Disclaimer: Nope, nothing from National Treasure is mine. I wish…

A/N: Hey! I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter! I'm able to update so fast because school was cancelled today because it was too cold. Yay! So, now I can bring you the next installment faster. Thank you to momiji'sunusedhalo, hollyclaw, Miss Fenway, omalleyanatomy26, Halo, krista, Harm Marie, and Thuraya Known for your wonderful reviews. Also, special thanks to Halo for helping with some later plot developments and making this story take another completely different turn that originally intended, but yet it's so cool! Thanks, Halo, and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

Chapter 5

"Why do they want me? I didn't do anything!" Riley moaned in irritation, placing his head against the window and closing his eyes.

"I know you didn't. You were with us the entire night," Ben replied without feeling as he kept his eyes on the road. "Besides, even if you hadn't been, I still wouldn't believe that you were a suspect for murder."

"Thanks, Ben," Riley muttered, his voice heavy with sleep. "Do you really think that's what this is all about? Do they think I'm a suspect?"

Ben sighed heavily as he came to a stop at a red light. "I hope not."

The rest of the ride to the funeral home was a silent one, mainly because Riley had fallen asleep leaning against the window and Ben felt terrible for having to wake him and drag him along. He felt so bad for the kid about the death of his father, but now the situation was getting even worse…

He finally pulled into the parking lot of Andy's funeral home, which was now full of police cars. Ben sighed as he turned off the car, seeing that Riley had remained asleep and looked so peaceful. He hated to wake him, but he had to.

"Riley, come on. Wake up," Ben muttered, gently shaking him. "We're here."

The techie groaned and tried to push his hand away, but he opened his eyes and took a deep breath as he slowly sat up. He blinked a few times, finally realizing where he was. "Let's just get this over with."

Ben followed Riley into the building, which was swarming with police officers and FBI agents. Bright flashes were everywhere, capturing photographs of what they assumed were the two murder victims. Riley squirmed nervously, feeling uncomfortable, and Ben stepped closer to him, assuring him that he wasn't alone.

"Ah, there you are. Thank you for coming, gentlemen."

"Agent Sadusky," Ben muttered when the man approached.

"Ben," Sadusky replied with a nod. "Riley."

Riley shifted a little at the stern sound of his name. Ben sighed, noticing his action. "Why do you want us here, Sadusky?" he asked.

"Just for some questioning." At the agent's statement, two officers came up behind Riley and roughly grabbed his arms.

"Hey!"

"Please come with us, Mr. Poole," one of the men said, attempting to pull him away.

"No! I didn't do anything! Ben!"

Anger flared up inside of Ben as he watched his friend fight in the grasp of the officers, hearing the desperate tone of his voice when he said his name. "Let him go!" he suddenly shouted, reaching forward and wrenching Riley away from them.

"You can't interfere with an on-going investigation, Mr. Gates," Sadusky snapped.

"I don't care," Ben replied heatedly, trying to shield Riley from the officers. "I want to know what's going on here. Why is Riley being questioned for murder?"

"Yeah," Riley agreed, his voice a little higher than he meant it to be. "You know me, Sadusky. I wouldn't hurt anyone!"

Sadusky sighed. "Look, I apologize, Riley. But it's just procedure-!"

"When were the bodies discovered?" Ben interrupted, trying to get his attention away from apprehending Riley.

"About a half hour ago," Sadusky told him. "A woman came in after finding the door unlocked, claiming that she heard two gunshots. She found the bodies and called the police immediately."

Riley rolled his eyes. "Okay. Number one, I don't believe in guns, so I would never use one," he said, holding up one finger to make his point. "And number two, I was sound asleep a half hour ago at Ben's house."

"Can anyone prove that?" Sadusky asked.

"Ben," Riley answered with exasperation as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's his house…"

"You're still not answering my question, Sadusky," Ben muttered. "Why are you targeting Riley?"

Sadusky met the treasure hunter's eyes, taking a deep breath. "Come with me, gentlemen." The FBI agent led Ben and Riley to the secretary's oak-carved desk, Cathy's body lying behind it on the floor. In her limp hand was a pen, beside her, her open notebook.

"Look at what she wrote on the page," Sadusky continued. "Judging by her handwriting, we believe that she had already been shot when she wrote it."

Ben knelt down beside Cathy and looked at the notebook, horrified by the two words messily scribbled on the page that the secretary had written before she died.

Riley Poole

"Why would she write my name even though I wasn't here?" Riley wondered in a whisper, trying not to look at Cathy's body.

"I don't know," Ben replied, slowly shaking his head. "It doesn't make any sense…"

Riley suddenly gasped, looking up at Agent Sadusky. "May I go check Andy's office?" he asked, seeing Ben look at him curiously out of the corner of his eye. "Without being followed by your men?"

Sadusky nodded. "Go right ahead," he answered, gesturing to the open door. Riley smiled in return and maneuvered his way through the mass of police officers. When he stepped into the office that he had been in earlier that day, the techie was horrified by what he saw.

The entire room was a disastrous mess. The drawers of the desk lay in heaps on the floor, papers thrown carelessly everywhere around the room. The closet door was open, everything inside ransacked. It appeared that it had been searched…

"Ben, come here."

