Chapter 6:

The very same evening Sam and Danny were once again leaving the office to interview a student – they would be taking a visit to the third person Miranda's class teacher had told them about. The boy she had the crush on and who's girlfriend had given her a pretty hard time. Lukas Wilson.

The principal's office had given the teenage boy's family's private number to them and they had called his mother, who had agreed to let them come over in the evening to question her son. She had seemed pretty uneasy, but that wasn't actually something to read a lot of into. Most people were uneasy if they got involved with a federal agency without actually knowing what they had done wrong.

Lukas' mother had told them, her son would be home at about six in the evening and now – half an hour later, they just entered the street the family was living in. The place they were living at actually didn't deserve to be still classified as a house – it would have been an underestimation. Mansion was more of an appropriate word to describe the Wilson family residence.

Both of them had half expected a housekeeper to open up on them, but the woman opening the door and not looking all too happy or willing to cooperate, introduced herself as Mrs. Wilson - Lukas' mother. She allowed them to enter, leading them to the living room where her son was already waiting for them.

"Lukas – these are the people from FBI I told you about."

There was no visible reaction from her son – obviously he was as unwilling to help as his mother was. But as none of the two of them knew why the agents were actually here – his mother at least hadn't wanted to know when they had called to ask for her permission to question her son – it wasn't much of a surprise.

The mother sat down next to her son, offering them the opposite couch to sit at with a sign of her hand and still wearing that emotionless expression on her face. Her son however didn't seem interested in all this after all – he didn't even look at them. Before they were able to address him and start their interogation, his mother took the word.

"As I heard, you are searching for the Thomas' girl. Poor family – they must be sick in worry for their girl..."

Samantha gave Lukas' mother a surprised gaze. Who had told her about this? They hadn't and so far Lukas – who hadn't been home all day – couldn't have known anything about it either.

"Yes we are searching for Miranda Thomas, where did you know that from?"

Lukas was answering the question for his mother, finally deciding to participate in their conversation.

"Violet – that's my girlfriend – called me earlier that day on my cell. She told me that she was questioned about Miranda by the FBI and that she had dissappeared."

"Why would she call you because of it?"

"I don't know – maybe because talking to the FBI isn't something she does every day and she wanted to talk about it with someone."

"So – what did she tell you?"

"Not much – just that you asked her about her relationship with Miranda and... well that she told you about her little ... problem."

"You mean Miranda having a crush on you?"

"Look, it wasn't that serious. I mean she never actually had enough courage to come to me and tell me anything. But the way she was looking at me and trying to be close to me... I know it's not very fair, but we were having some fun with her, you know – making her believe I was actually interested. Violet however didn't think it to be that much fun."

There it was once again – and it once again caused Sam to share looks with her co-worker and find the same sort of emotion in his face – the same emotionlessness and lack of empathy Violet Shavers had already showed for Miranda Thomas. Nobody seemed to have ever treated the young teenage woman as an individual who was actually having feelings and a right for dignity...

"I don't think it was that much fun for Miranda either."

"No – sure it wasn't. Look, I know we were wrong, but it happened, I can't change it any more – so what?"

The way the boy was behaving was unbelievable. He had hurt the young girl and he didn't even care about it. His uneasiness resulted in the fear for himself and for nobody else. He didn't think about Miranda while answering their questions, but how to cover up for his own actions in the best way.

"Is there anything you can tell us about Miranda. Did she ever talk to you, mention any trouble – some reason for her to run away."

"As I already told you – I never had any real contact with her and she was too shy to talk to me. I don't know anything about her."

"That's funny – because her class teacher told us that you have been talking to her several times?"

"Yeah sure I was, I already told you – we were making fun of her. But she never told me anything about her personal life, her parents or some other stuff like that. I really don't know the girl."

The boy was lying – one could see it in the way he behaved – how he didn't manage to look at them and shifted uneasily on his seat at the couch. He was hiding something, something he didn't want to talk about and it probably was of importance. They needed to find a way to push him to talk to them, to tell them what he knew.

"Your girlfriend was pretty upset about you and Miranda – maybe she has something to do with her disappearance...?"

Samantha didn't get a chance to go on and Lukas didn't answer her. He was interrupted by his mother, who stared at the two agents in disbelief and anger before answering to their question in an freezing cold voice.

"This is redicolous. Violet is a very good and rightful girl, she would never do anything to anybody. So if you're not able to find that Thomas' girl don't blame anyone else for it. Neither Violet nor my son have anything to do with her disappearance!"

"Mrs. Wilson..."

"No – I don't want you to accuse my son of anything else. This conversation is over and you will leave my house now."

She got up from the couch and the look in her eyes told them that she wouldn't allow any other word of insisting. They needed her permission to talk to her son and she had just – literally – thrown them out of her house. As Lukas wasn't a suspect after all, they had no more chance to go on with this interview.

They were guided to the door by Mrs. Wilson without another word. She was obviously very angry with them... or maybe she was angry about something else, about something her son had done... But as long as they didn't have any prove that Lukas Wilson had something to do with Miranda's disappearence there was no chance to force him to talk...

As his mother had closed the door behind them without a word of goodbye and they crossed the front yard to get back to the car, it was Danny to anounce what both of them had been thinking for the whole time of this unproductive conversation.

"He's hiding something – they both are."

"Yeah – definitely."

TBC

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