Chapter two:

Calleigh POV-

I snapped a few photos of a blood splatter on the sandy pavement of the beach parking lot, which we had taped off, along with this entire section of the beach as our crime scene. According to a large group of witnesses, five teenagers had savagely beaten an old woman with baseball bats on this beach. Everyone had seen the woman fall, but, unfortunately, nobody could tell us where the body had gone.

'How does the body of an old woman just disappear like that?' I wondered to myself. What bothered me the most was, even though the stories of the witnesses were all the same, it seemed like something still wasn't adding up. 'What motive could five teenagers possibly have for beating an old woman?' Of course, the number one reason would be that kids are cruel but it still didn't seem logical. I had seen the kids as they were lead into the interrogation rooms, there were three girls and two boys. Two of the girls definitely seemed to have a tough reputation (of course, girls are not usually the ones to start violence, even if they are tough), but the other girl, with curly blonde hair, shifted uncomfortably like she had never been in trouble before. And as for the boys, one seemed to have an emo appearance about him, and while he looked scary, didn't seem like he would hurt an innocent person. The other boy didn't seem like the type to attack an old woman either, as he hugged the uncomfortable blonde girl, who shivered in the cold interrogation room (especially because she was still in her bathing suit). The other question was 'Where had they stashed to weapons, I mean baseball bats don't just disappear into thin air, right?'

Right now, Eric was scouring the nearby ocean with his diving gear, as a few of the witnesses claimed that they saw a large wave wash onto the beach, he had been out here much longer than I had and still has found no evidence that a body or the weapons had been washed into the surf. We didn't have much time, the city would only let us shut down the beach for a short while before we would be forced to turn it back over to them, and so far we had hit several dead ends. I swabbed the splotch of blood on the pavement, bagging it in an evidence bag. I knew that this very easily could have belonged to one of the kids or, even, perhaps an innocent bystander who had cut their bare feet on a broken shard of glass, however I had to collect it anyway. I photographed the marks on the sand, which was pushed around in a way that definitely showed a struggle. Then, using my gloves, I carefully collected the kids' beach stuff, a beach bag, an umbrella, and a few towels strewn on the sand.

Hopefully, I would be able to find some evidence from these items.

Meanwhile, back at the precinct…

Annabeth POV-

I swear, we can never get a break. We were sent her looking for monsters, and then, when we finally find one, the mist makes it look like we were beating an old lady, and we get arrested. Of course, if we hadn't stopped the Echidna and Chimera, more people probably would have been in danger, but we can't very well tell that to the police. And to top that all off, we were all in the waiting area of the interrogation room, on cold metal chair, with the AC blasting and I am in a BIKINI! When they loaded us into the police cars, they wouldn't let us go back for anything, including a cover-up, or even shoes, for that matter, I remembered as my feet brushed the cold floor.

They also weren't telling us anything, they had read us our rights and then planted us here, twenty minutes ago. Nobody had come to get us yet. Mentally, I was freaking out. I had never really been in trouble, even considering the fact that we are demigods and danger is magnetized to us, I had never been arrested or even gotten a detention. I was mostly concerned for my future career, not many architectural firms will hire you if you have a criminal record. It helped that Percy was here, keeping me somewhat warmer and calmer with his arms around me. Clarisse, who was still soaking wet, sat, arms crossed, and a scowl on her face between Thalia who had her head propped on her hand, and Nico who was staring at a dark spot on the floor.

"Don't worry Annabeth," Percy whispered to me, "Chiron will come, manipulate the mist and we'll be out of here." He spoke as if it was that easy. Of course, being demigods, none of us had cellphones, and an Iris message was out of the question right now, and to top that off, none of us had gotten our one phone call yet. Plus, Chiron was all the way in New York, there would be no way for him to get here before they started interrogating us.

"Why can't you just manipulate the mist," Nico hissed to Thalia.

"I already tried," she scowled, matching his tone, "It's not working!"

I was about to say something when a red-haired man in a suit walked up to our group.

"Hello, I'm lieutenant Horatio Caine," he told us, not bothering to lift his sunglasses. He motioned to one of the other officers, who came and led Clarisse (much to her protest) to one of the rooms.

The interrogation had begun.