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ourlastbastion · 4 years

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Embers Ch. 3

Meetings are conducted and Suspicions arise.

The café was small with an even smaller number of customers, all of them seeming to be chatting happily and quietly to their respective groups. It was still fairly early morning, only being seven A.M., much of the world still waking up or getting ready for school and work. The smell of coffee and breakfast filled the air, helping to wake Maka up as she and Soul found themselves a seat by a window.

“Any idea what you want?” Maka asked as she picked up the menu on the table, eying the drinks listed.

Soul grunted and then muffled a yawn, “Bacon, definitely,” was his response as he lazily flipped through the menu. It had been a rough morning in that neither of them really wanted to get up. It had been a rough night actually trying to fall asleep and neither got a lot of sleep in the end. So long as they could stay awake and focused enough to do their jobs, though, that’s all that mattered.

“Bacon sounds good,” Maka agreed as she flipped to the breakfast side of the menu. She could smell the savory flavor of all the other customers plates and it made her mouth water and stomach rumble. Honestly, any sort of food sounded good with how hungry she felt at that moment.

The plan currently was that Soul and Maka would have some breakfast, take some time to wake up, and then they’d go find Elijah to meet up, discuss the case, and then head out to meet with Amanda Lewis’ parents. They still had about a good hour before they had to do any of that, though, and so Maka didn’t feel any particular need to hurry or rush. She and Soul could take their time with breakfast and then catch a cab to the precinct.

If they had time after everything that day, maybe Maka could go and give Tsubaki a call, it wouldn’t hurt to see how her and Black*Star were doing, and she definitely wanted to call Crona. After last night, with Ragnarok drinking and their team dragging them to bars, Maka wanted to make sure they were okay. She couldn’t imagine Ragnarok was being nicer to Crona if the two of them were hungover.

A waitress came to their table, a bouncy woman just a couple years younger than Maka but a good few inches taller. Her hair was tied back and she wore the standard uniform, a pen and notepad in her hands. Maka spied the nametag she wore, Amber. “Hello!” the server greeted with a bright smile. “What can I get for you two?”

Maka returned her smile with one of her own, “I’ll take a house blend and some bacon and eggs,” she said, putting her menu down.

“Make that two,” Soul added as he did the same, leaning back in his seat with another yawn.

Their waitress nodded and wrote that down on her pad. “Is there anything else I can get for you two?” she asked, and then nodded when the two told her no. “Alright. I’ll be right back with your food shortly.”

With that, she was gone, off to give the cooks their orders and to help some other tables.

“So, what do you think we’ll find by talking to the Lewis family?” Soul asked as he watched Maka. “The police have already investigated them when Amanda went missing. We might just be tearing open old wounds by doing this.”

Maka frowned, folding her hands on the table. “Their daughter was kidnapped, I doubt they’ve gotten over it at all,” she pointed out. She couldn’t imagine how she would feel if she had a kid and then lost them, she’d feel horrible, doubt she’d ever get over it. “But, I’m hoping we might be able to find something new. Maybe there was some similarity between her and the other kids that was missed.”

“A hidden thread that can connect them all together,” Soul hummed. “Maybe they went to the same camp or maybe the same electrician worked on all their houses.”

“Exactly.”

The two chatted for a little longer, about the case, about Elijah, about Crona and their serial killer case. Nothing in particular, everything in particular. For a few minutes, at least.

Their food eventually arrived with Amber carefully balancing the platter on one hand. “Here we go. Two house blends, and two platters of bacon and eggs,” she listed as she placed a cup and plate in front of each of them. “Can I get you two anything else? Creamer? Sugar?”

Soul smiled, taking his fork and looking at his food with hunger in his eyes. “I’m good. How about you, Maka?”

“I’ll be fine, thank you very much,” Maka said to her. Such a friendly server.

Amber nodded, “Then I’ll be back to check on you in a little bit—” she cut herself off as the bell on the door jingled and the door closed.

