Chapter 5

Sam tried to slip under the covers as silently as she could, but she could hear Martin move beside her nevertheless. It was still dark outside and it hadn't stopped raining all night. She could still hear the soft thudding against the windows. From beside her she perceived a yawn.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." She whispered.

"What time is it?" Martin sounded drowsy.

Sam turned to have a look at the big red numbers of her alarm-clock.

"Half past six."

Martin sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I'm glad you did wake me. Otherwise I might have been late for work. Where have you been by the way?"

Sam shrugged before she realized he couldn't see her.

"I needed the bathroom." She answered and turned on the lamp on her nightstand.

"Ooohhh, that was mean..." Martin moaned shielding his eyes with his arm.

"I thought you needed to get up. I was just trying to be supportive" She teased.

"I do need to get up, but I didn't picture it like that." He put his arm beside him to get used to the light.

"You didn't?" She rolled over to him and kissed him good morning. "Was that better?"

"That was more like it." He smiled, but he went serious again when he got a closer look at her. "Are you okay? You look quite pale?"

"I feel a bit woozy, but I'm okay."

"You sure?" Martin looked worried, but Sam nodded as if she didn't want to hear about it.

"I'm okay. I really am. But you need to get up now. There's work waiting for you."

"Thanks for reminding me." Martin sighed and kissed her before he got out of bed.

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Martin had just been ready and was about to leave when his cell phone rang.

"Fitzgerald." He said in the same tone as always when he picked up the phone.

Sam looked up, curious who it would be.

"Hey Danny!" Then Martin listened to something his friend on the other end explained. Sam could hear somebody talking, but she couldn't understand what he said. After some time it was Martin's turn to say something again. "Okay, I'll be there in a bit. Depends on how busy the streets are. See you later." With that he hung up.

He turned to Sam who was sitting at the kitchen table where they just had had a quick breakfast.
"That was Danny. A 14 year-old was just reported missing. I need to meet him at the parents house. I'm sorry, work calls."

Sam shrugged.

"Never mind. You would have had to go in a minute or so anyway." She slowly followed him to the door.

He had already opened it when he turned around.

"I don't know how long this will take of course, but if it's not too late would it be okay with you if I came by to check on you?"

Sam had to chuckle.

"Check on me? Okay, you may do that."

He leaned forward to kiss her goodbye. When their lips met however he just couldn't leave her. They got stuck in the moment and the kiss became deeper and more passionate than intended at first. When they broke for a moment Sam pushed him away a little.

"I'll still be here tonight. You better go and meet up with Danny now."

Martin nodded. Of course she was right. That teenager should be his first priority at the moment, but it was hard to concentrate on anything other than Sam when she was standing right in front of him and they were alone.

"Okay, I know. See you tonight then. I'll call you." He gave her another quick kiss and with that he was off leaving Sam alone in her apartment.

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Of course Martin had expected to get stuck in traffic, but he couldn't shake that it was worse than ever. It was New York City however and he had lived here for quite a while now. Long enough to know how things worked and especially what it felt like being stranded on the road during Rush Hour. Nothing moved for a long time until suddenly traffic ran relatively smooth again for big city standards.

When he reached the house of the missing teenager's parents he could already spot Danny checking his watch.

"Hey, man, sorry I'm late. Traffic was a real bitch this morning."

Danny nodded, but couldn't hide a smile. "I bet it was." He said not trying to hide a knowing undertone. His friend was so transparent. He hadn't been late in the past three weeks. On the contrary, he had always been there earlier than everyone else. Danny thought it must have had to do with restlessness or the sleep that didn't seem to be coming and there was definitely a connection to Sam. But what really made the difference this morning was that Martin seemed so much more positive this morning and he wouldn't be Danny if he didn't know first about what was going on with his best friends.

"So what have we got?" Martin asked as they made their way to the front door.

"Mildred Lewis, 14 years old, went to a party at a friend's house last night, but obviously never got there. Parents got worried when she didn't show up and called at the friend's house, but they didn't even seem to know of any party at all. So they called the police." Danny rang the doorbell and searched the pocket of his coat for his badge.

A woman in her mid-fourties opened the door. She looked terrible as if she had cried all night. And this was a fair assumption of course.

"Mrs. Lewis?" The woman nodded. "We're the agents Fitzgerald and Taylor. May we come in?"

"Of course..." she held the door open for them to enter.

Martin let a sigh before he entered. He doubted that he was going to have the chance to see Sam tonight. If they were lucky they would find this girl alive, but that would take time.

