Lines Intertwine

18

"What was Roman and Xaver like, when you talked to them one on one?", Leah asked. "They were both obviously depressed", Ben said, "I could see that much". He took a breath, "I had both sets of parents come and see me too discuss them, but neither wanted to admit that their sons had problems". Leah made the carry-on signal. "Roman had told me about his drug use, and Xavier hinted to me that Roman was the more dominant of the two. Ben removed his glasses and wiped his eyes, "I should have seen it". "Don't blame yourself", Leah said, "No one could have seen this coming". "What did the other teachers say about the boys?", Jock asked. Ben shrugged, "No complaints, all perfect, good grades, they weren't reported once. Hell, Xavier was running for student council. They only got councilling because of a student that complained saying Roman had pulled a knife on him". "Was Xavier there?", Omar asked. "Dunno", Ben said, "The student moved school or something before we could get any more information out of him". "Do you have any idea about how the boys would have learned how to make these bombs?", Leah asked. Ben leaned in close to the group, "What I'm about to tell you, you didn't hear this from me, okay?". The group nodded, now nervous about what Ben was about to say. "Roman, there was some rumor he was involved in some ring on the dark web. My bets are on he had connections that helped him make them". Ben got up and went to his computer, he picked up a sheet of paper he had printed. "I was going to hand this to the police before all this", Ben said, "But look, it was traced from the school computer Roman used in class". Meg took hold of the paper and saw someone who had been traced, talking to what was Roman's profile, about bombs. "Thank you sir", Omar said, "This has been extremely helpful". With that, the group was out the door and back to the station. Ben sighed and sat back down on the couch. He couldn't wait for this to be over.

After Romans' conversation with his family ended, he was brought back to the interrogation room, where someone was sitting in a steel chair. "Hello", the man said, Roman, sitting down and being handcuffed to a metal bar. "Who are you?", Roman asked. "I'm Dr. Ed Lister, I'm here to help you". "Thanks, but no thanks", Roman said, "Guard! Get me out of here!". "Not so fast", Ed said, "Can we just talk for like 5 minutes?". Roman rolled his eyes and nodded, "Sure". Ed took out a notepad and pen, ready to start breaking Roman down. "So, Roman", Ed started, "How do you think of yourself?". "Fine", Roman said, "I'm a normal person, it's everyone else that has the problem". Ed nodded, writing that down. Ed was tall, thin, had brown hair, blue eyes and was rated the world's best psychologist under 35. "How do the rest of us have a problem?", Ed asked, staring Roman straight in the eyes. "Becuase", Roman said, "What me and Xavier did was a form of expression, but you're just trying to hate on it". "So you see what the two of you did as a form of art?", Ed asked, wrapping his head around Roman. Roman nodded, "Yeah, you just can't appreciate it". Ed looked at his watch, he had 3 hours to try pick apart Roman's brain, it wasn't off to the greatest start.