From their seat, Maka and Soul had a perfect view of everyone who came and left the café, and so she let her gaze follow Amber’s to the newcomer who came in through the door.

He was young, Asian by the looks but it was hard narrow his ethnicity down beyond that from where they sat. He looked to be roughly the same age as Amber, which would have put him as a little younger than the DWMA pair. He looked like he was just an inch or two shorter than Soul, and had a head of messy black hair and a pair of green eyes, his face carrying the exhaustion of sleepless night—a feeling that both Soul and Maka could easily relate to. He was wearing black work pants and a grey hoodie, but Maka could see a button down shirt peeking out from under it. He carried a basic black sling bag over a shoulder.

Among agents and students of the DWMA, he would have likely come across as normal, perhaps dull even when compared to the rather extravagant outfits some liked to wear. But among normal civilians? Maka supposed that his accessories were a bit out of place. By that, she let her eyes fall to the to his hands, hidden by a snug pair of latex gloves, and then she let her eyes roam back up to his face. Everything below his eyes were hidden by the black face mask he wore.

Amber nearly dropped her tray as she fumble to search the pockets of her apron. “Oh, oh! He’s here!” she whispered hastily, excitedly, seemingly forgetting the table she had been serving, or her job for that matter, for a brief moment. She acted as if this man was a famous celebrity, the one she had been stalking on social media for yours—an perhaps he was, but that didn’t make her reaction any less…well…weird.

The confusion that Maka and Soul felt was palpable, and the pair exchanged a look before Soul reached a hand out to her, but refrained from touching. “Uh, miss?” he asked her, his voice laced with uncertainty and, well, disbelief at her sudden change in behavior. “You okay?”

“Oh? Oh! I’m fine, I’m fine!” Amber assured them having found her phone and now held it up to face the man who was carefully maneuvering around tables to get to the staff area. Ah, he was a coworker. Wait, was Amber taking a photo of him? She was taking multiple, by the shutter sounds. “He’s so cute!”

Soul looked to Maka and then to Amber. “Hey, I, uh, don’t think it’s all that legal to be taking someone’s photo without their knowledge,” He pointed out carefully, trying to dissuade her the best he could without the possible chance of her lashing back. “That’s kind of, ah… stalkerish.”

“I have to agree, it’s a little creepy,” Maka added. Actually, it was a lot creepy, but you don’t just say that to your server. Though she didn’t have full knowledge of the privacy laws out here, and knew that is was possible that just taking photos of someone wasn’t necessarily illegal, it was probably still very frowned upon just as it would have been back home.

Amber nearly dropped her phone as she jumped at the words. “Hey now, come on, I’m not a stalker!” she defended herself, not that it sounded all that convincing.

She paused, looked around, most of the people seemed to have gone back to their own business, taking their eyes off of the three of them. Satisfied, Amber drew in closer to whisper to the two. “I just, well, I really, really like him. But Haruto’s not a very sociable person, it’s hard to get close to him.” There was a pause as she considered her next words. “What I’m doing isn’t creepy.” Oh, how lacking in self-awareness. “It’s not like I’m going to sell these photos or anything, they’re just for me—I like looking at his face.” Well intentioned, but weird sounding.

Soul frowned, taking a moment to consider her words. “I can’t really say I agree—with it being not creepy,” he added, then shook his head. He paused, glanced to the back doors that led to the staff room, “By the looks of it, doesn’t look like he’d agree either.”

Both Maka and Amber turned to follow his gaze, and sure enough, Haruto was lingering at the door, it held open by his foot, staring at their table. Though, a stare wouldn’t have been the right way to describe it, it was more like he was glaring at them. The young employee had likely noticed the commotion, not that it would have been hard to do with Amber being a bit on the loud side.

Flushing a deep red, Amber shoved her phone into the pocket of her apron, offering the two a quick, embarrassed goodbye before hurrying off to help one of her other tables, as if to pretend that none of that had happened. It would have come to no surprise if she got an earful from a manager later for her behavior.

