The Villians Assistant

My heart is pounding and my blood is boiling. My hands are clasped together and I'm at a point where I've given up trying to look calm. I closed my eyes and did my best to clear my mind, but the handcuffs are uncomfortably digging into my wrists, constantly reminding me of the situation I'm currently in. What's bothering me the most, though, is not that I'm shackled in a police car, but that Steven isn't fazed at all. In fact, he's quite pleased with himself.  But I shouldn't be surprised. He's the reason we were in trouble in the first place. If I had known from the beginning that I was helping him carry out his plan, I wouldn't have brought him along with me. I could have done everything myself. I didn't need him. I just wanted to do Nathan's family justice, and I thought Steven did too. But I guess we had different ideas of what that meant.

It started just a few days ago when Collin Baker went missing shortly after Nathan Samuels was found dead. Both of them went to my school. They were in my grade but I was never close with either of them. When I came to school the morning after the story had appeared on the news, I expected everyone to be going crazy about what happened, but to my surprise, it was opposite. No one was talking about it. Sure, there were a few whispers from the students, especially the ones who were friends with Collin Baker and Nathan Samuels. But the teachers and administration? Absolutely nothing.

I learned from the news coverage that the police believed this was a kidnapping, or, attempted kidnapping. They say that Nathan Samuels had a gunshot wound in the back-left side of his head. His body was found in a sketchy neighborhood on the night he was killed. This was also the last place Collin Baker was seen. Apparently, they were seen in that area just an hour or so before the crime had been committed.

The rest of the information was left confidential. It would have been nice to know a little bit more of the details, but I could take a guess on much of the rest. I bet the police had come to the assumption that Collin Baker and Nathan Samuels were approached by someone who had tried to kidnap them. They think Samuels had put up a fight so the kidnapper just decided to kill him on the spot and take off with Baker alone. It was reasonable, I had to say, but I knew for a fact that Collin Baker was not kidnapped. Personally, I believe that the authorities made too quick of an assumption on the crime.

I always dreamed of being a detective. Not like the police officers I knew, though. I wanted to be like Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, or Adrian Monk. I read every story, watched every movie and TV episode. I followed the clues and solved the mysteries along with the characters. On a few occasions, I found the culprit even before the characters did themselves. The problem-solving aspect of being a detective fascinated me. I became more observant and gained deductive skills. I took classes throughout my years in high school, scoring A's on every assignment. I played who-dun-it games and mastered them (my friends hate playing Clue with me). I had done everything I could to imitate being a real investigator and I was just waiting for the moment when I would be given a mystery to solve on my own. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

That same day in my forensics class, I was expecting some discussion, or at least a mention of the case, but the teacher went on with her scheduled lesson plans and to be honest, I was pretty upset. I didn't want to start an argument, but I really couldn't help myself.

"This is a perfect opportunity for a real-world experience!" I said. I had already been shut down by Mrs. Mckay a couple of times, but I kept going. She was relentless as I was, though in trying to stop me from talking about it, so our conversation had become heated very quickly.

"This is the police department's job, Ryan. Not ours," she said. "I know this is a serious matter and it affects many of us. But we have been asked not to speak about it."

"Well, that's more of a reason to talk about it!" I said back. "What if the police are wrong? What if Collin Baker wasn't kidnapped?"

"That's enough, Mr. Perry!"