Arriving at the site of the search party base camp, Cal and Gillian were greeted with a hub of activity. Exiting the car, they set about looking for their own colleagues along with anyone who looked like they might be in charge, or at least remotely aware of their purpose there.

They now had as much information as they could expect without having interviewed anyone themselves. Amy Hamilton, aged 14, had been missing for over 5 hours. She hadn't arrived home from school at the expected time that day. It was completely unlike her, and her parents were very strict on the permitted movements of their children. They would always come straight home after school, participated in very few extracurricular activities and every single one was meticulously planned by her parents for the purpose of getting them into the best colleges. It seemed that Amy had missed the bus coming home. Her last class finished a few minutes late due to a teacher taking exception to one student pre-empting the bell. According to the police investigation file, the next bus was cancelled and there would be a delay before the next one after that. It was believed that this was the time that the first call was made from her phone, and voicemail left, to explain that she would be late and why.

According to eyewitnesses, Amy had walked in the direction of another bus stop with another route that served close to her neighbourhood. That was the last anyone had seen her. Twenty minutes later, she used her cell phone to call her mom's phone again, one of only five phone numbers she was permitted to have programmed into the phone. However, it seemed that her mother had left her phone down somewhere and hadn't gone looking for it until she began to worry about how late Amy was and attempted to call her. Mrs Julie Hamilton was apparently something of a technophobe, and while she had two missed calls from Amy and a notification of a voicemail, she had no idea how to use her phone correctly to access it. When she received no answer from her daughter, she tried calling her 17-year-old son David who was at baseball practice, then she tried her husband who was at work. Eventually, after multiple attempts at unsuccessful phone calls, she called Amy again and this time the phone was answered by a passing stranger who had found the cell phone on the street. It was at this point that Mrs Hamilton called the police, entirely hysterical. Amy was a couple of hours late by then and estimated to be missing for over an hour. The police told Mrs Hamilton to wait. It wasn't until David Hamilton arrived home and helped his mother to access the messages that they knew for certain that something was wrong, and the police were then willing to become involved.

The second voicemail captured what sounded like a struggle between Amy and an adult male. Amy was screaming for someone to let her go, she screamed for her mother to help her, and the background noise was a muffled voice of a man who seemed to be either arguing with someone else, or as the police were assuming arguing with Amy herself. Loker would have to try to clean up the sound before they could be sure, their equipment was considerably more advanced than what the police had available.

So far, this was all the information they had. The search party would be setting out from the bus stop where Amy was last seen. They would begin with a 5-mile search radius, which would include the school grounds and sports fields, along with a small, wooded area and other similar terrain. The police were appealing for witnesses, but thankfully had not yet begun door to door canvassing. The Lightman Group would want to be present for that to assess anyone who may wish to hide any information from them.

Spotting Ria and Mark hovering near the crowd of volunteers, Gillian headed toward them as Cal headed towards the nearest responsible looking cop. They each briefed their respective targets on what they wanted to do. The four human lie detectors, both scientists and naturals, would spread out and carefully watch the faces of the crowd as they were briefed by the police. They would have their video recording equipment set up too so they could look back on anything they might miss in the moment. The fact that the sun had set by now made the task all the more challenging, reading micro-expressions was difficult at the best of times, but they would repeat the process again the following morning when the search resumed, assuming this evening turned up no results in the search for the missing girl.

Gillian made it clear that the two naturals were not to engage with any of the volunteers, given that Mark had only been with them for a few months and despite his showing exceptional promise she couldn't help but focus her attention on him as she said this. Ria had almost three years of experience with them but Mark was still wet behind the ears. They were to look for anything that felt amiss, and report back. Gillian just hoped that Cal wouldn't have difficulty with the same plan of action.

After the search party set off, the four of them reconvened along with the police on scene and Wallowski who had joined them by this point.

"Anything?", Wallowski asked.

They all looked at each other, shrugging in defeat.

"There was one or two who looked a little excited to be there, but I didn't see anything that looked sinister", Mark spoke up first.

"Sorry, who are you?", Wallowski said looking at the young man with confusion

"Don't I know you from somewhere?", asked Officer Davis, the uniformed cop who had delivered the briefing.

Mark shrank back a little, knowing full well that this cop may well know him from his previous occupation. He looked to Gillian instinctively to bail him out.

"This is Mark Turner, he's been with The Lightman Group for a few months now", Gillian informed them without showing a hint of knowledge that their new protégé had likely seen the inside of this officer's precinct on more than one occasion. "Mark and Ria here are working with us to spot any signs of deception leakage from your volunteers. We'll accompany your officers on the door to door's tomorrow too."

Mark struggled to hide the gratitude on his face and Ria took the cue from the subtle glance Cal threw her way and led the young man away to help gather up the recording equipment as their bosses spoke to the police. Officer Davis' eyes followed them as they went, certain that he recognised Mark. Cal made a mental note to spend time teaching him how to be more guarded in his expressions. If he was going to be working with cops, the last thing they needed was for one of them to recognise him as a Baltimore mugger.

Once their gear was loaded up, Ria and Mark headed back to the Lightman Group labs to link in with Eli Loker. Cal and Gillian finalised their plans for the following day with Wallowski and Davis, promising to be at the precinct for an early start.

