𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐈𝐌

『14』

      Riley plugs her earbuds in as she strolls through the many ailes of the archives. For such a small town they keep their records very organized, then again, it being small might also be the reason.

      Each row is a year. Riley starts with the year of the maple tree fire, searching for any death records. A bunch or due to Polio, and natural causes, but Riley ends up finding absolutely nothing. She looks around the several boxes she picks up. Nothing in the deaths section.

      Riley looks up at the top of the row. The missing person's files. Riley puts all the death files away and grabs a ladder, climbing to the top and grabbing the first box. The Maple Fire report didn't provide a specific as it took days to put out so Riley has to search through everyone of the missing person's files of that year.

      Riley brings them all down to the ground and looks at them before beginning. She smiles as 'Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zeppelin begins playing into her ears. Research for cases always brought a smile to Riley's face. It was because of the company she had. Her dad and Uncle.

      The jokes they told, the pranks she did, the serious talks, the hard talks, the embarrassing talks. Just feeling their presence always made Riley happy. They made her happy, but now they are gone and Riley must find other ways to be happy.

      She enjoys helping the autobots, and she loves Bumblebee, but it's a necessity to help people. Family was never that way. You could hate each other, and still care. You could be angry with each other till the end of time and still worry about how they are doing, but that's just the way it was. It was easy being with each other. Riley misses having someone to be easy with.

      Easy is good. She loves feeling easy.

      But with everything going on, easy isn't a possibility. Life is hard and Riley, again, finds herself wishing. Not on a star, or on a penny you toss into a pond. She's pleading with the universe, and it's feeling like a one way conversation. She's begging for something good to come to her, but it just never does.

      Riley sighs as she looks at her 30th missing person's report. She goes down to the profession and finds 'Maple Farmer'. She sits up straight. "Yahtzee." She opens the file. The man's name is Franklyn Yuri and he ran the Maple farm until he went missing about a week before the firemen put out the fire.

      Riley reads further and finds there was a witness, but their statement is blacked out. "Damn." There's no way they are still alive. Riley closes the missing person's file and her eyes dart back and forth in thought. She begins packing up the boxes, but doesn't bother to put them away this time.

△

      Riley runs out to Bumblebee right as it begins to rain. She pulls away from the curb and takes out her phone dialing Jo. She answers. "Hey, I got a lead. I'm heading to the police station. You want me to get you guys?" The rain pelted down harder and had Riley not had Bumblebee, she might have crashed from a lack of visibility.

      "No, that's fine Riley." Riley smiles at hearing Ellen. "Okay. I'll bring back food when I'm done." She hangs up and Bumblebee stops outside the police station. Riley checks that she has her FBI badge and nods to herself. She looks out at the rain and sighs heavily. "I'll be back Bee."

      Riley darts out of Bumblebee and into the station. With the short distance she had to run, her hair got soaked. She grumbles a bit and walks over to the receptionist and flashes her badge. "May I speak to someone who can tell me about the Maple Fire of '64?" The receptionist glances at Riley badge then nods.