"You want me to do what?" Oliver asked for about the third time.

"I need you to do a little interrogation," I repeated. "Nothing major. Just light questioning."

"You know I work with computers and devices, right? I went into the surveillance field because I am not the best people person. I am an offsider."

"I know, but Jason and I can't talk to her," I explained. "She knows who we are. She knows we are the reason why Sparrow is in prison."

"Does she know why he's in prison?" Oliver asked.

Jason scoffed. "Don't try to make sense of this woman. You will never understand."

"Okay. Well . . . I mean, I also put Sparrow in jail."

"But you were not in court at the time of his trial," Jason countered.

"Right," I agreed. "You had to work on something else at the time. But she saw us provide evidence to put him away almost every day. Although it was your evidence, she never saw your face. So out of the three of us, who do you think she will be most pissed at?"

"Probably you, honestly."

"Exactly. So she will more than likely talk to you. And since we are the only three agents on this assignment, it has to be one of us."

Oliver looked between both of us, clearly not pleased, but didn't argue further when he released an exasperated sigh and said, "Fine . . . fine. I just don't know if I'll be good at it."

"We can coach you."

"Says the woman who just socked an inmate not too long ago."

My lips went into a straight line. "I think Amber will be more . . . compliant. It will be really simple."

"You say that," he muttered.

"You will be fine."

Oliver narrowed his eyes at her. "You owe me."

"Fine."

"You'll pay for my next meal."

"Done," I promised.

"And you," he turned to Jason, "you pay for the drinks."

"Sure. I'll even join you."

"No. Just me and my girl."

Jason held his hands up in surrender. "Alright."

"Good. Now," Oliver clapped his hands together, "what's the plan?"

After giving him the rundown about five times, we geared up with all the required devices and headed towards the interview room where Amber would be waiting. Oliver even combed his hair back, trying to appear more professional than his typical scraggly appearance, and marched into the room already appearing awkward, but he was the only chance we had. Behind the one-way window was Jason and I watching the entire showdown. If something were to go wrong, we could jump in quickly. But hopefully, that wouldn't happen.

"Think he can handle it?" Jason whispered to me, his arms crossed in front of him as he watched Oliver take a seat.

"He's going to have to."

I could faintly see Jason's lips go into a straight line in the reflection before I turned my attention to the redheaded female sitting at the table. I had seen her before with Sparrow many times. She was always by his side for some reason although everyone knew he was only using her. At least, everyone but her realized this it seemed. She always had this false idea of who Sparrow was. In her eyes, he was a good man and would probably remain that way. I briefly wondered if this was how people viewed me. If they thought I viewed my brother, a powerful criminal, as a good person despite his horrible actions. But I couldn't let my mind travel too far down that path. Instead, I focused on the task at hand. Oliver's first major questioning.

"Alright," he placed his file on the table. "I know you probably have places to go right now, so I'm not going to keep you long. I am Agent Oliver Bailey with the Miami FBI department and I'm here to just ask you a few questions Miss uh . . ."

I pressed my earpiece and answered, "Clarke."

"Clarke," Oliver echoed. "Ms. Amber Clarke. If that's okay. The questioning."

She looked at him for a long moment before asking, "Are you British?"

Oliver clearly wasn't prepared for that when he started shuffling around a bit. "Er, no. No. Australian, actually."

"Oh. You kind of sound like Holden. But he's British." She played with the ends of her thick, scarlet hair.

"I suppose British accents sound like ours, yeah. But that's not the point." He cleared his throat. "As I was saying, I was hoping to ask you a few questions about Sparr—I mean, Holden's former rowmate."

"Former rowmate?"

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"His most recent one, Arman Kumar." Oliver placed a photo of Arman on the table between them. "Does he look or sound familiar to you?"

She leaned over to look at the photo, frowned, and shook her head. "No. I don't think so. I'm not good with faces though."

"Perhaps Holden has mentioned him to you?"

"Maybe. Can I ask why you are questioning me, Agent Bailey?"

"It's nothing to be alarmed about. We are questioning several people who are connected to Arman."

"Including Holden?"

Oliver hesitated to answer, "Yes. Including him."

"He might be better help. I don't know all that much. Holden has only talked about one guy he shared a row with, but he never gave names."

"But he did talk about them?"

"The bookworm? Yeah. They definitely were not friends."

"Why do you say that?" Oliver prompted.

"Well . . . Holden doesn't have a very good track record with making friends. He says the wrong things to the wrong people, including some guy that apparently was related to the woman who got him in jail. I told Holden to leave him alone, but he never listens." She rolled her eyes. "He was moved the next day. Maybe that is the man you are talking about?"

