Mandy Bowman

While Lilly and Scotty were driving towards Mandy Bowman's house they discussed their case and the files they had read so far.

"According to this police report Mandy was cooperative, though as soon as they started asking her why she thought Amber had ran away she refused to answer." Lilly stated while she was reading the report. "Maybe Amber confined something in her and made her promise not to tell anyone." Lilly thought out loud.

"Maybe, but if it was such a big secret, how come Amber's mum didn't notice something strange about her daughter?"

Scotty asked. "Or Amber was good at keeping secrets? Who knows, the girls were fifteen maybe Amber was joking when she told her friend that she wanted to run away and Mandy had taken it seriously." Lilly reasoned.

While Lilly talked, Scotty parked the car. As Scotty exited, Lilly stayed seated appearing to be reading. When Valens noticed she was still in the car he walked over to her side of the car and opened the door for her.

"You know, if you want me to open the door for you, you can ask." he teased, grabbing her attention.

"Look at this." Lilly said, not hearing his comment. As she passed the report to Scotty he read the line she indicated curiously. "maybe you should ask her parents about the other time she ran away. What is she talking about? According to the report the officers wrote, there wasn't any other file about Amber running away or being missing." Scotty said looking confused.

"Parents didn't file a report?" Lilly wondered "Or maybe Amber lied to Mandy?"

"Let's ask Mandy shall we?" Scotty interjected

"Lets" Lilly retorted exiting the car. When she was walking to the house she suddenly realised that her partner had been holding the door. 'Why was he holding the door? And how come I didn't realise it sooner?' the blond detective wondered. 'Great he acts like a gentleman towards me and I can't even enjoy it because I don't realise it.' Lilly pounted. 'Wait a minute, why would I enjoy it? He's just being friendly, he's my friend nothing more! Isn't he?' Lilly asked herself. 'I need to focus on this case, I can think about this later. Whatever this is.' Lilly decided feeling confused. She was always in control and now she suddenly couldn't control her thoughts and feelings, and she really hated not being in control.

Because of her pondering she hadn't realised they had reached the door and she almost bumped into Scotty for the second time this morning.

Scotty gave her a questioning look but as he was about to make a comment a women opened the door, who caught their undivided attention.

"Mandy Bowman?" Lilly asked glad that the women had taken Scotty's attention, so he didn't ask her why she was distracted and almost ran into him.

"Yes, can I help you?" She asked politely. If she noticed the flustered look on Lilly's face she didn't mention it.

"I'm detective Rush and this is my partner detective Valens. We're from homicide." Lilly stated as she had many times before.

"Homicide? Why do you want to talk to me?" the twenty year old asked taken aback.

"We're her to ask you some questions about Amber Spade's dissapearing." Scotty said.

"Did you find her? Is she dead?" came the immediate answer.

"No, we didn't find her. Her mother asked us to reopen her case hoping to find her." Lilly cut the questions of.

"Can we come in?" Scotty asked. It was the end of December and it was freezing. Seeing that they would probably be here some time, he wouldn't mind being in the warmth of the house.

"Sure, come in." the young women answered. As the homicide detectives entered the women turned around and asked: "Can you take your shoes of please? I don't want wet footprints all around the house."

Scotty and Lilly exchanged surprised looks but obeyed the woman's request and took their shoes of.

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As the woman had led them to the living room she had offered them coffee which they had gladly accepted. "Why don't you two sit down on the couch while I go get the coffee." the woman said.

"Thanks." Scotty said as he seated himself next to his female colleague.

When Mandy returned with the coffee Lilly asked her first question.

"Amber was supposed to be staying with you the night she disappeared, right?"

"Yes, that's right. She slept at least ones a week at my house." came the answer.

"When was she supposed to arrive?" Lilly asked

"She had told me she would come over around 5 o'clock." Mandy answered

"According to her mother's statement she had called you around 10 o'clock to ask you if Amber had arrived. Weren't you worried when Amber hadn't arrived yet? She was 5 hours late." Lilly asked.

"It wouldn't be the first time Amber didn't come over when she had told me she would."

"Really? Didn't you have a problem with that?" Lilly asked.

"She usually had an excuse." Mandy answered getting nervous.

Lilly glance over at Scotty and saw that he too had noticed the fact that Mandy was getting nervous.

"Did she call that night with an excuse for her absence" Lilly asked

"No, she didn't call that night. But she usually waited until the next time we met to explain why she hadn't made it." came the nervous reply.

"Can you tell me some of the reasons she couldn't come over?" Scotty interrupted

"To much homework or she had to help her parents."

"Did you believe her excuses?"

"Of course I believed her, why would she lie to me? I was her best friend." was the defensive answer Lilly got, but the slight hesitation before the outburst wasn't lost on either detective. Noticing that Mandy wouldn't tell her anything more about this subject, she decided to drop it for the moment.

"You told the police officers you thought Amber had ran away." Lilly said

"Yes, I still think she ran away." came the immediate answer.

"Why are you so sure?" Lilly asked

"You should ask her mother that question. She knows why." Mandy replied.

"Has it something to do with the first time she ran away?" Lilly pressed

"As I told your colleagues five years ago, you should as her parents about that. Now if you don't mind, I have to go to work. So if you could leave." the twenty year old said as she stood up.

Bolt Lilly and Scotty realised that they weren't going to get more answers and decided that leaving was probably the best option. They could always return if they had more questions. So they got their shoes and left.

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As they drove towards the office Vera called to tell them that while reading the police reports in the box. He had come across the name of Amber's boyfriend.

"A boyfriend? Are you sure?" Lilly asked surprised.

"Yep, apparently the officers had talked to some of her friends at school and came up with the boyfriend's name." Vera replied smugly. "So what did our dearly beloved Mandy have to say?"

"Not much, apparently we should talk to Amber's mother if we want to know why she thinks her friend ran away." Lilly sighed. "Oh and it seems that our victim wasn't shy of forgetting an appointment." Lilly added as an afterthought.

"That's all she said?" Vera asked sounding disappointed

"Yeah, we didn't push her, but I don't think it would have helped."

After this Vera gave Lilly the name and address of Amber's boyfriend and they said their goodbyes.

"Marco Delko, 2 years older than our victim and according to the report Vera and Jeffries found he was 5 months together with Amber before she disappeared. He was cooperative with the cops, but the he didn't know much. Or at least nothing that was helpful." Lilly summarized her conversation with Vera for her Cuban partner.

"How about we have a talk with Delko and then we go eat something before we go back to HQ." Scotty asked

"Fine by me." Lilly answered.