“Hey Mark, is Witness #6 here?” Sophie poked her head out of the door. Detective Mark turned around.
   “No, they’re a no-show.” He said. Sophie nodded.
   “Oh. I’ll have to call them again tomorrow. We need the evidence. But on the bright side,  I’m done for the day.” She closed and locked the door of the room, and they started to walk home together. Both their houses were close to the building, and they often traveled home together, whether it be by walk or by car. “We had all types today; the Straight Face, the Overly Emotional, the Joker, the Storyteller, and the No-Show,” Sophie said.
   “Really?” Mark laughed. “It must have been a busy day for you.”
   “Yeah, but I honestly don’t know who the perpetrator could be. There’s evidence for all of them that proves that they didn’t steal the necklace, but there’s also evidence for some of them showing that they did do it. I think it might be M-” Sophie tripped on a step and fell, her heavy bag taking most of the impact. Unfortunately for her phone, it fell out of her bag and hit the gravel ground of the parking lot. Sophie sighed, and got up to inspect her phone. It didn’t seem broken in any way, so Sophie put it back into her bag to inspect later.
   “You okay?” Mark asked. Sophie nodded.
   “This isn’t the first time I’ve had an ungraceful fall, you know. I’m quite the expert at them now.” She said with mock seriousness.
    “Of course, Sophie.” He said with equal solemnness. Mark pulled out a cigarette, and fumbled around in his bag for a lighter. He produced a box of matches instead. Sophie laughed.
“Is that the box of bright pink matches I gave you as a prank?” She asked. Mark grinned.
“The one and only.” He lit the cigarette, and they walked in silence for a while. “So, what are you doing this weekend?” He asked.
    “Nothing really. Just hanging out with Melissa.” She said.
    “ The Melissa Reynolds, the secretary who always ‘has business’ near my office?” Mark asked incredulously.
    “She isn’t that bad, you know.” Mark snorted. “So, what about you?” Sophie asked.
    “Nothing planned really. Just hanging in my apartment. I love doing that, you know.” He said nonchalantly.
    “Speaking of plans, where were you last night? I didn’t see you at the Yorkman Residence.” Mark looked down, then to the buildings on the left.
    “Oh, you know, um, Detective Velasquez assigned me on another mission. I was just working on it.” Sophie looked up at him in awe. Partly because he was several inches taller than her.
    “Wow, he almost never does that. Must have been an important case.”
    “Yeah.” She and Mark stopped in front her apartment building, and she waved to him, and headed in. When she finally found her keys, Sophie let herself into her apartment, and slumped into her sofa. She took out her phone and unlocked it, only to see that it was recording. She stopped the recording and replayed it, and heard Mark’s and her voice.
    “It must have recorded our conversation…” She mused. Sophie was about to delete it, her finger hovering over the button, when she thought of a better use for it. Logging onto her computer, she downloaded the audio clip and started to edit it. After hard work, she produced a card that upon opening, said “I love you Melissa Reynolds” in Mark’s voice. Sophie smiled slyly at her devilish creation, and stuffed it into her bag to use later. Sighing contentedly, she turned the television, and saw her case being broadcasted.
“Recent events at Mrs. Julie Yorkman’s house have got the town murmuring. Her mother, Mrs. Agatha Smith, was a large benefactor to the town, and several priceless jewelry pieces along with the late Mrs. Smith’s favorite necklace was stolen, and Mrs. Yorkman’s residence was burned down in the thief's escape.” Sophie groaned, her mid returning to the problem at hand. Who had done it?
It wasn’t Mrs. Yorkman framing someone else, she knew that. The lady had been at the hospital to treat some minor burns she had received, and had been thoroughly searched. It was possible that she could have hid it at the crime site, but the outside of the house had already been searched, so it was not likely that she was the criminal. The man on the house to the right, Mr. Aspen, was nowhere near the house when it was burned down. They had security camera footage of him at a local restaurant at the time of the theft. Mrs. Veil lived in the house across the street, but she, like Mr. Aspen, didn’t know what was stolen, nor did they see anyone from the house. In fact, the only person who knew that the crime was happening before the fire was Mr. Blair, who lived to the left of the Yorkman home. He supposedly saw a figure running from the house. Mr. Blair was the only one who mentioned anything about a necklace, and Mrs. Yorkman had also mentioned that the dresser was by a window, so it was possible that Mr. Blair had seen her put the necklace there.
