Kadri laughs when the little giggle escapes her own lips, and for some reason she can’t really remember hearing her laugh like that much. It’s a nice sound, something musical and light, something so very real, and it makes her want to find other ways to make her laugh like that again. She knows how determined they both are to do not just a good job, but an exceptional job, to prove something to everyone who doubts them, both vocally and silently. There’s a lot to do, and it’s not going to be an easy one, but she thinks they’ll be able to manage it. And she’s also starting to think that maybe this case together is exactly what she’s kind of been waiting for with Kadri. She thinks maybe this will be their chance to really find a good rhythm, to fall into something closer to real friendship, instead of just friendly coworkers.
That would be something nice, she thinks, solve this case well, show that two squibs can take on something so huge together and get it done perfectly, and end up a little closer while they’re at it. She’s not great at multitasking, but she thinks this might be a situation where she can manage it, if she’s got Kadri on her side.
“Even better, what’s a good pair of shoes if you can’t show them off?” she smiles, as she starts getting all of her things together, ready to head out, too. She grabs the coffee to drink wall they walk, puts the case file in her bag just in case, checks her telekit to make sure it’s stocked with the potions she likes, and then finally gets up. “Let’s head out, cadet,” Emmy nods, the same teasing in her voice. And without waiting any longer, they head out.
Luckily, it’s a nice day out, just a little crisp, but sunny as ever, and it’s not a long walk to where the girls are staying, close by downtown in the heart of the city. They make it there without any trouble, Emmy taking the walk to consider how this all might go. She has to agree with what Kadri had said, the uncle seems like their real worry here, but it’s always a good idea to touch every base and not assume you know the full story just from a file, she’s learned.
Once they find the door, Emmy looks over at Kadri, giving her a smile and a nod, seeing if she’s ready too, and then she knocks. It’s only a few seconds before the door opens, to one of the girls, although she’s not sure which.
“Hi there, I’m Cadet Emerson Yaxley, and this is Cadet Kadri Sözen with the Pacific Squad, we’re here about your friend, Leda. Could we ask you guys a few questions?”
“Yeah, yeah, come in, Jackie’s in the kitchen, I’ll get her,” the girl, apparently Ana, says, ushering them both in quickly. She leads them in, barely a pause before launching into things. “If we had realized that Leda never made it to their uncle’s we would have reported it all sooner. They’ve been acting strange, but you know how it is, what’s strange, and what’s just wanting to blow off steam.”
“I get it, I’ve been there with friends before, too,” Emmy nods, picking up quickly that relating to them might be the way to go on this one.
They fall in step with one another with a kind of ease that Kadri usually only feels with a select few people –– with Dante, who had practically grown up beside her, who she had held on to even when the rest of the world wanted to throw her away and treated her like garbage. Dante had never treated her like she was nothing, Dante had never thought of her like trash. But she thinks she could use someone else to balance on, that she could use someone else to walk beside. Someone who understood her, in a strange way, the same difficulty. Emmy is going to be useful in so many ways, Kadri is sure of that, exactly the kind of social capital that Kadri needs to gather close and hold on to.
Kadri gives Emmy a smile, a nod, mirroring her own movements and handing them back to her. She takes a deep breath as Emmy knocks on the door, settling in to the moment and getting ready to get through this, praying and praying that these girls have something important to tell them about Leda and where they might have gone, what they might have been thinking on the day that they disappeared, if they were scared of anyone or dreading anything.
She follows Ana inside, nodding along as she starts to speak. She definitely knew what that could be like –– there was always one friend in a group who went a little too wild, who blew off steam in just the wrong ways and got them into some trouble. “I think we all know what’s that like. But we’re going to do everything we can to bring Leda home safe, just like we would with our own friends.” She tries for a smile, tinged with concern, in the direction of both Jackie and Ana.
Kadri pulls out her own notebook, ready to take notes on whatever the girls hav eto tell them. “You mentioned that Leda has been acting strange. Do you know if anything happened to upset them, in the last few days before they disappeared?”
Jackie and Ana exchange a look, uncertain. They must have been thinking about this for a long time, blaming themselves for not knowing that something was wrong with their friend. Kadri feels bad for them, like that. “Nothing that we can really remember.” Jackie says, with a small sigh. “I think they were a little anxious about stopping off at their Uncle’s house, Ana was having a rough day when they had to go, and they tried to say that they could skip it.”
“But we told them to go.” Ana says, guilt thick in her voice. “And then we thought they must have just had a good time, stayed longer than they said they would.”