"It's not here!" Emily groaned in frustration as she finished emptying out her gym bag. "I can't race without my lucky cap! Not today, not with the scout coming-"
"Em, take a breath..." Paige walked up behind the teenager and wrapped her arms around her waist. She kissed the side of her cheek with an easy smile. "You're going to do great out there this afternoon. I know it."

"I still need my swim cap." Emily sighed, placing her hands over her girlfriend's and turning to kiss her back. "I think I might have left it at your place last weekend." It wouldn't surprise Paige if Emily had left the cap at her place, they'd been working non-stop for weeks in order to get ready for the swim meet with the Texan scout attending – Emily had practically been living in the pool in Paige's backyard.

"Lunch is almost over... I'll write you a pass for your next class. Have you got your key on you?" Paige started to fish her house keys out of her briefcase, but Emily beat her to the punch, pulling out her car keys; the spare key to Paige's house was on her keyring. Emily took the hall pass that Paige offered her, and promised to check in with her when she got back. "Oh, Em, can you call your Mom and check she's still okay to pick my Dad up from the hotel? He wants to toast your success at dinner tonight, so he's not driving."

"I might not even get the scholarship..." Emily admonished. "Your Dad really shouldn't have booked a table at the Grille already."
"Hey, he knows you're going to kill it today! After all, I have been coaching you for the last six months." Paige laughed, earning a roll of her eyes from Emily. She sobered up as she gave the younger girl a goodbye hug. "I mean it, Em. Today is just a formality. You've got this."
"I hope so."

Emily kept her foot down on the gas pedal the whole way over to Paige's house. She had just over an hour to find the swim cap and get back to the school, and there was no telling if it was even at the house. Emily pulled up in the driveway, killing the engine and frowning at the sight of the open front door. "Seriously, Paige?" She sighed, shaking her head at her girlfriend's forgetfulness – She didn't think twice about walking inside.

It took Emily a few minutes to find her favourite swim cap, it had somehow ended up on the floor of the mudroom that lead in from the backyard. She vaguely remembered taking it off and tossing it aside as Paige had helped towel her dry. Trotting back in to the kitchen, she helped herself to a cold bottle of water from the fridge and sat down at the breakfast bar to drink it. Picking up the set of keys that were laying there, she rolled her eyes again. Emily tried to call Paige, to let her know she was a total goof-ball for not only forgetting her keys, but leaving the front door open too. Afternoon classes had already started, so she got straight through to Paige's voicemail. "Hey, it's me. Soooo, I found my cap, but you left your door open and you forgot your keys. I'm locking up now and coming straight back. I'll see you soon, babe. I love you..."

"Hey, Carter, have you seen Fields?" Paige questioned one of the girls on the swim team as she finished walking the length of the locker room for the second time. Carter shook her head.
"Sorry, Coach."
"Damn it Emily, where the hell are you?" Paige muttered to herself. The teenager hadn't come back yet, and Paige was starting to worry. She hadn't picked up her phone that morning, so she had no way of calling Emily to check in with her. Slipping out of the locker room, she went on deck, searching out Emily's parents. She spotted them on the third row of the bleachers, sitting next to her father.

Nick McCullers was dressed in a white button down and a pair of faded jeans. He had a baseball cap slung low over his face, trying to seem inconspicuous. He waved her over with a grin. "Hey, Kiddo! Tell Emily I said good luck out there."
"Uh, I would if I had the first clue where she was." Paige admitted, her concern for the younger girl rapidly growing. Emily knew how important the meet was, she wouldn't miss it for the world. "She hasn't came by to see you guys?"

"What's going on?" Pam demanded, leaning nosily over her husband. She'd overheard most of what Paige had just told her father. The older woman's frown deepened as she tried calling her daughter. The phone just rang and rang. "Paige, Where the hell is my baby girl?" She glared at Emily's girlfriend, as though Paige should have known her exact whereabouts at all times.
"I, uh...I...I'm not quite sure."

It took some convincing, but Paige managed to talk Pam in to waiting before calling a search party. Wayne arranged to go and check their house for her, while Pam would keep trying to call Emily, along with the hospital. Paige was to swing by her own house, and Nick would wait at the school – In-case Emily showed up after all. Paige was preying her absence would turn out to be something as simple as car trouble and a dead phone battery.

It was a relief for her to see Emily's car in the drive. The front door was still ajar. Paige raced straight inside, calling out for her girlfriend. She picked her cell phone up from the coffee table in the living room, then carried on searching the house. "Em? Emily? Are you still here? Em!" She stopped in her tracks as she walked in to the kitchen. Nothing was outright amiss, but Paige felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing to attention. Emily's car keys were sitting on the counter, along with a half empty bottle of water. Her navy blue swim cap was lying on the floor beside one of the stools.