Sophie slumped down. She would have to wait until tomorrow to actually go inside the house. Maybe then she would have a chance of finding more evidence. She closed her eyes for a minute and opened them again to check the time. 12:43 PM. She would have to go to sleep if she wanted to keep her wits tomorrow. Sophie got up and retired to her bed. It had been a long day, and she had barely gotten any sleep the previous night. As soon as her head hit the pillow she drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

Sophie looked at the burned down house. Mark stood beside her in equal wonder. They were both at the crime scene now. The previous night, Sophie had dreamed of the fire, and it haunted her because she was unable to solve the case. Looked at the desolated house wasn’t making Sophie feel any better about the crime.
“How about this? I’ll go search the house, and you can search the outside to see if you find anything.” Sophie said. She was eager to get her hands on any evidence that she could find. Sophie headed to the upper floor first, to Ms. Yorkman’s room, taking care not to fall through the steps. When she reached the extravagant room the first thing she saw was ash. The dresser had burned down, but Sophie could see something in the soot. As she got closer she saw that it was a bright pink match. Mark’s bright pink match. She cautiously took the match and sealed it in a bag, placing it quickly in her pocket when she heard someone come up the stairs.
“Did you find anything, Sophie?” Mark asked. She shook her head quickly.
“Nothing but ash.” Sophie replied.
“Okay, I’ll go tell that to Detective Velasquez.” She watched Mark’s retreating figure. Could he really have stolen the necklace? Sophie decided to confirm her suspicions. She headed down to Detective Velasquez.
“Hello Detective Velasquez, I wanted to ask you a question.” She said.
“Shoot.” She said, pointing to Sophie
“Umm, I just wondered where Detective Honey was last night. He told me that he was doing an extra case, but I wanted to know what it was. I would really love to do one in the future.” Sophie said.
“He was doing an extra case? I never assigned him on one.” She said. Detective Velasquez was about to continue when her attention was diverted to another person. Sophie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
“If he wasn’t at the Yorkman house, and wasn’t on an extra case, where was he?” She mused. Before she could come up with an explanation, Detective Velasquez turned back to her.
“He told you that? Why would he lie?” She asked
“I don’t know. But I did find something in the ashes upstairs.” She pulled out the match. “I gave this to him. He used it yesterday too.” Detective Velasquez looked at the match in shock.
“Do you have evidence of his statement, though?” She asked. Sophie was about to shake her head when she remembered the recording.
“I have a recording of our whole conversation.” Sophie whispered. Detective Velasquez sat down.
“I can’t believe that he would do that.” She finally said, exhaling. Sophie looked on with a somber face.
“I know.” Sophie sighed. She left Detective Velasquez to process the revelation, and headed off.
But the recording had reminded her of something else. It wouldn’t be quite the kick now that Mark would be arrested, but it would still be a little funny. Sophie dropped the card in Melissa’s bag, and walked away from the Yorkman house.
She was secretly happy though, under the shock that one of her close friends had committed the crime. Sophie thanked Mark in her head for giving her the evidence she needed to become the hero. She had done it. She had solved the case. But more importantly, she had gotten away with her 25th crime unscathed. She thought that that deserved a victory dinner. Perhaps she would use the money from the necklace to buy herself some 5-star steak.
However, there was still one more mystery to crack. She walked over to where Mark was examining some evidence.
“Hey, Mark.” She whispered. He whirled around, but relaxed when he saw that it was just Sophie. She grinned slyly at him.”Just so you know, I totally support you and Melissa.” She said. Sophie wiggled her fingers and walked off happily to her car.