Ryan's fingers grazed over the screen of his phone. He was avoiding calling Claire Matthews. The Crime Scene Investigators had come to check out the entire estate but Ryan was pessimistic about what they would find. They had been able to get out of here really quickly and Ryan was sure that they had had some sort of escape plan all along. They wouldn't be leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for them. These three psychopaths were too smart for that.

He missed the days after Joe's trial when things had been good for him. He had been happy for the first time in a long time and so had Claire. It hadn't been the most functional of relationships but it had been good while it had lasted. Eventually he had had to step away. It had been for Claire and it had been for Joey. The longer Ryan had stayed around the longer Claire would have had to deal with Joe's memory. He would always be attached to this case. It was in his blood now.

"Do you want me to call her?" Liette asked, knowing why Ryan was standing there with his phone in his hands. Someone had to tell Claire that her son wasn't coming home yet. The good news was that he wasn't the dead body in the house but the bad news was the trail had gone cold. They had no idea where to look next.

"No, no I have to do it." Ryan shook his head. He doubted that Liette would be of much comfort to Claire. He had to wonder if they had even ever met. He couldn't picture Joe bringing around his bewitching student to meet his wife. That just screamed affair in Ryan's mind. "What am I going to tell her?" he wasn't sure why he was asking Liette other than because of the obvious reason that she was the one who was there.

"The truth that you are doing everything you can and you will find her son." Liette said and without another word she left Hardy alone. Clearly calling Claire was something that Ryan had to handle and he had to handle on his own. Liette walked through the house, her eyes scanning for something she could work with. Nothing popped out at her. She heard Parker's voice come from upstairs so she decided to follow it. Liette's face wore a frown as she walked into the room they must have given to Joey Matthews. At least it was a well furnished and well supplied room. It appeared that they hadn't made Joey feel like a hostage...at least not for a while. Not until now.

"Hardy's calling Claire Matthews." Liette reported to Parker.

There were a million things to do but Debra was glad that she didn't have to be the one to call Joey's mother. Claire didn't seem to want to talk to anyone but Ryan anyway. She was definitely preferential. It was slightly frustrating but in this moment the preference definitely worked in Debra's favor. Claire was going to be a mess because they still hadn't found her son and right now Debra had a bigger mess to deal with. The house needed to be fully processed, they needed to form profiles for each of the cult members and there were about fifty other smaller tasks so Debra needed everyone to decide what they were going to tackle. "What do you want to do?"

Liette took a moment to think about it. Staying here was too painful for her so she needed a different task. Parker would likely want to stay at the house since it was the freshest crime scene so that meant Liette could go elsewhere. There was one priority that came to mind. They had told her about the mole in the office on the plan ride here. Liette was frustrated that her name was now in the media. She wanted to take down whoever had infiltrated their office. "I want to go back to Virginia, I want to find the mole who spoke to the media."

"About that. I think we need to move Carroll." Parker said with a frown on her face. "We need to set up a new team asides from ourselves. We can't risk anymore information like that getting out." so far there wasn't enough evidence to pull any one person off the case because they could or could not be the snitch so taking everyone off and replacing them with others seemed like her best option. There were other agents, guards and cops that they could call up. It was just a shame because some of the best were already around.

"Can you give me a chance to try and figure out who it is first?" Liette asked.

"A few days. A week at most." Parker nodded. She was being very lenient with Liette. She didn't want any sign of rebellion from the girl because of bitterness. Debra knew things were far from okay between them but at least they could keep it civil. She needed Liette at her best so that they could move forward with this case. "Until then sensitive information stays within those who need to know."

"Understood." Liette nodded promptly.

As Liette turned to leave the room Parker's voice sounded again. "Arnaut. Don't talk to Joe without an officer or two present." she ordered. It was definitely not just a request. Now that they knew how Joe felt about Liette Debra didn't feel safe letting the girl go in their on her own. Even with handcuffs Joe was a dangerous man.

"I won't." Liette said softly. "Good luck finding something."

{to those of you who are sticking with this story i just wanted to give a heads up, i'm going on a roadtrip this weekend so no new chapters will be posted until after monday. sorry!}