I was trying not to get caught up in the fact that my brother stood up for me, for whatever reason, and focused on another detail.

"Oliver, ask her why she keeps referring to him as the bookworm," I instructed.

"Perhaps. You keep referring to this man as a bookworm. Why is that?" he questioned.

"Oh, I don't know." She tucked a strand of her thick, scarlet hair behind her ear. "It just seemed appropriate. Holden said the guy in the same row as him, the same guy we just talked about who gave him the black eye, just constantly read books. He was either in the library reading, in his cell reading, or at lunch. Didn't speak. Didn't do much of anything else."

So he spent a lot of his time in the library. To anybody else, this would be a minor detail that could be easily overlooked. But knowing my brother and how he worked, there was potential for much more. There was potential for a lead.

"Interesting." Oliver nodded his head. "He just . . . read?"

"He's running out of ammunition," Jason noted and I agreed.

"Yeah. But that's all I know." Amber leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "He doesn't talk about this place all that much. Just about . . . you know . . . personal stuff."

Not needing any more information, or wanting any, I told Oliver, "You can wrap it up. We have what we need." He appeared more than happy to do so.

"No worries. I think you have given us plenty of information, Ms. Clarke." Oliver started to gather his things a little too quickly. "We truly appreciate your help."

"Of course." She smiled. "I hope I helped you find what you were looking for."

"I am pretty sure you did." Oliver smiled back.

+ + +

The man sitting behind the library desk wasn't prepared for three FBI agents to march in his place and he definitely wasn't ready when I said, "My name is Armita Kumar, special agent for the FBI, and I am going to need to see physical copies of everything that Arman Kumar has checked out."

The small man adjusted his glasses as if he was trying to get himself together. "Oh! Sure, sure. I can do that. From the past month?"

"His entire duration here."

His eyes widened. "He has been in here for seven years."

"I am aware."

Whatever he was going to say next he didn't and instead turned to his computer. "It will take me a moment, ma'am. But I can get that for you."

"Thank you for your cooperation," I nodded before turning towards Jason and Oliver who equally looked shocked. "Hope you two don't have any plans for the rest of the day."

"You know there is an easier way of doing this," Oliver said.

"How so?"

"We can pull up his records on their database rather than the actual books."

"Perhaps. But then we risk the possibility of missing something. My brother is an incredibly smart man. He could have used the books here to his advantage. And not for leisurely purposes."

"You're right," Jason agreed. "We have to be cautious."

After sending him a small smile, I turned to Oliver. "Bailey, I'm going to need you to comb through more footage a while longer before helping us. We need names and we need any possible footage collected along their escape route. Just follow their tracks."

"It's a sacrifice I am willing to take." When the librarian the first pile of books on the table next to us Oliver added, "I am very willing to take."

I rolled my eyes then turned to Jason. "Reynolds, you will be helping me with these books. Just like with the cell, look for any abnormalities. Missing pages. Any kind of possible patterns. Whatever you think is out of place."

"Found one." He picked up the top book from the stack. "He read Fifty Shades of Grey."

I snatched the book from his hand. "This is not Fifty Shades!"

"The cover looks like it."

"And how would you know?" I challenged.

He was quiet for a moment before he took a seat at the table with books. "So we going to get to work or what?"

I shook my head at him but decided not to get started just yet like he wanted. Instead I found the Marshall to get ahold of her best staff that wasn't busy and had them help us comb through all of Arman's books. When we were kids he was a big reader. He liked learning about the world and found the best way to understand was through literature. So when I saw the several different thick stacks of books the librarian put out, I wasn't at all surprised. But that didn't mean there could still be something off about his selection. I knew this was going to be a long night.

In the first hour of flipping through books and taking notes of possible abnormalities, I was fine. But as time kept going by, I found myself growing a bit weary. The silence wasn't helping either, which was why I chose to take a risk by doing something I swore I wouldn't. I decided to get to know my partner a little bit more.

"So," I flipped through a chemistry book, "you have sisters?"

Jason paused to look up at me from his gardening book. "What?"

"Earlier in the cell you said something about having sisters."

"Oh. Yeah. I have those."

"How many?"

"Five."

My eyebrows shot up. "Any brothers?"

"Nope." He closed one book and picked up another.

"Wow."

"Maxine, Diana, Lyla, Rose, and Samantha. All older. All annoying."

"Aren't all siblings annoying though?"

"You're not wrong." He agreed.

For a moment, we slipped back into a comfortable silence until the next book caught my attention.

"Who does this remind you of?" I held the book up for him to see.

He eyed the cupcake covered book and immediately huffed, "Cupcake girl."

"Katy Thomas," I corrected.

"Wait, why would your—the suspect read about cupcakes?"