Honestly? Maka felt sympathetic towards her, but not a lot. If she did get in trouble, Amber did bring it on herself.

Even after Amber had resumed working, Haruto had remained at the door for a minute or two longer. His eyes followed Amber as she scampered from table to table, and then shifted back to stare at Soul and Maka for a few moments longer before finally slipping in to the other side of the door.

Maka waited until the door shut before looking to Soul. “Hey,” she began in a hushed voice. The weapon looked over to her, piece of bacon hanging out his mouth. “Did he feel… strange to you?”

Humming and swallowing his strip of bacon, Soul waited until he had chewed and swallowed before responding. “Gotta elaborate, Maka. What do you mean ‘strange’?” he asked. “He looked pretty normal to me, apart from the fashion.”

“I don’t really know how to put it. Something about his soul seemed off,” Maka admitted, and even now she could still sense his soul from within the building. It was human from what she could tell, but something felt wrong. “I can’t really describe it, but there was something different.”

Soul shrugged, and though he looked carefree, she could see the gears in his head turning. “I can’t really say anything stuck out to me. I can’t see souls like you, so I couldn’t really say.” She shook his head and then held out his last strip of bacon to her. “You could just be hungry and it’s messing with your perception.”

“Yeah, you might be right.” She didn’t really believe it, but, as odd as it had felt, it hadn’t come across as dangerous. Probably best to leave alone, for now.

They continued to eat, talking between bites in a voice low enough to not disturb the other customers. Occasionally Amber passed by their table to check up on them, to see if they needed anything else or if she could refill their drink. They suspected she might have been feeling a tad embarrassed by the earlier incident, but then again, maybe she wasn’t.

It was only when they had just about finished their breakfast that they interrupted.

Elijah Cain stood before them, dressed up in a casual suit and tie, his hair tied back as it had been yesterday, only this time the ponytail wasn’t as messy or loose. He wasn’t smiling, his eyes as cold as they had been the previous meeting, and at this point both Soul and Maka couldn’t help but wonder if he knew how to smile, or if his time as a cop had made him forget how.

“I thought we were supposed to be meeting you,” Soul began carefully, taking a drink of his coffee.

Elijah shrugged, looking all too unconcerned, “I saw you two as I was passing—not many people with white hair walking about, after all. Meeting you two here, as opposed to waiting for you two to find me, is quicker. We’ve a busy schedule ahead of us,” he explained. “I assume there’s not a problem with this?”

His words said one thing, but his tone was saying something entirely different, and it made the two bite back any complaint they might have had.

“Are we still on for meeting the Lewis family?” Maka asked, fishing through her bag for her wallet.

“Of course. We will head there right away, unless you two have found something in the files you read last night that you think needs to be investigated.”

Soul groaned, leaning back as he threw two fives onto the table for a tip while Maka got her card out. “Unfortunately, we haven’t found anything yet,” he confessed and scratched the back of his head. “Not that I really expected us to? You guys know these files front to back, it was pretty unlikely we’d find something you missed.”

“I figured. A fresh pair of eyes may not hurt, but sometimes there’s nothing new to be found,” Elijah nodded his head.

And with that, the two paid for their meals and then followed Elijah out of the café to where he had parked his car.

With them on the road and driving, Elijah nodded to a plain folder on the dashboard. “Go ahead and read through that,” he said as Maka reach over to grab it. “It’ll help you two prepare for the interview. It’s not an interrogation, or even an official questioning session, but there are still do’s and don’ts. This family has gone through a lot losing their daughter, and I don’t need you two stepping on any toes.”

“Relax, we’re not dumb,” Soul said, biting back a yawn as he looked out the window. “Be polite and respectful, we get that.”

“That’s good. At least I don’t need to worry about you two ruining the sense of trust between victims and officers,” Elijah didn’t even look at them as he spoke. “People aren’t that willing to talk and cooperate when they don’t feel like they can trust you. Can this family trust you?”

Maka bristled at the unspoken accusation, “Of course they can.”

