3 Chapter 2

I walked up the stairs quietly so Mrs. Anderson couldn't hear me. I made my way to Melody's room. it was dark, with the only light source coming from the moon as it shone through the window. I turned on the light switch and looked around for anything I can work with: dusting for fingerprints, moving things around for any type of clues, looking for DNA samples.

"Nothing..."

There was absolutely nothing here. It was as if the whole place had been cleaned literally right after Melody disappeared.

"There's gotta be something around here I can use"

I sat down on the floor and hit my head on the wall, stumped.

"Ow"

A small secret compartment opened right next to me

"What the?!"

I looked to where I had hit my head, there was a hidden button covered with the pink paint that covered Melody's walls

"Jackpot! No wonder why nobody saw this"

I looked inside the compartment and found a small notebook and a pink pen. The text on the notebook's cover read, "Melody's Diary". I picked it up, feeling nervous about reading a little girl's diary.

"Calm down Jonathan, you're only doing this so you can find her..."

I opened it up and started rifling through the pages

March 23, 2012:

We moved into a new town. I'm really nervous... I have to start at a new school when school is almost over

Blegh

I really hate school

I flipped through a few more pages...

May 7, 2019:

I scraped my knee on my way to school today. A young man came up to me and helped me feel better. He was very nice to me and told me I was a very pretty girl, and pretty girls shouldn't cry over little things. I walked with me all the way to school and took me to the nurse's office so I can get a bandage for my knee. I thanked him and he left. I hope I meet someone like that again someday.

"Hm...I better check this guy out"

I pulled out my notepad and wrote down "School Nurse" and "Man?" as my person of interest

"I better check out more. I can't stop until I reach the date of the crime"

May 13, 2019

I met the man who helped me again at the playground today. He's so cool! He told me his name was Thomas and he was 26 years old. He said he was living just up the street from where Mommy and I live and his cousin lived right next to him as well. He sometimes saw me playing in the front yard whenever he left for work. He told me he worked as a voice actor in some of my favorite shows that I watched, and we spent the day doing voices together. I hope I become a voice actor like him someday!

"So she met the man, Thomas, again at the playground almost a week later. He told her he was a voice actor in different kids shows that she watched, and he was living next to his cousin who lives in this town? I better figure out who this cousin is..."

I erased "Man?" from my journal and wrote "Thomas" and "Thomas' Cousin" as my POIs

I also wrote in my notes that Thomas lives up the street from the Andersons and next to his cousin.

I flipped through more pages until I found the entry for June 16th.

June 16, 2019

Thomas left for a voiceover job in California...

I don't know when he'll be back, but I hope he returns soon. I miss playing with him. Apparently he paid some woman to watch over his house while he was gone. I don't know who, and frankly I don't care. I just want to be with Thomas again. He was like the dad I never had...

"Wow, she really had a good relationship with this "Thomas" guy, as if he was her father. It's kinda sad that she disappeared just 4 days after..."

I added "Diary Entry Date" and "Melody/Thomas Relationship" to my clues in my journal

"The entries stop after the 16th, but I think I have everything for now. Melody didn't just disappear out of thin air, she was kidnapped..."

I must have been investigating for hours, because I looked up and the sun was shining bright through the window. I looked at my phone: 6:32 am

"I've been here for 4 hours! Crap...Mom and Dad are gonna kill me..."

I quietly walked down the stairs after turning off the light and shutting the door to Melody's room. Mrs. Anderson was still passed out on the couch.

"I'm not there yet, but I'm getting there"

I grabbed my bike and rode back home within minutes. I opened the back door and quietly shut it as I made my way to my room. Luckily my parents were still sleeping and my door was the first on the left while theirs were second on the right. I opened my door silently and quickly changed into my pajamas and spent 5 minutes trying to make it look like I've been asleep the whole time, bedhead and all. I felt like it worked a little too well because I actually ended up falling asleep...

After waking up at 10:32 am, I walked downstairs and found a note from my mom that said:

"Went out to get groceries, help yourself to the bacon and eggs I put in the microwave for you."

I pulled out some waffles and popped them in the toaster while heating up the bacon and eggs. After taking them both out and started eating, I pulled out my journal to go over what evidence I had found yesterday

This "Thomas" guy sounds like the likely suspect to kidnap her, as he met Melody in kidnapping hotspots and had the most interactions with her, but Melody explains that she and Thomas had a father-daughter relationship, and he was in California for a voiceover job at the time, I wouldn't be surprised if he never even heard the news of Melody's disappearance.

*Knock Knock Knock*

"Who could that be?"

I went to the door and opened it as a man in his late 20s stood on ny doorstep

"My name is Thomas...I'm here to help you..."

"With what exactly?"

"I want to help you find Melody..."