"Like I said," I sifted through the book, "there was not much to do here."

"True. But why would they have cupcake books in the first place?"

"Most of these are donations. I don't think they actively sought out baking books for inmates."

"Maybe not," he agreed. "That reminds me, I meant to ask you earlier, but since the trial have you talked to them?"

"Who?"

"Katy and Gage."

I shook my head. "Not really. I try not to get too tied up in assignments after they have been completed."

"Yeah, I guess I can get that."

After a moment I admitted, "I have thought about them though."

"They are kind of hard to forget," he mumbled while picking up another book.

"Yeah." I thought about the odd yet kind couple for a moment. When I first met them, I had no idea that they would have such an impact on my life all those months ago. Although I helped them on one intense mission, they still stuck with me. "Have you kept in touch with them?"

"I have, actually," he released a sigh.

"Really?"

He nodded. "I actually crashed at their place for a while after my eye surgery. It was recommended that I didn't stay alone during recovery, although I would have been fine. The second Katy heard about it, I was doomed. Naturally, Gage tried to kick me out almost every day, but," Jason shrugged, "Katy was equally as stubborn to have me stay."

"What was that like?"

"Living with them?"

I nodded.

"Well, I can tell you between the two there was never a dull meal. I offered to cook one night and learned that was a major mistake."

"Did you not do well?"

"According to Katy, yes. According to Gage, not so much. But I expected as much."

"You two have never gotten along. It was always a pain."

"He was the pain."

"You say that, but I think you are both secretly close."

"Hell, no. Don't start reading into our relationship. Or lack thereof."

"There is nothing wrong with it."

"Did you look at this anatomy book?"

"No."

"Now you can." He placed it in front of me.

I rolled my eyes. Instead of skimming through the book, I looked over the list of Arman's books the librarian printed off for me again. Most of my stack was finished. All I had left were items that didn't have titles, but numbers instead. Confused, I walked over to the librarian with the copy and showed him the digits.

"What does this mean here?"

He paused what he was doing to look at where I was pointing. "Oh, that's our new system for our newspapers. It's not up to date yet with that section so it's kind of just jumbled up looking."

"You have newspapers?"

"We do. It was recently added in to kind of let people keep in touch with out there," he nodded towards the windows. "Some say this is good for the inmates. It lets them see what they could possibly do when or . . . if they are free."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I see," then I turned back to the paper. "So this is a newspaper?"

"It is. One of our older ones, actually."

"May I see it?"

"Of course," he walked around the desk towards a section in the back. After using his keycard to open a small, clear box, he shuffled through a few newspapers until he found what he needed and handed it to me. "I was planning on giving these to you once you had the books out of the way. More room and whatnot. But I think you'll do just fine."

"Thank you. I appreciate your help." I took the newspaper from him.

"Anytime. Let me know if you need anything else," he smiled before walking off to his desk.

I also returned to my desk and began reading through the newspaper as soon as I sat down. It appeared to be a normal newspaper, one that had the typical news and announcements. The only issue was it was from last year.

Why would Arman read a newspaper from last year?

It was completely random and at first I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Nothing special from any other newspaper. But right when I was about to flip to the next page, I heard Jason say, "That's funny."

I looked up at him. "What is?"

He pointed to a section at the top of the page. "I saw this same article on a newspaper I got not too long ago. Same image and everything. I guess they just reused it."

I paid closer attention to the article that had an image of Florida's governor on the front. She was short with blonde hair that came to her shoulders and a wide smile. By her side was who I assumed to be her young son that seemed less than please to be there. But he had to do things like this because of his mother's powerful role. Red warning flags immediately went up although I hoped my gut feeling wasn't true. Yet I couldn't ignore the signs. Arman's targets were typically politicians. And although I was hoping Governor Rebecca Tate could be an exemption, upon further examination of the article, my heart dropped. It just made too much sense.

"Jason."

"What?"

I pointed to the title of the article that discussed the annual Valentine's day charity event held at a location in Miami not too far away. It was only two days away.

"I know where Arman is going."

______________________________________________________________

Ayeeeeee it's time to beginnnnnn!

But I do have some news. Updates are probably not going to be as consistent because this was the last pre-written I had so now I will need to find time to actually sit down and continue. With everything going on, that will be a challenge. But I'll definitely give it a shot!

+Chapter Song: White Flag by Bishop

+Questions: Are you piecing together what's going to happen now? What are your thoughts on the book so far?

+Fun Facts: While updating this chapter I am doing a online training for a job lol (I used to work at this place for three years, I know the drill)

If you are enjoying this, please feel free to leave a vote/comment letting me know!

Sincerely,
Snow