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Though Lucy Chen swore that she did not have any favorite students in her second grade class, she secretly adored Sadie Bradford the most with her bright, blue eyes, her long blonde hair, and adorable smile; she was the cutest eight year-old with a bubbly personality that allowed her to befriend everyone, and a kind heart she so willingly gave to anyone in the class who needed a friend. So maybe Lucy gave Sadie a little extra attention and flashed her a brighter grin when she came to class, but she could not help it. During recess one day while the other kids were playing, Sadie wore a long face and was withdrawn, which was in direct contrast to her normal demeanor. Before Lucy had a chance to speak with her, Sadie approached her.
“Ms. Chen,” Sadie said meekly with her fingers threaded together.
“Are you okay, Sadie?” Lucy wondered.
“It’s Max. He hasn’t come to school in three days. I’ve been keeping track.”
She nodded. “I know he’s been absent.”
“I think something’s wrong with him. He loves school.”
“He’s probably under the weather. You don’t have to worry about him.”
“But I am worried, Ms. Chen. I think this is a case.”
“A case?” Lucy arched an eyebrow as she hunched forward to make better eye contact with her student.
“Yeah. Like detectives. Can you help me?”
In truth, Lucy had been concerned about Max Gellar’s well-being, too. She was aware he was a good student that always came to school on time, and his absence was rather suspect. It was nice to hear that someone else was just as worried. “Let’s go to our classroom,” she suggested, and they left the sunshine of the playground for the fluorescent lights of their neatly decorated and welcoming classroom where they sat in the reading corner to speak in private.
“We have to get evidence,” Sadie started with. “And then we need to ask suspects questions. And then we can make an arrest.”
Lucy blew out a dry laugh. “How do you know all of that?”
“My aunt’s a detective. She tells me all about her work.”
“And are your parents okay with that?”
“My dad’s a cop, too.”
“What about your mom?”
Sadie shrugged. “I don’t have one.”
“Do you have two dads?”
“No, just one. It’s my dad and me always. I told him to investigate Max, because cops help find missing people all the time, but my dad won’t listen to me.”
“Well, I’m listening to you. I do find it strange that Max hasn’t been in school. I know the office calls his house everyday to report that he’s absent, but maybe we should call, too.”
Sadie smiled. “That’s a great idea!”
Lucy went to her desk to locate Max’s mother’s contact information and dialed the number but waited to press the “call” button until she rejoined Sadie in the reading corner.
Sadie held her breath when the call went directly to voicemail. “Try again,” she prompted.
Obeying, Lucy called again, yielding the same result. She scanned Max’s information and noted, “This is the only number we have for him.”
“Max has a mom and that’s it. Just like me and my dad. Do you think his mom is in trouble?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need more evidence. We have to go to his house to get more clues.”
“Sadie, we can’t just show up at his house.”
“We have to! He could be in trouble!” Sadie insisted.
Perhaps it was because of how much she liked Sadie, or maybe it was a result of having listened to too many true crime podcasts, but she agreed, “I’ll go to Max’s house tonight to see what I can find out. In the meantime, let’s keep this between us.”
“Thanks, Ms. Chen. You’re the best!” She threw her arms around her favorite teacher.
“You’re welcome.” Lucy’s heart melted a little at receiving a hug from her most beloved student.
“Tell me everything tomorrow during recess,” Sadie requested.
“Will do,” she promised. After school, she put Max’s home address into her phone and drove there instead of her own house. He lived in a two flat, brick apartment structure in a more rundown part of town. There was a sign stuck to a window of the first story apartment that read “FOR RENT”, which meant that Max and his mom should have been the only tenants. Upon first glance, with all of the shades drawn, she could not see anything obvious. She went up to the front door, but it was locked. She tried pressing the call button to be buzzed in, but there was no response after a few minutes. With her interest piqued, she drove into the cluttered alley. She tried to glean anything from the back entrance, but there was no movement, and the curtains were drawn. Just to be sure, she drove around the block, and when she did, she saw a man wearing a basketball cap and a jacket wrapped around him tightly walking out of Max’s apartment building. Since there were no other tenants, he must have been there to see Max’s family. Lucy tried to capture a good picture of the mystery man, but he seemed to be trying his best to hide his face. A million wild theories flew around her head based on the minimal evidence she had gathered. The only thing she could be certain of was that something was definitely wrong. So as not to alarm Sadie, Lucy rehearsed what to say about her suspect findings and the need to investigate further, but she totally forgot that the next school day was a special one: Career Day.
