His to Howl, Hers to Ignite Chapter 91: The Investigation Begins

The police sirens stopped wailing just as Detective Sarah Coleman walked through the front doors of Brookside High. She was a woman in her forties with sharp eyes and a no nonsense attitude that made Principal Morris straighten his tie without thinking about it. Behind her ca two uniford officers and a technical specialist carrying a laptop case.

"I’m Detective Coleman," she said, showing her badge to Morris. "I understand we have three missing students who may have left the country."

"That’s correct," Morris said, leading her toward his office where the parents were still waiting. "Mrs. Kenner and Mrs. Torres are here, along with Sofia Martinez, our attendance officer who discovered the digital evidence."

Detective Coleman sat down and opened a notebook. "Before we begin, I want to be clear about sothing. Based on what dispatch told , this isn’t a typical runaway situation. The level of planning and resources involved suggests these students had serious reasons for leaving."

Mrs. Kenner looked up from her tissues. "What kind of serious reasons?"

"That’s what we need to find out," Coleman said. "Let’s start from the beginning. Mrs. Kenner, tell about the last ti you saw your son."

Mrs. Kenner repeated her story about Liam’s visit ho and the phone call confirming his fake school trip. Detective Coleman took notes and asked follow up questions about his behavior and what he packed.

"Was he nervous? Excited? Acting differently than normal?"

"He seed focused," Mrs. Kenner said. "Like he was concentrating on sothing important. But not scared or upset."

Coleman turned to Mrs. Torres. "And Raquel?"

"She was determined," Mrs. Torres said. "When I said no to the sleepover, she got angry but not in her usual dramatic way. She was calm angry, like she’d already decided what she was going to do."

Sofia spread the computer records across the desk. "Detective, this is where it gets interesting. They didn’t just hack our student portal, they accessed admin accounts and created fake docuntation for multiple scenarios."

Coleman studied the printouts. "Show exactly what they did."

"They sent confirmation emails for Liam’s cultural program, created attendance records to cover their absence, and even logged fake parent contact information in case anyone called to verify."

"That level of technical sophistication suggests either one of them has advanced computer skills or they had help," Coleman said. "What do we know about Mira Koker?"

"Her father is Captain Koker, the billionaire," Morris said. "She has access to unlimited financial resources and according to her housekeeper, she left with expensive luggage and two friends that Thursday."

Detective Coleman made a note. "I’ll need to speak with Viktor Koker directly."

"That might be difficult," Sofia said. "His assistant says he’s unreachable on business, but we’re starting to think that’s not entirely true."

"Mrs. Torres, I’m going to need access to anything Raquel left behind at ho." Coleman said. "Computer, phone, diary, anything that might give us insight into what they were planning."

"I brought her laptop," Mrs. Torres said, pulling it from her purse. "And I can get her phone records from our carrier."

Coleman handed the laptop to her technical specialist. "Run a full analysis. I want to know who these kids were talking to and what they were planning."

While the tech worked, Coleman continued questioning everyone. After two hours, she had filled half her notebook with details about the students’ backgrounds, their friendship, and the tiline of their disappearance.

The technical specialist looked up from Raquel’s laptop. "Detective, you need to see this."

He turned the screen toward Coleman. "Encrypted ssages between the three students going back six weeks. I’ve only broken the encryption on a few, but they’re definitely planning sothing."

"Read them to ," Coleman said.

"This one’s from Mira to the group: ’We need complete isolation. No one can know what we’re doing until it’s finished.’"

"Another from Liam: ’Are we sure about this? What if soone finds out?’"

"And Mira’s response: ’I know what I’m doing. You just have to trust . This cover up and back up plan needs to work. We’ve ssed with the school’s computers already. We can’t sit around for them to catch us.’"

The room went silent. Detective Coleman closed her notebook and stood up.

"Mrs. Kenner, Mrs. Torres, your children are involved in sothing planned and deliberate. Whatever Mira convinced them to help her with, they believed it was important enough to leave the country and go into hiding."

"But what are they doing?" Mrs. Kenner asked desperately.