The treasure hunter jumped to his feet and joined his friend in the doorway, shocked to see all of the damage that had been done to the office. "Whoever killed them must have been looking for something," Ben muttered.

"Do you think that whoever did this knows about the envelope?" Riley said nervously.

Ben didn't answer. Instead, he left the doorway and went back to the open notebook. He studied the writing carefully, sighing. "Her sentence wasn't finished," he whispered.

"What do you mean?" Sadusky asked, coming up behind the treasure hunter.

"Look at the ending line," Ben answered, pointing at the letter e at the end of "Poole", and then to a tiny line near it, which appeared to be the start of another letter. "She was going to write something else, but she didn't get the chance."

Sadusky shook his head in disbelief. "Have I told you how incredible your perception is?" he said. "We'll look farther into this. Hopefully, this will prove Riley's innocence."

But Ben ignored his comment and gestured for Riley to come back to him. "I don't think that this person just knows about the envelope," he told his younger friend in a voice that only he could hear. "I think that whoever it is knows that you're the one who has it."

Xxxxxxxxxx

The rest of the night when by uneventfully. Ben and Riley were soon allowed to leave the funeral home, and they drove back to the house as soon as possible. The younger man immediately fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow since he knew Sadusky was working hard to prove that he was innocent, but there was too much on Ben's mind to allow him to sleep. Something was different about the murder of Andy, but he just couldn't place what. So, he just lay awake in bed until the night was over, merely listening to his wife's calming breathing.

Riley wasn't very talkative when morning rolled around, which deeply concerned both Ben and Abigail. When the techie wasn't making a snappy, sarcastic comment, something was definitely wrong.

"Is everything all right, Riley?" Abigail asked, sitting down beside him on the couch in the living room.

"My dad's funeral is tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it," Riley answered quietly, not looking back at her. "It's just…"

Abigail smiled sadly and gave him a hug when he couldn't finish his sentence, putting her head on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "You'll be all right, Riley," she muttered soothingly. "Ben and I will be with you the entire time. You will not be alone."

Riley placed his forehead against her blonde head, trying to suppress the tears that were forming in his eyes. "Thank you, Abi," he whispered. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys."

"Hey, Riley. Did you want to go to the museum today?" Ben asked, coming into the living room at that moment. "We could search for the clue that could lead us to the treasure the riddle was speaking of."

"Treasure?" Riley said, looking back at the older man.

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Ben replied, sitting down on Riley's other side on the couch as his wife released him from her hug. "The riddle ended with, 'not the key, but a clue to lead you to a treasure true'. Your dad clearly wanted you to find something."

"What he left isn't the way to find the treasure," Abigail added. "It's a clue to find a way to find the treasure."

Riley rolled his eyes. "Isn't that the way it always is with us?" he muttered sarcastically. "Here's a clue. Now good luck."

Ben ignored the comment. "I made photocopies of the riddle so we can all have one without bringing the original with us," he said, handing one to Riley and one to Abigail. "This could help us track down what we're looking for."

"Which is what exactly?" Riley asked slowly.

"Well, some kind of clue that will lead us to the key to the treasure your dad believes you were meant to find," Ben answered. "You know, it could be anything."

"Oh joy," Riley said while Abigail got to her feet to find a hair tie to keep her hair back so she would be cooler in the summer's heat. "We're going to search the entire, three-story museum for a needle in a haystack. Better bring a camera."

Xxxxxxxxxx

"All right, guys. Where should we start first?" Riley asked with mock enthusiasm. "How about the dinosaurs? Or ancient Egypt? Or how about African animals? Or Australian animals? Or animals of the Artic Tundra? Or even animals of the rainforest. Or underwater animals maybe? Okay… how about just animals in general… Oh, I know. How about-!"

"Okay, Riley. We get your point," Abigail muttered in annoyance. "It will take us a long time to find anything, if anything at all."

Ben smiled a little. Riley always knew just how to bring Abigail to the point of insanity, and vice versa. He would laugh if the situation wasn't so pressing. "We'll split up," he told them. "Abigail, you take the first floor, and Riley, you take the second. I'll take the third. We all have our cell phones on us, so make sure you call or text if you find anything."

"But, Ben. Some of the exhibits say that you can't use cell phones," Riley said. His dad had always taken him and Dustin to the museum when they were growing up. He knew all of the rules and even knew the building like the back of his hand… which may actually come in handy.

"Well, find a way around it. You've broken worse rules before," Ben replied. "I know this riddle doesn't specifically tell us what we're looking for, but look for something that stands out to you. Remember, we're searching for something that will lead us to the key to finding a treasure."

Abigail nodded. "Good luck, everyone."

"Yeah. Good luck," Riley muttered, watching as Abigail began to walk toward the ancient Greece exhibit while Ben started up the escalator that went to the third floor. He sighed to himself, going to the escalator that only took him one floor up. This was going to be nearly impossible.

A/N: I was going to have them looking around the museum in this chapter, but then realized that it was getting too long. So, it'll be in the next one. Hope you liked it! Thank you for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated! Thanks!