“Hey sis, good morning,” Mia, a sixteen-year-old girl, greeted as she stretched her arms and twisted her body lazily as she walked out of the room into the sitting room.
“Good morning, little brat,” Luna replied, smiling, sitting on the sofa and watching a show on the TV while sipping juice.
“I have told you a thousand and one times to stop calling me a brat. When will you ever stop calling me this annoying name?” Mia retorted, seemingly aggrieved as she went to join her sister on the sofa.
“I'll keep calling you that until I decide not to,” Luna said with a sinister smile carved on her lips.
“This is wickedness at its very peak. Anyways, aren't you on duty? Why aren't you dressed for work?” Mia asked as she stole a few sips of her sister's juice.
“You've even forgotten the days I'm on duty. What type of a sister are you?” Luna asked, rolling her eyes at Mia as she snatched the cup of juice from her.
“Well, you can't blame me for that. Your job as a police officer is just too irregular. I don't have that luxury of time,” Mia said.
Luna looked at her sister speechlessly as she continued focusing on her TV show. Not long after, Luna's phone rang, and she picked up the call and started talking with all seriousness. She received some orders, after which the call ended.
Luna sighed heavily and muttered, “Not again. I thought I would have today all to myself.”
“What’s up, sis? Were you called back to duty?” Mia asked.
“Yeah, an urgent case came up and I need to be there,” Luna said lazily.
“Oh, I think you need to get going ASAP,” Mia said as she took another sip from the juice on the table.
“Ouch, so mean. You're so quick to chase me away,” Luna said, clutching her chest, pretending to be hurt.
Mia chuckled. “I’m not interested in your drama.”
Luna quickly went into her room to change and headed straight to the office to meet her captain.
The sudden disappearance of a teenager in a form that seemed to be like that of a kidnapping case had sent worries into the hearts of the residents of the city.
Luna's captain had a worried and troubled look on his face as he explained the details of the case to Luna.
“Luna, I'm making you in charge of this case because I know you are the only one capable enough to handle it. This case is a bit different from the usual; in fact, it might be even more complex than we all think. The life of a teenager is at risk, and I want you to do your best in saving the child's life and bringing the criminal to justice. I'll ensure I give you my full support and assistance,” the captain said.
“Yes, sir, I will try my best, sir,” Luna stated as she turned and left the office.
On getting to her office, she took up the case file and examined it thoroughly.
“This case is indeed complex. With the location and time of the incident, it was near impossible for anyone to have successfully committed such a crime without anyone noticing it. What exactly is the answer to this riddle? Besides, I sense something amiss concerning this case. What could it be?”
Luna stood up, walked out of her office, boarded a cab, and went to the location where the incident took place. When she got to the location, she took a very good look at her surroundings and confirmed her earlier guess: it was impossible to directly kidnap anyone there as the place is constantly crowded. Luna stood there for more than ten minutes, observing her environment inquisitively, trying to catch any tiny detail that she thought she could have missed. After standing for more than fifteen minutes and still no clue, she started walking back in the direction of her office in deep thought, pondering seriously over each and every detail of the case.
Unknowing to her, she had walked more than half the distance to her office. When she realized this, she quickly called for a cab and went back to her office, though she didn't stop ruminating over the case as she thought something felt really amiss and strange. She just couldn't lay her finger on it.
On getting to her office, she called for an urgent meeting among her and her direct subordinates handling the case.
“This is an extremely tricky case,” Sam sighed and said after Luna made a detailed summary of the case. “The place where that kidnapping took place doesn't seem like a place where such a crime could be carried out successfully,” Sam continued.
“This shows one thing: we could be dealing with extremely dangerous and intelligent criminals,” Lyra stated.
“Asher, I want you to retrieve the CCTV footage of that day and go through each and every second of it,” Luna said, pointing at Asher.
“Alright,” Asher answered, as calm as always.
“Sophia, invite the child's parents for interrogation. We'll interrogate them together,” Luna instructed.
“Yes, but we have interrogated them before,” Sophia said.
“I know, but I want to do it again. There might be something you guys missed during your interrogation,” Luna said while going through the pile of files in front of her.
“Sam and Lyra, I want the both of you to go to the place where the kidnap happened, analyze the place again to see if you can get any useful clue,” Luna said as she continued staring at the pile of papers before her without blinking.
They all stood up after receiving the instructions to get it done.
Luna was left alone staring at the pile of papers in front of her. Suddenly, something on one of those papers caught her attention as she picked it up and stared at it with furrowed eyebrows and a stern look on her face.
ns216.73.216.123da2


