I Practice My Detective Skills

Kaitlyn

"Thanks," I said softly, not meeting Carmen's eyes.

"For what?" she asked, a few steps in front of me. We were walking back to the room that Macie and I had previously been held prisoner in. My clothes were sticking to my body with sweat from our little exercise match

I sighed in exasperation. If she thought she was going to make me say it, then she had another thing coming. "For letting my win those last couple of battles," I said with an innocent smirk (if a smirk can be considered innocent).

"I didn't let you win!" she said indignantly, before she realized what she had implied. After the first time I beat her, she consoled herself by saying that she had let me win. Of course, I only won about three out of fifteen or twenty…or just a lot. But nobody needs to know that.

"So I beat you fair and square?" I asked smugly.

"Please, it was just beginner's luck. Besides, I'm getting over an injury anyway," she said, brushing it off. No matter how Carmen comes off to people, I had to give it to her; she knew how to fight and the girl wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Finally, somebody who could understand why I got into so much trouble.

"Could somebody please explain what is going on?" Macie and I were escorted to what we had dubbed "The Blue Room". The one where everything but the table had chairs were some shade of blue.

"I told you," Cameron said peevishly, "that we are going to be debriefed."

I shared a quizzical look with Macie and I think we were both comparing our situation to crime shows. That might just be the kidnapping and top-secret society talking, though. "What could we possibly be getting debriefed about?" Macie asked, hoping to receive an answer from somebody.

"Considering both of you were included in the summoning, I'm going have to say that it has something to do with you kidnapped family," Felix said. I realized both Carmen and Cameron were on those weird iPod things. They look agitated and Carmen shot her brother a dirty look. I didn't really think much of it because, so far, this whole experience had been weird.
Emma pushed the door to the Blue Room open. There were two people sitting at the long, wooden table. A woman was sitting at the head of the table, and a man was seated to her left. They looked like they were in the middle of an argument, but both clamped their mouths shut as soon as they saw us enter the room.

"Hello," the woman said warmly. She seemed like the grandmotherly type, but I got the feeling that she wasn't afraid to bring her wrath down on someone if need be. She looked in her fifties, with her long brown blonde hair pulled up into a bun. Her hair was starting to grey at the edges, but it didn't seem to bother her, which was a refreshing change in pace. Her hazel eyes were sharp, but caring.

"Ladies, gentlemen," the man said with a nod in our direction. He was a different case entirely. His hair was completely gray and his eyes brilliant blue eyes had wrinkles around the edges, but I suspect those were from laughing. Despite the formal greeting, he seemed…not as rough as the woman.
The woman turned her gaze on Macie and me, who had drifted closer. Despite our differences, we were familiar faces in a strange environment. "My name is Capricia, "she said with a smile.

"She's Italian," Macie said softly. I looked at her in surprise, but she just shrugged.

"His name," Capricia said, indicating the man, "is Gustave."

"And he's French," I said, with a smile. Macie looked at me, not bothering to hide her surprise. "What? French happens to be one of the few classes I enjoy," I said with a shrug. She rolled her eyes, and we both turned to face Capricia and Gustave.

"The two of you are correct," Capricia said, causing Macie and me to jump a little. "I am of an Italian descent and Gustave is French." She didn't seem at all mad that we had interrupted her, but I was still a little weary.

"Mr. and Ms. Alvarez, it would be much obliged if the two of you put you devices down and paid attention to the conversation," Gustave said with a sly smile. I turned around to see both siblings putting their iPods into their pocket. I could hear both of them grumbling at each other, and I saw Emma and Felix struggling to hold back their laughter.

"Please, take a seat. This might take a little while to explain," Capricia explained as she waved her hand at the numerous amounts of chairs.

"How did Capricia and Gustave know where my mom and cousins are?" Macie asked. Capricia and Gustave had just explained that they knew people in high places and were going to do everything they could to help us find our family. Then, they gave us the address of an old, abandoned law office. And told us to "Go check it out. See if you can find anything."

"Were. They're not there anymore. And they told you they knew people," Carmen explained.

