White Lies

18 hours

(The first two chapters of this have been completely rewritten! Happy Reading!)

Janus and his brother Virgil were hoping for a nice quiet day. They were private investigators, operating their own agency. They started up right after college, while two of their high school friends went into acting, and the other two went into the police force to become detectives.

The two investigators had just finished a relatively tough case, so they wanted a break before gathering another case. What they weren't expecting was a call from an old friend.

Janus had just flopped on the couch when his phone started ringing. He looked at the caller with a small smirk.

"Oh? Who's calling you?" Virgil smirked, sitting on the edge of the couch.

Janus just glared at him and answered the call, "Hello?"

"Janus, it's been a while."

"Is this Logan?" Janus smirked.

"Put it on speaker!" Virgil gasped, hitting his older brothers arm.

Janus rolled his eyes, but obliged. He set the phone on their coffee table, the phone lighting up with Logan's contact picture. Janus has taken it after their first joint case. They had gone out to a bar to celebrate, it was the first time they'd seen Logan get drunk. His head was thrown back in a laugh, and his cheeks were rosy. Virgil teased Janus about it constantly.

"Yes, it is Logan." The man laughed over the phone.

"Hey L!" Virgil grinned at the voice of his friend, "you hear about the case we just solved? Even your guys couldn't get it."

"Virgil, he sent them to us. He knows." Janus raised an eyebrow, "but anyway, what can we do for you?"

The brothers could almost feel Logan's grimace through the phone when he spoke again, "How did you know I needed help?"

"Because Patton is usually on the line for congratulations." Janus sighed softly, "and judging from your grim tone, it's really not good."

Virgil's smile slipped off. That's true. Logan was the one who warned them of a new case headed their way. A pit started forming in Virgil's stomach.

"Do you remember Roman and Remus from high school?" Logan asked.

"Well yeah, I had a huge crush on Remus." Virgil rolled his eyes.

"Well Roman called me." Logan said, taking a small pause before blurting out, "Remus is missing."

The silence that followed his statement felt like a thousand tons of pressure weighing down in the room. One of their best friends, the loudest and most eccentric, was gone? How could that be possible? Remus always made his presence known, whether you liked it or not. To have him just... Vanish...

"He called earlier this morning, but so far none of my people have a lead." Logan sighed.

"And after 24 hours the chances of finding him decreases dramatically, let alone finding him alive." Janus grit his teeth.

"It's been six hours since Roman called." Logan said.

"So we have 18 hours before it gets more difficult." Virgil shook his head, "damn it, that's not a lot of time, especially if your people found nothing."

"Yeah. If you're available, could you come down to the station? Romans still here to answer questions." Logan said.

"Yeah, we'll be there soon." Janus told him.

"Thank you. I'll see you soon." Logan hung up, leaving the brothers in silence.

"Welp." Janus said after a moment, "guess we have another case."

"And with our old friends no less." Virgil huffed, "I never expected we would have to find Remus of all people."

"Me either." Janus sighed, "something doesn't feel right about this."

"Well the only way we're going to get some answers is if we ask some questions." Virgil said, "let's head to the station. I don't want to waste more time."

"Agreed." Janus grabbed the keys, "let's go."