The Secret of the Hidden Briefcase

Chapter Nine: I know who it is...

Alex and Jayden decided to go off to bed. Jayden had turned her camera on again and while she was at it, she decided to check her brothers' cams.

While she was checking the cams, she found that her brothers did some weird stuff. Tanner and Tate were fighting each other, only, they were sword fighting like 5-year-old boys pretending to be pirates, and they had the sticks to prove it.

And while those two were doing that, Connor and Cade were being just as childish. Connor was pretending to be a dragon, while Cade was pretending to be a knight in shining.... well, actually not shining at all. More like he was a knight in dirty clothes.

"Hey Alex, look at this!"

Alex ran over, and when he saw the video feed, he and Jayden looked at each other for a millisecond and then they both busted out in uncontrollable laughter.

"Your brothers are crazy."

BING

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!"

"What's wrong Jayden?" asked Alex.

"I just got an alert on my phone. We are in a flash flood warning zone, and a severe thunderstorm." She sighed "Just great. Just what we need right now. It's all just simply great. I better tell my brothers that they need to stop playing around, literally, and get inside a shelter so that they don't get struck by lightning. I wouldn't mind seeing them hurt, but I don't think that would blow over too well with my dad."

"You're probably right. Do you want to call them or do you want me to walk over and tell them, and see them making fools of themselves?" asked Alex.

His tone had turned playful at the mention of seeing her brothers acting goofy, and suggesting that he wouldn't mind joining them, but he knew that Jayden had cameras up and could see everything that he was doing, so he ditched that idea.

No point in embarrassing himself in front of cameras, and considering it was Jayden, she would probably post it on YouTube and it would go viral. 

Yah, that's not happening, he said to himself. I might want to go viral but not like that.

So all he said to Jayden was, "They have a very...um...interesting...ah...imagination."

"Well, you got that right, at least. Unfortunately, since they are boys, no offence in advance, they do some pretty...um...dumb things."

"Ouch." Muttered Alex, "Thanks for the warning, not that it did much good."

"Wow, you've spent too much time with Ryder, you're getting good at sarcasm."

"All I've got to say for myself is that I learned from the best." Said Alex, smirking and obviously taking pride in that fact.

"Well, I can't argue with that."

"I mean, I've known him my whole life, and even when he was little, he had this very sarcastic persona going on, and over the years, it has just gotten worse." Said Alex.

"But he isn't a bad person, he's not even a mean person, he just has an attitude, and that is mainly because of everything that he has been through." Alex added as an afterthought, not even finished before Jayden cut him off.

"Yes, but you went through stuff too, right? I mean, that is what my dad said." Asked Jayden.

"Yes. As I was saying, I went through all of that with him, but he, unlike me, chose to be sarcastic to cover up his feelings. He chose that instead of being quiet and learning to keep a straight face and control his words, which is what I did." Alex continued.

"Speaking of Ryder, do you know what happened to him? He hasn't been acting like himself." Jayden questioned, her tone somewhat inquisitive, but with a little something that sounded like worry.

No, Alex thought, I must be going looney. She would never worry about Ryder. They have only known each other for a short amount of time, but they are continually making retorts and being thorns in each other's sides. Not to mention that every time they talk to each other, one of them is up the other's throat.

"And what exactly does 'acting like himself' mean, Jayden?" Asked Alex, glad to change the subject of him and instead to be talking about Ryder.

"It means that Ryder isn't acting all snarky and coming up with odd comebacks, as well as his usual sarcasm." Replied Jayden, with a note of dripping sarcasm herself.

"Yah, I have no clue what that is about, and honestly, it has me worried as well. I was goin' to ask him about it, but I forgot.'' Alex responded.

"Where is Ryder?" Asked Jayden.

*

Ryder had gone away from the two others, hoping to figure out why the things that Alex and Jayden figured out had  such an odd and worrying effect on him.

Before Alex and Jayden shared what they learned, Ryder had known that he had seen the man before, but he just didn't know where or how. He tried to think of where he saw this man before, and he came up empty. 

Now, though, thoughts and ideas merged into one big, ugly, scary, though. This was not good, his mind kept telling him. 

"The briefcase, the notes, the gun, someone following me, the man, the limp in his left leg, the handkerchief." He listened, whispering to himself.

Then he gasped. Oh, my goodness. I know who it is. He muttered under his breath.

"Alex! Jay-" He started to scream, but he was cut off by a hand covering up his mouth.