•2807 words•

I feel a little bit sorry for Kyron and Ash, but at least the remaining 3 of us can have fun solving a missing person case! I can't wait- we start tomorrow after going to Berkley's headquarters to confirm things and it's just a couple of miles away. We know virtually nothing about this case but I'm very prepared for it and can't wait to solve it! If I can solve a possible abduction, I can solve anything. I have Jamie and Myliey helping me with this- but those 2 are together now, a couple. This is going to be awkward- my teammates are my ex and the girl who tried to shoot me. Great. Now my best friend and her boyfriend are going to be staying in the comfort of their own home, probably going watching Netflix or something all day. You just can't trust that Kyron and Ash are going to do something productive.

Eeek! It's today! Today's the day we start this new crime! We've just gotten off the boat that carries us the short journey from our island to the mainland, and now we're going to Berkley's. They'll give us some information and then we can finally start to solve this crime. I've never done anything like this in my life and neither have the others. I'm sat next to Jamie in the car and things are a little awkward. Things have been since we broke up. Lisha is sat in the front with the taxi driver and I'm on the right in the back with Jamie sat in the middle and Myliey sat on the left. Her caramel brown eyes embed themselves into mind as I reach down to grab a drink from my bag, which is underneath my feet. "What?" I ask aggressively, as she stares at me harder. What does she want?

"What?" I repeat myself, yelling a little louder, "Myliey! What do you want?"
"Oh nothing, don't mind me," She replies, with a huge grin on her face.
"Nor my boyfriend," She adds, throwing both of her arms around Jamie. What an idiot. I'm not jealous though; I didn't break up with him for no reason. The main reason I broke up with him because if you think about it, this is pretty weird- I'm 16 (yes, I am now) and he's 13. I know that girls are older than boys in some relationships and I have nothing against that but we're living in the same house and it was just a little awkward, despite it being even more awkward now.

Call me what you want to, but I just felt there was something 'off' about Jamie and I being together. Also, I just want a bit of time to myself. Most 15-16 year olds are out doing stupid things, doing drugs, having 10 boyfriends/girlfriends each month, etc, and I think that being on my own, without a partner, really shows who I want to be. I want to connect to myself more, you know? I'd rather love myself first before I love anyone else. Except Ashlyn though, I'll always love her.

"Right, thank you. You can start looking around using some of the evidence that we have provided you," A member of Berkley's tells us as we leave the building. "Thank you to you too," Lisha says, taking the paperwork and guiding us out of the door. "Where are we off to first then?" I ask. Lisha doesn't say anything but she passes me the paperwork she was given and I briefly browse over it. Myliey leans over me and peers onto the sheets of paper that I'm looking at. Jamie then walks around the other side of me to also take a glance. "Ugh, here," I say, getting slightly annoyed. "Just take the paper and get in the car, will ya?" Myliey sighs heavily and rolls her eyes at me. She then gets in the car with Jamie, Lisha following closely behind. She doesn't take the paperwork off me.
"Last seen on Hoskley Beach..." I say to myself.
"Get in the car!"
"Alright I'm coming!" I reply back to Lisha's screams.
Hoskley beach... hmm.

Lisha told the 3 of us that the first location we would be going to is Hoskley Beach- as that's where the missing child was last seen. The child in question is 9-year-old Carli Subbons and she lives not far from Berkley's headquarters, actually. Maybe around 4-5 blocks away, is what it says written here on the paper. We've just arrived and I don't even know where to start or what to do. A woman at Berkley's who is the head boss (or something like that) told us that there would be a huge search party on the beach at around 9:30 pm tonight. It's 8:52 now, so if we look around ourselves for a little while, we'll have some help in around 40 minutes time. I grab a torch from the back of Lisha's backpack and go off with Myliey to look around the beach.

