"What happened when you and Lou left me at the concert the other night?" I ask, fighting the urge to bite my nail as I tap the speakerphone button. I hear Tessa pause, hesitant, before producing a warning.

"Listen carefully, Kayleigh. You have absolutely no idea what you're meddling in. There are people in this world with a lot more power than you could possibly comprehend. There are reasons people keep secrets, reasons so much bigger than the police. Stay out of it. I'm warning you now. Because even though you think you've got all that muscle behind you, you have nothing compared to what they have. Absolutely nothing. As for what happened after we left, I can honestly say I had no involvement in it. Goodbye." A five second phone conversation ended with a sharp click and several intakes of breath from myself and the guys.

"So." Harry breathed. "What the hell does that mean?" I could tell he was on the cusp of a major freak out and I was barely holding it in. Niall and Zayn simply glanced at each other as though confirming something mutually and I looked between the both, confused.

"What's going on?" I ask curiously.

"So, Tessa's not involved?" Zayn looks at me for clarification and I respond with a face.

"Of course she is, did you not just hear her talk on and on about 'higher powers'? I make finger marks in the air to emphasise my point.

"But surely if she says she has nothing to do with it, then she had nothing to do with it, right?" Harry looks perturbed by the whole situation and I have to resist the temptations of rolling my eyes

"Oh the life you must lead to believe that, Harry. People lie, they cheat. Tessa may have been telling the truth but, at the same time, she may not have been. Be sensible here and think about it. If you were going to be accused of murder and sent to prison for life but could avoid it by lying, what would you do?" I reply, my voice laced thickly with exasperation.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just trying to get a perspective on this whole thing. Look, we need to compile a list of suspects that we believe have a connection with the case. We can do it in here." Harry continues, plucking a notebook out from his back pocket.

"Well, that's a start I suppose." I shrug, handing Louis and Harry a pen from where it lay on the table.

"Number 1. Tessa Dale." Louis voices what he writes, scribbling furiously. "Number 2. Ahh, well, who's next?"

"That's the thing. The only leads we have to go on are the ones the police have come up with." Liam tells us, looking and sounding apologetic.

"Well, we'll have to follow them up. How many are there Liam?" I enquire, knowing what we had to do.

"Ummm...." Liam traces his hand down the creamy pages of a notebook, counting. "About 12."

"Perfect. We can either go it alone and follow two leads up each or go in pairs and do four." I say.

"You watch way too many detective shows, Kayleigh." Niall chuckles.

"Plonker. You know what El, Sophia, Perrie and I are like when we're together. Speaking of which, how long till we see them?" I whine.

"Few days for El and Sophia and another month for Pez, sorry." Zayn tells me, his eyes beginning to mist over.

"Shit. Sorry Zayn. That wasn't very well thought out was it?" I apologise quickly.

"It's alright, are you and Niall leaving now to deliver that file? The rest of us could divide up the leads and begin." He replies, scratching the base of his neck uncharacteristically awkwardly.

"That'd be great. Stick a note under my door or something of the ones I'm supposed to do and the ones Niall's got to do. Then you lot can get out and chase it all up if you have to." I stand up and collect the file from the bed, pausing as I did so.

"We need to be careful, though. What if Tessa's warning is real?" I think out loud.

"Doubt it." Niall snorts. "She's probably just scared. Come on, let's get going. It doesn't look that much warmer out there than it was yesterday and we have to get through the fans."

He's right. I hadn't even seen them congregated outside, yelling chants. I noticed several crying, when I went to look, and even saw one holding a sign that I translated to say "Have My Babies, Zayn".

Hmm. I know One Direction fans are pretty much obsessed and I hope they never break up because it would kill them. But really? I didn't envy the boys, not just because I couldn't sing but because of the attention they got. No thank you. I'd much rather be somebody who nobody sees, rather ironic then that I took this job many might argue.

"Let's go." I grin at Niall, as he offers me his arm and I happily take it.

"Shall we, my lady?" He attempts to mask his thick, Irish accent and put on one resembling the Queen's but it failed terribly. I giggled as he waved a hand through the door for me.