"Then how did the people they know, know where to find our family," I snapped.

"You'll have to ask them," Cameron replied. I shared a glance with Macie, and she just shook her head as if to say it isn't worth it.

"So how do you all plan on getting to this office?" I asked.

"Taxi," Emma and Felix replied in unison.

"I hate taxis," Macie grumbled. I gave her a sideways look, but otherwise let the comment pass. We walked outside and walked a few blocks until we came to a taxi stand. Emma went to find a cab all six of us could fit into.

"What would be really ironic is if we got kidnapped too," I muttered to Macie, who was standing next to me.

Macie snorted. "Yeah, we'd be pretty stupid if we got ourselves kidnapped."

"Besides the fact that we would be screwed because it's not like my parents would actually look for me; they might look for Jamie and Matthew, but I doubt it," I told her, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. By the look she gave me, I'm guessing I didn't do a very good job.

"You know they love you," Macie said softly. She placed a hesitant hand on my shoulder and I just shrugged before looking away. It was nice to have my once-best-friend back, but I wasn't sure how long it was going to last.

"Over here!" Emma called, waving us over to an available cab. We walked over, Macie and I staying close, and Carmen gave the driver the address. Maybe it was just me (being a 'city girl'), but I could have sworn he was messing with the meter in his cab. A lot of drivers try to do that, get a little extra because I'm guessing cab drivers don't make a lot of money.

We all squeezed in and it was surprisingly comfortable because the cab had two seats facing each other, almost like a limo. I sat in the middle with Macie on one side and Carmen on the other. Cameron, Emma, and Felix sat on the seat across from us.
We sat in awkward silence, with a few of us exchanging glares and glances, but more of the former, until we arrived at the law office. We all got out and Emma took out three twenties from her pocket to pay for the ride, but I snatched them out of her hand.

"Hey!" she said indignantly. She and Felix were staring at me as if I had grown an extra head, and Carmen and Cameron were just glaring.

"Watch, and learn," I told them with a smile. I turned around to face the cabbie and leaned through the opened window. You may be able to fool out-of-towners and country-folk, but you've got another thing coming if you think you can fool a city girl, I thought peevishly.

I exchanged a few words with the cabbie and then walked back over to everybody. I handed Emma a twenty with a smug smile and a, "Your welcome." She just stared at me as I continued to walk past her. Macie caught up with me and we caught up with Carmen and Cameron, who had gone ahead.

"This place only has two floors, it's a small office. That means that it won't take us long to search for clues. The kids could have left something behind, or their kidapper might have . We're looking for anything that might give away their next location," Cameron said. "Felix, Emma, and I will take the second floor," he sent a glare at Carmen, almost as if he had won a battle or something; "Carmen, Macie and Kaitlyn will take this floor," with those final words, he spun on his heels in search of the elevator, or stairs.

"How should we do this?" I asked Carmen once Cameron left. I had the feeling that they weren't on very good terms at the time.

"We look, and hopefully we'll find," she said curtly.

"I think there are only a few offices on this floor, so it'll only take a few minutes. We take one room a piece," she said.

I nodded and walked into the nearest office, which didn't actually have a door. Just looking around I could tell this building was old. There was a metal desk, which after closer inspection was deemed empty, two filing cabinets and a cardboard box. Both cabinets had dust and spiders, but nothing that was actually useful. I walked over to the box and opened it. The only thing in there was sketchpad, but nobody had drawn in it.

I walked back outside to find Macie and Carmen waiting on me. "What did you find?" Carmen asked, seeing the sketchbook in my hand.

"It's nothing, just a blank sketchbook," I said dejectedly. Will we still have a chance of finding them if we can't find a clue here? I thought with worry.

Luckily, Cameron and crew decided to show up right then. "Did you find anything?" Macie and I asked in unison. I looked over at Macie, with something akin to shock, but brushed it off when I saw something in Felix's hand.

"All we found was this," he said holding out his hand. In it was a pouch filled with sketch pencils and markers. At least I had something to do if I got bored.