"C'mon Warren, just do this one for me?" Terry says into her cell phone
while sitting in her car. "Consider it a favour and I'll owe you one."

She was trying to get San Jose PD to run the cell phone for her. Maybe
that will lead to some clues on this missing person case. She knew it
really wasn't a missing person, most likely this was a homicide. No one
leaves a job, marriage, or family without taking their purse and cell
phone. And considering the fact that they found her car at the end of a
mountain's winding road it seemed to support either kidnapping or
murder.

"All right Tangerine, I'll get it done. Just give me some time, ok?"
Warren teasing her about her real first name was an open opportunity
that Terry rarely let slip by.

With that taken care of. Next, she had to get someone to look at the
blue surgical glove. What secrets were hidden there? This one she took
the chance that the forensic identification investigators at her PD office
would take care of it and not forward the findings on to her Seargeant.
Her next move was to investigate the disappearance of "Buddy" the
teen age boy. Everyone at the precinct thought it was just a runaway,
but again her gut was telling her otherwise. She was off to visit the
parents.

When she arrived at their front door, she was greeted by whom she
assumed was Buddie's sister. She looked around 14 had shoulder length
blonde hair with a slight curl to it. She is pretty and has bright green
eyes that catch Terry's attention.

"Can I help you?" she says to Terry with a bright smile full of braces.
"Yes, I am Detective Smythe, are you parents at home?" Terry looks
past the teen down the hallway of the middle-class home.

"Yea, hey mom! Some detective is here for you!" She yells down the
hall.

After a minute a middle-aged brunette comes to the door. It's obvious
now where the green eyes came from.

"Hello detective, can I help you?"

"I'm Detective Terry Smythe, you can call me Terry. I'm here to ask you
questions about your son, Buddy. Do you have a minute to talk, Mrs.
Stang?" She asks.

"Please detective, come in." She backs away from the door and ushers
Terry into the living room. "Can I get you a drink? Coffee? Water?"
"Water, thank you". Terry senses this woman will need a friendlier
approach, so she engages her accordingly.

Soon after they are sitting diagonally across from each other.

"I don't understand detective, we have spoken already to your
department. Is there something new that we don't know about?"

"This is just routine follow up and will only take a few minutes. Did
Buddy have any close friends at school?"

"Not really, he mostly had on-line friendships. He is kind of a loner.
That's why I insisted that he isn't a run-away but missing." She has a
worried look on her face.

"When he left for school that day, did he take anything extra? Like extra
clothing or excessive food?"

"No there was nothing unusual that I can think of"

"Did Buddy have a cell phone?"

"Yes, he did but he took it with him, wherever he went. Please
detective, find my son. He is a little confused about us but we love him
so much." She cried into her hand.

"I'm sorry to pry but what do you mean by a little confused?" Terry
inquired.

"He has recently confessed to his sister Lily that he thought he may be
transgender. We just thought he was lonely because he had no friends.
We didn't mean to hurt him or discount his feelings. We just didn't
understand." She replied.

"I'm sure he understands. If you don't mind, can I please have his cell
phone number?" Terry asked.

"Yes, of course, but it's been off since he disappeared."

Terry writes down the number.

"You said he liked online games. Do you still have his laptop here?" She
inquired.

"No, the last detective came and took it â?" a Sargeant somebody. Hold
on I'll get his card." She rises from the chair.

"No that's not necessary â?" I know who it is at my precinct."

Terry gets up and heads towards the door. She passes the mother a
card.

"If you think of anything else, please don't hesitate to call me."

At the front door, the mother pauses, "Please detective. I know
something is wrong. Please find my boy. I feel so bad about the last
thing I said to him. I love him and just want him home." She lowered
her eyes as tears slipped down her cheek.

Terry was tempted to hug the woman, to offer some comfort. However,
protocols are protocols and she stood her ground.

"I will do my very best to get you some answers Mrs. Stang."

With that she climbed into her car and re-rang Warren.

"Hey Terry, what's up? You miss me that much?" She could almost hear
his grin on the other end of the phone. Warren always had a bit of a
crush on her, a fact that she is currently using to get her way.

"Ah Warren what can I say? You're charming.....Uhm can I add a phone
number to that search you're doing? It just came up and I really need
this one run as well. The only thing is I don't have the actual phone.
Just the phone number." She slightly winced as she asked.

"If I do this, next time you're in town you have to go out for a drink with
me."

Terry really had no choice but to agree.

"Of course, but platonic drinks, ok?"

She would try to wiggle out of it later, if she had to. She gives him the
phone number and says her goodbye's.

She drives to the last place that Buddy was seen, headed to the park. It
wasn't hard to figure out the path that he would have taken to get
home, so she sets out on the path and scours around as best as she
could. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be in the park. It was a
long shot anyway. She walks back the way she came, and heads to her
car. As she is exiting the gate she sees a quick flash. The sunlight
flashed on some glass. She looks down and just under the fence is a
crushed and destroyed cell phone. It was partially hidden by the
newspaper. She leans down and picks it up by the corners. She gets
back to her vehicle and grabs an evidence bag and slips it into the bag.
Just maybe this one will turn up being Buddy's but it was a long shot.
She included it in the package she was sending to Warren. She carefully
packaged up the cell phones and sent them off via Fedex, directly to
SJPD and to Warren.

She heads back to the precinct but it's late and the morning shift have
all left for the day. Most of the afternoon crew were busy getting ready
to head out.

Terry heads down to the evidence room and finds it unattended. She
swipes her card and enters the room. Between some shelves in a back
corner, she finds the box for Buddy's case and sitting inside that box,
was Buddy's laptop, undisturbed and still inside the original evidence
bag. No one bothered to start it up and look for evidence. What exactly
is going on at this precinct? She was getting tired of half-assed work and
disappointing results.

She quickly tucks the laptop under her arm and leaves. As she is walking
in the hallway, one of the street cops stops her to say hello.

"Hey Smythe, what are you still doing here? Working hard or hardly
working?" he smiles at her.

"Ah Jones, just wrapping up." She smiles at the handsome young cop.
She casually shrugs the laptop under her arm and says, "gonna catch up
on some files when I get home.

With that she steps away and heads home. She really did have some
work to do. Let's hope there isn't a password on that laptop.