Numb3r 10

Bank Heist: Interrogation

Sang woke up with an equation floating at the edge of her thoughts. It begged to be written down, and she ran into the living room where she kept a whiteboard for situations just like this. She yanked the cap off her favorite pink marker and wrote as fast as her hand could, the only light coming from the full moon outside her window. The whiteboard looked like a bowl of alphabet soup, but to her, it was beautiful.

She was so absorbed in her equation that she didn't notice the sleeping figure on her couch. Luke had been assigned to stay with her overnight to make sure she was okay. He woke up the second she entered the room, but he wasn't sure if he should say anything. It was clear she was deep in thought about whatever she was writing down, and he didn't want to break her concentration.

He glanced at his phone. 5:25 am. Wasn't she tired? They had only gone to bed a few hours before. He stifled a yawn. There was no way he would be able to fall back asleep, but he didn't want to now that Sang was up. And judging by the slightly frantic edge to her movements, she wasn't going back to sleep, either.

His heart hardened when he remembered how scared she had been earlier. Nobody deserved to go through what she did last night, but especially not Sang. She had worked so hard to have the life she did today, and Hunter tried to take all of it away from her. He wondered how long she was going to be writing. Owen suspected she would want to come back to the FBI office to check on the case, and if that was correct, Luke was supposed to drive her. Maybe they could get donuts on the way.

Sang slammed the cap back on her marker and grumbled to herself. "Need to get another whiteboard..."

She finally turned around, which put Luke in her direct line of sight for the first time. In the darkness pervading the apartment, he was sure he looked like some kind of monster, and Sang's shriek confirmed that thought.

"It's Luke. Luke Taylor, from the FBI, remember? I'm supposed to stay with you," he said in a rush.

Sang put a finger to her lip as she nodded slowly. "Right, sorry about that. I didn't notice when you when I came in." She gave an awkward chuckle. "I was a bit distracted."

Luke squinted at her equations. He had no hope of understanding what she had just written, but he still wanted to try. There was a triangle symbol. A lot of parentheses. He recognized some of the symbols as Greek letters, but he didn't know which ones. Kota would be able to tell him.

"Did you need another whiteboard?" he asked.

Sang nodded. "I ran out of space on this one. I need to buy another. I normally don't do a lot of work here, so it's not usually a problem. I had an idea about something that might help with the case, though."

"The bank robbery case?"

Sang stared at him, and he answered his question himself, feeling just a bit dumb. "Of course it's the bank robbery case. Do you need to go to the FBI?" He hoped she said yes. The donuts at his favorite donut shop would be fresh out of the fryer, nice and warm.

Sang brightened at that. "That would be great, actually. They have nice whiteboards there. The glass kind, so I guess they're not really white. Blueboards might be a better name for them. But people wouldn't know what those were, so from a marketing viewpoint, it would be quite a stupid move."

Luke couldn't hide his smile as she rambled on. Once she paused to take a breath, he interjected his next thought. "Sang, do you like donuts?" he asked.

At her nod, his smile grew wider and they hastened to pack up and leave for the FBI office.

***

Despite the early hour, Luke and Sang were not the only ones up. Owen, Victor, and Sean stood outside the interrogation room watching Hunter through the one-way glass. To say that the atmosphere was frosty would be an understatement, and Owen fumed that he wouldn't be the one to interrogate Hunter. That job fell to Sean, who out of all the guys, had the best knack for making people talk. Maybe it was his cheerful grin that set him at ease. Or maybe the way his entire countenance changed to deadly serious in a split second when his cheery grin didn't do the job.