"We shall." I replied. I could hear the other boys shouting and hollering at us as we stepped through the door.

"You two. PG, alright?" Zayn cackles as I put one finger in the air behind me.

"Go away Zayn. Leave my best friend alone." Niall growls in my defence. Growling is a really strange way to talk, don't you think? I ask myself as I pull the door closed. Why can't people just shout angrily? No, they have to growl like they've become some sort of cross-species.

"Sorry. Not sure what's got into them lately." Niall shrugs. "Ready? Let's go!"

He starts down the corridor and I open my mouth to say something but shut it quickly, realising what I'm about to say is something that I really shouldn't even be considering.

I deliberate in my head for a split second before running to catch up with him. Huh. I've never noticed how large his stride is; it makes me wonder how I've kept up with him before.

"So, this Ronnie," Niall starts as we begin the descent down the stairs. "She fit?"

"She's in her thirties Niall! That makes her older than you by at least ten years. But, I suppose so. I'm not a guy so I wouldn't be able to tell. I only see people as pretty." I shrug, shaking my head.

"Hey! Don't blame me! It's been how long since I've had a girlfriend?" Niall defends himself nudging me with his elbow.

"And whose fault is that?"

"Yours?"

"How the hell is it my fault, Niall?" I'm more than a little confused by his reply and I stare at him, shocked.

"I was joking! Jeez, I'm not that literal am I?"

"Not normally but you had me worried! I was panicking I was going to have to renounce our friendship." I laugh, getting an eye roll in return.

"As if!" He shakes his head. "Besides, this is a really awkward topic."

"Why's it awkward?"

"I dunno, it just is."

"Something is only awkward if you let it be, Niall."

"Who said that again?" He pauses to think for a moment.

"Silvia Donahue. That author?"

"Ahh." The conversation lulls comfortably as we pull ourselves down the rest of the stairs and into the foyer. There are several guests arriving and checking in as we reach the ground floor. They appeared to have come via a coach tour as a large bus, almost identical to the one the boys had travelled in, was pulled up along the kerb.

"Hood up." Niall whispers, as he nods to the guard by the door who leads the way out.

Outside, I'm thrust into a chaotic mix of fans, paparazzi and walkers as I try to follow Niall. Random questions are being thrown at me, asking who I was, whether Niall and I were 'a thing', if it was a one night stand and everything else in between. In all honesty, I was rather glad nobody knew it was me beneath the wig and dark sunglasses. Up ahead, I spotted Niall with a few fans just simply laughing and talking, taking a couple of pictures and moving on. He was a natural, like he should have been after five years in the business.

I try to push through the throng but don't get far when I realise that I'm trapped. I call out desperately to Niall, to anybody really, wanting to vacate the area and just get away. Though I know how to take punches and shoves very well, I've never been good at actually executing them myself, so I was starting to collapse inside. It was as though there were four, black walls waiting to crush me as they slowly pressed in on me. I tried calling out but my voice was raspy and cracked so I waited for the darkness to over take me. It never came.

Suddenly, two strong hands were wrapped around my waist and I was being lifted fireman style away from the fans. I breathed a shaky sigh of relief as I pressed my face into a solid, toned back and let myself be carried away. It felt like eternity but I soon picked up on the pounding feet beneath me and the distance I was travelling. When I was finally set down, I felt Niall's presence above me, looking down and making sure I was in a good, mental state. We were in the mouth of a dank alleyway, with Niall's body pressed up against mine to conceal me. Fans rushed past, trying to find us both, and I bit back a giggle.

"What happened?" He asked, glancing back over his shoulder before removing his body and ducking behind a rubbish bin.

"Don't know. Got mobbed, panicked, felt overwhelming despair take over and then BAM! You're there. Like a knight in shining armour." I reply, laughing a little at my own comparison.

"We'd better get back to the tour bus. It might be early but I can guarantee that those leads will take a while to follow up." Niall tells me, reappearing from his crouching position.

