By now Ryan and Michelle were more than determined to take down the criminals responsible for Alice's kidnapping and murder. Michelle had sent Ryan home, telling him to work there but also watch his six, (meaning to watch his back.) they were too close to slip up now. So as Ryan sat in his office going through the notes and evidence he's collected over the past few months. He noted that Daniels was involved, he was going to tell Captain Quinn about him when all of this was over.

He looked over pictures of Alice, some that were provided by The Blair's, and others that were from the autopsy, she had so much life in her. Only for it to be taken away by a selfish person, who they still need to find, he couldn't wrap his mind around the fact their killer has still been able evade capture for so long. He sighed, "After I'm done with this case, I'm taking a long break." He thought.

Sofia Bryant as Rachel Bowen

Still writing down notes he hears a knock at his door, the door opens slightly and reveals Rachel, she smiles and waves at her father who does the same. "Hey kiddo, how was school?" He asked. Rachel shrugged her shoulders in response. "It was fine, soccer practice was cancelled so I came home early." She replied.

Ryan nodded and put his notebook aside, and got up from his seat, "Mom will be home soon for dinner, wanna help me?" Rachel nodded and they headed to the kitchen, and started making dinner, hours later Kara arrived home, she kissed Ryan on his cheek and greeted her daughter. "You wouldn't believe the day I've had." She said.

Ryan glanced at her and chuckled, "Oh really? What happened this time?"

"The whole computer system shutdown and as the head of the IT department, I had to go and reboot the system and re-encrypt the original coding. And then encrypt a new code, which took up most of my time. After that mess I decided to come home." Kara explained.

"Wow, that really is something." Ryan replied.

"Indeed it was, how was your day babe?" She asked, wrapping her arms around Ryan's waist, as Rachel cringed at her parents affection for each other. They looked at their daughter, laughing. "There's a young person in the room, and she doesn't want to see that." Rachel said, shaking her head.

"Once you're an adult you're gonna find someone you want to be with forever."

"Yeah, when pigs fly." Ryan replied.

Rachel rolled her eyes and whined, "Daaad."

"No guy will be good enough for my daughter, I don't care. You can adopt all the cats in the world before you get married."

"Dad, I'm allergic to cats. Besides, I'll get married whenever I choose, obviously not now but when I'm an adult. You may be my parents but you can't tell what to do when I'm an adult." Rachel explained.

Kara giggled, "I mean she has a point."

"Who's side are you on?" Ryan questioned his wife.

"I'm on the side of the people, sorry Ryan." She replied. Ryan scoffed, and then continued finishing dinner, this was a rare occasion, where Ryan's mind was in the present, with his family, instead of stuffing his mind into the case.
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Meanwhile with Scott, things were a holy grail of change, his parents were still fighting, Tyler was a little busy with football training. Recently he felt alone and not much of his mood has changed. He was still cutting himself (not as much, to avoid suspicion), becoming more depressed and detached, and once again putting on a facade. He felt as if he was deceiving everyone, his mom and dad, his best friend, even his therapist.

Speaking of Dr. Hendricks, she was supposed to be helping him, and of course she was trying her best. But Scott doesn't open up anymore, to come up with a theory, ever since Alice died everything about the teenage boy rapidly changed. His charisma, his determination, his need for speed, and most importantly his outlook on humanity. He wrote down notes in his book, everything about Alice's case that seemed off.

It wouldn't change the fact that she's dead, and especially if he started investigating, and soon a lightbulb went off in his head. What if he started his own investigation of Alice's kidnapping and eventual death? After he gathered enough evidence he could go to the police and tell them what he found. First he'd have to go to the crime scene, where it all started.

Maybe he could get Tyler to help him, after all, he didn't have football training, they were taking a week off since the games were coming up and they needed to be well rested. It'd be a good distraction, and he definitely needed it. A few minutes before they'd leave school, Scott texted his dad, asking if he could hang out with Tyler at his house instead of picking him up. As he and Tyler would ride on their bikes.

Then he went to Tyler asking him to tell his parents the same thing, funnily enough the adults fell for it, which seemed to be a pattern. Tyler questioned his friend, "Scott what are we doing?" Why did he basically tell him to lie to his mom's?

"We can't talk here, but there's a few things we need to talk about." Scott said.

Tyler trusted Scott with his life, so in that moment, he knew something was going on. He followed Scott out of the school as soon as the bell rang, going towards their bikes and following Scott to the hiking trail. The same hiking trail Alice's body was found, it sent chills up Tyler's spine, why would Scott want to come to this place?

Scott stopped, parking his bike, and trekking through the trail, with Tyler in pursuit, they kept walking, seeing the line of caution tape, still wrapped around the trees, closing off people to enter. "Dude, why are we here?" Tyler asked.

Scott sighed, "There's something about Alice's case that doesn't add up right, I mean c'mon, the police told my parents she was kidnapped, but Alice wouldn't get into someone's car out of the blue. It had to be someone she knew, someone she thought she could trust. I've been thinking about it for a while now."

"That still doesn't necessarily answer my question." Tyler told him.