The normal class schedule had been done away in favor of Career Day where students’ parents could come and share what they do for a living with the second graders. There would not be time for recess to confer with Sadie nor any of the usual activities, so Lucy hoped that Max would appear at school by some miracle.
Students arrived with their parents one after the other, but Max was not amongst them as far as she noticed until Sadie arrived.
And then Lucy lost her train of thought.
Because Sadie entered her classroom hand in hand with her dad, and Lucy’s mouth went dry. A number of her previous students had attractive parents. Sadie’s dad was not the first. But he was not just attractive. He was gorgeous. He was tall, muscular, had a chiseled jawline, buzzcut dirty blonde hair, the same blue eyes as Sadie, and he was wearing a tight black t shirt that accentuated the planes of his chest and his pronounced biceps coupled with cargo pants that somehow looked good on him in a way they never looked on her in the ‘90s.
Sadie enthusiastically tugged her dad into the room directly over to her teacher’s desk. “Ms. Chen! Ms. Chen! This is my dad!”
Lucy swallowed to settle her buzzing nerves and introduced herself, “You must be Mr. Bradford. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Sadie’s teacher, Ms. Chen.”
Tim Bradford shook her hand as he surveyed her. For some reason, based on the stories Sadie told of her teacher, he assumed she was a sweet old woman, so Ms. Chen did not look at all how he expected. In the place of a warm, elderly teacher was a young, beautiful one. She had long, wavy brown hair gathered mostly in a low pony tail with a few strands framing her face, sparkling brown, almond-shaped eyes, and full pink lips spread in an incandescent smile. Her jeans hugged her curves like they were painted on, and her blouse tapered at her alluring waistline. Tim could not recall ever having a hot teacher like her when he was in school.
“Dad’s a sergeant,” Sadie corrected, not having registered how her teacher and dad were checking each other out.
“My apologies. It’s nice to meet you, Sergeant Bradford,” Lucy amended.
“Yeah, nice to meet you, too,” Tim replied tightly as he told himself to stop staring at her. “You can call me Tim.”
Sadie whispered, “Is Max here yet?”
Lucy’s eyes flitted between Sadie and her dad before answering in a hushed tone, “I haven’t seen him yet.”
“Did you get any evidence yesterday?”
“Evidence?” Tim inquired.
“Maybe we can talk later,” Lucy suggested to which he nodded, his expression a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty. She swore she was not ogling Tim as parent after parent went to the front of the room to present their careers. He looked like a model or an actor playing a cop. She would’ve watched a show featuring him. Just when she thought he might be the most perfect man she had ever seen, he smiled and ruffled his daughter’s hair, and she almost made a sound out loud. When it was his turn to talk to the class, Lucy did not hear a single word he said and only watched his every movement.
Sadie approached her teacher’s desk when it was time to go to lunch. “Ms. Chen, we have to tell my dad about the case.”
“What case?” Tim wondered.
Lucy wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and explained, “There’s a kid that’s been missing from school.”
“For four days,” Sadie interjected.
“We tried calling his mom’s phone, but it went straight to voicemail,” Lucy said.
“Did you get any evidence at his house?” Sadie asked.
“You went to a student’s house?” Tim was trying and failing to follow along.
Lucy turned to Sadie and suggested sweetly, “Why don’t you go sit with Piper and eat your lunch together? It looks like she could use a friend, since neither of her parents could come for Career Day.”
“But what about the case?” Sadie replied.
“I’ll fill you in after school, but Piper needs a friend now.”
“Okay,” Sadie acquiesced with a dramatic sigh.
Tim waited until his daughter was out of ear shot to say, “Sadie told me about her friend, Max, that hasn’t come to school for the last few days, and she claims it’s something I need to investigate, even though I’m sure the kid just has the flu or something. I appreciate you entertaining my daughter’s creative imagination, but I’ll tell her to drop it.”
Lucy leaned over her desk to reply, “Actually, I don’t think this is just a kid’s imagination. I think something’s wrong, too. My gut’s been telling me it’s suspicious that he’s been absent without any contact from his mom, and so I went to his apartment yesterday after school. All of the windows were covered with curtains and blinds, so I couldn’t see in, but I saw a strange guy leaving the building.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, navigated to her photos app, and presented it to him, “I tried to take a picture of him.”
Unconvinced, he offered, “This guy could live in another unit.”
“There are only two units in the building, and the second one is for rent, which means there aren’t any tenants. That guy was leaving Max’s apartment, and Max doesn’t have a dad. He only has a mother listed on all of his school forms.”
“Could be the mom’s boyfriend.”
