Purple. It used to be a simple color. One that faded into the background, never to be thought of again. Not hated nor loved, just there.
That is until I got the purple note with black ink telling me that my family was missing. A note was how I found out, not from the cops or even from a group demanding ransom. Just a note in the mail from the local police department telling me my world was gone.

Why purple of all things? I never knew.
My brother and father were, are, the best detectives in the unit. This wasn't some accident. When I went looking for answers and was shut out that I knew something was up. After almost a year the cops decided to call it a cold case, to much public outrage.
They couldn't help it, there were no leads and little to no evidence. The only thing they had was an eye witness who saw them on the beach at 4am with a dark figure, both appeared to be drunk due to their wobbly steps. They walked along the stretch until they were out of sight from the anonymous witness.

Mysteriously it was ruled an accidental death at the end, with claims that my brother and father must have drowned in the ocean because they were drunk.
It was like they hadn't grown up in the same town and on the same beach where they disappeared, like they didn't know better than to drink and swim, like they hadn't already lost someone the same way.

But with nothing left to do I started looking for my own leads.

It took me about a week to come up with a list, people who were arrested on their account or people who held grudges topped it. It was pretty long at first but most of them had to be ruled out.

The problem was that a majority of people were in jail or had been cleared due to strong alibis. I had to reach a bit deeper to figure out where they were.

My family wasn't stupid, they wouldn't just wander off with some one or get lost, especially not when they were having trouble even walking. No, it had to be someone they knew and trusted to a certain extent.

They had many people like that.
Most of whom had some rock solid alibis themselves. Some did not. Only about two people seemed to fit this list, no matter how shaky it was.

I decided to follow one of those very people, Takashi Shirogane. It hadn't been long but I was hoping my small disguise would be enough so he wouldn't recognize me.
We had never really met but my dad had a picture of me and my brother on his desk and I was often confused for Matt when my hair was up.
I hid away my brown hair in a dark green cap and put on some glasses with large frames, this would cover some of my more defined features. I was also wearing an oversized green hoodie with pockets big enough to hide a notebook and a pen. With this I didn't even look like the same person, I almost felt the need to go by a nickname. It didn't take long to track him down and figure out his regular schedule, the man was practically a machine of habit.

I had been tailing him for a bit, right now he was walking along the beach drinking coffee, nothing new.
I looked down at my notes to see if I had missed anything.

late 20s early 30s hard to tell at first due to the premature gray hair. It's the wild under cut that gives away his youth. A prosthetic arm on the right, a scar across his nose.
Head of the Altean police department
Motives: he was feeling threatened by their success on the mob cases?

Maybe it was a reach but as of now I couldn't find many more suspects. I didn't know very much about that case because Dad and Matt never talked about their cases at home. But finding and arresting half of the Galra mob in a week was bound to make big news.

He lately seemed to be on the verge of running too. Like he was hiding something. He had started taking fewer cases lately, not that we got a lot in this town. Just the occasional theft or vandalism.
A case like the Holts was monumental and yet he wasn't following it, maybe because he has personal connections. But everyone in the department had connections and no one was rushing to get someone new on the case.

I looked at him, he had seen better days, his eyes had bags and from the looks of it he may have slept in his current outfit. Why was he so nervous?

He dumped what remained of his drink in a nearby trashcan and kept walking, he turned off the beach and headed to the board walk. Maybe he was actually going to work? I picked up the pace and put on my earbuds and pretended to text, one hand shoved deep into the pocket of my green hoodie, trying to look as casual as possible.

The boardwalk was crowded as always, just because it never gets warm enough to actually swim doesn't mean tourists and residents alike won't flock over to try. His tall stature made him easy to spot as he walked around the crowd with practiced ease. My 4ft 9 height made it a bit more difficult to do.

He strutted down the walk with a fast pace, constantly weaving about. Almost like he was trying to shake some one off, could be me.
He took a sharp turn to the right, I made mine more gradual. Then he suddenly veered off to an alley way.
Forgetting all pretense of staying hidden I barreled after him, at least as best I could.

When I reached the alley he was gone. "Damn!" I cursed under my breath.

I turned to leave when I felt a hand on my shoulder, "So why is a kid following me?" Takashi asked.

I spun around and saw him, his posture was relaxed but his eyes were hard. He had been in a small nook that led to a door.

"You aren't very sneaky you know, being short doesn't make you invisible. I saw you at the coffee shop this morning, I knew you were following me all day." He said hand still on my shoulder, his grip was tight.

I lowered my head to hide my smirk, my pride was fragile, "All week."

His grip relaxed and he took half a step to me. "What?"

I looked at him, my smirk growing and said, "I have been on your tail all week."

He snorted, "Yeah right kid, I saw you clear as day this morning."

I pulled out my notebook and read, "Monday 7am coffee shop, a large black coffee and a walk on the beach then work, no case for the day just paper work stays till midnight. Tuesday also 7 coffee shop again this time espresso and skip the walk straight to work, still just paper work midnight again. Wednesday, diner this time, pay day, eats eggs and pancakes with a large black coffee more paperwork till midnight. I could go on." I flipped it closed my smirk even bigger.