“Then make sure to prove it.”

The drive wasn’t too long, fifteen minutes at best of winding turns and stoplights. They had just barely finished the pile of papers Elijah had given them on what to do and not do, what to say and to avoid, when they had pulled up to the house.

It was a simple, old-style brick townhouse with two floors plus what looked like an attic space at the top. There was a metal fence separating the property from the main sidewalk, with a gate situated across from the door of the house and one for each neighboring townhouse down the line. It was small, quaint even, a good home by the looks of it.

“Here we are,” Elijah said, adjusting his jacket after locking the car. “Be polite, and be careful of what kind of questions you want to ask.”

“We know, we know,” Soul groaned, as if Elijah wasn’t already treating them like they were incapable of doing this. He was getting a bit annoying at this point, but was careful to bite his tongue as he secured the case files under one arm.

The detective didn’t say anything, just walked past them, pushed open the gate and knocked on the door. Soul and Maka stood behind him, waiting patiently as they heard movement on the other side of the door.

A minute passed, and then another…and then when the door opened, it showed a middle aged woman with short, curly dark hair and tired eyes. “Ah… Detective Cain?” she said slowly as she looked at Elijah, as if trying to remember if that was his name or not.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Mrs. Lewis. Do you mind if we come in?” Elijah was polite as he spoke, nodding to the inside of the house as he gestured to Soul and Maka.

For her part, Mrs. Lewis hesitated a moment, but then pulled the door open all the way. “Of course, of course. You’ll have to forgive me, my husband isn’t home right now, he had to go in to work early.”

“That’s fine,” Elijah assured her with a compassionate smile. “As I said over the phone, we would just like to go over what you told us during the initial interviews—for these two. We’re hoping that with some fresh perspectives, we can find something we missed.”

They were lead to a sitting area with two couches facing one another. Elizabeth Lewis sat on one end, Elijah, Soul, and Maka on the other, with a low coffee table between them. Maka looked around the room as she sat down. Flowers, simple home decorations sitting on shelves, a few basic paintings hanging on the walls.

No family photos. No photos of Amanda. Perhaps it was just to painful a memory to keep up?

“—We could start at the beginning. The day Amanda went missing?” Elijah was speaking, though Maka had missed the beginning half as she snapped her head back to look at the detective, and then to the mother.

Mrs. Lewis put a hand to her mouth, frowning slightly. “It’s been a while, I don’t think I’d be able to provide an accurate recounting,” she warned, her voice soft.

Nodding his head, Elijah folded his hands over his knees. “It’s been two years, but I have little

“Just tell us what you can,” Maka said, offering her a sympathetic smile. “We can cross reference it with your previous testaments to fill in any potential gaps. But, please, just tell us everything you can remember.”

There was a moment of hesitation before the woman lowered her hand and gave a low nod. “Okay… okay…” another moment passed, passed as she took in a deep breath, as if to steady her nerves. “It was a school day—Amanda, she, she left early. She always did leave early in the mornings, before her father and I even went to work. We work late into the evenings most days, and that was one of them. I didn’t get home until after seven in the evening. She wasn’t home when I returned, and I thought she had possibly run to a neighboring convenience store for a snack. But then it got later and later and she still hadn’t come home.”

Mrs. Lewis hunched forward, bringing her hand to her mouth again. “That was the last day I ever saw my baby girl.”

“Why did you wait so long to call the police?”

All three turned to look over at Soul who had his attention focused on the files he was reading on his lap. He paused, lifting his head and letting his red eyes lock onto Mrs. Lewis.

“I’m sorry?” Elizabeth Lewis spluttered, matching his gaze with a glare. “What are you trying to imply?”

Soul shrugged, looking back down at the file he had been reading. “Well, it’s just that the day you listed her as being missing was the fifteenth, but you didn’t file a missing child report until the seventeenth,” he held that page of the file out for her to read. “I mean, I suppose it’s possible for the police to have put the wrong date, but it’s unlikely. So, I guess I just don’t understand why it would have taken you so long to report that your kid was missing.”

