Hello hello!

Guest: good to know the case is getting interesting, I am really worried about how this will play out! There will be romantic moments, just a little different.

Now, time for them to get really cracking!

The morning after things started off on a much better note, at least for Emily.

Cal was the first one to wake up, much to his own surprise. The couch was comfortable enough but there was way too much morning light coming through the window since the early hours of the day, so he got up before either of the ladies could barge in already dressed and make him look like the lazy one. On the way to the bathroom, trying to be as stealth as possible, he briefly glanced at the closed door of Gillian's room trying not to think too much about it, then peaked his head inside Emily's room. She was all curled up on one side of the mattress despite having the whole bed to herself and he couldn't but smile, because that was her position and because of the snoring coming out of her half opened mouth. Cal chuckled and shook his head, thinking that was how a girl her age should look like, then he washed up and went back to the living area.

On the way there he threw another passing gaze at Gillian's room, wondering if she was sprawled all over the mattress as she often did when sharing the bed with him, then he tossed the thought aside and replaced it with the need to sort out breakfast. He just about had the time to put on the coffee and decide to trust the expiry date on the eggs in the fridge that Gillian stepped into the room. She looked surprised to find him up and running and Cal rolled his eyes at her, a bit insulted, but then they eased into the now familiar routine of preparing breakfast together…minus all the touching and other kinds of distractions they had also gotten used to.

Shortly after, much to their own relief considering that they started to feel like they needed a barrier between them, Emily finally joined them. She announced herself with a loud yawn and came into the room straddling her face with one hand, mumbling a rough good morning and going straight for the coffee. She didn't say nor did anything that would suggest she should have been the one waking up her early to make breakfast, which was all well in their book: she seemed to have slept off the urgency of making herself helpful of the day before, and, rightfully so, she was now just a teenager happy to sleep in a little longer and don't worry about taking care of others.

That of course didn't mean that she wasn't still dedicated to solving the case as much as they were.

"So, what's the plan for today?" She asked as they ate.

"I think we should look into the parents, at least the first family we spoke to yesterday," Cal said, patting her head with a sweet gesture. "That's a very good point you made, Em. At the very least they might not expect their daughter to be back, which means they might be hiding something."

"We're going back to them then?"

"It might be best to wait," Gillian intervened while sipping the coffee, rolling her eyes at Cal's frown. "Let's talk to the other families, and check out the children's rooms. If we pick up on something similar with the others it means there's definitely something there. And if we don't, then we'll get back to the Greys and question them further."

"Maybe we should split," Cal thought out loud as he nodded in agreement, seeing the reasoning behind Gillian's words. "There are four more families, if we can take two each it could buy us sometimes."

"But why the rush Dad?"

Emily's question was very much warranted and reasonable, but the answer wasn't as easy despite the fact that he had it in his grasp. Surprising himself, Cal looked at Gillian for help but she simply nodded to him, understanding his difficulties but pushing him to look beyond them. He wanted to protect his daughter from the nasty reality of the world but he couldn't do that without treating her like a child anymore, and he also didn't want to make her feel like they couldn't do their job as usual if she was around. He simply couldn't have it both ways, and as he watched his partner smile bitterly at him Cal realised he'd better start facing the music.

"If there's something in this business of parents not expecting the kid to come back it might mean that they know she won't," he started explaining, but then Emily frowned confused and Gillian shot him glare as to say he didn't have to be so cryptic about it. Cal sighed and bit at his bottom lip, she was right of course, then leaned closer to Emily. "We don't know what happened to these kids but we have to assume they are in danger."

"You mean they might be dead already?" Emily was rather calm when she asked that, but they both saw how much the thought weighed on her and Cal immediately wished he had stuck to his initial strategy of keeping things muddled.

"There's no way of knowing that, but we might not have too much time," he went on. "If we see the same things on the other families we'll have a strong lead we can tackle head on."

"Then you should talk to the Sheriff," Emily asserted, the hint of pain in her voice already gone. "Tell her about it, see what she says."

"We should do more than that," Gillian interjected, talking almost to herself as she stood up pacing the room. "Even if only one family is hiding something we should look into them. Financials, contacts and actions out of ordinary, any other kind of unusual activity they might have been involved with recently. This is a small town, if they behaved or did something different someone must have noticed."

