Partners in Crime

Chapter seventeen

"Look who it is!" Clare grins, when I walk into the office on my first day back. "One of my two best employees."

I laugh, leaving my bag on my desk. I turn back around to face her and lean against the front of my desk. "Oh stop, we're not that good."

She gives me an eyebrow raise. "You'd be surprised."

"So did we miss much?"

Clare shakes her head. "It's staying pretty quiet at the minute."

Just then the office door reopens and Theo walks in. "Agent Williams, great to see the two weeks off hasn't changed the fact you're exactly three minutes late everyday." Clare jokes, after glancing down at her watch.

Theo shrugs with a grin on his face. "What can I say, that one traffic light keeps getting me."

Clare laughs. "As I was just saying to Agent Bennett here, it's been quiet recently, so your first day back seems like an office one."

Theo nods and sits down behind his desk. "Sounds... boring."

"Trust you two to be disappointed that you're not being shot at." Clare playfully rolls her eyes. She makes her way to the door and opens it. "I'll see what I can find for you then."

The room goes silent once the door shuts after Clare. I take my time scanning through my emails, none of them really having any purpose. My phone buzzes beside me so I pick it up.

Izzy: hey girl! Happy first day back at work, your brother and I had a fight, he's an ass. 🤷

My eyebrows crinkle as I read the message. She and Simon seemed perfect when I talked to them on Friday. 

Me: What happened? You guys seemed fine a few days ago. 

Izzy: I'll explain later, it's a long story. Enjoy work babes!

Theo grabs the remote and switches on the tv. It automatically goes to a news channel where the presenters are debating about politics.

"Breaking news." A new presenter standing outside a burning building appears on the screen. "A seven year old girl has gone missing from her home on the outskirts of Evergreen. The police have conducted an investigation while the parents have released a statement begging for anyone with any information to come forward." The screen shows the parents, but neither of us hear what their saying when the door swings open.

"Williams, Bennett you're wanted in the conference room." The secretary rushes her sentence, panic evident in her tone.

We glance at each other as we stand up. Both of us quickly wrap our belts around our waists and secure our weapons.

"So much for an office day." Theo mutters as he follows me out the door. 

"Something tells me this one won't be as good."

"Agent Williams and Bennett." Clare nods at us once we walk in. We take the two spare seats at the top of the conference table. She hits a button and the same picture of the seven year old girl we seen on the news a few minutes ago pops up. "Darcy Wild, a seven year old girl who was taken from her home between three and six am last night and you two are leading the team to find her."

"Do we have motive? Any idea who could have done it?" Theo asks. 

Clare shakes her head. "Her dad, Marco, has been linked to dealing drugs."

"So we're going to have to talk to them, get some names." I say. 

Clare nods. "They're on their way in now. Until then you two can go back to your office, gather some information." We both nod and stand up. We're at the door when she calls us back. "We need this to be a quick case, the abductor has no use for the girl if he doesn't get what he wants."

When we get back to the office we get straight to researching. But there wasn't much to find, whatever Marco was involved in was kept on the down low.

Theo's office phone rings. "Hello?" A few seconds later. "We're on our way." He stands up. "They're here."

I nod and stand up from my desk. We talk tactics during the elevator ride, deciding that Theo would take the 'tough' attitude while I went for a softer approach. Darcy's parents look distraught when we walk into the room and take the seats across from them. With no reason to believe either of them were in on it, we opted on a comfier looking interview room.

After the brief introduction we get straight to business, because both of us know that there's no time to waste.

"Could we get you to quickly run through the chain of events from around 10pm last night?" I ask softly.

Darcy's mother Bella sniffs. "Darc was already in bed, we put her there around eight, we have routine checks where one of us checks on her every couple of hours."

"And that went on until?"

"Around 2:30am when I went back in this morning the window was broken and she was gone." Marco informs us.

Theo nods while I take brief notes. "Mr and Mrs Wild, in this situation we don't have time to waste. We understand that Marco is involved in dealing but has kept that out of the eyes of the law."

"What are you talking about?" Marco acts horrified, but anyone could tell he's lying by the high pitch in his voice.

"Right now, our concern is about your daughter, but the kidnapper doesn't have any use for your daughter if he doesn't want something or is owed something in return." Theo tells him. "You need to give us names of anyone that could have motive."

Marco stays quiet until his wife turns to him and with a soft voice says. "You need to tell them, or I will never forgive you."

Marco sighs and drops his head in shame. "There's only two people I can think would have wanted leverage over me. Hitch and Romeo Hail"

"Hitch?" I ask.

"Hitch Greene"

"And you don't think anyone else would do it?" I ask.

This time Bella speaks. "Our neighbours would never do that, it can only be one of them."

Both Theo and I nod. "We're going to do everything we can to get your daughter back safely." I reassure them.

"Thank you so much." Her mother sobs and it breaks my heart.

Marco gives us a nod of appreciation, just before we leave the room.

A little over hour later we've located Hitch Greene. Who happened to be in Los Angeles last night and for the last few nights. Obviously with no time to spare, we can't fly to LA or fly Greene to us so we're working with agents from there.

"The agents are online in the conference room." Theo opens the door to tell me.

I nod. "On my way."

When we get to the conference room the two agents who questioned Greene are projected on the huge white wall. Theo leans against the front of the table while I lean my side against the edge.

"Greene swears by the fact he didn't do it." One of the agents informs us. "He said Marco didn't owe him anything, the one you should be worrying about is Romeo Hail, they've had an ongoing feud for years now."

"Marco forgot to mention that." I cross my arms.

"And you're sure it wasn't Greene?" Theo asks.

The other agent nods his head. "We've done background checks and checked his search history, he didn't order a hit and he definitely wasn't there."

We both nod. "So we'll turn our attention to Hail, thanks guys."

"Anytime." They nod. "Good luck."

"Looks like we've some work ahead of us."

Hey everyone! So I'm thinking of starting an updating routine just so everyone knows when to expect a new chapter. If I can get extra chapters up I will but I'm hoping for every Wednesdays and Saturdays!

Stay safe everyone💞