Chapter 81
"Rise and shine, sleepy head." Alex announced when he opened the door to Mark's room. He pulled the blankets up over his face when she opened the curtains and the sunlight fell on the bed. "It's too early to be up." He mumbled peeking out from under the covers. "Nice try, early bird catches the worm." She told him opening up his face and he squinted against the harsh sunlight. "Even the worms are still sleeping." He yawned getting up.
Ryan was in the kitchen making French toast for breakfast, when a freshly showered Mark appeared half an hour later. "Good morning, Mr Ryan." Mark greeted the older man standing behind the stove. "Morning, you look like you can use some more sleep." Ryan noticed when the teen sat down at the kitchen counter, and Mark nodded, Ryan sliding him an empty plate and the stack of finished French toast. "Whatever you want to top that with is in some cupboard or in the fridge. And so is water, milk, juice or whatever you want to drink." Ryan added pouring himself some coffee. Mark sat at the counter not moving when Ryan looked up at him.
"Hey, that rule of you being a guest does not apply in this household. You can scratch around in the fridge for whatever you want. Or you'll starve my friend. This is self-service." Ryan announced and the teen smiled getting off his chair and headed to the fridge for maple syrup and orange juice. "That's more like it." Ryan patted him on the back and went upstairs to get ready.
Once all four of them were down in the kitchen either eating or catching glimpses of the news headlines, they informed Mark on what to expect during the day. His tutor will show up at 9AM and they should be done around noon. He may then call Alex or Ryan and they'll pick him up and get him to his family until they get off work and then they'll pick him up again. Mark nodded taking in all the information, thanking them once more for their hospitality and help.
"Where's blondie?" Alex asked when she got in and Shelby wasn't there. "Probably smooching Caleb and forgot they have to come to work today." Natalie said. "Can we please not talk about smooching, or being in love or anything that resembles the fact of being people being in love or in relationships?" Nimah commented and Natalie and Alex shared a look.
"I take it you and Clive still haven't made up?" Alex asked and the look Nimah gave her made her shut up, knowing things will go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds so silence would be the best answer right now.
"Nice of you to decide to join us." Nimah said when Shelby waltzed in smiling. "I have a valid reason for not being here okay." Shelby replied taking a seat, seeing the gazes of the three of them. "So? What's your reason?" Natalie asked and she showed them the sonogram. "No way, this makes it like legit, like you're really pregnant." She said looking over at Shelby. "And it's not twins." Nimah uttered upset. "No, but it's a boy." Shelby smiled and they all got up and went over to her side of the desk hugging her tightly.
Their little celebration was cut short when Maranda announced that she wanted to see all of them in a few minutes to find out how far they are with the latest case files. "All right people, we've viewed the video and saw the faces of the suspects. We ran facial recognition on them and here they are." She started turning to the screen in front of here where their faces showed up.
"Michael Warrick, seventeen years old, captain of the basketball team. Darren Hailey, nineteen years old, previously arrested for DUI and Lucian Crivitz seventeen, arrested a few times for shop lifting." Liam explained.
"Warrick seems out of place in this triangle." Matthew thought out loud and everyone nodded. " The guy they shot is Steven Ralf according to the morgue. We need to find his parents and ask them if they know anything or why these guys might have done it. In the meantime let's get our searches going to find the other three."
"I need someone to go down to the morgue, some to talk to the parents and see if they can find any witnesses who lives on the street where this incident happened. Report back to me before the end of the day." Maranda concluded looking at the agents who were still seated and none of them making any effort to get up and get started. "Please guys, don't all jump up at once." She smiled when she heard them groan and argue amongst each other over who will take which file and how all of them wanted to avoid going to the morgue.
"I'm pregnant I'm going to scare my son if I go into a house full of dead bodies." Shelby said carefully using her pregnancy as an escape plan, looking over at Alex. "You've always been a brave girl Alex why don't you do it?" She asked handing over the one file and exchanging it with the brunette's. Alex took the file without saying anything. "Caleb and I will watch Phoebe one night so you and Ryan can go out." Shelby bargained and Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm gonna hold you to that." She pointed the file at Shelby before grabbing Natalie as they went off.
Nimah and Shelby went over to the parent's house and knocked on the door. A woman with a small frame and black hair opened the door inviting them in. "Hi Mrs Ralf, we're working for the FBI, and I just want to say we're sorry for your loss." Shelby started off and the woman nodded. "Would it be okay if we asked you some questions?" Nimah asked and the woman nodded showing them to sit down. Her husband emerged and greeted the two women taking a seat next to his wife. "Do you have any idea why these guys might have wanted to hurt Steven?" Nimah asked and the woman shook her head. "I don't know. Steven was a good boy, I mean I'm sure everyone says that that about their kids, but he never gave us any trouble." The woman explained.
"One afternoon when I got home from work, there was a knock on the door and, one someone said I should tell Steven they're still waiting, and that time is running out." The father said. "I confronted Steven about it and he told me I shouldn't worry. I heard him on the phone one night when he said he can't cook anything because we're constantly at home, and the next day we got a call from the police…"
"All right." Nimah nodded as the parent's eyes welled up with tears again. The mother left and disappeared into the house and came back a few seconds later holding a packet. "I found this in his school bag with a note in it." She handed it to the agents.
