"Hello?"

"Miss Rachel Evans?"

"Yeah"

"This is Detective Kaden Rhodes calling from Elk Grove PD. Ma'am I need you to come down here for an interrogation procedure regarding Miss Hannah Chamberlain."

"Yes, I'll be there right away."

7 hours earlier (2.37 a.m.)

"Oh come on!" I cried and threw my phone on the bed. I had tried calling Hannah atleast 7-8 times but with no luck. I also messaged her but the message remained undelivered. Picking up my phone again I called Mrs. Chamberlain.

"Could you reach her?" She asked as soon as she picked up.

"No! Are you sure you asked all of her friends?"

"Yes, I only had Amelia's number so I called her first and she said Hannah wasn't with her so I got the others' numbers from her and called each one of them!" She said between heavy sobs.

"Mrs. Chamberlain, please calm down. Hannah's gonna be alright," I said trying to soothe her but as I said it, I doubted myself. If she wasn't with any one of them then where on earth could she be at this odd hour. I was worried as much as her mother but someone had to stay calm.

"We need to go..." I heard Hannah's dad saying.

"Rachel, please stay by the phone and let me know if she calls. We are going to the police station."

*****

Present time

I entered the waiting area and saw Sarah sitting over there.

"Rach! What the hell is going on?" She got up from her chair and came towards me, wide-eyed. In all the chaos that had happened last night, I had completely forgot to call Sarah. How did such a thing get out of my mind? And if she didn't know anything that meant Mrs. Chamberlain had not called her too. She must have assumed that we three would be together.

"Hannah's missing," I replied. My voice came out as a whisper.

Sarah's jaw dropped slowly and she widened her eyes more.

"Since when?" She started blinking rapidly and sat down again.

"Hannah's mom called me last night, I mean early morning around 2.30 a.m."

"Why didn't you tell me then! Oh my God, did her mom ask Amelia?"

"She called up everyone, including Amelia and her friends. No one knows where she is."

"Miss Sarah Marin?" An officer called out and we both turned to look at her.

"Let's go," she said and gestured Sarah to follow her. Sarah looked at me and I gave her a little nod.

Sarah went with the officer and I sat down where Sarah was sitting earlier. I took out my phone to see if there was any message from Hannah.

"Rachel?" A familiar voice called my name.

"Mrs. Chamberlain," I stood up and she brisk-walked towards me and hugged me. She had come from the direction where Sarah had just gone.

"She's still not home Rachel. Still not home," her voice was muffled and it seemed as if she was going to cry again. I patted her gently and told her everything was going to be okay.

After pulling away from her I saw Mr. Chamberlain standing beside us. He looked worried but was trying to put on a strong face, unlike Mrs. Chamberlain who looked as if she had been crying for several days though it had only been a few hours.

I made Hannah's mom sit down with me and asked her when she had last seen Hannah.

"Day before yesterday when she left for school. She didn't come home that night as she slept at your house. She said she wanted to have a final rehearsal with you."

Slept at my house? Final rehearsal? What was Mrs. Chamberlain talking about? Didn's she know that I and Hannah barely talked with eachother now? Wasn't she aware that Hannah had not been in the play?

Maybe Hannah had been at Amelia's house and didn't want her parents to know about it. Hence all these lies. I was about to tell her mom the truth but decided that it didn't matter much right now because I had seen Hannah the next day at school.

"Where did she go after the competition?" She asked me.

"I'm sorry but I really don't know"

"Miss Rachel Evans?" The officer who had called Sarah was back again. I gave a little squeeze to her hand and went to follow the officer.

She lead me through a hallway towards a closed door. The door opened and Sarah walked out looking a bit angry. She gave me a glance and went towards the waiting area.

I went into the  room and saw a young looking man sitting behin a gray, metal table. The officer whom I had followed, came in too and sat beside Detective Rhodes.

"Miss Evans, please take a seat," the detective said. "Morning Miss Evans, my name's Detective Kaden Rhodes and this is Officer Lorraine Michael," he said in a monotonous tone and Lorraine gave me a small nod.

They both looked pretty young, maybe in their mid-twenties. And to be honest, the Detective looked like some model from some fashion magazine. Rachel, focus! Right now I had to worry about Hannah and not some model-resembling detective.

"I mostly handle cases for missing juveniles and juvenile abduction," the Detective started, "and as you know, your friend Hannah has been missing since last night. So I'm going to ask you some basic questions to help us with our investigation. You need to be completely honest so that this goes easy for you, your friend and for us too."

I nodded my head and Lorraine pressed a button on a recorder.

"So, what is you relationship with Hannah?" He asked in a calm voice.

"We have been best friends since kindergarten. I mean, I have known her all my life."

"And when was the last time you saw her?"

"Yesterday, after the inter school debate competition. She came to congratulate me. Our school won."

"I heard that you had an after-party at your house, so Hannah wasn't there?"

"No, I didn't invite her." I said looking down at my hands in my lap.

"Why so? Didn't you just say you two have been friends since kindergarten?"

"We haven't been talking much since the past few weeks. She has some new friends now. And she hangs out more with them."

He looked at me for a few seconds as if analysing something. 

"Tell me something about these 'new friends'."

"Like what?"

"Anything you know, like how close she is with them or if anything sour ever happened among them?"

I looked up at him and gave him an 'are you kidding me' look.

"How am I supposed to know that! Why don't you ask all this to them directly. I already told you, Hannah has been pretty distant from us lately," I replied in a firm tone.

"Look Miss Evans, there's no need to get angry. We are trying to help you and your friend," Lorraine spoke for the first time.

Both of them were using calm tones which for some reason was making me more angry. Now I understood why Sarah had that look on her face when she came out of this room.

"I'm sorry," I muttered looking anywhere but them.

"I think that will be all as of now," Detective Rhodes spoke again, "we will call you if the need arises. Thankyou, Miss Evans."

I got up and left the room without saying anything and Lorraine followed behind me. I saw Sarah in the waiting area and to the far corner was Amelia sitting along with Aaron. Hannah's parents were nowhere to be seen.

Lorraine called out to Amelia and she went with her while Aaron sat there fidgeting with his mobile.

"Let's go," Sarah said and stood up.

"No wait." I went over to Aaron but he kept his eyes on his mobile screen.

"Do you know anything about her?" I asked him.

"Why? You think I had something to do with it?" He said, eyes still focused on the screen.

"What? No! I am just asking because you guys had become pretty close the past couple of weeks. I thought you might know something." Geez! What was wrong with people today?

"No Rachel," he looked up at me, "I don't know anything. If I did, I would have gone straight inside the first thing and told the police whatever it was instead of just sitting here like some moron. We are all equally worried for her." Well, it doesn't look like it!

I looked at him straight in the eye, trying to figure out how genuine his words were but saw nothing in them. Just a blank expression with dead-ass eyes looked back at me and then he went back to his phone. 

Just as we were about to turn and leave, Amelia came out, her eyes wet as if she had been crying. What! How strange could this day get?