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The parents couldn't give them very much on the disappearance of Mildred Lewis. But the agents knew that the parents of missing person often weren't very talkative and helpful during the first questioning. It often happened that they forgot to tell essential details sometimes even deliberately. This of course took valuable time, but the agents came behind it eventually.

Martin and Danny were on their way to the school Mildred went to. They needed to talk to this friend.

"So," Danny took his eyes from the street for a moment to look at his friend, who was sitting in the passenger's seat, "How is Sam?"

"She was fine this morning." He said not thinking about what he had just said. When he looked back at Danny and saw the big grin he realized how much he had just told him.

"That's good to know. So you two finally sorted it out?" Danny asked stopping in front of the red lights.

"Yeah, I guess we did." Martin couldn't hide a smile when he thought about it.

"That's good news. But I have to say that it was about time. I've once heard somebody say: I've never seen two people such much in love and yet so determined to refuse to admit it. The first thought that came to my mind were you and Sam. I just couldn't help it."

It was the typical Danny to say something like that and keep on grinning like a Cheshire cat. The happiness of other people seemed to leave him more satisfied than his own did.

Martin shook his head. "I'm not refusing to admit anything. It's just a little more complicated."

"It's always as complicated as you decide to have it. I'd say in your case it was quite easy: You love her, she loves you...happy end! But you seemed to have figured that out without my help. Although it took a little longer. But I swear I would have done something to open your eyes, if you two hadn't come to your senses."

Martin had to laugh about his friend. He hadn't thought him to be so affected by his their personal lives.

"Don't you laugh!", Danny said and did his best to look convincingly hurt. "I'm serious on this."

"Sure." Martin shook his head still smiling when the school came in sight.

"There we go." Danny said when he parked the car and got out to continue with work.

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"Lioba Anderson?" Martin asked approaching a fragile-looking teenager with blonde, curly hair.

The girl was standing in front of the locker her back turned to the agents. She froze when she heard the voice from directly behind her. Slowly she turned around to face them.

Danny and Martin exchanged knowing glances. When someone reacted like that they usually were at the right address to dig something up.

"So you are Lioba? Did I pronounce that correctly?" Danny asked her again.

"It's Lioba, like in Leo... And yes that's me."

"That's good, because we wanted to ask you a few questions about that party you were going to have last night."

Lioba shook her head and wanted to walk away, but Danny stepped in her way.

"Look, I really need to get to my French class." She complained.

"I'm sure your teacher wouldn't mind, if you tell him the FBI had a couple of questions to ask."

"Are you even allowed to question me without my parents?"

Martin sighed inwardly. He hoped that he would never have a teenager as complicated and annoying as this.

"As a matter of fact your parents gave us the permission to do that, because it seems to be in their interested to find Mildred Lewis as quickly as possible."

A dumbfounded expression appeared on Lioba's face.

"This is about Millie?" She couldn't banish the surprise from her voice.

Now it was the agents turn to look puzzled. Martin was the first to find his speech back.

"Yeah. What else would it be about?"

Lioba shrugged. "Just some teenager stuff. But did you just say that Millie is missing?"

Danny nodded.

"She told her parents she would go to a party at your place, but she didn't show up at the time they'd agreed she would be back. And they called your parents house to find out there wasn't any party. So we really need to know everything you know that might have anything to do with her disappearance."

The blonde girl sighed.

"That might be quite a bit. Millie had this boyfriend she had been babbling about for the past three weeks, but her parents didn't know about him. They are quite strict when it comes to boys. So she pressed me to invent this party so she could go to the movies with him."

Martin scribbled that down on his notebook.

"What kind of boyfriend was this? Do you know his name?" Danny asked.

"She knew him from her job. She delivers the newspaper twice a week. He was a bit older than Millie. I think 19 or something. I don't remember all the details, but his name was Michael Lloyd."

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"What do you think?" Danny asked when they left the school. They had just called the office to tell them the news and it was up to them to make out the whereabouts of Michael Lloyd now.

"Well...," Martin shrugged, "Teenager's and their parents are strange creatures. I bet Lioba Anderson was afraid we had seen her smoking weed with her friends behind the gym. And this Millie has to hide her boyfriend from her parents, who allow her to go to a party when she's got school the other day. This is so ridiculous. Remind me not to be so inconsistent if I should ever have kids."

"I might just pick you up on that." Danny replied grinning.

End Chapter 5...

A/N: That might have been quite an uninteresting chapter in smarty-senses, but IT IS COMING BACK! I promise!