So just pull the trigger.

34. This is important!

It was late evening, and Ryan sat in front of his computer feeling frustrated. Chris had already been gone for a couple of days and a couple of hours earlier Ryan had tried to call him, but Chris hadn't answered. He had then played detective and didn't really know if he was just silly and had some strange obsession or paranoia over his crush. Did he have an overly active imagination? Deranged people acted like this; deranged people tried to search for the background info of their crushes so vigorously.

He had looked through Chris' Facebook wall. He hadn't a large number of friends, Adam Wilson was one of the few who had congratulated Chris on his 29th birthday in September. Ryan had clicked Adam's information and saw that he was married to Suvi Wilson née Lehto and because the maiden surname sounded foreign, Ryan had checked her profile as well, finding out that she was from Finland.

Suvi had pictures visible on her profile; apparently, she didn't see it so important to hide her updates from outsiders. The last was from New Year's Eve; "My darling, gorgeous cousin, visiting with his fiancé. Happy New Year!" The picture had been taken outside during the fireworks in New York and the picture showed the woman with her husband and their child and a male couple whose names were tagged. The picture had been taken from a distance, but the name; 'Joni Lehto' almost made Ryan spill his drink on the screen.

Suddenly nervous, his hand trembling, he clicked Joni's profile open. The profile didn't reveal much, but the profile picture confirmed it. The young man was the same as in the pictures he had seen at Chris' place. For a moment he had just stared at the screen. Now he had a name and full name, and Joni was a model; he found more pictures online and Joni had a new boyfriend... who was Russian. Thoughts ran wild in his mind and for a moment he didn't know how to act. Perhaps there was nothing to react to?

Then he tried to call Chris once more, hoping to get peace of mind that he was on an innocent holiday. But Chris didn't reply this time either and Ryan had a bad feeling in his gut. But perhaps he only had an overly active imagination. Perhaps he had read too many mystery novels lately?

Still, knowing he wouldn't be able to get sleep, he googled some more. He found some tabloid news written in Finnish and managed to translate them with the awkward Google Translate. Joni's ex-boyfriend had been arrested for deprivation of liberty and assault. Joni had been in hospital care.

Ryan felt sick, he felt numb for a moment. He hadn't expected this. He didn't know what he had expected, but even though Chris had been rough and mysterious... The thought that he was... Abuser? Former inmate? What else? It came as a shock to him.

It took some time for him to recover from the shock. Then he was able to put the pieces together, understanding that he had a proper reason to worry; 'What if they don't come to Russia? '-Joni's new boyfriend was Russian.

.... Chris had gone to Russia with Aki? Aki had mentioned getting supplies, for what? -Damn. It really could be serious. But what if he just cooked this all up in his head? Where should he start? Should he go straight to the police? What did he really have? Just intuition or facts? If he would start by contacting Joni?

Ryan clicked the profile open and decided to send him a private message and a friend request so that he'd notice his message more likely. "Hey, I've gotten to know your ex-boyfriend, Chris Hanratty. I learned from other sources that you used to date him. Could you get back to me as soon as possible? This is important!" 

Ryan thought about it for a moment before he sent it. He felt bothered about the whole thing. What if he was just paranoid and all of it had an innocent explanation and all he had just done only ruined his chance with Chris? But though he had his doubts he had a stronger instinct that his worry was very real, and he shouldn't waste a second.