“I’m Home”. Bets calls walking into the door. 

“Hi”. I call from the living room. 

“What did you eat?”. She asks me 

“Pasta”. I reply. 

Bets walks into the kitchen. “And did Dani come over”. She asks. 

“No,” i respond. 

“Oh so who does the other plate in the sink belong to”. She questions. 

I swear under my breath. “Ok Bets don’t freak out but I had a friend over. His name is Blade”. 

Bets face swaps from surprised to warm. “Roxanne, why would I freak out? You're a 15 year old girl for god's sake. Have friends who are guys over. It’s normal, don’t hide it. The last thing I want is for you to feel like you need to hide”.  

She ruffles my hair and goes up to shower. “Um before you go up I should probably tell you something.” I say 

“You aren’t pregnant are you”?  Bets asks. 

“What Bets no”. I yell 

“Had to check, you know. So what's up”?

“Well I told you about a project of Redwood alumni. That wasn’t exactly true. I’m investigating an old cold case from Redwood. A missing girl. Actually someone Ma knew.” 

Bets face reads shocked. “Oh well that’s certainly interesting. Best of luck. Be careful to Ok ''. Why do people always feel the need to tell me that?  

“You ready”. Blade asks. I went to his house as we agreed. We’re going to go visit  Maxine (One of the snake charmers twenty years ago). Maybe there’s information that never got shared. 

“Yeah”. I respond 

“ROXY”. Call Cye. I swear every Apollo has a different nickname for me. Silver is still my favourite though. 

“Hi Cye”. I say ruffling his hair. Cye giggles 

“That rhymes”. He says beaming. 

“Hi Roxy”. Says Luna who’s being carried by her dad. 

“Hey Nancy Drew”. Keanu says. “You guys going anywhere”.  He asks Blade and I. 

“No stay”. Cye protests grabbing my shirt. 

“Yeah, stay and play with us”. Luna agrees. 

“We have to go now but Roxy can play with you when we get back”. Blade tells them. I agree. And as  we walk down the steps Blade says. “You might be their new favourite”. 

“Well don’t I feel special. Who’d I beat"? 

“Me”? Blade says 

“Well now I feel more special”. I laugh. 

Blade smiles and there's that melting ice feeling again. 

I actually love riding dirt bikes. The wind, the noise rushing past us as we rush past it. The simple feeling of literally putting my life in Blade's hands. Dirt Bikes are dangerous, you know. I want to keep riding forever. This is so fun. 

We pull up to a nice house. And I mean a nice house. It’s painted white with perfectly cut rose bushes and green grass.  

“Wow, maybe I'll start selling drugs”. Blade comments 

I pause on the sidewalk. “What is it”? Blade asks.

“I don’t know. I guess I'm nervous”.  I say. 

When I still don’t move Blade takes it upon himself to march up to the perfectly painted porch. I run behind him just as he rings the doorbell. The girl who opens the door is not what I expected. She had no makeup on and her hair was chestnut brown, all held in a messy bun except for a fringe. She had on light jeans and a graphic T-shirt. She was wearing thin framed glasses and a confused expression. 

“You Maxine Rogers”. Blade asks blatantly 

“Yes, can I help you”. Maxine answers. 

“Yeah, we’re gonna have a talk”. 

“NO NO NO”. Blade says, slamming his fist against the table again. We sat down with Maxine and  what was supposed to be a discussion  evolved into an interrogation. “It’s a very simple question. Were you a snake charmer”? 

“I was a Redwood student”.  Maxine responds innocently. 

Blade looks like he’ll kill her at any minute so I intervene. 

“Ok let’s cut the crap”. I say firmly. I pull out a booklet from my bag. “Your name is Maxine Martha Rogers. You went to Meriden in year seven and attended until you graduated in 2003”. 

“Martha’?  Blade interrupts

“You were the only child of Rosa and Marcus Rogers. You’re parents owned a small fruit shop. So how did you afford thirty thousand dollars in school fees plus expenses”? 

 “I’m sorry Martha”? Blade says again 

“I’ll tell you how. Drugs. You sold drugs to Redwood students. Did you do it by yourself? No you were part of a ring. You ran the ring with Nicole Sasitne and Charlie Bryons. But still that was just enough for the thirty grand. So who paid the rest? Camps, uniforms, sports? It wasn’t your parents.   They thought you were on scholarship. So who? Your supplier? Yeah that’s it. I have more than enough evidence to go to the police. I wonder how you supplier would react to the hitch in their business.” 

Finally Maxine breaks. “Ok you win I’ll tell you whatever you want”. Blade is beaming and I exhale. This will be interesting. 

“Ok first question. Did you see Rachel Young the night she went missing”? I ask 

“Yes”. Maxine begins. “She said she needed to get out of the city”. That night. “She came saying that she needed help getting out of Redwood unnoticed. We told her to wait until the twenty minutes to disable the cameras for maintenance. But because of her disappearing they never got switched off.”

Silence settles in. As I realise what was unfolding before me. 

“So Rachel may be fine”. Blade says. “We could be chasing some runaway teenager who was legally old enough to go anyways”. 

“Possibly” I say typing some more information into my phone. “Did Rachel say anything else that night?”. 

Maxine thinks “She kept saying that she needed to get away from her and this place. That it would kill her if she wins. She never said who she was talking about though.”

Blade stands up triumphantly “See was that so damn hard”.  

“One last thing” I start. “The note said a life for a life. Know what it meant”. 

Maxine pauses, looks out the window then speaks. “Well this is backwards but Rachel did say that she ruined my childhood and I’d be dead before I let her ruin the rest of my life”. 

“Well what does that mean? The note suggests Rachel ruined someone's life. Not that someone ruined her life.” Blade observes. 

“Maybe they did something stupid and they both copped it but the other person”. 

“Got madder and killed Rachel out of revenge”. Blade finishes for me  

“Nice work Silver”. 

“Is that your name? Silver?” Maxine asks. 

Blades proud grin fades into a look of genuine distaste. “Hey only i get to call her that. That's my nickname for her”. I wasn’t sure why he was so worked up. 

“Yeah only he calls me that”. I agree to defuse him.  His face softens up slightly. 

“Hey just so you know. I stopped dealing drugs the second I graduated.  I went to uni, became a lawyer. I’m totally legit now. I left that whole life behind me. Can you please just leave my past in the past”. 

I nod. But I'm not sure I'll comply. I’m all for moving on but when your past is a crucial part of a missing case that was way deeper than anyone thought possible then should you really be allowed such an easy escape? 

“So do you think Rachel could still be alive”. Blade asks as we leave the house. 

“I don’t know”. I reply honestly. “It seems likely but it also doesn’t fit. Why give the police a place to start looking, why not just go”? 

“That makes sense”. Blade agrees. “It all fits perfectly. If she was still alive wouldn’t there be a trace, Atm’s, security footage around the city, sightings”? 

My brain lights up . “We know that Rachel was trying to escape someone. What if that someone”. 

“Found Rachel and murdered her before she had a chance to get away”. Blade finishes. “That makes more sense”. 

“Could they have gone around unseen though”? Blade asks 

“We’ll find out” I say. 

As we approach the dirt bike I see something flapping in the wind. A piece of paper and a withered dead flower. Blade reaches for the note. I can already tell what it is before I see his face. That flower is grown on the Redwood campus .  Someone is sending me a warning. 

Stop trying to learn what happened 

Or Rachel Young can tell you herself