“Then how come the boyfriend hasn’t brought Max to school for four days? I watched a documentary about this guy that took a single mom and her young daughter hostage in their home and played house with them for weeks, and then ended up killing them. What if that’s what’s happening with Max?”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Ms. Chen. There could be a million explanations that make more sense than that.”
“But we can’t rule it out,” Lucy argued.
He blew out a breath, since she was technically correct. “I guess not.”
“I’m thinking of going back to Max’s apartment tonight and staking it out to see if that guy comes back or if there’s any movement in the windows.”
“A stake out? Seriously?”
“You might think I sound insane, but I’m worried about one of my students, and I need to find out what’s going on…so does your daughter, by the way.”
He looked into her big brown eyes, and there was a chance they cast a spell on him, because he could not believe that he decided, “I’ll help. You said he’s been missing from school for four days, right?” She nodded. “California state law is that a kid is considered truant if they miss three days in a row, which gives the police grounds to go to his residence and perform a welfare check.”
“Great. We can go right after school.”
He smirked. “You’re not coming with. You’re not a cop.”
“I can’t let this go. I’m sorry, Tim, but I’m showing up at his house after school whether you’re there or not.”
Though he should have found her obstinacy annoying, he conceded, “You can stay outside. I’m going in alone just in case.”
“So you agree this could be a serial family annihilator situation? That’s what the documentary called it when that guy played house with the family then killed them.”
He smiled, amused that she knew so much about criminology terms. “The likelihood of that is really low, so I’m not saying that’s what’s going on with Max.”
“Low but not impossible.”
“No, not impossible technically,” he replied.
“That’s what I’m saying.” She smiled victoriously as if he had confirmed her theory. “I have a taser in my purse, so I’m ready for a takedown.”
“Like I said. You’re staying outside.”
“You could use me as backup.”
“I’m a Metro officer. I’m one of the highest trained cops in the LAPD.”
“And I take mixed martial arts classes three times a week. I can hold my own.”
From her tenacity alone, he agreed with a grin, “I bet you could.”
Her heart picked up speed from the way he was looking at her. “Alright, we can talk some more after school. Go join your daughter for lunch.”
“You can have lunch with us, too, if you want.”
“Oh, I don’t want to impose.”
“I think I’m the one imposing. Sadie talks about how much she loves you all the time.”
“You’ve got a terrific kid. She’s a joy to have in class.”
He looked out at the chaos of the classroom with all of the students chatting and laughing while eating. “I don’t know how you deal with so many kids every single day. Most days, I struggle with only one kid at home.”
“I love kids. Always have. My job can be tough, but I adore my students.”
“Do you have any kids of your own?”
“Not yet. I thought I’d have a few by now, but the right person hasn’t come along yet.”
“Yeah, I haven’t had luck finding the right person yet, either.”
“What about Sadie’s mom?”
“Ashley? She…she never wanted kids. When she found out she was pregnant, she gave me an ultimatum- her or our kid. I picked our kid, and Ashley moved halfway across the globe.”
“So Sadie doesn’t talk to her mom?”
“I tell Sadie she doesn’t have a mom. Ashley may have carried her to term and share half of her DNA, but she’s never been her mother. The second she got discharged from the hospital after giving birth, Ashley bolted and left me alone with Sadie.”
“That’s awful. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” He found his daughter giggling with another student, and a smile pulled at his own lips as a result. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I’ll never regret choosing to keep her and letting go of Ashley. It was no contest.”
Her heart had officially melted. Good looking and a proud father? Lucy did not think men like him actually existed.
Before he lost his train of thought, he shook his head. “Anyways, we should eat lunch.” Tim was pleased Lucy came along to the table where Sadie and Piper were already sitting so they could enjoy heir meal together. He watched how his daughter lit up with Lucy in a way he had never seen before. There was taking a shine to someone and then whatever connection they had that seemed even greater if their mutual radiance was any indication. Sometimes, late at night when he struggled to sleep, he would stare at the ceiling and imagine the kind of mother he wanted to Sadie to have as if he could create someone in a machine. He wanted her to have a mother was warm, kind, and would make his daughter happy. Just like Lucy did. His stomach did something funny as he thought about it, too distracted by his whirring mind to pay too much attention to how Lucy, Sadie, and Piper were carrying on an animated conversation that left them all dissolving into a puddle of laughter by the time the bell rang to signal that lunchtime was over. He observed Lucy for the rest of the day as the other parents presented their careers. Actually, she seemed rather focused on him, too, and they were stuck in an endless staring contest as he wondered if she had any flaws. She must have had at least one, but none revealed themselves to him.