Pulling her phone out to call her dad, she realised she had a missed call from the younger girl, along with a voicemail. She listened to Emily's message, sent over an hour ago, and felt her mouth go dry. She hadn't left her door open that morning, she was sure of it, and her house keys were still in her pocket; she'd left her phone, but not her keys. So what had Emily been talking about in her message? And who the hell had left Paige's door unlocked?

"Darren, I need your help!" Paige flew out of her house, fumbling to get her car keys out of her purse. Wilden had been the first person she thought of to call. Any other cop in town would dismiss her concerns for the missing teenager as an over reaction – not to mention question why she was even in Paige's house to begin with – Wilden would listen to her though; or so she thought.

"Paige, this isn't a good time." The detective sounded distracted. Paige had to rush to speak so he couldn't cut her off.
"Wait! It's important! Emily's missing, and I think someone was in my house. I think something's happened to her... I'm begging you Darren, I need your help!"
"You need me?" There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. Paige heard him shuffling his phone from one ear to another. "Okay. I'll put out an APB on her... and a BOLO on her car-"
"Her car's in my drive. She drove to my place, but she didn't take her car when she left. She's not answering her phone either. I'm really worried something might have happened. There was the break in a few months ago, and now Emily's missing and her stuff is still at my house-"

"I'm sure it's nothing." Wilden tried to dismiss her fears, his cop instincts kicking in. "I'll make some calls, drive around town, see what I can find out."
"Thank you, I appreciate-" The line went dead without warning. Paige didn't pay it much mind. She was already jumping in her car and gunning the engine. She wasn't just going to sit around and wait for somebody else to find Emily for her.

Paige barely made it a block before the flashing lights of a police cruiser caught her attention. There was a marked car, along with two unmarked ones; one of which belonged to Wilden. Thinking he was out on a call, which would explain why he had cut her off so abruptly, she pulled over by the side of the road. It was only as she drew closer to the police cars that she realised a dark haired detective was peering in to Wilden's empty car, examining it closely, like it was some kind of crime scene. "Hey, excuse me? Is Detective Wilden around? I just spoke to him and-"

"You spoke to Darren Wilden? When?" The man who had been prying in to Wilden's car turned to confront Paige. He wasn't someone she recognised from around the station. Young and well dressed, he had a piercing gaze that seemed to go right through her. "Where is he?"
"That's what I was going to ask you. This is his car, isn't it? I just called him, my, uh...friend, is missing. He said he'd call it in."

The detective carried on staring at Paige, as though she were some perp in an interrogation room and he was trying to break her. "Well, that might be hard for him to do, seeing as Detective Wilden was suspended yesterday. Would you mind giving Darren a call back? I'd really like to speak to him-"
"Not until you tell me what's going on." Paige stood her ground, placing her hands defiantly on her hips. She wasn't stupid. Something was going on. She could tell by the way the uniformed officers nervously looked between each other, none of them able to look the frantic young woman in the eye. Holbrook rubbed at his clean shaven chin.

"You're Paige McCullers, right?" He continued as Paige nodded in the affirmative. "I guess you were next on my list to talk to anyway... Where were you the night that a Mr Dylan Hunt was shot by the roadside? I'm sure you're familiar with the name."
"This is about Hunt?" Paige's expression scrunched up in confusion. She couldn't fathom what Wilden getting suspended could have to do with the death of the man who had killed her mother. "Look, I already told Darren, I was with my girlfriend that night. All night!"

"Detective Wilden's report claims that you were with him at a bar." Holbrook didn't seem that surprised by the contradiction in Paige's alibi.
"Well I wasn't. I was with Emily Fields, and if your department pull their finger out of their ass and help me find her, you can ask her yourself. She's missing. She was at my house, just down the block, but now she's not. Her stuff is still there, and she isn't picking up her phone. I told Darren and..." Paige trailed off, the penny finally dropping. She swallowed hard, almost choking on her next words. "He wasn't trying to give me an alibi for that night, was he?"

"No, Ma'am." Holbrook shook his head solemnly. "I'm not Rosewood PD. I'm with the state police, Internal Affairs to be exact. We have reason to believe that Detective Wilden was involved in Mr Hunt's murder. A warrant was served for his apartment this morning. We found some items we believe tie him to the murder, but we didn't find Wilden. If he dumped his car here, he might have been on his way to see you. If you know where he is, or how to get in touch with him, I suggest you let us know now... before anyone else gets hurt. Ms McCullers?"

"I think he has my girlfriend..."