"So then," She says, seeming rather unfriendly, "Why did you dump Jamie in the first place? He's a lovely lad and I could never dream of-"
"Wait. We're trying to find a missing 9-year-old girl who's probably been kidnapped and you're talking about my ex-boyfriend and I's relationship?" I roll my eyes at her.
"Yeah. Yes, I am. Why did you dump him then?"
"Fine. Just this once. We can have one unrelated conversation whilst solving this case, Myliey. Understood? ONE."
She shakes her head and says, "Fine. So tell me then."
"Look, it's complicated, but okay. He's just- he's just too young. I know it's not a crime or anything for a 16-year-old to go out with a 13-year-old but I just didn't think it was right. I wanted time to focus on myself a bit more as well. I've not got much time for a boyfriend at the minute. And it doesn't bother me in the slightest that you're with him. Jamie and I are still sort of friends, we have to be- we're living in the same house. I want to be friends with you, too- we're living in the same house as well and it wasn't your fault that you were told to shoot me."
"Okay, okay. Keep your hair on. I just think though, Brooke, you're 16 now. You're not a child. You can go out with whichever boy you want to. And as I said, Jamie's a lovely lad. He really is."
"I know, but also as I said, it isn't just that. I just don't want a boyfriend at the minute because I mainly want to focus on myself, on my job. I came here with Ashlyn for a job. For a new opportunity- not for relationships and awkward friendships. This is a career, not Love Island!"
"I understand, fine then. But just know that your best friend, Ashlyn, is in love with Kyron. And there's nothing that you can do. Who's on Love Island now?"

She smirks at me and I squint my eyes as the roaring sun sets in the west. It's going dark now, and our torches are becoming more and more useful by the minute. Most of the community will be here soon, along with the police, to help look for young Carli and clues related to the crime. There's not a doubt in my mind that that girl has been kidnapped. She's either drowned, or been kidnapped. It's one or the other- simple. In fact, maybe it's not so simple. I know we'll figure this out though. I'm not exactly the best in the criminology industry. After all, I've only just turned 16, and you're lucky if you could get a job in Starbucks at my age, back in the UK. But here I am, in New Zealand, on a beach, trying to find a missing child. This could take some time. It's okay though, we have as long as it takes. I'm not trying to be mean, but she's probably dead at this rate. It's already been about a week since she was first reported missing, and then the police were only informed about 3 days after that. We'd be lucky if she is alive- and if we even find her.

There's swarms and swarms of people entering the beach, hundreds of them. There must be at least 30 policemen and policewomen too. The family of the lost child stands on top of a podium thing which is located on the pathway that leads to the beach. They're crying and surrounded by a few police officers. There's lots of torches everywhere and they're making an announcement through a megaphone. I can't really hear them properly as Myliey and I ventured off further down the beach. We're currently moving closer towards the swarm of people to get a better insight on what's happening, and more information.

Oh wow, this is more people than I could first see at a distance. They all have torches as it's getting darker by the second, and many of them have paper with information in and a few of them even have metal detectors. Each of them are given a backpack with supplies in, and Myliey and I go to grab ours.
"Girls!" We hear a faint voice shout from afar. It gets closer as it continues to shout, "Girls! Myliey! Brooke!"
It's Jamie. He comes running over to us.
"I'm gonna help you, girls. I'm on your team. Us 3, together. Wow, there's a lot of people here, isn't there?"
"Uh, yeah," I reply, a little confused as to where Jamie's just appeared from.
"How are we gonna start this then?" Myliey asks.
"Erm, I don't know. I'll go and see where Lisha is," Jamie replies.
Myliey and I nod and Jamie walks off.
"Make sure you come and find us again!" Myliey shouts, "We won't be far away!"

We're allowed to go up to the family of the missing girl so the 3 of us walk over, after Jamie just joined us again. I don't exactly know why we're going or what we're going to say but-
"Hi girls and um, boy. Don't you work for Berkley's? I'm Carli's mum. My name's Louise Subbons. I've already been questioned by police, and my husband and I have nothing to do with the disappearance of little Carli," She says, breaking down in tears. She looks seriously upset about this-  she doesn't look guilty at all.
"Where was she last seen?" I ask out of curiosity.
"Brooke! You idiot!" Myliey interrupts, "Here! Where we are now. She was last seen on this beach." She looks at Carli's mum, Louise, and says, "Wait, what was a 9-year-old doing on a beach on her own? In the middle of the night?"

"It wasn't the middle of the night, but she was here with her grandmother, my mum, who drowned at shore. Police had already found that out due to witnesses and a small CCTV camera that saw my mother, um, drown." She replies to Myliey, sobbing. "They unfortunately didn't catch anything of Carli though, and when she didn't come back after a couple of hours, we had a feeling that something was wrong. So we called the police, and they searched around for a while before reporting her missing. And that's where we are now. Looking for her."
She starts to cry a little louder this time, and Myliey goes up to her and gives her a hug. Despite her looking not guilty at all, I just think there's something about her. And there's definitely something about this grandma who 'drowned.' This all seems too surreal to be true.

