Disclaimer: Moonlight and characters don't belong to me; I'm simply a fan having fun with the characters.
"Please, come in," Anna urged, stepping back and opening the door to Mick and Beth.
"Anna, this is Beth Turner. Beth, Anna Worrester," Mick introduced, ushering Beth in before stepping in himself.
"Glad to finally meet you," Anna acknowledged with a tired smile. "Mick has said some wonderful things about you."
"Has he?" Beth returned the smile, liking Anna already. The bags under her eyes indicated exhaustion but the warmth in her dark brown eyes were genuine.
"He assured me that if anyone could help him find Gilly, it's you."
Beth shifted slightly so that her body was angled towards Mick, holding his gaze as she answered. "I'm glad the buzz is good."
Mick bit back a smile. He shouldn't have been surprised that Beth remembered a conversation from several months back but he was; it had been a relatively insignificant conversation he recalled, though it did stand out in his mind because it had been the one occasion that Josh Lindsey had asked for his help. The DA didn't like him and Mick suspected that it was, in part, due to his close friendship with Beth.
Focus, Mick reminded himself, turning his attention to Anna. "Why don't you tell us what happened?"
"There isn't much to tell," Anna confessed, leading them upstairs. "I was in the nursery when I heard a sound. A thud—kind of like when you drop something heavy or dense. I thought I was imagining it at first; with Gilly gone, the house has been quiet so I've learned not to jump at every little sound."
Anna came to a stop as they reached the end of the hall. "This is my bedroom," she explained, indicating the door in front of them. "When I finally decided to investigate, I followed the sound here." She pushed the bedroom door open and stepped in to turn on the lights.
"Oh my god…" Beth's eyes widened when she saw the illuminated room. Her eyes had been immediately drawn to the colorful mess on the floor. Several large photo albums were scattered throughout the room, hundreds of photos spilling out of each. The way the photos fanned across the carpeted floor made Beth suspect that the albums had been thrown, perhaps in a fit of rage.
Mick stepped around Beth to get a closer look. He made a full circuit around the room, eyes intent on taking in even the smallest detail.
Beth squatted down and examined the photos without touching them. "Are these all pictures of you and your husband?"
"There are some with Gilly too. Shane and I used to love snapshoting moments we shared; we never went anywhere without a camera. We kept all the albums in here so we could laugh and reminisce over them at the end of the day."
"Did you get a look at whoever did this?" Beth asked, standing.
"It was man; that was all I could tell. When I came in, the first thing I noticed were the photos and when I turned on the lights to get a better look, I noticed him but he ran off so fast I don't even know how he got out."
Mick came to join them, his examination of the room complete. "Did you touch anything after he left?"
Anna shook her head. "I checked to see if anything was missing, but other than that, no. Why?"
"Know anything about that?" Mick gestured to the foot of the bed where an ornate silver picture frame lay. The glass was spiderwebbed with cracks, but it was clear that the picture inside was Shane and Anna's wedding photo.
Anna shuddered. "He was standing at the dresser when I came in; I didn't realize he was looking at it at first because his back was turned, but when he ran off, I heard it drop."
"Well, there's nothing here." Mick's voice held a note of frustration.
"You said you checked to see if anything was missing…" Beth ventured.
"It's strange actually…" Anna replied slowly. "He made a mess of my drawers, but the only thing missing is a sweater…"
"A sweater?" Beth looked at her, perplexed. "Was it expensive?"
"It was nothing special really. I only noticed it was missing because Shane used to say that it was his favorite sweater. Said it reminded him of us because I wore it on our first date."
"Just the sweater is missing?" Mick asked. "Nothing of Gilly's?"
"Just the sweater."
"We'll leave this up to the cops then," Mick decided. "Beth and I will run our own investigations. We will find Gilly, Anna."
She smiled faintly. "Thank you."
"It has to be Shane, Mick!" Beth argued after they had left Anna's house. "That's twice Anna's house has been broken into with no one the wiser until it was too late. And if that's not enough proof, think about the sweater!"
"It could be a coincidence."
Beth scoffed. "You're an 85 year old vampire and you expect me to believe that you believe in coincidences?"
"And here I thought we were all entitled to our opinions."
"What's your theory then, if you're so convinced it's not Shane?"
"I'm not saying that it's not Shane. Just that if it is, something's off. Shane was an accountant, Beth. Breaking and entering is not a listed skill for accountants."
"You never know. Humans are full of surprises."
"I've noticed," Mick replied dryly.
"So where are we headed?"
"We? Don't you have a job to get back to?"
"Ever the practical one, aren't you?"
"Someone has to be."
"I'm sure Buzzwire can survive one day without me. Besides, this is my job."
"I'll drive you back."
"You don't have any leads, do you?"
Mick shook his head. "That quick mind of yours will get you in trouble one day."
"Not if you can help it," Beth replied sweetly.