"Alright, then how about Em and I go to the Sheriff, we explain what we think about the Greys and look into them?" He pointed his finger at Gillian. "You go on to the second family reporting the child missing, the Reeds. Ask to see the kid's room, get them to talk about the child as much as possible… Well, why am I explaining this to you, Foster? You know what to do!"

She smiled and nodded, then they went on finishing breakfast and discussing a few more details. They all agreed discretion was key: the small town had already attracted the attention of a zealous DA and now experts from the capital were rolling in, and the last thing they needed with such a delicate case was for word of suspicion on the parents to spread in the community. There was a vague hint of objection from Emily, mostly related to the fact that she was the self appointed custodian of all things filming, but Gillian gently and firmly put it to rest. She could easily set up on her own to begin with, and of course she could see that Cal's idea to spread the team had an ulterior motive. Working on the assumption that other families might be hiding their involvement in the kids' disappearance she knew she would have to dig deep in the upcoming interviews, and there was no telling how that could go. When Cal had suggested he'd take Emily with him to the Sheriff, Gillian had imagined he had seen the opportunity to give her a break from that side of the case after the night before, and she was going to help him out as much as she could.

After breakfast they loaded the equipment Gillian would have needed in the car and drove off, calling the Sheriff on the way to let her know they were coming and ask if she could send a deputy to the Reeds home and meet Gillian there. When they dropped her off at the address Cal was mighty glad that the deputy was already there. Sedley might have not been a big city but still had its darker sides, poor areas most people would stay away from for various reasons and Cal felt a lot better knowing that she wouldn't be there on her own. Still, when the two of them got out of the car and he helped her with the equipment, he couldn't resist a quick concerned glance. Gillian smiled at it, it had always done something to her the unmitigated way he worried about her and it was even more powerful now as a couple, but she briefly squeezed his hand and nodded over at the man in uniform waiting a few steps away.

Cal nodded back, possibly also thanking her for seeing through his little scheme with Emily and going with it, then they parted and went back into the car. Emily was quite chatty during the rest of the drive, and he wasn't too surprised: she was probably glad that she didn't have to sit through more hours of listening to grieving parents only to then find out they were guilty of something. Cal suspected she also liked the idea of playing detective, digging into private information like in the movies and TV shows: he didn't have the heart to tell her that after all it was still boring paperwork, and that there was a good chance as a civilian not legally old enough to drink yet she wasn't going to be allowed to do any real police work anyway.

As expected, the sheriff didn't take too well to their theory. Not because she didn't believe them, but because it was hard to accept people she knew, parents she knew, could be responsible for the disappearance of their own child. But Sheriff Talbot was the wise kind of person who wasn't going to ask for help and then refuse the input coming from it, therefore she opened up her archive and got some manpower to go through the Greys' information.

They weren't wealthy but still financially stable, however going through papers and data odd things started to come up. Mr Grey had lost his job at the beginning of the year and even though he was now working again things had been rough for a couple of months; since then, there had been small but regular deposits made to the family's saving account, always in cash and in slightly increasing amounts, nothing that would raise suspicion separately but certainly a different thing when looked at from the particular angle they were working on. And after a couple of hours the Sheriff came in with one juicy piece of information: two months before the family had put the house on the market, only to call it just a week or so before their daughter went missing.

Cal didn't allow himself any celebration on the matter, parents potentially selling off their kids for money was hardly something to be happy about, but he did have something in his hands that steered the investigation further in the direction of what they were seeing. He knew he should update Gillian and tried to call her, but when the call went to voicemail he figured she must still be in the middle of the interview so he messaged her instead. Waiting around wasn't one of his strong suits, so he spoke with the Sheriff and they agreed to run the same kind of background checks on the other families for good measures.

Once that was taken care of, Cal looked at Emily who had been doing what she could to keep up with the paperwork and not fall asleep out of boredom. He chuckled at the view, then decided it was time for them to take a break and went to fetch her, declaring it was time to think about lunch. They asked Sheriff Talbot for advice then headed to a diner just a few minutes walk from the station, where they sat at a quiet table away from others and ordered enough food as if Gillian was to join them at any time. Emily was quiet, although the large serving of fried chicken the waitress brought her seemed to do wonders in cheering her up. Cal watched her tackle the chicken and the fries with gusto, making a mental note to bring Gillian there before the case was over knowing how much she would have enjoyed that load of junk food.

However, as the meat and chips disappeared from the plate slowly, so did Emily's good temper, and by the time there were only a few crumbs left she was thoughtful and frowning oddly.

