Chapter 12.1 ~ A Wager of Donuts

***

"What do you mean all the cameras were broken except for one?" Detective Michael Clifford asked his partner. They were investigating a little bodega that got robbed last night, but they were having trouble finding evidence.

"The only camera that was working in the shop was the one in the front, and only the backs of the robbers heads can be seen." Calum said, standing behind Michael's chair and looking at the evidence with him. He leaned over his shoulder so their faces were next to each other.

"Can you back up, Cal? Ever heard of personal space, goddamn," Michael muttered, pushing his partner away. Calum pouted, but moved away to grab his own chair so he could sit next to him.

"What are you on about now?"

"Look," Michael grabbed one of the files about the case they'd been given and pulled a sheet of paper out. "There's record here that the store owner installed 5 cameras after the last time the store was robbed sometime last year. But about half an hour before the robbery occurred, 4 of the 5 cameras went down, and there was no signal from it."

"Hm, are they shitty cameras? Do they go down frequently?"

Michael shook his head.

"No, the guy said in his interview that if the wi-fi was working, the cameras had been working fine since they were installed.

"Okay, well that seems a bit suspicious then." Calum frowns, looking through the files. "Did the employee notice anyone sketchy hanging around that time?"

Michael shakes his head.

"No, he said the store was pretty quiet all afternoon, and right before the robbery happened 2 people walked in."

"Two people?"

"Yeah, Archie Wilson, 87 year old widower and dementia patient. I couldn't get much out of him." Michael sighed deeply, remembering that interview. He'd tried to get a clear statement from him but all he could focus on was the rude store clerk who wouldn't help him. Liam, the store employee, told him that the man had been talking to an M&M display most of the time and the robbers hadn't bothered him. So that entire thing was a bust.

"Who's the other person?" Calum asked, flipping through some files. "Why didn't we interview them? Did they leave before the robbery?"

Michael frowned, something wasn't right.

"We only interviewed the store clerk and the old man. Are you sure there were two witnesses and the clerk?"

Calum nodded, sifting through the pages until he found a photo of Liam and some girl tied up by the front of the store.

How could they have missed that?

"Who is she? What happened?"

"I don't know. First to find her name owes me a donut though," Calum grinned before hurrying over to his desk, which faced Michael's.

"You mean owes the other a donut?"

"No. If I win, you owe me one, and if I lose, I'll get myself one."

Michael scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"That's not fair," he said, but turned to his computer so he could try to look the girl up.

It took an hour, but Calum stood up and whoops loudly, attracting attention from the other detectives nearby.

"In your face, Mikey! I found her!"

"What's going on here?" An authoritative voice boomed from behind. Calum flinched and lowered his arms, which had been fist pumping the air energetically as he turned around to address his captain. The captain was a tall, dark skinned bald man who exuded authority upon first glance. He rarely smiled, but had earned the respect of every officer in the station. He was just a great captain and everyone loved him.

"Captain Holt, sir, I'm so sorry. I just figured out a vital piece to the case and got excited..." he bit his lip. Michael snickered from his desk and Calum turned slightly to glare at him.

"If you found something so great, then you can share it at the morning meeting." He turned to the rest of the bull pen. "Briefing room, 15 minutes!" Holt yelled to the entire floor.

Calum sighed, flopping down onto his chair.

"Well, I hope this is worth it, buddy!" Michael said smugly.

"Shut up. I found her, so at least I get a donut. You owe me," Calum pointed his finger at his friend. Michael sighed and shook his head.

"You're right, when we leave tonight we'll stop by the shop."

A couple blocks from the precinct is a donut shop called "Cops N' Donuts", which was run by a retired detective. He always laughed at the stereotype that cops were obsessed with donuts so when he retired after being injured in the field, he opened up the shop. Best thing about it is it's open late so even after a long shift, there's still fresh donuts.

"So who is she?" Michael asked, getting up to go to Calum's desk. "What did you find?"

"Ah ah ah!" Calum minimized the tabs on his computer and pressed the case file to his chest. "You'll find out at the briefing."

"What? Cal!"

"Nah, buddy. This was a competition. You lost, sorry!"

Michael grumbled insults at his friend who smugly sat in his seat getting ready.

