Location 001: Topanga Beach

Mantra of the book: Jet Pack Blues by Fall Out Boy

Awesome trailer up there :) Also, apologies for the insanely long leave. I've had a very busy year with schoolwork. I hope to upload chapter 3 in February!

I twirled in my chair to face Eden. "Hey, do you think we could go down to that parking garage with Axel? See if he can find any traces of drugs or anything?" I asked my best friend. 

She tapped her chin for a second, thinking, before answering, "Yeah sure. He's at the dog massage place today."

I gave her a pointed look.

"What?" She asked. "Look, he does a lot of hard work. And Animal Planet said it's good for dogs who have excessive exercise." I chuckled at it. Only Eden would treat her dog so well. He even ate human food, none of those regular dog foods you buy at the supermarket. She claimed, he performs better and is happier then.

I grabbed my bag, thinking of all of the possibilities with Harry. I already set up an interview with all of his bandmates separately tonight and tomorrow through Simon, who was just happy I started to get a lead. My best shot was that he somehow got into a drug ring, wanted out, and then the main supplier threatened him if he left. Another possibility was that simply a guy who wanted a ransom, or had a reason to hate Harry, so he kidnapped him. There are tons more, but all evidence so far pointed to those two.

I looked down at my phone to see an alert that people were posting about his absence on social media. I clicked on the first youtube video I could, reading the description: 

Recently Directioners have noticed that pop star Harry Styles has gone missing. Or at least he's laying low. But there always is a tweet here or there, or an Instagram post, but for a few days, nothing. Syco has denied to release any information on his disappearance. What we do know is that he was last seen on one of Los Angeles' beaches.

I frowned, showing it to Eden. She bit her lip, and I could tell an idea was being concocted in her head. "What if..." she started. "What if we have a press release? Because you know from past cases that if we don't say anything, the paparazzi will still find out. It may be better if you do it."

I nodded, thinking. But then people will constantly bug us, urging us to go faster. Cases like this cannot be sped up. We need to find information, find places, anything that will lead us to the person. It all has to be done on my own time. 

"Maybe in a few days, if we don't have a good lead yet," I concluded. We were walking down to the front door of the Police Department, and as I adjusted my black trench coat, multiple people came up to us. I froze in place, not knowing what to do.

"Are you Callista Jefferson?" One man with a camera asked.

Slowly, I responded, "Yes. Why?" Then people jumped out from bushes and surround Eden and me. Questions bounced around at me: Where is Styles? When will you find him? Do you have any ideas? Do you know him personally? 

Claustrophobia surrounded me, and breathing became hard. Dazed, I saw Eden ward people away, saying, "Give her space, she's claustrophobic!" Then she muttered, "Asshats."I mustered up a small smile of thanks and shakily started answering the questions.

"I will not be releasing information about this case, as it is private. All I can say is that nobody can follow me unless you want to be endangered as well. So please, heed my word, as an officer of the law, and do not follow me around. I will release information periodically to all of you if you leave your information with the front desk," I swiftly informed the crowd which started gathering. A young woman raised her hand in the middle of the group.

"Yes?" I asked, looking at her.

She cleared her throat, "Can you tell us if you are the main detective or who else is involved?"

I sighed, figuring I cannot keep it all secret for long. "The FBI and Scotland Yard are somewhat involved, but yes, I, Callista Jefferson, and my fellow officer, Eden Lombardi, are the main detectives on the case of Harry Styles being missing. Any information not  from either of us is incorrect."

Eden and I cut through the crowd and walked to my car. Once sitting in the driver's seat, I put my head in my hands. This case had already stressed me out from the second I was assigned. Not to mention my favourite singer was the one that I had to find. 

That's when I realized it. I would give my heart and soul to this case because the only person who saved me from sadness was gone. Harry's (or actually One Direction's) music had helped me after my sister died. Harry was always my favourite, especially when I watched the X Factor with my sister and she liked him too. And now there was a possibility he was dead.

Okay, that's an extreme, but still. The thought makes me quiver. And the more time goes by, the more is wasted. Eden put a hand on my shoulder and whispered, "Hey," she paused. "It's going to be fine. We'll find him soon."

I gritted my teeth and said with malice, "I can't believe Captain Prescott told the press. It was supposed to lay low. This will only make the case slower."

Angrily, I dialed Prescott's number and as soon as he picked up, I yelled, "Why did you go tell the press? You, of all people, know how bad it is to get the public involved. Why? It slows everything down, has people following me, and overall terrible idea. Also, it's my case, so what the hell do you think you're doing? Just because you are the captain doesn't mean you make calls on my cases!"

I huffed angrily, and Eden mouthed, 'Calm down.' I rolled my eyes at her.

Captain Prescott replied, "Well, Callista, it is true that the case us yours and you make all calls," he said in a bored tone, as if he knew this would happen. 

"And?" I pressed.

He sighed, "And I'm sorry. But people started speculating and we had to let them know we were trying to find him. It was actually Rick's idea. And he was right. If we said nothing, that would only bring us bad press." 

I had enough, so I hung up the phone. Call me petty or childish, but I was very angry about the paparazzi. I started driving to the dog massage place to pick up Axel, which was thankfully only a short distance away. Eden stayed silent, letting me cool off. She hopped out and came back just as quickly with her dog. He jumped in the back seat happily and pressed his nose against my face, licking every inch he could reach.

"Hiya, Axel," I greeted him with a smile. Axel was a sweetheart. As tough as he may have seemed, he was a real cutie pie who loved cuddles and kisses. He always brightened any mood.

The drive down to Topanga beach was fairly quiet exempt for the panting noise of Axel in the back. It was too quiet to my liking, so I turned on the radio. Take a lucky guess what they were talking about.

"So today paparazzi surrounded LAPD, looking answers. Answers to why Harry Styles is missing. The main detective on the case is twenty-two year old, Detective Callista Jefferson, or the new Sherlock Holmes as some are calling her. She told all of them to stay away and let her do what she needs. Which can be understood, because we don't know what this is dealing with. Thoughts, John?" the newscaster asked her co-host.

He responded immediately. "I agree. I would not go looking for clues or anything. It's dangerous. But the real question here is, why did someone kidnap Harry Styles? What does he have that another person wants so much? Stay tuned, we'll play some One Direction tunes for the time being."

While Drag Me Down started playing in the background I looked at Eden. She gave me a half smile and said, "Hey, at least they compared you to Sherlock. That's pretty damn awesome. And they told people to stay away. They're encouraging people to stay out of it."

I nodded. I parked at the very same garage we watched the footage of. Axel sniffed around for a few minutes, not indicating that he had found anything yet. This went on, and I began losing hope of finding any clues. At sundown we headed back to my car.

Eden consoled me, "Well, it's okay. We'll just have to dig a little deeper is all."