We walk away from the upset mother and venture further along the beach. We've left the majority of the people here, who are all in a huge group, and the 3 of us are on our own. This beach is known for a few riptides, so maybe the grandma's drowning did happen. She could have easily gotten swept away in one of these rips. Why do you think it's fame anyway, Brooke? Why would they lie about that?

A few hours have passed by and now it's coming up to midnight. They said no matter if we've found anything or not, we're stopping at 12am and everyone will go home. We broke up with Jamie about an hour ago, but Myliey and I are still walking around together.
"Girls!" Jamie shouts from afar, "Come and look what I've found!"
Myliey and I run over and she seems like she's very excited to see what Jamie's found. We've not seen him for a while either, so I think she's also excited about seeing him. I don't think what he's found is anything special though. Knowing Jamie, it's probably a prank and if it isn't, it's probably something stupid that's nothing to do with this missing case.

Also, police told us that by tomorrow, most of New Zealand will know about missing 9-year-old Carli Subbons.

We tell Jamie that we're coming over and eventually catch up to him. We see a figure standing up with his backpack over one shoulder. Jamie's in the middle of a...cave?
"God," I whisper to Myliey, "This is probably something stupid and fake."
"Don't be stupid! Jamie knows what he's doing. Don't you Jay?" She leans over and kisses him as I roll my eyes, making sure the pair of them see me. "Jealous are we?" She adds, hoping to get a reaction out of me. "So what's this you've found?" I change the subject, staring deeply at Jamie as I ask the question.
"I'll show you now."
He crouches down and kneels with one knee onto some sand. He then throws his metal detector off to the side and starts to dig with a shovel he's just taken out of his backpack. "Truth is," he adds, "I don't actually know what it is. The detector went off and we're inside a cave so I'm suspecting it's something." He shrugs his shoulders and looks up at Myliey and I

"It could be anything then!" Myliey shouts. I told you this would just be nothing. And it doesn't look like I'm wrong. It's 12 o'clock in the morning and I'm in the middle of a dark cave on the beach. I really hope Jamie isn't messing about this time.

"Oh...my...god..." Jamie says, surprised. "What? What?" Myliey shouts, seeming very intrigued.
"Oh, just show us the damn thing!" I snap.
Jamie freezes in his skin. He then pulls out some metal from the sand as Myliey and I point our torches at him so that he can see more clearly. The metal is gold and looks like a ring.
"CALLING ALL ATTENDEES OF THE CARLI SUBBONS SEARCH PARTY, I REPEAT, ALL ATTENDEES OF THE CARLI SUBBONS SEARCH PARTY, PLEASE ALL RETURN TO BASE NOW. RETURN TO BASE NOW, THANK YOU."

A megaphone shouts us from back where we started, base. "What? Where do we go now? Do we go back or like-" I ask.
"No no no no," Jamie replies, "We need to analyse this more carefully. I'm pretty sure I recognise this ring."
"Are you sure?" Myliey joins the conversation, "I've never seen that before in my life."
"Neither have I," I input.
"Whether I've seen it or not, I'm not sure, but we need to report it to the police. It might be here from years ago but it could also be a key piece of evidence in solving this investigation!"
"No, Jamie. I don't think so. Neither me or Myliey have ever seen this so I doubt it's got anything to do with it," I respond to Jamie.

"Listen Brooke, just because you've never seen this before, doesn't mean that it isn't anything to do with the crime. It could belong to Carli, or her grandma! This could really help us, you know!"
"Right, will you two stop arguing?" Myliey interrupts.
"We aren't arguing," I respond, "Just debating."
"Oh shut up with your clever responses, Brooke. Even if it doesn't have anything to do with the crime, Jamie and I are taking it to the police. It's better than nothing- like what you have found!" Myliey snaps back.
"You haven't found anything either, Myliey!"
"I don't care! My boyfriend has," She looks at me with a giant smirk on her face, "And him and I are a team. It must suck to be single, Brooke."
I roll my eyes at her and begin to walk off, with those 2 following behind me with the ring. That stupid ring is worth nothing in this investigation; bet.

Brooke x