Loran arrived at the cafe one minute before the decided time. As she headed in she heard a voice call her from behind, “Loran! Loran!”

She turned around to see her brother. Evan, Loran’s brother, had brown hair like Loran’s, he was tall and he had a toned body- he was the typical pretty boy. Next to him was a man, who Loran mistook for a boy at first. He had short curly blond hair and he wore big glasses; Loran assumed that this man had horrible eyesight. Loran met her brother by the entrance of the cafe- Evan was the one to greet her, “Hey, sis!” Evan immediately went for a hug and Loran hugged back.

“Hey, Evan and… ”

“Oh, right,” Evan shoved his thumb the man’s way, “This is Oliver. Loran, Oliver. Oliver, Loran.”

Oliver looked uninterested, “Hey.”

Loran did not like Oliver. Based on the first impression he looked unmotivated and lazy. As they walked into the cafe and took a seat Loran asked, “So, Oliver. How do you know Evan?”

Before Oliver could even open his mouth Evan excitedly replied, “Well, you know how I work with the government in a minor security department?”

“Yeah.”

“Oliver is the IT guy there. He takes care of all the electronics. And you know how difficult that can be nowadays.”

“That must mean you’re pretty smart then, Oliver.”

Oliver shifted a bit, “I guess. That is about the only thing I am good at and about the only thing I like,” Oliver shifted again, “I am going to head to the bathroom,” he looked at Evan, “You can just order me a water.”

Evan looked at Oliver like he was a wounded puppy and said, “Okay.”

As he walked away Loran saw Oliver roll his eyes. Evan looked at her and asked, “What was so important?”

“Well. I don’t know how to say this but,” Loran took a breath, then let it out, “you are a suspect for the Ghost case and I’ll have to bring you in.” Loran anticipated her brother’s response. Evan didn’t look shocked or angry, just innocent. Evan leaned back and said, “Okay. Are we going now?”

“Huh? Um yeah.” Loran watched Evan, unable to speak, stand up and wave the server off. Evan then turned to her and brought up a point, “What about Oliver? He can’t drive.” Evan was right. She guessed she could wait with Oliver in the station to see if the police would keep him overnight or automatically dismiss him, “Right. He can come with, I guess.”

Evan agreed and headed to the car Loran drove to get to the cafe, while Loran waited for Oliver to return. After a couple of minutes waiting Oliver emerged from the bathroom. Loran caught him up on what was happening and Oliver agreed to go with her since he didn’t have a ride.

After arriving at the station Evan was taken into custody and Loran took Oliver to the snack bar since he didn’t get to eat lunch. Oliver grabbed a dozen snacks when they got to the snack bar. Loran began to giggle to herself when she saw this man, who she thought was serious and uneventful, juggle a dozen snacks to a table. She watched Oliver as he stuffed his face; when he was done she wanted to get to know her brother’s friend better, “Oliver,” Oliver shot his eyes to her, “how long have you known Evan?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Oliver straightened up, “Um, is this an interview?”

Loran threw her hands up, “No, no. I just wanted to understand your relationship better. You guys look really close.”

“Oh,” Oliver relaxed, “Well, I met Evan about three years ago.” Loran noticed something after Oliver said this, something that she had not noticed before, “Hey, I just noticed. You have a kind of unique accent. Are you from the US?”

Oliver, again, shifted in his seat, “Um, yes I am. But when I was a teenager I moved out of the country and returned after the war.”

“Oh,” she looked at him more intensely than she had meant, “Oliver, you are a lot more interesting than I thought,” in response Oliver let out a small chuckle.

By now it had become late and it was decided that Evan and Tobias Kooper were going to be held overnight. Loran offered to drive Oliver home, but he politely declined and called an uber. After everything had settled down a bit, Bryan informed Loran about the interview with Tobias: Apparently Tobias moved here about the time that the Ghost attacks started, he was definitely in the war, everything about him seemed a bit off and his personality matched Loran’s profile. The only thing is, he doesn’t have much experience with technology except for domestic information, so if he was Ghost he must have had a partner, that is assuming that he is telling the truth- “Wait then why are we keeping my brother?”

“We didn’t come up with anything that would prove he is not Ghost and he works with government security, so that is a bit of evidence against him.”

Loran furrowed her eyebrows, “It’s circumstantial evidence.” All Bryan did was shrug and left to go home and so did Loran.

The next day around lunchtime Evan was released due to lack of evidence, but Loran was able to keep Tobias because they had racked up enough circumstantial evidence to keep him a bit longer. After he was informed Tobias threw a fit. The police took hold of him and escorted him back to his cell; on his way he passed Loran and whispered, “You will regret this.”

Evan walked out from the cell he was being held in. He looked a bit scruffy but that was it; in fact he looked- unaffected. Loran walked to him and asked, “Do you need me to drive you back to your house?”

“Oh,” Evan watched her, “Oliver can’t drive right now, so would you mind driving me?”

“Oh yeah that’s right, I don’t mind.” Loran walked Evan to her car. On the way to his house he asked, “Did you think I was Ghost?”

Loran contemplated her answer for a minute, “Um, no. I didn’t think you could be involved in something so… wicked”

Evan looked bothered by her choice of word, “Well you could also look from the perspective of Ghost and the poor. Ghost takes money from the unfair High class and gives it to the poor who have been wronged.”

Loran was taken aback, “Well, that doesn’t mean he has to murder them.” Evan huffed and rolled his eyes- he had given up.

For the rest of the day Loran and her team looked desperately for some hard evidence that would hold, and they interviewed Tobias over and over waiting for him to confess. At midnight, Loran told her team to call it a night and to go home- they were getting nowhere. By the time Loran arrived at home she was about to pass out on her bed when her phone went off. Loran fought her jacket pocket for her phone. When she turned on her phone she squeezed her eyes shut from the blinding light her phone produced. When her eyes finally adjusted she unlocked her phone to find a message from an unknown number. It read: “Detective Loran Gamble, I have some information on Ghost that I would like to share with you. If you would like the said information, meet me at the abandoned building on Franklin Street.”

Loran knew that there was a risk in going and that this whole situation was fishy but if it happened to be real- she couldn’t be sure that this person was lying and, to her, it was worth the risk.