FBI OFFICE
Ryan had been taken to the FBI office. He was sitting and waiting in the interrogation room. The room was grey with a small table in the middle and two chairs on opposite ends of the table. Sandy was there too as Ryan's lawyer.
"You have no idea what this is about?" Sandy enquired.
"Nothing…" Ryan replied, but got cut off as his phone started ringing. He took it out his pocket and saw the caller ID was Trey, but as he was about to answer it, the door opened, and he cancelled the call.
In walked a man who turned out to be an FBI agent assigned to the case. He wore long black pants with a white shirt, no tie. His top two buttons were undone. He sat down at the table without greeting Ryan and Sandy, and opened a flip-file and started paging through the report.
This happened for about 5 minutes with the agent paging thru the report, saying nothing.
"Could we try and hurry this along… my client is very busy, as am I." Sandy eventually said trying to get a response out of the agent. The agent just looked up once, expressionless, and continued to work his way through the report.
Eventually he spoke up. "You are… Ryan Atwood?"
"Yes."
"… and Trey is…"
"My brother…"
"Ah…"
The agent continued to page through the report, and finally closed the file. He leaned on the table; both arms folded on top of the report, and looked at Ryan.
"Do you have any idea about the business your brother is in?"
"Yes, him and I run a construction business…"
"Not that kind of business…"
"Sir, I don't mean to be rude, but I can assure you that my client knows nothing of what you are talking about… Would you care to explain it to us?"
"Certainly." The agent said sarcastically, and stood up and started pacing the room.
"Your brother, Trey, has been transporting illegal artifacts back and forth across the Mexican boarder. It is our belief that he has been using funds and resources from your company, Atwood Construction Trainers. We have been investigating him for the past 5 years."
"5 Years!" Ryan exclaimed unbelievingly.
"Do you have any evidence of this other than speculation?" Sandy questioned calmly.
"We are in the process of putting a case together…" The agent began to explain, but was cut off my Sandy.
"So that's it? That is your whole horse and pony show? His brother may or may not be involved in a case that you are not sure about yet? You drag my client out of his office for this?" Sandy said in disgust, and stood up.
"Come Ryan." Sandy said, and Ryan got up to. "You will be hearing from me when I file a case of false arrest."
"Mr. Atwood!" The agent shouted, angrily… "Any idea where you brother could be now?"
"No…" Ryan started answering, but Sandy butted in.
"We have nothing to say. Call us again when you actually HAVE a case."
"Ok, but I think you may find this interesting…" The agent handed Ryan a letter, which Sandy took.
"What's this?" Sandy asked quizzically.
"A warrant to freeze all ACT's fixed and liquid assets"
Ryan and Sandy both looked at each other very grimly; the agent had a smirk on his face. They said nothing, just turned and left.
SATURDAY EVENING, COHEN'S PLACE
It was a big reunion of the family, with a few additions. Kirsten and Sandy decided to invite Seth and Ryan over, and since Summer and Marissa had nothing to do, they came along too.
The Cohen residence was as inviting and as homely as it was ten years earlier. The house itself had not changed a bit.
Sandy and Kirsten's marriage was as strong as it had always been. Apart from a few bumpy moments, they had what you might want to call the perfect marriage.
The group of six was sitting around the table eating out of take-away boxes.
"So, what happens now?" Kirsten finally asked referring to Ryan's company.
"Well, not much. ACT is temporarily out of commission." Sandy answered. "I spent the whole morning trying to get that warrant squashed, but it was a no-go."
"So for ACT and all its employees that means…" Summer pushed, not so sure of the legal jargon.
"… They're screwed." Seth said putting it nicely.
"Thanks bro…" Ryan responded sarcastically.
"No it doesn't!" Marissa burst out. "I mean, surely it just means that the FBI will look through the books and registers and stuff and then once they're done you can open again, right?"
"That's if they find nothing." Sandy interjected.
"… yeah, but who do you think will want to invest in a company that has just been under investigation from the FBI?" Ryan said solemnly. "Face it, ACT is over."
That brought silence from the whole table. Even Seth didn't have a come back.
"Don't be so gloomy, I'm gonna still try and file for false arrest…" Sandy said trying to cheer Ryan up a bit.
"Yes, and I have a certain about of persuasion power with the Newport Group's directors…" Kirsten added.
"You haven't heard from Trey at all?" Marissa asked caringly.
"No…" Suddenly Ryan stopped and remembered the call from earlier that day when he was at the FBI office. He quickly stood up, took his phone out his pocket.
"Take the extension in the lounge…" Sandy offered realizing what Ryan was going to do.
Ryan went out to the room next door, and dialed Trey's number. It rang for a while, and then finally it was answered.
"Who is this?" Was the answer Ryan got from the other end, and it's not the answer he was expecting.
"Um… who are you?" Ryan replied.
Suddenly from the background on the phone Ryan could here someone shouting… "Hey Bro!… don't listen!…" And then the call got cut off.