When it was time, they went to the briefing room and sat in their usual seats near the back.

"Officer Hood, you have something to share about the 112th St robbery?"

"Yes sir!" Cal gathers a couple files before heading to the front of the room.

He sets his stuff up, sliding a small flash drive into the projector and pulling up a photo from the crime scene.

"This is the bodega that was robbed on 112th." He presses a button on the clicker that controls the projector and displays a random corner store that looks like it could be literally anywhere in the city. Nothing about it is special, except for some reason it appears to be targeted quite a bit. "When Officer Cliffo and I were doing our investigation, we found something strange." Calum shuffles through some pages before moving to the next photo. "We have interviews from this man—the shop employee—here," Using the laser pointer function on the remote, Calum points to Liam Payne, "And an attempted interview from an elderly man with Dementia."

A couple of the officers grumbled about times they had to deal with people with the disease and about how difficult it was to get anything out of them.

"Let Officer Hood talk," Holt barked from his desk in the corner. Everyone instantly quieted down and Calum continued his presentation.

"Those were the only two people who we found at the crime scene, but upon further review of the evidence, we found out that there was someone-else-there!" Calum dragged the words out dramatically, pressing a button on his remote which revealed a photo of Liam tied up and sitting at the front of the shop next to a 20-something year old girl. "There's another witness. Her name is Sadie Newell, who, get this," Calum grinned and leaned forward like he knew a juicy secret. Which he kind of did. "Hasn't shown up to work in two days, but hasn't been reported missing yet."

"Maybe she's not missing. She's a millennial, they're flippant with responsibilities, maybe she just didn't show up to work." One of the older officers piped up.

"That...may be true," Calum allows. He knows this officer is so set in his ideas that he won't listen to anyone else, so he doesn't bother to defend her. "But after a phone call to her work, I found out that she's had this job since she was 16, about 6 years, and she hasn't missed a shift that entire time. She's one of the few responsible young adults it seems. Her boss was confused as to what happened."

"Good work, Hood. You and Clifford can go to the girls house and inquire about her whereabouts. Check and see if she's sick, or what's going on, and get an interview from her when you find her."

"Yes sir," Calum salutes his chief before going back to his seat next to a sulking Michael.

***

Michael and Calum went to Sadie's house to see if she was home.

They noticed a couple of things that seemed wrong about the situation.

The house was in shambles, the light brown siding that probably used to be white was falling off the house, there was garbage all over the overgrown lawn. Weeds were popping up in between the cement path that led to the door, and it took about 5 minutes of knocking before someone came to the door, barking out a gruff, "What is it?"

"Hello!" Calum greeted the disgruntled man who opened the door. "I'm Detective Calum Hood, this is my partner Michael Clifford. Is this the home of Sadie Newell?"

The man rolled his eyes.

"What do you want with her? Haven't seen her in a couple days," He shrugged.

Michael looked at his friend.

"You mean she hasn't been here? For how long?"

"I don't really concern myself with her activity. I haven't seen her since...I don't know, Tuesday morning, maybe." Calum sighed. That was the day of the robbery.

"Is there any chance she could be here?"

"I said I don't know," He snapped. "You're welcome to check her room if you really want," he moved aside so the officers could get through.

The house was in about the condition one would expect from seeing the outside. Trash was all over the table and couches, it was dusty and dirty, empty beer bottles littered almost every surface. Michael coughed at the stench of smoke that clung to the room. He hated it here and he'd only been inside for ten seconds.

"Her room is upstairs, first door on the left. I'm not going up there," the man said before plopping down on the couch and picking up a beer and a lit cigarette that had been resting on an ash tray on the table.

Calum and Michael shared a look before heading upstairs, hoping to find Sadie there so they could ask her questions.

Michael rapped on the door a couple times, but no one answered so he opened it up.

They were met with an empty room, surprisingly clean. There was a twin sized bed in one corner, a desk underneath a window, and a door that led to a closet.

"Well. She isn't here," Michael stated.

"No shit, sherlock. Now what?"

"Go talk to that assho-the man down there," Michael caught himself, he shouldn't judge people he didn't know, but he already got bad vibes from this place and didn't like it.