The woman looked absolutely offended at the accusations. She began to stand, “How dare you! Are you trying to suggest that I might have had something to do with it?” Mrs. Lewis demanded, her voice rising in pitch. “Just because of when I filed a report?”

Elijah cleared his throat, his face having returned to an impassive mask. “Ma’am. My colleague doesn’t mean any disrespect. But, the time frame does warrant suspicion and concern. We aren’t trying to accuse you of anything, but we would like to know why it took you so long to call the police.”

She huffed, unconvinced by his empty platitudes, but slowly sat back down, her arms crossed over her chest. “I assumed she was spending time with a friend. We had a fight in the morning, she left angry. It wasn’t uncommon for her to spend the night with a classmate when she was angry at us. That’s why it took so long for us to notice something was wrong.”

Things didn’t seem to line up and Maka furrowed her brow. “The school would have called you when she didn’t show up,” she pointed out.

“Amanda frequently skipped classes—it was one of the causes of our fights. Getting a call from school that she was absent was hardly unusual.”

Elijah spoke before Maka could follow up on that question with another, crossing one leg over the other. “You didn’t list any of her friends or close contacts when we first talked, do you think you could provide us with some names for people your daughter hung out with?” he asked patiently.

But Mrs. Lewis only shook her head. “Heavens! Amanda rarely spoke to us about her personal life as it was, what friends she had we rarely ever saw, let alone knew the names of,” she brushed off. “I would tell you if I knew, but I don’t know any of the kids she spent her time with.”

Maka was growing frustrated with this interview, so far they weren’t finding very little new information—if anything, the mother was telling them less information than what the case files provided. She glanced to Elijah and saw that his jaw had set into a firm line, not seeming to be happy with this either.

“Would it be okay if I check out her room while you continue talking?” Maka asked, her question directed to Elijah, but she looked at Mrs. Lewis all the same. “I would like to see if there was anything there that might be a clue.”

The mother had a frown, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I’m not sure how that will be any help,” she said slowly, but then shook her head, rethinking the refusal she had been about to give. “Her room is upstairs, the last door on the left.”

“Thank you,” Maka got up, bowing her head to the woman before making her way to the stairs, leaving Elijah and Soul to continue the interview.

When she got to the bedroom at the second floor, pushing it open, Maka was rather surprised by the layout.

It was a very bland room, especially for what would have been a twelve-year-old.

The walls were simple white. There weren’t any posters on the wall, nothing on the shelves or desks that suggested any interests. The desk was empty, a computer shut down on it. The bed made, white sheets and comforter. A blue rug on the middle of the floor. A closet door on one wall.

The room felt so empty, so…boring. Any other kid would have given the room as much life as possible. Maleko had.

Maka bit her lip as the thought crossed her mind. Maleko had lived in what had essentially been a dungeon repurposed as spare rooms for academy visitors. It was cold and dim, with a thin mattress on a metal frame, stone walls and floors. Yet, he had filled the room with so much life; covered the walls in drawings, had toys in every corner, he had even clawed into the stones to mark it as his.

This room felt like an office that doubled as a guest room.

A sense of unease filled her stomach as the thought came to mind, and with that, she got to work looking around, looking for something that might be a clue, no matter how old, something that could help tie Amanda to any of the other victims. Something that might suggest why she had been abducted.

So, Maka worked. She searched both high and low, in every corner of the bedroom for something, anything. And she found quite a few things.

The furniture was new. While it wasn’t really easy to tell, Maka figured that it was bought after Amanda had vanished. There was nothing suggesting a kid might have ever used it. No stray pencil marks from a kid doing homework or drawing, no scratch marks on the wooden floor from the chair being pushed in and out. The bed, too, would have likely left scratch marks on the floor from the frame, or on the wall that it was against. There was nothing.

