriend on Saturday afternoon, and hasn't been heard from since. Zelina Vega, AJ's cousin, and Aleister Black, Zelina's boyfriend, were in the house at the time. Zelina is a carer for AJ's mother, Rosa, who is disabled. They have both said they didn't see AJ on Saturday, but they knew she was in the house because there was loud music coming from her room. Zelina was in the kitchen washing dishes when she heard the music stop. A couple of minutes later, she heard footsteps storming down the stairs, and the front door slammed. That was the last encounter we've got with AJ. Her phone, iPad, and a change of clothes are gone from her room, but the chargers for both devices are still there."