@streetslost
"Glad you're here," her voice was calm but deliberate. "I need your help. There's something in it for you too." Mae knew what she was doing. And it had taken her a long time to get to where she was now.
Mae was used to working through files of unsolved cases. Police often didn't have the capacity to keep investigating loose ends. Every few months, she'd gather a small stack of them - the ones that whispered unfinished in the margins. Like this string of abductions: children and teens who had gone missing several years ago, never truly investigated. Scattered, low-priority cases, but Mae noticed the pattern. The timing matched the rise and fall of an obscure crime ring - one barely mentioned in official reports.
Her work began to take shape. She tapped into her network on the streets, asking about a child with a Barbie backpack who had been seen fleeing one of the scenes. One officer had noted it simply because of how out of place it was in the middle of a violent crime scene. Finally, Mae put out quiet feelers for a 'skinny girl with a Barbie backpack and a red hoodie' in the New York underground.
Eventually, she found her - through a staged job arranged with a few of the city's gangs. Now, as the girl arrived, Mae was waiting. Not to capture her. But to talk.