Sadie had been waiting all day to find out what her dad and her teacher had decided in terms of how to proceed with the case of the missing kid, so when the end of school bell rang, she ran over to Ms. Chen and asked, “What are we gonna do about Max? Is my dad going to help us?”
“He is. We’ll all go to Max’s house.”
“I brought a flashlight to help us look for clues.”
Tim overheard that part of the exchange and scowled. “I’ve got a regular Nancy Drew on my hands.”
“When we crack this case, we’ll be coming for your job,” Lucy joked then winked at Sadie. She scribbled Max’s address on a piece of paper and handed it to him. “Here’s his apartment. I’ll follow right behind you.”
He wanted to tell her that it would be unnecessary for her to join him on a simple welfare check, but he knew that would be a waste of oxygen. After helping his daughter into the backseat of his truck, he went into the driver’s seat and checked his rearview mirror to find Lucy right behind where she closely followed for the whole drive.
Upon arrival at the apartment building, Lucy got out of her car and tip toed over to Tim’s. She saw him climb out then whispered, “We should do a perimeter check.”
“That’s not how welfare checks usually go.”
“Fine, I’ll go into the alley by myself.” She showed off the taser in her hand.
Tim groaned as she walked away. “Stay here, Sadie. Your teacher and I are going in.” He could not believe those words came out of his mouth, but the bizarre circumstances that lead to him showing up at a random student’s house were not exactly normal. He crept into the alley just as she had, noting how she was hiding behind a dumpster and looking around as if there was any activity to observe. “What are you doing?”
“Shh!” Lucy shushed him and pushed him against the opposite alley wall and pressed herself against him to help conceal them.
“What are you doing?” He asked again, far more quietly, and hoped she did not hear his slight gasp at their new proximity.
“I’m checking to make sure the coast is clear,” she explained despite the fact that all she could see was him in the moment with her head dropped back to meet his eyes without any care for conducting a real search. She forgot the investigation as she thought about how his muscles felt harder than she expected as her body adjusted to being flush against his, and in the low light of the alley, she found his eyes to be even dreamier as if that was possible. Tim was a very distracting crime solving partner.
“Ms. Chen-”
“We’re partners now. Call me Lucy.”
“Lucy, we’re not partners. I’m going in through the front door alone. Go wait by the car with Sadie.” Carrying on a real conversation while they were standing the way they were was challenging, but he tried his best, since they were in that alley for a reason, and it was not to be pinned against a wall by her. But he did think that sounded like something he would consider revisiting in a different circumstance.
“You can go through the front, and I’ll stay at the back in case the perp tries to escape.”
“No way! You’re a civilian unless I missed the part about you going to the police academy.”
“I take mixed martial arts classes,” she said in her defense.
He took a moment to study her face. “There’s nothing I can say that can get you to stay by the car is there?”
“Not a chance,” she answered, dead pan.
Tim rolled his eyes. “Then you’re coming with me through the front door, so I can protect you, and before you bring up your damn taser or mixed martial arts, let me remind you if there’s any real threat in that apartment, I have to protect you, okay?”
For the first time since beginning her investigation, her adrenaline spiked, feeling nervous about truly facing danger. The only safety she was afforded was Tim, and that would be enough. “Yeah, okay. I’ll go in behind you.”
“You walk where I walk. You stay quiet. You stay low. And if someone tries to attack, you run out of there. Do you hear me? Promise me you’ll run.”
“No way. You protect me, and I’ll protect you.” She turned on her taser and let it buzz, crackling in the tense air. “Together.”
He wanted to laugh that a sweet, innocent teacher thought she could protect him, but that ferocity in her eyes confirmed she left no room for argument, so he exhaled unhappily and nodded quietly. They tip toed out of the alley and went to the front door without another word.
Lucy’s blood ran cold, and she could hardly breathe as Tim announced that he was LAPD and kicked the first door down, then they quickly took the stairs, and he banged on the unit door. He was so calm. He was so ready. She held her taser so tightly her knuckles were white, because unlike like him, she had never been standing outside of a door unsure what was waiting for her on the other side, but Tim had probably gotten used to such uncertainty. There was no response. No one was going to answer. She heard the decisive crack of the door breaking due to how he kicked it down, and then there was a ringing in her ears after that while he charged ahead scanning the apartment. She feared what kind of sight they would come upon. But nothing could prepare her for what they found.
Max was laying on the couch, his mouth slightly open with drool dribbling out, and big headphones covering his ears.
Lucy’s heart stopped, fearing he was dead, but then he snored, and she let out the largest sigh of relief. Their celebration only lasted a second before Tim signaled to check the bedroom where the TV was blaring loudly.