"What is it, love?" Cal asked, shrugging when she gave him one of hers 'don't read me' glares. "C'mon Em, I don't even have to try. What's bothering you?"

"You were right, it seems."

"It's been known to happen," he granted, then pushed away his own empty plate and leaned forward on the table. "You mean about the parents having something to do with it?" She nodded in response, not looking at him but absently playing with the straw in her glass instead. "I know it's not easy to take in, but hopefully we got to it in time."

"Do you think they are all the same? The other families?"

"I don't know love, but if that's the case we are going to find out. I'm sure that Foster- Oh!" The phone on the table buzzed and caught his attention, so he picked it up and grinned before showing her the screen. "Speak of the devil. Foster, I was starting to think you ditched me for Deputy Barry there."

"It's Larry, Cal. And how could I?"

Cal smiled like a happy idiot, content with the fact they could sneak in a bit of banter and above all with the fact that she not so subtly let him know she wasn't going anywhere without him. Then he looked at Emily, who was looking at him all insulted and resented for being left out, so he warned Gillian she was on speaker and put the phone on the table.

"How's it going over there? Still at the Reeds?"

"No, actually I'm at the orphanage. I had to take a break to change the batteries for the camera and I saw your text."

"You already moved on to the next?" Emily asked.

"Yes, I thought it was best." Gillian explained with a sigh. "The Reeds are absolutely devastated, I saw no signs on them or any kind of evidence in the house that would compare to what we saw with the Greys." She paused for a moment and they heard a little rustle, then some typing. "I'm sending you the recording so you can take a look, but I really don't think they are involved."

"Did you ask them about their financial situation?"

"They sort of brought it up on their own. They were fostering the boy so they were receiving a monthly income and they were keen on explaining they were not doing it for the money."

"And is it true?"

"As far as I can tell, yes. I saw no signs of deception, but a second look won't hurt." Cal heard her sigh and something inside him ached for a moment. "Listen, I have to go back inside and wrap this up. What is it that you found?"

Cal explained to her what they had dug up about the Greys, and much like him and Emily she found that piece of information equally interesting and depressing. Not surprisingly, Gillian decided to focus on the first sentiment and guided the conversation towards what that might mean for the case. Cal explained they were already looking into similar red flags with the other families and the orphanage, and they agreed they should probe about that aspect in future interviews.

"How long will you be there?" Cal asked then as he checked his watch.

"I'm not sure, there are a lot of people to talk to here."

"Maybe we could join you and let Deputy Marry go."

"It's still Larry, Cal," she objected, knowing full well he was intentionally being dense. "But it's a good idea. It would speed up the process and I might need some extra tapes and-"

"Hold on a second, Gill." Cal cut her off gently, frowning as in front of him Emily waved at him to catch his attention. "What is it Em?"

"The Sheriff," the girl explained. "She's calling me."

On the other side of the line, Gillian lost track of what was going on with them. She heard Emily say the Sheriff was calling her and even though they didn't close the communication on her they must have carried on away from Cal's phone because she didn't get much of anything for a bit. Eventually, Cal came back on the line to let her know that the Sheriff wanted to get the Greys to talk about the money situation, but they thought it was too soon to hammer them on that.

"We should go back," Cal said then, now back to their original conversation. "I don't think it's a good idea, I better talk to the Sheriff before she rushes into it."

"Good idea." Gillian agreed, then added. "Let me know when you're free to check what I sent you, or if you're going to join me here."

"Will do, thanks Foster."

With that they ended the conversation and Cal called for the check. On the way back to the police station Emily bombarded him with questions about why questioning the Greys about the financial situation was a bad idea, something that turned out to be extremely helpful when Cal had to explain the same to Talbot. Eventually, the Sheriff agreed to hold off for the time being but wanted Cal to provide a road map to move forward: when were they going to confront the family on that? Were they going to do the same with others, if needed? And what would they do if not all the families turned out to be hiding something.

They were still going through that a couple of hours later, quite possibly the most boring experience Cal had ever been through, when one of the officers approached the Sheriff. They were standing away from Cal so he couldn't hear, but it was obvious by their faces and body language that something was up. And when the Sheriff walked towards them nervously flipping the hat in her hands even Emily could tell something was wrong.

I really hope the case part is working, it was a bit complicated when I first thought about it and I struggled with it.

I know this chapter might seems a bit like a filler, I was still finding my footing: but as a heads-up, new chapter will be up tomorrow!