“The time is 10:34, and our second meeting begins,” Conrad announced. Ellie began to scribble this down in her notepad, as she had been given the duty of writing down the minutes of each meeting. We needed to know what developments had been made and when and Ellie was the quickest writer so naturally, the job went to her. “ So,” Renuka said, “Any findings?”

“Er, yeah.” I said, slightly distractedly as I logged onto my laptop and clicked onto the case study I had made on Google Slides in order to share my findings with the group, “I saw my dad yesterday and told him about what we’re doing-”

“What? Why?” the rest of the group cut me off.

“Well, um, I thought he needed to know. He says he's okay with us doing it and he's not going to tell anyone, plus, he gave us some extra information.” They all nodded and leant in. I smiled as I told them everything that he had said. We were definitely getting somewhere in this case. Once I had finished, they all seemed excited too. “So now we know: the timings for his journey there and back, why, and that they must have hidden his phone because they had been called by him.”Conrad said. We all nodded.

“They must have done something really bad that they needed to talk about,’cause I don’t think I ever saw Grandad David being stern,” Ellie chipped in. I suddenly felt an uneasy and had a sort of flashback to earlier in the holiday when I could’ve sworn Grandad looked really stern. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it though, so I just hesitantly shrugged it off.

“I know,” Renuka said, “ When I was little I always just assumed that was impossible for him.”

“Yeah, same,” I agreed. After a short pause where we all organised through our thoughts once more, I spoke up again, “And, guys, there's something else really important that we need to be looking into, my dad is certain that the S E A thing really matters to the case, and could even solve it if we worked out what on earth it means.”

Everyone nodded again, trying to think of what it could be. After a minute or so, Conrad suddenly sat up straight and smiled, “What? What? Did you work it out?” we interrogated, all bouncy and excited like puppies.

“No,” he replied- we all slouched and crawled back to our original seats by the window, more like tortoises now.“But, speaking of looking into things, I just remembered…” He grinned cheekily.

“What? What did you remember?”, the excitable puppies were back. Our emotions were all over the place at the moment. He pulled out an official looking ID and police badge. “I managed to , um -get- not steal, the detective’s ID!” We all looked, incredulously at him. He rolled his eyes before they widened as he tried to convince us, “I look similar enough to him, and Renuka can take mine. We’ll go over to the cafe that the grans were at and say we are looking into Grandad’s case (which, technically, we are) and could they please let us look at their receipt. Then, if the time on it shows they couldn't have committed the murder, we can rule them both out!”

“That’s genius!” I said.

“Yeah, we can check the receipt and know right away.” Ellie joined in.

“If they even believe us,” Renuka said, downbeat and condescending. We stared at her, confused. She rolled her eyes.

“Well, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I don't look much like you. Or any guy in general. And anyway, we don't have police uniform.”

“ Oh, come on,” Conrad said,” We have the same skin tone, eye colour, you can hide your hair under a hat and borrow some of my clothes. We don't need to be in uniform, we’ll say we're undercover. And anyway, if I’m the D.I, obviously I’ll be the one they think is in charge. They won't even be looking at your ID.”

She sighed and raised her eyebrows but still uttered, “Fine, we’ll see how it goes, when were you planning on going on this little mission?”

“This afternoon, 2pm?” Conrad asked around. We all nodded. And that was it. We were going on our first ever Detective mission.

We stood outside the cafe, trying way too hard to look casual. Conrad was holding onto his badge and ID, looking determined. Renuka stood next to him, in jeans, a leather jacket and a ‘Hype’ T shirt with her hair curled and bundled up under a baseball cap. She looked utterly uncomfortable and disbelieving as she clenched her ID and badge in her fist. Ellie and I had come along too to be mock customers (also we both really felt like having bagels). We all looked at each other and then headed in. The cafe was never really busy, so there wasn't a queue inside for the food. In fact, hardly anyone was sat down at the tables. We lined up at the counter, Conrad then Renuka then Ellie and me. Ellie and I began to browse the food behind the glass, faking trying to choose something to buy. “Hello,” Conrad greeted the waitress in a well practiced, thick Cypriot accent just like the detective’s, “ I am Detective Inspector Figueroa, and this is Officer Saunders.” Renuka nodded confidently and they flashed their Identifications.

“We are here on some undercover work, looking into the recent murder of a tourist here. David Acton. To confirm a few timings, we would like to be given access to your recent receipts.” She looked over at a pile of receipts to her right, which had been gathered together on a receipt spike. The waitress frowned and beckoned over a stern looking man also in the uniform. She murmured something to him in Greek and he nodded, still staring at us in a sort of unsettling manner. “I am manager. Let me see ID.”he said, reaching out his hand and bending his fingers slightly to signify he wanted them to give it to him. Conrad now looked slightly unsure and I could see Renuka thinking something along the lines of ‘I told you so.’ They handed them over to him. The manager looked back and forth between the ID and my cousins, very unconvinced. He discussed something in Greek again with the waitress before nodding, looking back at us and suddenly yelling, “You are not cops. You are liars. Go! Get out! I will not tell police if you leave now!” We immediately hurried out as fast as our legs could carry us and sat down on a bench, quite a few shops down the high street, looking out onto the sea. “Well…”Renuka said, eyebrows raised as she waited for recognition that she had been right. Conrad looked down and sighed. “You were right.”he said, deflated.

“That failed.” I moaned as we all looked out to sea, determination and confidence replaced with disappointment and lost hope. I had really thought we were getting somewhere. Maybe I had just been delusional. We just sat there, quiet and surrendered until…

“I wouldn't say it failed,” Ellie said calmly as she took a receipt out of her pocket. “What?” Conrad said, staring at the little piece of paper in her hand. “How?”Renuka asked in disbelief, once more. She looked partly elated that Ellie somehow had the receipt yet still partly annoyed that she had been robbed of her ‘I told you so’ moment. Ellie rolled her eyes and smiled proudly. “I started to lose faith in your whole Undercover Detective plan pretty much immediately, so... while you were busted, I found the right receipt in the pile and… voila!” She held it up again. We all just gawped at her, speechless. Ellie wasn't known to be this sneaky. “It really wasn’t hard. You can thank me later.” she replied, the proud smirk still stuck on her face.

“Does it-”

“Are they-” we questioned.

“Yep, they’re innocent,” she said, “Payment was made at 11:48, giving them the perfect alibi.”

“Wow, it takes those two a long time to drink coffee!” Conrad said. We all laughed. We had ruled them off. My Grannie and my Great Aunt Betty hadn't done it. They were innocent.