“So, Detective, I hear you got a new case on your hands.”

“Can you stop referring to him as a case? It’s kind of inhumane.”

“Well, he certainly is a mystery. Thought that was what you dealt with, Detective.”

“Anyone who arrives at a police station covered in dirt and bruises and then doesn’t say anything after a week is a mystery.”

Officer Kade grinned at Detective Hill, shaking his head a bit.

“Look, just ask him his name. Have you done that?” Kade asked, taking a seat across from the detective and kicking his feet up on the desk.

“...Crap,” Hill muttered, rubbing at his face as Kade laughed obnoxiously.

“Wow. Not once did ol’ mighty Detective Hill think, hey, what if I asked this kid what his name was.”

“You failed your training eight times. In a row!”

“Hey, I’m an officer now so what does it matter?”

Hill could tell him why it mattered later, for now they could talk about the kid that had arrived a week earlier.

Hill waved a hand at the officer and let out a sigh.

“We could ask the kid his name because we’re straightforward adults,” he began, Kade clearly going to pump his fist in the air like this was a victory before the detective continued, “Or we could wait for him to come around.”

Kade sat back, pouting at him and looking like a first day officer all over again.

“Let’s turn on the news. This is getting boring,” he murmured, reaching towards the small remote.

“It’s only boring because I brought up another idea,” Hill reminded him.

“Can’t hear you over the sound of- wait, a robbery?”

The detective glanced up towards the TV at the vague image overhead.

“Hey, Hedgeville… isn’t that where we live?” Kade asked, suddenly sitting up. “Yeah, that’s the bank! Someone robbed the bank where we live!”

“Shouldn’t… shouldn’t you be on duty… and investigating the robbery?” Hill asked him, raising a brow.

“I’m… I’m on lunch.”

Hill sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head as he heard the TV say, “The main suspect in the robbery appears to be a teenage boy, name unknown.”

“Hey, that’s the kid that came by last week!” Kade said in an overly excited manner. “He’s on TV! The kid’s on TV!”

“Kade, he’s a suspect in a robbery!” the detective told him, exasperated.

“Oh… well, they don’t know who this kid is either.”

“That’s… very true… We don’t live in a very big area and everyone is pretty easy to identify.”

“Even unknown kids!” the officer chirped.

“I don’t think he’d be unknown if we identified him, but yes, even unknown kids,” Hill sighed out, running his fingers through his hair. “For now, let’s see what we got on this kid… did he leave any fingerprints?”

“I can check, but I don’t think he touched anything. He’s kind of just been sitting in the chair with his hands folded in his lap.”

“Wait a minute… if he just robbed a bank… then.. Wouldn’t he... Not be here?”

Both of their eyes widened, not at all slow in their attempts to see if the kid was still sitting in the lobby.

Truth be told, the chair sat empty, not a trace of the scraggly teenager that once sat there.

“Laura!” the detective called, the receptionist almost automatically raising her head.

“Oh, hey, Matt!” she said sweetly, smiling at him.

“The kid… did he just leave?”

“Oh, yeah! He looked a little bored so I figured he may have just left for that reason.”

“And you didn’t ask questions?”

“Was I supposed to?”

Hill sighed and waved her off before turning to the officer beside him.

“Well… the kid just… just walked out,” he mumbled, seeming a bit puzzled by it.

“Someone has to plan a robbery, don’t they?” Kade murmured. The detective’s eyes widened, nodding a bit.

“You’re right… does that mean the kid was going to plan this?”

“If so… did he come to us to turn himself in?”

Hill turned to the receptionist, leaning on the counter. “Laura, can you call one of the officers investigating the robbery?” He gave a pointed look at Kade who raised his arms in surrender.

“Sure,” she responded, handing the phone over to Hill when the call came through.

“Officer Williams reporting,” a voice crackled through the phone.

“Hey...Is there any clue as to where the suspect of the robbery went?”

“Um...” the officer on the other line paused. “Someone saw him turn in an alley near a Dunkin Donuts. We don’t know how true that is, however it’s the only lead we have.”