He was looking at me in shock. "You know giving away all your intel is bad practice."

This surprised me, he was shocked I gave away info? He wasn't surprised about everything I saw?
It felt like he was teaching me more than scolding, what was up with this guy? Who finds out they had been followed all week just to scold the stalker on their work?

"Doesn't matter." I retorted, stubborn as ever. "My suspicion has cleared, I don't need to keep following you."

I knew it was true as I said it, no one who kidnaps others would be so calm after having been followed. I brushed his hand off of my shoulder and tried once again to leave, a pit in my stomach to accompany me.

"Hey wait," Takashi called, "Suspect me of what exactly?"

"Doesn't matter." I repeated, "I'm not gonna follow you anymore, I apologize it was my mistake." Maybe if I ran off he would lose me and I wouldn't be arrested.

Of course as I had learned he was nothing if not persistent in even the most menial of tasks and he followed me out of the alley and down to the beach. This time I was weaving about trying to lose someone.

"I'm not gonna leave until you tell me, I'm a cop you know I could arrest you for stalking and harassment." He said at my heels, he almost seemed like he didn't want to arrest me, "Why is a kid accusing me of something? Especially one I've never met?"

I huffed and turned to him, stopping completely like an asshole, "For your information dipshit I'm 16, almost 17 so I'm not just some kid."

I hated when people did things like that, treat me younger than I am because I'm short. With that often came the disbelief in my abilities.

"Okay my bad then." He said with a smile. "Now tell me why you were stalking me or I will arrest you."

"You know," I countered, "You seem to be taking being stalked a little to well. Most people would freak the fuck out."

"Well I'm not most people", He said grabbing my shoulder again, "and since you clearly won't talk we will have to do this the hard way."

With that he grabbed my wrist and stuck on a pair of cuffs, "H-hey wait..." I said starting to struggle.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. The choice is up to you though", He said calmly leading me to the station.

I gave up the struggle, the man was twice my size. Even with a fake arm I doubted I could do much to get away.
I wanted to argue that it wasn't fair, but I had been stalking him, and it had been for a week.
But with good intentions! I tried to reason, it was flimsy as hell though.

I was dumb why didn't I just try to play it off, why did I give away my whole plan? Pride thats why, my mom had always said the my pride would be the death of me.
Well now it's getting me arrested.
I sulked and allowed him to lead me to the station. They asked me for a guardians number so I gave them a dud that lead to my friend.
*************

It took a few hours for the department to process all the information, first they confiscated my things as evidence and then locked me in a questioning room.

I glared at the one way glass, hoping he was on the other side. I had said sorry hadn't I? It's not like I stole his shit or took pictures of him in the bath.
Of course it was probably a little invasive of me to do in the first place, but what if he had kidnapped my family? What then?
Well then it would have been worth it.

The door clicked open and in came two men in police uniforms.
One was tall and lanky, he looked like a green bean. The other was large and had soft features.

"Okay mam lets get down too it, first of all we have an alleged confession from you outside this room from an eyewitness to your crime, secondly we have discovered jarring details into the personal life of your victim-" the lanky one started, obviously bad cop.

"Okay cool, you have evidence and a confession. What's stopping you from locking me up right now?" I interrupted. They exchanged glances, trying to decide what to say, they must be new.

"By request of a third party we are not to arrest you until we have a motive and a name." The bigger one said giving me a small smile. He was playing the good cop. The whole ruse would have been way more effective had the switched roles.

"Third party my ass, Takashi just wants to know why I stalked him. He's probably scared or something." I said, turning to the glass I yelled, knowing he had to be watching, "If you have nothing to hide then there is no reason to be scared!"

Lanky man sighed, "Listen miss, you're in a lot of trouble here. Smart comments won't help your case. So tell us why you were stalking the head detective of the Altean police force."

I shrugged and sat quietly for a bit, letting them stew, deciding if I should just tell them. My hand started to fiddle with my hat, under which my long hair was tucked. Maybe this whole I could keep acting tough, but where would that get me? I was going to jail, something I didn't want to resign myself too. Being incarcerated would make finding my family almost impossible, not to mention all of their enemies would be there and that would be hell.

I shook my head and sighed, no point fighting anymore, my fate was sealed because I'm an idiot who put my pride ahead of my job.

"Shame he's not putting two and two together." I said still starting at the glass. "After all he did work with my dad and brother for years."

The cops stared at me, the bad cop started whispering frantically to the good one. I reached up and removed my hat, not caring anymore about what would happen.
My long hair tumbled down my back and rested past my shoulders, it was curled slightly from being kept up for so long.

"My name is Kathryn Holt, I am looking for Samuel and Matt Holt. I suspected Takashi Shirogane as a suspect due to his closeness to them. However my suspicion is gone and I realize my mistake. So boys, throw me in the slammer already." I said, looking at the table.

The two left for a while after that. When they came back their faces were inscrutable.