"Good idea. We can probably slip in the back entrance anyway and not worry about security."

I stretch a hand out and Niall accepts it, following me through the alleys that I know like the back of my hand. Paris is one of my favourite places in the world. How could I not know my way around so well? The alleys lead to the back of the venue the boys were due to play at for their last concert. But that was all cancelled and their tour came to an abrupt end. I felt bad that I was the one who had caused it but, at the same time, it was nice to be needed so much that five boys would cancel their shows just to make sure I was alright. It was quite sweet really.

I push the bar of the heavy metal door down and allow it to swing open. This door lead into a room off the corridor but was still accessible through the main hall. The room was small and cramped with cardboard boxes towering tall over me, touching the roof. There was a thread bare Indian rug thrown across the planks in an attempt to make the room looked used; paint was peeling off the beige walls revealing a spectrum of previous colour choices, none of which were particularly appealing.

I pushed a box to one side and coughed as the dust sprung from its previously undisturbed resting spot. It was thrown into the air more as Niall and I moved through the room and attempted to reach the other side, our feet scraping against the floor boards as we did so. All in all, the room only being lit by a single, over head light bulb didn't aid the overall appearance and I was beginning to regret ever coming in.
After sifting my way through the majority of the empty boxes, my hand finally clasped the cool metal of the door handle. I gave a small twist and prayed that it wouldn't be locked and was relieved to hear a satisfying click ring out as though metal had slid back against metal. I beckoned Niall over and we left the anteroom, following the corridor down and round and out into the back roads.

I approach the woman I saw yesterday and wave the thick file in her face, pleased to be speaking again.

"I have to return something to Ronnie," I explain "it's very important and I won't be long."

"Very well. Be quick though, Gracie." She taps her foot impatiently as she inspects something on the clipboard and waves her hand absent-mindedly allowing me through.

I slip through the chink in the fence and scurry up the make shift path as Niall waits for me by the woman. I board the tour bus and glance around, looking for Ronnie. I spot her sitting at the table, still surrounded by hundreds of files, and chewing her pen lid.

She glances up at me through her thick lashes and grins.

"Gracie! Hey! You returning that file I lent you?" She enquires, taking it from my hand.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks for that by the way." I reply, carefully pulling a chair out from under the table and sitting down slowly.

"Not a problem. Find anything useful? I was thinking that today we could-" I cut poor Ronnie off mid-sentence.

"Let me stop you right there." I tell Ronnie, quickly inventing a lie as to why I wouldn't be working with her any more. "There um....they've decided I'm going to be shadowing the forensics team for the time being as they feel my skills would be better used in other areas. I'm so sorry Ronnie." I apologise, gnawing my lip.

"Oh! It's okay sweetheart! I'm sure we'll see each other around at some point! I'll let you go and begin your work now." Ronnie smiles at me.

"Thank you Ronnie." I tell her as I leave the bus. "You've really helped me out!"

Ronnie nods politely and returns to her work, engrossed in her reading seconds after I leave.

---

We turn the handle of my messy hotel room and enter, both beginning to search for the note Liam left us. We had one each but Niall and I had decided to work together so we'd only be following up ones that we both had. Before I'd left, I asked Ronnie how long it took to follow up leads in cases. Unfortunately, she'd said that, if they were good like we believed they were, it could take a day to two days to check the credentials. But we had six hours per lead.

My first thought was doing a system check then Googling them, but it appeared Liam had already done that, writing everything he could find out on the Internet below each suspect. There was a lot to sift through.

"Who are your suspects?" Niall glances over.

"Radcliffe of the security team. He's got no alibi for the night other than he went out drinking and he was Paul's best mate. And also Lou, surprisingly enough. Can't figure it out although Liam mentioned that the police had put her name down due to Lux and possible risks of child abduction. What about you?" I reply curiously.

"Looks likes they gave me the hard ones. I'm supposed to find out everything about Tessa Dale and this Angelica's Walters that I can."

"Well, we'd better get cracking then."