The detective pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a frustrated sigh. “Officer Kade and I will investigate it. If you hear anything else, please contact us.”

Hill turned to the officer with a sigh, motioning vaguely with his hand as they exited the police station.

“So, he was seen around here?” Kade asked, parked outside the Dunkin Donuts.

“Why- Why are you ducking? Yes, he was seen around here,” Hill muttered.

“Hey, I’m trying to be inconspicuous! Well, they also said he went into the alley… should we get out of the car to go check?”

“I suppose so. Follow me.”

“Hey- Why am I following you and not the other way around?”

“Because I got out of the car first,” the detective said pointedly, pushing the door open and stepping out.

The area appeared mostly clear save for a few people walking up and down the sidewalks.

Kade peered into the alley, suddenly turning around and grabbing Hill’s shirt, mouthing over and over, ‘The kid! The kid!’

“At least you’ve got good sense to be quiet,” Hill muttered, turning to look in the alley. Sure enough, the kid stood pressed against the wall, glancing around.

“Hey, you!” Hill shouted, causing the kid to jump and then make a run for it. The detective turned towards the officer, looking rather surprised. “He ran away from me!”

“He robbed a bank… and you’re a detective… and I’m an officer… and you yelled at him,” Kade told him, raising a brow.

“We don’t need to get into semantics! We have to go after him!”

They both ran after the kid, however the kid seemed to be further ahead.

“He is way faster than both of us,” Hill wheezed out.

“There’s a reason I failed my training eight times,” Kade told him in between breaths.

“Is… is he slowing down?”

“Are we really that slow?”

Hill glanced at the officer beside him, furrowing his brows. “Hey, you’re young, you think you could catch up to him?”

Kade let out a breath. “I could… I could try, I guess…”

He bolted towards the kid who turned to look at the officer last second and was soon met with concrete.

“I got you now, kid!” the officer declared, however the victory soon felt a bit defeated as kid bit his arm as an escape attempt. “Ow, Hill, get over here! This kid is acting like I’m some dinn-ER!”

The kid took two feet to his chest and shoved him off, proceeding to make a run for it.

Hill caught up, giving the officer a frustrated look. “You couldn’t just… keep your guard up for a second.”

“You didn’t specify what I should do after I caught up to him!” Kade argued.

“You’re a police officer… you carry handcuffs!”

“Well… well! Let’s just get back to the cruiser and follow him!”

They somehow managed to follow the kid to a warehouse inconspicuously, however it was pretty hard to be inconspicuous in a police cruiser.

They parked outside a warehouse. It appeared to have two men guarding the door. Well, not guarding exactly. They were more chatting on opposite sides of the door and not paying attention to much else.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kade asked, turning to Hill with a smirk.

“Sadly, I am and I don’t like it,” Hill told him, letting out a sigh.

Seconds later, they were crashing through the walls of the warehouse, Blues Brothers style. The car spun around before coming to a harsh stop.

“Everyone, hands up!” Hill called out, climbing out of the car, watching the array of men lift their hands. “Kade, get the kid.”

As it turns out, the kid was working with some sort of small town mob; Small town meaning it was a bunch of teenagers working to rob banks and share the earnings.

Although, interrogating the kid was surprisingly effective.

“Why’d you come in here last week?” Kade asked, leaning over the kid as if trying to appear threatening.

“I tried to warn you, I did, but I was nervous… and then the time came… and I had to bail out,” the kid explained.

“Why?”

“You try having a bunch of teenagers with weapons they made themselves threaten to kill you.”

“I have.”

The kid was quiet. “You know their parents will just bail them out.”

“Probably,” Kade responded. “And so will yours.”

“If they were alive, I’m sure they would.”

The officer seemed rather shocked at this, jogging out of the room and grabbing Hill by his shoulders.

“What?” the detective asked, raising a brow at him.

“I know you said no stupid decisions for another year, but uh…”

“What?”

“What would you think if we kept the kid?”