He went in first with Lucy on his heels. Using his shoulder, he busted in and heard a woman yelp. “Ma’am! Do you live here?”
“Y-yes!” Mrs. Gellar shouted and tried to sit up, but pain surged through her back. “Who are you?”
Lucy turned the TV off to avoid shouting over the sound.
“I’m a cop,” Tim explained. “Your kid’s been absent from school for four days and is considered truant. This is a welfare check. What’s going on here?”
“Oh, oh,” Mrs. Gellar began to explain, “I’m sorry. I threw out my back a few days ago, and then I got this terrible cold, and Max hid my phone, so I couldn’t call anyone for help.”
Tim eyed Lucy, who had started to convince him something criminal was going on in Max’s house, but they were proven wrong.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Gellar,” Lucy apologized. “I’m Ms. Chen. I’m your son’s teacher. I was really worried about his absences. I tried calling and couldn’t get through, and when I showed up yesterday, I saw a man leaving your home and thought the worst, so I asked an officer to come check on you.”
“No one was here yesterday. It’s just been me and my boy. Max has been doing such a good job trying to take care of me. He even figured out how to order dinner for us from his iPad,” Mrs. Gellar said.
Tim figured it out while making eye contact with Lucy, “You probably saw someone delivering food yesterday.” He turned to Mrs. Gellar and offered, “My daughter, Sadie, is friends with Max. Can we take him to school until you get better?”
“I would really appreciate that,” Mrs. Gellar replied warmly.
“And I can get you some medicine and maybe take you to a physical therapist or something for your back. I feel so bad about jumping to conclusions,” Lucy said guiltily.
“Max loves you, Ms. Chen. My son has never been more excited about school before. I can see why when you’re so invested in your students. I’m not mad at all, but I could really use some help.”
“I can stay and help you out for a few hours. I’ll cook dinner and clean up around here,” Lucy offered.
“So will I. Let me bring Sadie up. She can help Max catch up on schoolwork,” Tim added.
For hours, Tim and Lucy helped at the Gellar residence, and when it got late, they left with only street lamps illuminating their path to their parked cars.
Tim picked Sadie up and set her in her seat, then he noticed that Lucy was hovering. “You were great backup for nothing,” he said once he shut the car door, affording them a bit of privacy while they stood in the quiet street together.
She huffed. “I didn’t know it was nothing. I’ve seen enough true crime documentaries-”
“That’s your first problem,” he sassed.
“Hey, it could’ve been something bad,” she reasoned.
“But it wasn’t.”
“True, but if it was, I would’ve been right there with you and would’ve had your back.”
He smirked. “With that taser?”
“Don’t underestimate a taser,” then she flexed her arms and added, “and these fists of justice.” The second she said those words, she felt so embarrassed that she acted like such a dork thanks to her budding crush on him, but at least he took it well by breaking into a smile.
“You might be more capable than half the cops I work with,” Tim said fondly.
“Well, I don’t think I’ll become a cop anytime soon, but if I did, I wouldn’t mind working with you.”
“I don’t know,” he replied coolly, “I would probably end up chasing shadows if we worked together,” he joked.
She giggled. “Maybe or maybe not.” She took a chance even as her heart stammered. “Look, since I roped you into this false alarm today, I think I owe you dinner.”
“Is that right?” He smirked.
“Yes.”
“Is Sadie invited, too, since she was part of the investigation?”
“She’s definitely welcome, but then it wouldn’t be much of a date if you bring your kid along.” His face pulled into shock, so she backtracked, “Unless, of course, you aren’t interested, which I totally get.”
“No, no,” he sputtered out then grinned slowly. “I’m definitely interested. I’ll get a sitter to make that dinner a date.”
“Perfect. Let me give you my number so we can arrange something.” She gestured for his phone, accepted it, typed her number in, and returned it with a smile.
“I hope you won’t go looking for another case while we’re on our date. Last thing we need is to get in the middle of a robbery or something during dinner.”
“Just to be safe, I’ll bring my taser.”
“Oh, great, so now you’re angling for some action.”
Lucy bit down on her lip. “Some kind of action wouldn’t be so bad.”
It took a second, but he realized what she was insinuating, and his cheeks darkened.
She gave him a sly look and murmured, “I’m looking forward to whatever happens on our date.”
“Me, too,” he responded softly.
“Good night, Tim,” Lucy said, gave him a smile, then waved through the window to Sadie, and went to her own car. No matter what would happen on their date, whether they solved a case or simply had dinner, she knew she was about to start a new adventure with him; no clue gathering or evidence finding required to draw that very right conclusion.