He paced his office and looked out again past his door, to the couple that sat in the outer office. The woman was crying, and the man was trying to comfort her.

Mr. & Mrs. Marquez had just finished telling him that their daughter was missing, and had last been seen last night when she had gone out to visit a friend.

When they had called Pam Troy’s house, Pam’s mother had told them the same thing that she had told Louisa last night. She hadn’t seen Pam since Thursday night.

It was now Saturday morning, and both girls were still missing.

He hoped that they had just gone off somewhere for the weekend, maybe camping or to get away from their parents. But he couldn’t wait for them to come back on their own, if they were going to. He would have to do a full scale investigation. Pam was known to disappear for days at a time, according to his son Kyle, but not Louisa. Louisa was very level headed and Kyle did not see her as the type to put her parents though this scare.

Both his son Kyle, and Kyle’s friend Tommy were also sitting in the outer room. Both were worried and feeling uncomfortable with Mrs. Marquez’ sobbing.

Tommy was Louisa’s boyfriend, and had been brought in when Louisa had turned up missing. He and Kyle had been together the night before, with a bunch of other football buddies, and Tommy hadn’t seen Louisa since earlier yesterday in school.

Kyle was there to lend his friend support. He was in a daze, as was his friend, for things like this didn’t happen in the usually small, quiet town of Roswell. The last time something unusual had happened in Roswell, it had been at the Crashdown, the day of the shooting. But in that case, no one had been hurt. But now, two of Roswell’s teens were missing, and both were friends of Kyle’s and Tommy’s.

Sheriff Valenti sighed again, threw himself down in his chair and picked up the phone. He would have to call in more help. He would have to interview all the residence of Roswell to see if anyone had seen Pam or Louisa, or knew where they were.

Then, if that didn’t turn up anything, he would have to call on the state for more help to start a search for the two girls. He hated that. That brought the media into it, and tons of people from all over coming to see and possibly destroy evidence. The dogs and cameras would make it a field day, and it would only make matters worse for him to do his job. But he couldn’t wait until the girls showed up either. He had no choice. He would start with the interviewing of the townspeople.

* * * * *

Liz and Maria exchanged solemn glances as they served an equally solemn, if small, crowd at the Crashdown that afternoon.

By now the word had spread about the missing girls, and the investigation was on. No one knew anything so far, and everyone was becoming more and more concerned.

Maria was sniffing her oils more and more frequently, and trying not to freak out about the thought of the two missing teens from their small town.

Liz was equally worried and a little afraid with every hour that the two girls were still missing.

When the door opened again, Liz glanced over and saw Max and Michael heading their way.

Liz sighed with relief. Just Max’s presence was a comfort.

Max walked up to Liz, and took her hands. “You okay?” he asked in a gentle, low voice.

Liz nodded and saw Michael pull the oil away from Maria and hug her.

Max saw the strain in Liz’s eyes and pulled her up against him as well.

When he and Michael had heard what had happened, they had both come straight to their girls. The thought that it could have been either of them was sobering for the two boys.

The door opened again and Isabel and Alex came in. Both looking distraught as well.

Isabel came up to Max and Liz and her hands were twisting in fear.

“Is? What is it?” Max asked and turned to her.

“Max! Oh God, Max. I saw Louisa last night…” Isabel said as she started to shake and Max put his arms around his sister.

“What? How?” Max asked, knowing they had all been together last night.

Isabel explained the quick odd visit from Louisa, and then she choked on a sob. “I could have been the last person to have seen her… and the sheriff will question me and… maybe if I would have let her come in she wouldn’t be missing… and…”

Max stopped her from rambling by sighing and holding her tighter.

“Is, you couldn’t have known. We still don’t know for sure anything has happened to either of them. Maybe Pam ran away and Louisa is helping her. They are probably fine.” Max tried to comfort.

Isabel pulled out of Max’s comforting embrace and took a deep breath. Then she began to pace.

“No… I have a bad feeling about this… I can’t explain it… but it’s there.” Isabel swallowed and held herself tightly.

Alex had been standing by, wishing he had been the one to take Isabel in his arms and comfort her. Now as he saw her hug herself he realized, that as a friend, he could.

He gently put a hand on her arm and she turned to him. Then, to his surprise, she went into his arms herself. He held her tight and closed his eyes. God, what if it had been Isabel!

Max watched his sister’s reaction to Alex and was stunned. Then he turned to Liz, who smiled slightly, glad for her two friends, but even more worried after Isabel’s words of imminent doom.

Isabel, still in Alex’s embrace, turned back around to her brother. “Max, what should I tell Valenti?” she asked in a terrified voice.

Max understood Isabel’s overwhelming fear of the sheriff, but knew, as did Isabel, that she had to tell what she knew, if it could be of some help.

“I’ll go with you Is.” Alex said, rubbing her arm in comfort. She was shaking with fear. He too knew of her fear of the law, and understood where it came from now.

“I’ll go too.” Max stated.

“No. Max. If you go then it will just make Valenti think again about all his suspicions about you and Isabel and everything. Let me go with her. With his mind on this problem, he probably won’t even think of his suspicions about Isabel. But if you went with her…” Alex didn’t finish. He hated to tell Max that his presence could be dangerous for his own sister.

The look on Max’s face was filled with pain, but he nodded in agreement.

Liz put a hand on Max’s arm, and he wrapped an arm around her in need of some comfort himself. He was a danger to everyone he loved.

“Max… don’t.” Liz said softly.

He looked down into her understanding eyes that were also filled with pain, and he knew she felt what he was feeling and thinking.

“This connection can be annoying. I can’t even feel sorry for myself.” Max smiled slightly, trying to make light of the tense situation.

Liz squeezed his arm, again in understanding. “It works both ways Evans.” Liz bantered back, trying to help him lighten the situation. “Besides… you were the one who invaded my thoughts first.” She said in a teasing voice.

Max loved her for trying to lighten the mood. Then Liz turned to Isabel. “Would you like me to go with you Is?” She asked. Sometimes another female friend could help.

Isabel was surprised, but then remembered how much closer Liz, Maria and she had gotten, and realized that this is what friends did for one another.

She smiled shyly and nodded. “You wouldn’t mind?” she asked.

Liz shook her head. “Of course not. Let’s go.”

Max, Michael and Maria watched their three friends leave and then exchanged looks of their own fear.

“Do you think the sheriff will start investigating Isabel?” Maria asked, grabbing her oil out of Michael’s hand and sniffing it again.

This time, neither Michael nor Max could assure her, since they were wondering the same thing.

How could things have gone from so perfect last night, to so terrifying the today, Max thought as he met his friends’ equally worried eyes, and knew they were asking themselves the same thing.

And what could have happened to the two missing girls!?…