Thanks reviewers, you rock! OK here's chapter 13, the unlucky number, perfect for introducing a new bad guy :)

"Any new cases?" I asked Mick and sat down on the couch next to Beth with a glass of blood in my hands. I had just gotten there from school. So far, this day has been better than yesterday. Nick actually talked to me, but he's still angry with me. As for Josef, I haven't seen him since yesterday.

"Yeah, a couple came in this morning and hired me to find their missing daughter." Mick replied taking a seat across from me and Beth.

"How long has she been missing?" I asked before a sip from the glass in my hand.

"About a day."

"Shouldn't they report it to the police?"

"A person has to be missing for at least 48 hours before you can report it to the police." Beth said beside me.

"OK, how do we know she's not just off with her friends?" I asked.

Before anyone could answer a knock came at the door. Please don't let it be Josef, I thought and then realized if it was Josef he would have just walked in. I looked at the screen mounted on the wall by the door to see who it was. No one was there. Odd.

As Mick started to get up I said,"I'll check it out."

I got up and walked to the door. Slowly, I opened it and looked down the hall. No one. I was about to turn around and walk back inside when I noticed a folded piece of paper on the floor at my feet. Curious, I bent down, picked it up, and held it in my hand for a second staring at it. Could this be from Alexander?

Warily, I unfolded the paper. It wasn't from Alexander. His handwriting was elegant, this writing was kind of scratchy and looked to be written with an old ink pen. While I read it my eyes widened, it said:

Hello, you can call me Jack

Not Joe, Bob, nor Mack

Find the girl whose name is Sue

Don't worry I'll give you a clue

Hurry up, you've got 24 hours

To find her look by the pretty red flowers

I stood frozen for a second, then with impossible speed I ran to the stairwell instead of the elevator. A second later I was standing in the lobby of Mick's building. The guy had to be around here somewhere. I looked around, all I saw was the man behind the desk, couldn't be him, and a man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, he was probably in his forties, he looked like a pretty nice guy. Possible, but unlikely.

When I returned to Mick's apartment and shut the door the first thing I asked was,"What's the girl's name?"

Mick looked at me, confused, then looked down at the case folder in his lap,"Susanne Parker,"he paused and added,"Also known as Sue."

I looked at the paper I still held in my hand, Look for the girl whose name is Sue.

"This isn't good." I said and plopped down on the couch.

"What?"Beth questioned curiously.

I handed her the note. She read it and her eyes got wider and I could hear her heart beat faster.

"This guy is twisted." She finally said and passed the paper to Mick. As he read it, his lips curved down into a frown and he sighed.

"You're right, this is not good." He agreed.

I took the paper from him and reread it about five times,"What does this mean, 'To find her look by the pretty red flowers'?"

Mick thought for a moment and shrugged,"I dunno."

"And you call yourself a P.I.." I said jokingly.

Mick was about to argue, but Beth cut him off,"Roses."

"What?" Mick asked bewildered.

"'Pretty red flowers'. Roses."she repeated.

I thought about it. Of course. Roses. Duh.

"Oh, yeah...roses, I knew that." Mick said and coughed.

I rolled my eyes," 'Course you did Mick." I said and turned to Beth,"Good job, now we just gotta figure out which roses to look for. I mean, there's got to be like millions of them in L.A.."

We decided to drive around for awhile looking for anything suspicious involving roses. We found absolutely nothing. But we did see lots of roses, mostly in useless flower shops. We were gone for hours before we gave up.

When we arrived back at Mick's apartment building, the short man working behind the desk stopped us.

"Mr. St.John." He said beckoning us over,"someone left a message for you." He held out a small envelope, 'St.John' was written on it in scratchy handwriting.

Mick took it,"Who left it?"

The man shrugged," I didn't see him. He left it on the desk when I wasn't looking, sorry."

Without a word, Mick stepped away from the desk and tore open the envelope. After pulling out the small piece of paper inside he read it and handed it to me with a grim expression on his face.

I read the note in my hand and reread it again. On it was written:

Come on, you're too slow

Look for the roses tied with a yellow bow

Quickly, time is almost gone

Hurry, you've got 'til dawn

I immediately I checked my watch, two hours until dawn, I gulped. The guy said I had 24 hours before, he had shortened the time limit. Jerk.

After handing the note to Beth I started pacing, thinking. Beth was right, this guy is twisted. Writing these riddles, messing with us, it's frustrating, but if it wasn't a life or death situation, I'd say it was fun. I thought about the second line in the message we had just gotten. Look for the roses tied with a yellow bow. So, a bouquet of roses tied with a yellow bow. Roses. Yellow bow...

"I've got it!" I yelled spinning around to face my friends.

"What?!" asked Mick and Beth simultaneously.

"I know where to go!"

Before either of them could say anything I shot out the door.

Soon we were driving down the road. I had already given Mick directions. I had remembered this place I passed once called Rosethorn. It used to be a flower shop, now it's closed and boarded up. Good place to hide someone. But it's not the name of the place that convinced me that it was the right place, it's the sign for the store, it, of course, has the name, but it also has a picture of a bouquet of roses, tied with a yellow ribbon.

Finally we arrived 30 minutes later, an hour and a half left til dawn. Warily, we got out of the car after Mick parked next to the building. It was a small place surrounded only by a few other shops. The outside of it was painted yellow, and a mural of a garden was on the right side of the building. It's windows were boarded up and the door locked, well it was locked until someone picked the padlock and broke in.

I began running, wasting no time in finding this girl. I easily kicked the door down and stormed inside the retired flower shop. It was mostly empty except a few dusty shelves. I could hear muffled screams coming from the a room in the back of the building. I sprinted to it, Beth and Mick on my heels.

This time Mick got the door, he grabbed it off its hinges and flung it away.

"Ladies first." he said gesturing for me to go in.

"What a gentleman." I joked and ran in.

The girl, Sue, was bound to a chair by chains and a cloth was covering her mouth. She was screaming, tears streaked her face, she was scared to death.

"It's OK, we're here to help." I assured her and she calmed down... a little.

On her forehead was a post-it note. As Mick freed her from the chains and Beth untied the cloth I peeled the note off and read the now familiar scratchy handwriting:

Good job, you've won

But be ready 'cause I'm not done.