"I was getting to that, anyway, the reason we're here is because I'm investigating myself, no offense to police, but they're taking way too long and I've run out of patience. I want Alice's killer to suffer as much as I have, as much as my parents have." Scott said.

"Are you sure we should be doing this? What if we get caught and the killer ends up finding out what we're doing and tries to kill us too?"

"We've already lied to our parents, I think we've dug a hole we can't get out of now." Tyler nodded, agreeing, they already knew they would get in trouble for doing this.

"In about two hours we need to head to your house before your mom's get home, since we told them we'd be there. All we have to do is find something the police missed, anything will help." Scott said, they only had a short time frame, if they were unsuccessful, they'd be in a whole lot of trouble.

Both Scott and Tyler proceeded to pass the caution tape and casing the environment, "What should we be looking for?" Tyler questioned.

"Anything out of the ordinary, something that doesn't belong, I don't know yet." And the search began, Scott went to the left side of trail, while Tyler went to the right, while somewhat digging through the scattered autumn leaves, and muddy ground. Scott saw something shiny, reflecting on the ground from the sunlight. He bent down and picked it up with his glove, looking back at Tyler, whose back was turned to him searching.

"Ty!" He called out, Tyler looked back and Scott waved him over. He ran to him and gave a confused expression, that's when Scott held up the bullet. Tyler took it and analyzed it. "This is from a 42 callibar, not many people use them to execute someone. The killer must have used this on Alice, since her body was found here." Tyler explained.

"How'd you know that?" Scott asked.

"My aunt and uncle are retired army vets, they've told me pretty much everything about the stuff they did while on tour." Tyler told Scott.

"Did you find anything on your side?" Tyler shook his head.

"Nah, there's nothing over there. The real question is how did the police miss this vital piece of evidence? I mean, it's a bullet, aren't the CSI's supposed to look at every inch of the area before they leave the scene?"

Scott shrugged his shoulders, this was definitely a predicament, how could police miss this? He checked his phone and saw that they only thirty minutes until Tyler's parents would be home. "We gotta head to your house, before your mom's get there." Soon Scott and Tyler got to Tyler's house, going inside, grabbing a snack, and watching a movie.

"Scott, what are we going to do with the thing we found?"

"I don't know yet, we'll have to hide it. And maybe I can go to Mr. Bowen and give it back." Rule number one of starting your own investigation: Don't voice out your entire plan incase the location you're in is bugged. That's how the bad guys know your next step and plan ahead, and though they were in a safe place. You could never be too careful.

"Good idea, so what do you wanna watch?" Scott turned his head to the tv, as the Netflix logo graced the screen. He shrugged, not knowing what to pick. "We could watch Stranger Things again." Tyler suggested, glancing at his best friend, he noticed Scott was zoning out.

He waved his hand in front of Scott, who came out of his trance, fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt. For the tenth time might Tyler add, why does he keep doing that? He thought. He needed to ask, if he didn't he'd worry more, and Scott hates it when Tyler worried over little things. "Why do you keep messing around with your shirt bro?" He asked.

"Oh, it's just itchy. No big deal." Scott answered, but, there was a problem with his reply, he was LYING, and Tyler knew it. "Here's the thing about your reply Scott, you and I both know you're lying. The real question is whether you're going to tell me the truth or not." Tyler interrogated.

"I'm not lying."

"That's bull Scott, if you don't tell me I'll pull up your sleeve myself!" Tyler shouted.

"It's none of your business Tyler! God, just leave me the heck alone!" Scott yelled back.

Tyler reached forward and pulled Scott's sleeve up slightly before Scott pulled away, by then it was too late, Tyler saw a few of his cuts. "S... Scott, you're cutting y... yourself?" Scott didn't reply, there was a tense silence that followed. Tyler couldn't believe it, he knew his friend was hurting, but he didn't know he was hurting THIS much.

"W... Why? Scott, you could kill yourself if you keep doing that! I've already lost Alice, she was like a little sister to me! I CAN'T LOSE MY BEST FRIEND TOO!" Tyler shouted.

"WHAT'S THE POINT TYLER?! MY SISTER ISN'T COMING BACK, SO WHAT'S THE POINT?!" Scott yelled, this was his explosion, he was finally letting all of his feelings out. He wouldn't have done it with anyone else but Tyler.

"I have to go to therapy! I have depression! But the doctor who's 'helping' me doesn't even see everything that's going on! My parents are constantly fighting, you're busy with football! I didn't want to be a burden." Scott began to cry, Tyler went closer to him and hugged him.

"Don't you ever say you're a burden, you're my best friend. And no matter what, I'm always going to be there for you. I'm never going to leave you because of anything, period. I'm sorry you've been having a hard time, but know that you can always come to me for whatever you want. If you need me to break you out of your house to come to mine, or if you need to talk at two o'clock in the morning I'll pick up."

"I've got your back, all you need to do is let me." Tyler said, Scott nodded, agreeing, he needed this the longer he thought about it. It felt good to lift that massive weight off of his shoulders. Scott was glad he wasn't alone anymore, all he and Tyler needed to do was hunt down Alice's killer.
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The End of Chapter 14