"That’s what we need to find out," Coleman said. "The ssages suggest secrecy and isolation, but no clear indication of what the actual plan is."

She turned to Morris. "I need to contact Interpol imdiately. If these kids are in India doing sothing they need to keep hidden, we need international cooperation to track them down safely."

Morris’s phone rang. He answered it and his face went pale. "Detective, that was Captain Koker’s assistant. She wants to speak with you."

"Put her through to my phone," Coleman said.

The assistant’s voice was tense when she ca on the line. "Detective Coleman, I need to clarify sothing about Mr. Koker’s availability."

"Go ahead."

"He isn’t unreachable because of business. He specifically instructed not to cooperate with any investigations involving Mira. He said if anyone ca asking questions, I should claim he was unavailable."

Coleman’s grip tightened on the phone. "Why would he give those instructions?"

"I don’t know, but that’s what he said. I think he wants to handle his daughter’s investigation alone. He has the resources to do that. I’m only informing you so you stop trying to reach out to him."

"Can you reach him now?"

"Yes, but he won’t be happy about it."

"Try him anyway. Tell him his daughter is involved in an international incident and he needs to cooperate with the police."

"I’m sorry, but I will only follow his instructions."

After the assistant hung up, Coleman turned to the room. "This case just beca much more complex. Captain Koker wanting to investigate his daughter’s disappearance alone seems shady."

Mrs. Torres stood up. "What can we do?"

"Keep trying to contact him."

"But you just heard what his assistant said. I think we should respect his decision."

"I don’t care about that. If he’s been staying uninvolved on purpose, he needs to understand that his daughter and her friends could be in serious danger. We need to work together to ensure we get all three back to safety."

The private investigator Mrs. Torres had hired arrived just as Detective Coleman was finishing her call to Interpol. David Chen introduced himself and reviewed all the evidence they had gathered.

"These kids have resources and planning capability beyond typical teenagers," he said after studying the encrypted ssages. "The question is what Mira convinced them to help her with that required this level of secrecy."

"What’s your assessnt?" Coleman asked.

"Based on the sophistication and resources involved, whatever they’re doing, it’s not innocent. The secrecy, the fake docunts, the financial transactions, this suggests sothing they know would be stopped if discovered."

Coleman’s phone rang. Captain Koker’s na appeared on the display.

"Mr. Koker, this is Detective Coleman. We need to talk about your daughter."

"I know why you’re calling," he said, his voice tired. "But I don’t have answers for you. Mira hasn’t told what she’s doing or why she went to Mumbai."

"Are you saying you don’t know what your daughter is involved in?"

Koker was quiet for a long mont. "I’m saying Mira is intelligent and resourceful. Whatever she’s doing, she planned it carefully enough that even I can’t figure it out."

"We need to know where she is."

"I’m working on that myself. I have investigators on the ground in Mumbai."

Coleman felt her frustration rising. "Mr. Koker, your daughter and her friends could be putting themselves in serious danger. Or they could be doing sothing dangerous to others."

"I’m aware of both possibilities, and like I just said, I have asures in place already to find her," he said quietly.

After Koker hung up, Coleman turned back to face the room. "What happens now?" Mrs. Kenner asked.

"Now we wait for Interpol to coordinate with Indian authorities and try to locate the three teenagers."

Detective Coleman closed her notebook. "Mrs. Kenner, Mrs. Torres, I want you to understand sothing. Your children may not be in imdiate physical danger, but they’re involved in sothing serious enough that a billionaire’s daughter felt she needed to leave the country to accomplish it. That should concern all of us."

As everyone prepared to leave, Sofia printed out the latest computer monitoring logs.

"Detective, whoever’s watching us from Mumbai just logged in again. They know we’ve discovered their location, but they’re still monitoring our investigation."

"Which ans," Coleman said grimly, "either Mira and her friends are keeping tabs on us, or soone else is interested in what they’re doing and wants to make sure we don’t interfere."

The investigation was officially underway, but Detective Coleman couldn’t shake the feeling that they were always going to be one step behind three determined teenagers with unlimited resources and very good reasons to stay hidden.