Help Me

Chapter 4.

Chris's POV

I have worked on this same stack of papers for over two hours. I am convinced that it is growing in front of my eyes. I have about three boxes of papers that are of the women who were killed, we have their entire history in these boxes. I am so close to calling James to come help me sort this but the email from Matthias told me. I know I can't bring him in yet.

I continue to sort the papers, but my mind wanders to the guy from the coffee shop. His posture alone tells me he was terrified. The shop was packed full and he was in the corner as far away from people as he could be. Dark bruises covered his face. He wore a long-sleeved tee-shirt but he still seemed cold. When I asked him if he should be in school, pure fear went through his eyes before he ran out the door. I need to find more information out about him before I drive myself insane. I pull my phone out and call James. The line rings forever before he picks up.

"Hey dude, how is moving going?" He asks with a laugh.

"Awful, want to come over and drink?" I ask, not about to tell him why I really want him to come over. The way to James's heart was with booze.

"Sure. I will be there in a few," He tells me before the line clicks off. I finish the stack of paperwork up and rush upstairs. It isn't two minutes before the door opens and I hear James throw his shoes off. "Dude where is the beer?" He asks as he sits down on my couch.

"About that... I kind of needed to get you here so I used booze," I tell him, and his jaw drops. "I met someone at that coffee shop you sent me to. I need to know if you know anything about his family," I explain, my face burns with embarrassment. James has a knowing look that I do not like at all.

"Don't tell me it is someone like Danny was," James says. I mean he isn't right but when I first met Danny he was alone and scared. The boy isn't like Danny was. He can't be.

"No, he isn't like Danny was. He is really pale and he looked like he had just run away from home." I tell him, he raises his eyebrows and moves his hand as if to tell me to continue. I sigh but keep talking. "Skinny bruised up. He didn't say much be he seemed terrified of the thought of going back to school."

"You have no name or anything?" James asks not bothering to hide his smirk. "How do you expect me to find someone from that description. Chris, you are part of the CIA look him up," The thought hadn't crossed my mind. I feel like an idiot that I didn't think of that.

"Let me run downstairs and grab my computer and we will look him up. I swear sometimes I am an idiot," I yell behind me as I run down the stairs two at a time. Why did I not think of this sooner? Will the boy even show up in these databases? I hope so. I pick up my laptop and sprint up the stairs. I jump over the back of the couch, landing beside James so close our shoulders hit.

"Dang, he isn't going anywhere from the system. Chill out bro," James laughs at me as he speaks. I roll my eyes and open the computer on the coffee table in front of us. I pull up the main database and enter the town name into the correct box. I then put the correct hair color and put the age range in the teens before hitting enter. There was a list of four people that popped up with corresponding pictures. One of them was nineteen, thirteen, fifteen, and eighteen. I click the nineteen one first. This guy was blonde and tan and the boy was as pale as Casper himself. The next I click on is the eighteen-year-old boy. I freeze looking at the photo. The only difference is his eyes look full of life and happiness.

"It's him. This is him," I say fighting the urge not to jump off the couch and dance around the room like a maniac. This guy has the same messy hair. Same pale skin it is him. His name is Riley Evans.

"Does it say anything about him or his relatives?" James asks. I scroll down the page and skim as I go. One thing stands out immediately, I freeze at the words. "What did you find?" James asks anxiously.

"Deceased mother, it looks like she is one of the ones from my case. She was killed James and from the looks of it someone is hitting him somewhere in his life. The only other listed relative is his father." I say. His father is hitting him like that? Or was it someone at school? He was scared to go back there when I mentioned it. I shake my head at the millions of thoughts going through my head at once.

"You haven't even introduced yourself to him and he already has you wrapped around his finger. Just be careful dude. We don't need a repeat of the last time you were here," He tells me with a slap to the back, before heading for the door. "I have to get back to the diner before they burn it down. Good luck," I don't even have a chance to speak before the door slams behind him.

I am left alone with my thoughts, which has never been a good thing for me. My mind never stops spinning around. Riley, who would hurt such an innocent-looking boy. He doesn't look like he could hurt a fly. I groan shaking my head of the thoughts. I can't help but think that maybe he will be at school when I go tomorrow.

I do a search into his father to see if there is a record or something. I skim through the files and the only thing on him is that he remarried about a month after his wife died and there have been noise complaints. There was one file that was sealed but after some hacking, I manage to get it opened. It is about Riley but that is all I can decipher. I forward the file to Matthias to see if he can decrypt the file. I sigh before heading to bed for the night.

~

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