L.I.E. (Learn, Improve, Educate)

Chapter 5 - An Intriguing Case

Lael waited a few seconds before he decided to leave where he was and opened the door, but as he did it he saw Ruskin sat on a chair with his head up while Lucas was shaking his head. He was facing the deep teeth bites carved into Ace's nose. The rest of his teammates were with a gloomy face, catching pieces of a broken jar that seemed to be thrown away. Lael was going to ask what happened to Ace when Elena appeared in front of him.

"Are you better? You look a bit worse than usual". Lael frowned and made a half smile.

"Thanks for the compliment" he said and then smiled "But I'm better, thanks". He looked at Ruskin "What happened with him?"

"Some goddamn prisoner, nothing to worry about" Ace replied, waving his hands as he talked with an emotionless voice. Lael Aiken looked toward his mates but they were facing down, already minding their own business. With a fast move, Ace stood up making Lucas protest with a grunt.

"I almost forgot, Carver phoned me before I arrived" he tilted his head "He wanted us to come along to the new crime scene" he added as he was staring at Julian and Lael and balancing his arms forward and backwards, with a blank expression on his face, like nothing as ever happened. "We must head there now".

Julian and Lael exchanged confused glances. The second one looked at Ace.

"B-But what about the case we are already working on?" he asked. Ace shrugged.

"He said that that one would go to Harvey's team as they have nothing better to do." Jefferson looked towards him with a scorn countenance. Ace was disliked by everyone there. That's not who things are done! Lael thought furiously.

"And Carver usually informs us all with the address, why hasn't he done it now?" he asked. Ace Ruskin smirked and stared at him with a face that said "I'm glad you asked".

"Well, that's pretty simple. That's because I'm his right hand" he shrugged while purposely tried to cover his larger smile. He tried to sound forcefully as humble as he could, although he couldn't cover his cockiness.

"W-what? What do you mean by that?" Julian Gore stuttered as he was trying to hold back his anger. Lael bit his lip so he wouldn't say something he shouldn't.

"Exactly that. Or don't you know what being his right hand means?" Ace shook his head "As it seems, whatever he wants or needs, I'll be the one who helps first." He pointed his thumb to himself "He was the one who chose me. So basically I'll be the next team boss whenever he needs to step away from here" Ace couldn't hold back his victorious smile of manipulation achievement, as he looked like growing taller while proffering every word. He also sounded threatening.

Gore took a deep breath along with Aiken, who was getting tired with everything that was going on lately.

Lael knew that their team and the Bureau in general didn't always follow the rules and they were criticized by that many times. But at the same time, 85% of the cases where solved due to that, so those critiques usually were absolved. However, since this Ruskin kid showed up, it's been a completely confusion Lael thought. He only nodded while grabbing his notebook, keys, wallet plus a suitcase with important items. He knew that fighting against him without having a proper plan wouldn't be worth it.

"Let's go then, we don't want this place to evaporate" he looked at Gore with a comprehensive look that showed that it wasn't worth to discuss any further that. Julian nodded and sighed, copying Lael's movements.

Ace's face was already expressionless. He put his left hand in his pocket and his right hand up while he gestured a follow me. Both inspectors followed him and Lucas down to the car parking until they stopped in front of a black BMW M4. Lucas opened the door and pulled a small sheet of paper with something written in there and gave it to Lael.