When she’d opened the closet, it was void of clothes, of hangars. All that was in there were a few large tote boxes full of miscellaneous things. Maka spotted wrapping paper stuffed in one, older window curtains in another. Simple enough things that wouldn’t necessarily be out of place in any room but a kids room. She would have expected to see clothes in the boxes, maybe Amanda’s old belongings kept stored away.

But, no, nothing of Amanda’s was in here.

Though, as Maka looked deeper, she did see something on the floor, a crack, maybe? Perhaps nothing, but there was an uneasy feeling inside of her that compelled Maka to investigate. She pulled the bins out of the closet and to the side so she could empty the space and see it fully.

What she saw were splatters of red staining the wooden floor, and scratches on the floor and walls.

Deep. Frequent.

Old.

Nothing fresh, perhaps nothing newer than two years old.

Some of them looked like they had been from nails digging into the wood, others look like something else, something sharper, had dug in. On the closet door, there were a few cracks in the wood, as if from someone frequently banging on it from the inside, and surrounded by more claw marks.

What was going on in this house? What had been happening to Amanda Lewis?

The information was swirling in her head, all pieces to a puzzle that Maka was slowly putting together as she withdrew her phone from her pocket, taking careful pictures of the room, making sure to get every piece of the room to examine later. Clearly something bad was going on here, what else could the marks in the closet be from? Wouldn’t the police have noticed earlier, though?

“Maka.”

She had given a frightened jerk as she had been taking a photo of under the bed, nearly dropping the phone and succeeding in getting a very blurry image. Adjusting herself, she pushed herself onto her knees and looked to the doorway. Soul stood there, leaning against the frame.

He looked her up and down, then around the room. “Should I ask?”

“Not here,” Maka said, shaking her head and glancing past him. Not when others could hear, though perhaps they wouldn’t have heard—she sensed Elijah and Mrs. Lewis’ souls as still down stairs. But, she didn’t want to risk it. She wanted the safety and privacy of outside of the house before she explained her theory.

Though, could it be called a theory with such damning evidence in the room?

Soul nodded, not questioning her, trusting her, and pushed himself away from the frame. “Elijah says it’s time we wrap up and head back to the station. The two of us exhausted all our questions for her. Did you get everything you needed from the room?”

“I think so.” Plenty of photos. Plenty of mental notes to write down when she got a hold of some paper and a pen.

“Good.”

He led the way back down stairs. In the sitting room, Elijah and Mrs. Lewis were standing and still chatting, though it seemed to be more idle chatter than an interrogation this time. Simple platitudes and farewells.

Maka looked to her and felt her stomach churn. She had doubts since Soul brought up his line of questions, and now Maka felt a boiling sense of distrust and disgust at the woman and what Maka suspected she had done. Even so, Maka forced herself to hide those feelings away as she held a hand out to the woman.

“Thank you for letting me investigate the room, Mrs. Lewis,” She said with a smile.

There was a brief moment of hesitation as Mrs. Lewis looked at Maka before she took her hand, “You’re welcome,” she said pleasantly enough. “I hope you found something that might help.”

“Oh, I found plenty, thank you,” I found the scars of what had been happening here. Her grip on Mrs. Lewis’ hand tightened as the unsaid message passed, her eyes not leaving the mothers. She saw Mrs. Lewis’ eyes widen just a little, felt the quick rush of nervousness in her soul.

She smiled. “I’m glad, so long as you can bring my daughter back home.” She wasn’t afraid, or she refused to show it. She didn’t believe that they were going to find Amanda, did she? Perhaps she knew something more about the disappearance, or perhaps it was because of how long it had been it was reasonably unlikely that the girl was going to be found.

“Do call us if you find anything you think might be of use,” Elijah cut in with a curt nod. “And if you see anything you find suspicious. We’re going to find your daughter and bring in the ones who took her, you have my word.”

“Thank you, detective,” Mrs. Lewis said, letting go of Maka’s hand. “Do have a safe trip back, you three.” She guided them out of the house, offered them more empty goodbyes before closing the door behind them.