I want out. This is the last batch. The note read. The agents took the evidence and thanked the parents for their time. "I just want them to pay for what they did to my boy." The mother said as she walked them to the door. "We'll do our best to get these guys." Nimah answered and touched her shoulder as she walked out.
The went over and spoke to one of the neighbors who knew Steven well, and he confessed that Steven cooked up hash and that the two of them occasionally smoked it. " He was the middle man between the distributors. He got caught once and told the guys he's done he wants out but they wouldn't have it. They told him that he had to continue cooking it or he'll pay. " The neighbor explained to them.
The four of them arrived back at the office around the same time Ale and Natalie done with their morgue investigation and the other two with the information they got from the parents and the neighbor. They handed the files to Maranda waiting for the rest who was still out to give information about the suspects.
"Warrick and Hailey were arrested earlier today, for possession of marijuana. Crivitz however, found out the cops were looking for him and jumped off a bridge, his body has been found a few hours ago." Caleb said placing the file on Maranda's desk.
"Okay, so we have enough to charge the with, we'll keep them here overnight, and as soon as they've appeared in court and gets sentenced, the family we have at safety should be free to go." She explained and they all went about their business. Since half the day had passed already.
When Ryan went home half an hour earlier to get Mark, he noticed the teen acting strange when they got home. He sat at the dining room table fidgeting with his hands and Ryan wasn't sure whether it was because of something that happened at home or if he was just bored of is surroundings.
"Are you okay?" Ryan asked eyeing the teen carefully. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Mark said quickly and went to the room where he slept, getting a textbook. Placing it on the dining room table. Then he walking over to the fridge to pour himself a glass of milk and walking back to the table taking a seat.
"Uuuhhmmm Mr Ryan this is really weird and I'm not sure how to ask you this, and if you don't want to help me it's fine, I'll just Google it then. I mean you don't have to say yes of you don't want to." He rambled.
"Woah, slow your roll, what are you talking about, buddy?" Ryan asked taking a seat opposite him.
"Today, the tutor informed me about this school project we have to do and it's due at the end of the week."
"Okay, so what's it about?" Ryan asked and Mark slid the page across the table for the older man to read.
"Where do babies come from. I mean if you don't want to help me it's fine, it's a really weird topic and I don't want to talk about it at all. Because it's gross" Mark said taking a gulp of his milk.
Ryan nodded his head, trying to wrap his brain around this and how he'll have to explain this to a thirteen year old without scarring the kid.
"Okay, so you are probably aware about all the hair that's growing on your body that wasn't there a few years ago, right?" Ryan started and Mark nodded. "Okay, so that's where it all begins. And firstly, most of the things you see in the media is not real, the majority of people in your age group are not sexually active. And if you've looked at anything on the internet where people had sex, it's highly over exaggerated." Ryan warned and mark nodded that he understood.
"So, now for the other part. Once women goes through puberty she starts menstruating and when that happens then she can fall pregnant, usually a few days after that her chances on getting pregnant is high, but that's a conversation for another day." Ryan decided that part is too technical.
"Basically a man and a woman has to have sex in order for the woman to get pregnant."
"Okay." Mark nodded confused not sure if this is where the conversation ends, but Ryan got up and retrieved some of Phoebe's Lego blocks. "It's like a hole…" Ryan started and backtracked, thinking this is not the right way to explain it.
He placed the two Lego blocks on the table, showing Mark the parts where the other one fits in. "The bodies of men and women are sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, where the two pieces fit inside each other perfectly. So when a man and woman have intercourse this is basically what happens." He explained pointing to the two adjoined Lego blocks. "And then part of it is that a man's sperm is released into the woman's vagina where it connects to an egg and travels to the womb, which forms the baby over the course of nine months." Ryan concluded by now the teen was red in his face.
"Got it, that's a lot to take in but I'm sure I'll manage." He said looking at Ryan. Ryan got his phone out and Googled and animated video for teenagers on how to explain this and the two of them sat at the table and watched it together, when the front door opened, making them both jump a little.
"Hi Miss Alex." Mark greeted and Ryan looked up, locking his cellphone. "Hey sweetheart, how was your day?" He asked too friendly and Alex looked at them with Phoebe on her arm. "What are the two of you up to?" She questioned raising an eyebrow at them. Mark turned the page of the project around face down on the table so Alex couldn't see and looked at Ryan to explain.
"We were just browsing YouTube on how to build something for Phoebe with those Lego blocks." Ryan explained. "Yeah, that's it." Mark added.
"With only two Lego blocks stacked on top of each other?" Alex asked confused. "It was a trail run the rest will follow soon." Ryan concluded and she looked at them suspiciously. "They're being weird Phoebe, don't you think so too?" She looked at her daughter who smiled at the two men and they walked upstairs, leaving Ryan and Mark to whatever it is they were busy with.
"But you have to remember to use condoms to avoid getting STD's allright.?" Ryan reminded him and he shook his head quickly.
"I'm far from doing any of those things Mr Ryan." Mark answered. "Good. And also, woman are much more sensitive and reserved about intimacy than men are, so you have to treat her with respect at all times. And if she's not down for it, don't pressure her into doing anything." Ryan warned.
"Noted, sir. Can we please talk about something else now?" Mark pleaded looking at Ryan who smiled and ruffled the teen's hair.
Thoughts and suggestions are welcome, guys!