He was getting angry. Why hadn't she been reported missing if she's not here? What's going on? Was this related to the two bank men that he's suspicious of? How was this going to help him take down Young Guns?

"Mikey, hey, it's okay. We'll figure it out, all right?" Calum put his hand on his friends shoulder. Sure, they were work partners, but outside of work they were still best friends, and Calum had a feeling he knew what was upsetting Michael so much. "Let's go talk to the parents and see what we're going to do from there, yeah?"

Michael took a deep breath and nodded, following Calum out the door and downstairs.

"Sir, can we ask you a couple questions?" He groaned loudly, exhaling his cigarette smoke. "It won't take long, and then we'll be on our way and out of your hair."

"Whatever, just make it quick. My program is on." The man didn't bother looking at the officers.

"You're Sadie's father, correct?"

"Yeah."

"What's she like? Is she responsible?" Michael asked. He needed to know if this was normal for her, figure out what her character was. Then they could maybe figure out where she went.

"Guess so. She helps us with the rent."

Michael nods, while Calum takes notes so they can compile evidence later on.

"Does she work a lot?"

"Yeah, she's always working. Works at the library downtown. If she's not there, then she's in her room writing. Fancies herself an author, but she's not really that talented."

"Have you tried to contact her since Tuesday?" Calum asked.

"No, we generally leave each other alone. I didn't really notice she was gone until you mentioned something."

"Has she ever gone MIA before?"

"No,"

"Does she have a lot of friends? A boyfriend, partner?"

"No, she generally keeps to herself. She used to go to college, but she dropped out."

"Why is that?" Michael questioned.

"Don't know, don't really care. Is she in trouble? Is that why you're here?"

Calum shook his head.

"No, she isn't in trouble, we think she was a witness in a crime we're investigating, so we were hoping to ask her some questions. But since she isn't around, we'll be going." Calum nodded to him. "Is that all, Mike?"

"Yeah, have a good day, sir. We're sorry to bother you." The man waved them off and turned to watch his show. "Wait, one more question," Michael popped back into the room. "Do you know if your daughter ever hung around two men who work at Babylon Banking? Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin?"

The man furrowed his brow and Calum's jaw dropped.

"No, it doesn't sound familiar. Again, she didn't really have any friends, but if she did hang out with them, then I didn't know. Because I don't care." he grumbled at the end.

"Okay, thank you. Sorry to bother you again," Calum handed him a card, even though he knew nothing would come from it. "Call this number if she shows up, we really need to talk to her."

Michael left, pushing Calum outside and shutting the door.

"Michael, what was that?"

Michael grunted, stomping down the porch steps and to the cop car.

"I'm convinced those two are involved in this, I just wanted to see if there was something linking them."

"You have no proof of that, Mike. You can't go around accusing people with no evidence, especially to random people,"

"I know, I know!" Michael threw his hands up in exasperation. "There's something we're missing. I just need to figure out what it is,"

Calum was confused.

"We just found out we were missing someone from the crime scene. Why don't we follow that before you go accusing people, all right? Maybe when we find the girl, we find the robbers."

"Yeah, maybe," Michael agreed absently, but he wasn't really listening. He was already thinking of possible connections to the bankers, and he knew just what to do about it. "Get in, I'll drive," he told Calum.

"Can we get my donut now?"

"Sure, buddy. First we just need to make a quick stop somewhere."

***

So here's a bit more info on Sadie. She'll talk more about her life later, but here's a nice chapter about everyone's favorite officers!

Wishing everyone a super happy New Years!! I love you all so much, special shout out to becca2505 lashton_heart_soars and Dustyangel99 for being so awesome and always being the first people to read and comment ❤️❤️  y'all have no idea how much you mean to me and have encouraged me to keep writing!

Does anyone have any special New Years plans? My friends and I are doing a Murder Mystery party over zoom. It's New Years themed lol my character is Babette Debubbles (they all have wine themed names lol it's truly wonderful, like Papa LeCorque and Pro Secco)

Anyway, here's my last chapter of the year! I can't believe how far this has come, that I'm already publishing my second book 🥺 this wouldn't be possible without all of you, so thank you. And thanks for always putting up with my sappy authors notes lol

Love you all and Happy New Year!

~ashtonfortherwin