As they made their way back to the lab together, they discussed the case, the lack of anything to go by so far, and then Cal tentatively broached the topic of them working with Wallowski again. Gillian seemed to have put her issues with the detective aside for the sake of the case, but Cal knew she must have been bothered by the fact that Sharon Wallowski had felt comfortable enough to just show up at Cal's door just after 8pm. She knew that Cal hadn't seen the cop since before they had sorted things out and become a couple, but he knew that if they didn't discuss it sooner rather than later, it would fester. Cal didn't want things to fester between them anymore. As much as he loved arguing with Zoe when they were married, he hated serious fights with Gillian. Their arguments had become lighter, flirtatious foreplay recently. He hated the idea that the bitter, spiteful and defensive fights where he lashed out at her, and she became unbearably patronising could return. The honeymoon period of a new relationship would have to wear off eventually, and they did still have their disagreements, but they were short lived, and they found they could talk through things now comfortable in the knowledge that they were on the same page and wanted the same things. Wallowski suddenly showing up out of the blue tonight had the potential to cause some turbulence.

Cal reached out and squeezed Gillian's hand. Her attention, previously directed out the window of the car, now turned to him. She squeezed his hand back and smiled at him tiredly.

"You alright, Sweetheart?", he asked kindly.

"Yeah", she sighed. "Just thinking about that poor kid."

"That all?", he broached carefully.

She smiled at him, assuming he was worried about her and Wallowski being in the same space again. "Should I be thinking about something else?", she asked him with a hint of humour, burying any annoyance she felt.

"Just thought you might be wondering about Wallowski's chosen method of recruitment is all", throwing tact out the window, Cal decided to dive headfirst into danger. "Her just showing up like that. Doesn't bother you?", he asked,

She looked at him with curiosity, a shred of irritation showing itself before she buried it down again. "Do you want me to be bothered, Cal?", she asked him. Still keeping her eyes on his face as his focused determinedly on the road ahead she continued, "I admit, I wasn't exactly happy to see her in your living room tonight, but I guess I put it out of my mind when she said why she was there".

"She doesn't make a habit of it, in case you were wondering", he said with forced levity. He was practically squirming in the driver seat now, looking like a kid waiting to get in trouble.

"I hadn't assumed", she paused. "Not a habit? But she's done it before? Aside from the time she and her corrupt partner broke into your house, right?"

Gillian hadn't wanted to let her feelings about Cal and Wallowski creep into her tone, but she seemingly lacked control when it came to this topic. Wallowski, although no longer a threat in Gillian's eyes, would always be a sore point for her. She would never fully trust or like the cop. And she knew that Cal felt the same lack of trust, although not to the same extent. She could never reconcile the fact that he was so keen to keep her around. Never fully bought the idea that she was a good resource. The fact that Cal showed attraction to her would always bother her. She was never really the jealous type until Cal. It was funny because he had always been the jealous type until they got together. Somehow knowing that she had chosen him, despite the fact that he couldn't always read her the way he wanted to. But she never showed any doubt about them since they got together, and all of this gave him confidence in them, and his jealous nature usually took a back seat in their relationship.

Cal didn't seem to be enjoying her upset. He squeezed her hand again and turned his tone towards that adorable sexy, low and soft caring timbre that he knew could turn her to mush at the best of times, but even when she was pissed at him could soften her mood.

"Just the once, Gill", he promised. "Just business. I'd long lost interest in trying to make you jealous by then", he smiled cheekily at her.

She looked at him outraged and amused in equal measure. "I knew it. You absolute bastard, I knew it. You were using her to get back at me."

"Maybe a bit. Knew how much it bothered you though, even when I was right pissed at the world I couldn't follow through. Not with her. I wanted to hurt you but, not that much. Not like that".

"Jerk", she uttered, lifting his had to her mouth and kissing it to offset the words.

"So, you're alright with this? With us working a case with her and her lot?", he asked.

"Sure. Cal, yeah, there's a child missing. These are the cases that matter. Of course I'm ok with working with her on this… Just don't flirt with her. Not if you know what's good for you." She was serious, but the smile on her face let him know that they were ok. His relief at her words was immediately evident. As he pulled the car into the parking space in the underground parking lot under their offices, he undid his seatbelt. Turning off the engine, he turned in his seat to fully face her. He took her hand in his again, ensuring to catch her gaze.

"I love you, Gillian. You know that. You know I'm a pathetic flirt, can't help myself sometimes, but I'll keep it completely professional with her. Promise. Love you".

She nodded at his words, fearful that he could read the insecurity she was feeling but knowing that she had no reason to feel that way. She knew he loved her. She knew he was a flirt, but he hadn't really flirted with anyone else in front of her since he hooked up with that art thief before they were together. She wasn't naïve enough to assume he didn't do it when she wasn't around. But she knew that he loved her, and that was enough. He'd given her no reason not to trust him.

She reached her hand up to lightly brush the back of his neck with her fingertips and leaned in to quickly brush her lips against his.

"I love you too. Come on. Let's get through these videos and voicemails so we can get some sleep tonight. You better Call Emily too, let her know where you are."

She moved then out of the car, leaving him to follow behind her at a run so he could run his hands over her back and low around her waist before they got upstairs and he had to keep his hands to himself. She was annoyingly firm in her "no office action" rule.