Niall and I compose a list of all the places that may contain information. They range from the public records to the aquarium as we knew that one of the suspects had a love of fish and Radcliffe had enjoyed helping out at the local children's centre at home- so my plan was to ring them and get as much information as possible. I was trying not to think too hard about the fact that what we were doing was illegal and tried to focus on getting my name cleared of suspicion entirely.

It felt a little strange to be speaking so detachedly about the case- it almost seemed like neither one of us had ever known Paul and I didn't like it. It made me feel as though we were considering Paul to not be worth our time and I would have always made time for him if he were still here. Odd how that works after he threatened me, right?

"So we have six hours per lead, that's two hours for research, an hour for questioning, an hour compiling the report and two hours coming to a thorough conclusion about each suspect as well as considering possible leads they have given us." I say, flicking through the sheets Liam had left me.

"But where do we begin our research?" Niall questions, confused.

"Why not start with public records? Phoning the UK embassy is free, though we're going to have to pay if we want a full record, and we can start compiling details." I shrug. "I'm not sure how much each record costs but I assume it's going to be about £30 each."

"You can access public records that easily?" Niall looks astonished.

"If you know who to ask for, sure. Otherwise it takes a lot, and I mean A LOT, of explaining and security checks."

"Who first then?"

"How about we start with Angelica's Walters? We've got a brief file but, since she's dead, we can't interview her. We've got to get as in-depth a file as possible." I suggest.

"Okay. What's their number?" Niall scrolls through his apps and selects the 'calling' option.

"We can't just casually ring up the embassy and say 'Oh! Hey! Look, I need access to some public records because I'm trying to investigate a murder case!' They'll know something's not quite right!" I exclaim.

"So, what do we do then?"

"I'll call them." Niall looks at me with a blank face. Does this kid think he's the only one with connections? Please. I could probably get into the vault of Buckingham Palace if I really tried. Crazy, I know. But *cue rapping voice* dis bitch got skills, bruv!

I pull up a list of contacts on my phone and select Jenny, the lady who works at the embassy. It rings as I place it on speakerphone and motion to Niall to keep quiet.

"Hello, you've reached the United Kindom Embassy. My name's Jennifer, how may I be of assistance today?" Jennifer's chipper voice sounds through the phone, grainy. I'm suddenly aware of how much this phone call is going to cost me.

"Jenny! Hi! It's Kayleigh!" I tell her.

"Kayleigh? I shouldn't be taking this call now." She hisses.

"I was hoping I could get access to some public records." I expand my point and I can almost picture her rolling her eyes.

"Well I didn't think you were calling to request asylum. Look, which ones do you need access to?"

I shuffle through the papers scattered on the floor and pluck out our list of leads. "I need access to Radcliffe Spence, born 9th March 1982, Lou Teasdale, born 1983, Angelica Walters, died 27th June 2003 and Tessa Dale, born 4th July 1993."

"Alright. That's £120 please as you've requested access to four records. If I could please have your card details."

I begin to dig through my back pocket for my card and pull it out, just as Niall hands me his. We get into a silent, mini fight about who's paying and, in the end, I won. I was pretty darn proud of myself but hurriedly turned back to the phone, realising Jenny may well have heard our quiet battle.

"Ahh, sorry." I rattle my details off as I hear Jenny typing the card numbers into the computer.

"Thank you. And your email? I shall have them sent to you right away."

Reluctantly, I tell her my email and I hear her stifle a laugh before solemnly returning to typing.

"Don't ever call this number again, Kayleigh. I returned the favour I owed you, now, GO AWAY!" And Jennifer quickly hit the end call button.

I turn to Niall and roll my eyes. "Sorry she was such a bitch. She owed me one and wasn't happy about it."

"Well at least we put that favour to good use." Niall grinned standing up. "Now come on. Let's check out those public records."

Notes

Hey guys!

Some of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that I took the romance genre out and added the sci-fi genre in instead. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while but never got round to it as, reading through, what I've written becomes more sci-fi than romance though there is a little mixed in it all! There will be lots to do with romance nearer the end but all shall be revealed soon! :)