Maka wouldn’t be surprised if she went right up to Amanda’s room and got to work hiding the markings. Not that it would do any good, Maka had more than enough evidence.

She waited until they got into the car, with Elijah starting it up and driving off once they were all buckled up.

“Her responses to the questions were fairly basic,” Soul said, speaking before Maka could begin, trying to catch her up on the interview. “Couldn’t name anyone Amanda might have known that could have seen something, didn’t really have any specific places she hung out at when not at home.” He sighed, scratching the back of his head.

“It was like she barely even knew her own kid.”

That didn’t surprise Maka one bit. Even when the questioning first began, something about Elizabeth had struck her as indifferent. She seemed worried, but it didn’t seem…genuine. “I don’t trust her,” Maka said plainly.

“Yeah, I don’t really, either,” Soul agreed. “What kind of parent would wait a few days to even report their kid missing? That was messed up.”

Maka fished her phone out of her pocket, thumbed through the photos she had taken. “You saw Amanda’s room when you came to get me. It didn’t look like a room anyone lived it. It was void of life.”

“I mean, maybe they took all her stuff into storage, use it as a guest room now? It’s what it looked like. Though it feels heartless to do, like they don’t believe she’s ever coming back. I know it’s pretty unlikely, but, still.”

“That wasn’t the worst of it,” Maka shook her head, finding the photos of the closet and thrusted her phone to Soul. “These were old. Probably from when Amanda was living there.”

She waited as Soul took the phone and stared at the photo. Then, he took in a sharp breath of air. “That’s… if that’s from what I think—it’s fucked up.”

The blinker on the car was a dull sound in the background as Elijah turned onto another street, the car gently shifting between speeds, weaving around in traffic smoothly. “You saw the closet?” the detective asked.

Maka whipped her head around to stare at him. “You knew about it?” she asked, though it came out as more of a demand. You knew? And nothing has been done about them?

He gave a harsh laugh. “You’d have to be blind and dumb not to notice. We investigated her room when she went missing—it was obvious the furniture had been bought recently when we went in. No sign of wear on anything. That was the first red flag, and the closet wasn’t locked. Of course there had been some boxes there, their attempt to hide it, but it proved useless.”

“It’s not in the report,” Soul said carefully, if not curtly.

Elijah shrugged as he let a biker pass. “Our superiors at the time thought it better to leave it out, said that it was unrelated to the case.” The man spat as he said that, tightening his grip on the wheel. “I called him out on it, told him he was making a mistake, that it should be considered relevant. Clearly, my words meant nothing since, like you said, it’s not in the report. Besides, it wasn’t as if we could do anything. The closet alone isn’t solid proof that they were hurting her, and if we are going to try them for it, we need Amanda to testify.”

“With Amanda out of the picture, they will get the public’s sympathy while also avoiding being charged with child abuse,” Maka said slowly. “Is it possible they did something? That she might not even be involved with the other missing children’s case?”

“It’s a possibility,” Elijah confirmed. “But, right now we don’t have proof for one side or the other. Everything right now is just theories and guess work. That’s why it’s crucial that we get some kind of lead, something that can get us closer, not just for her, but for the other kids.”

Maka agreed. They needed to find something. They had to find these kids. They couldn’t just keep waiting and guessing, they had to start gaining ground, somehow, someway…

As if waiting for them, Elijah’s phone began to ring.

He grunted, carefully tugged it out of his pocket while he held onto the steering wheel with his free hand, a few finger taps to the screen, he tossed it onto his dashboard. “You’re on speaker. What is it?”

“Cain?” The voice was young, perhaps a little older than her. Shaky, too, nervous. “You need to get back to the precinct now.”

She couldn’t see his face, but Maka could just feel Elijah rolling his eyes. “We’re on our way don’t worry,” Elijah said, his tone of voice clearly annoyed by the call. “What happened that’s made my return so urgent, anyway?"

“Another kid went missing.”

#Soul Eater #Embers #Adrian's writing

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