Light to Dark

"How do you know Barbie isn't a slut?" Lucy shrugged, waiting for the punchline of her best friend's, likely terrible, joke. 
"Because her legs don't open." Lucy laughed along with Julie, who evidently found her own joke hilarious. Julie always had a new joke to tell; all of which Julie would inevitably find hilarious, and the majority of which would cause Lucy to roll her eyes and laugh. 
           The Coffee Bean Inn was mostly quiet, except for the two seventeen year olds laughing about the sex life, or lack thereof, of the world's most famous woman-shaped lump of plastic. The girls had met at their favourate caffeine dispensary not long before. The night was early and, like all teenage best friends, they had much to tell each other while they sipped hot chocolate with marshmallows.



D.I. Colin Matthews stood, with his brow furrowed, looking at the body of a young girl slumped across the table of the corner booth. There were no signs of a struggle, no blood and no other indications that would make cause of death apparent. However, what struck Matthews most, was that he recognised the victim. Lucy Halloway. Lucy was one of his wife's drama students, one of the most talented too.
          Across the table from the harrowing sight of a young life ended before it had begun, was an empty booth seat covered in spilled hot chocolate, which was now the same temperature as the skin of the late teenager. The puddle had been smeared across the seat by someone leaving the booth. A Paul's Boutique bag had been left next to the window by the person who had previously occupied the space. A purse found in the bag contained the I.D, of Julianna Louise Marcus. Upon seeing the name, Matthews quickly left the coffee shop and interrupted his colleague's interview with the potential witness without apology or explanation. Matthews led his colleague to his car and took a deep breath.
"You cant work this case, Andy." Confusion became etched on Andrew's face.
"What? Why?" 
"The victim in the coffee shop is Lucy Halloway." Matthews watched as his colleague tried to work out how he knew the name, why it was so familiar,
"We believe there was a second person in the booth. There is evidence to indicate it. We don't know how they are involved, but they are missing and they left their bag," Matthews closed his eyes, took another deep breath and broke the news.
"Andy, it's Julie. We found her I.D." He handed D.S. Andrew Marcus the card. Marcus' face drained of colour as he looked at the smiling face of his niece.