Alejandro Draufgänger

Silence was looming in the room. Toby could see questions flying over the girls' faces, so he ceased their thoughts.

"All I know is that it's a 22 LR pistol, it has been given illegal modifications, it has a silencer,I found it behing the mat roles in the gym on Joshua's boat, its fully loaded and the safety lock was off, and with it being fully loaded, whoevers gun it is was about to use it."

"Well, that's more than I was expecting."

Gracies slumps down on the sofa.

"Too much stuff is happening. My mind can't process it all. Let's talk about this tomorrow."

"Agreed, when we get the HQ tomorrow, I can run DNA tests on it, but I can see what the others can do." Toby looks over to Florence.

"Yes, good idea."

Gracie takes a deep yawn, causing Toby and Florence to yawn, too. They all laugh.

"Florence, can I crash at yours tonight?"

"Yes, of course you can. You are always welcome."

"Florence, I left my phone at yours this morning. Can I stay at yours tonight as well?"

"How did you get into my apartment?!"

"I picked your lock because you never put your alarm on."

"Oh, whoops, you can sleep on the sofa then."

"Hey, look -" Gracie stops to pick her phone up from the coffee table." I left my phone here."

"You may have needed that if me and Florence turn out to be kidnappers."

Gracie laughs, and Florence stifles a laugh.

"Yeah, won't forget that one again."

She shoves it into her pocket but not before checking her percentage.

"Three percent." She reads aloud.

"You know what? I could get Henry to do some history checks on his family just in case of anything suspicious from that angle."

"Yes, that's fantastic. Shall we head back then?" Toby stands up and pulls his jacket over his shoulders.

"Yeah, come on, then let's go."

They all exit the room, and they make their way to Florence's apartments.

Feeling absolutely exhausted after having to climb eleven flights of stairs because the lift was broken, they all enter Florence's apartment. A wash of Flourecent yellow and pink hits them as they enter. Gracie is reminded of how much Florence likes colour and so much so that her apartment is like a rainbow. Blue and green furnishings with yellow and pink walls.

"Toby, you can sleep on the couch, and Gracie, you can share the double with me."

"You two are gonna sleep in the same bed?!" Toby exclaims with a shocked look on his face.

"Well, I only have one couch, and are you trying to say you would like to swap positions with Gracie?"

"No, absolutely not. I am fine where I am, thank you." He jumps onto the sofa.

Gracie picks up the landline, which she is surprised Florence still owns, but is grateful for and calls Henry.

"Hey Henry. There is so much to tell you." She fills him in on the days events.

"Oh woah, how do you always get yourself involved in these things. All in all, I'm happy for you. This is your sort of thing."

"Thank you, but about that gun."

"Yes, that's very odd, not the sort of thing you would expect on Joshua's boat. I can do a background check on all social media platforms and other sites incase of any suspicious dealings but it may well be a waiter or a deckhand, it may have even been planted by a complete rando. At this spy place, can they do DNA checks because that might be a good idea."

"Haha, taking charge already, I see. Yes, you read my mind. Family checks are a good idea, and Toby already mentioned DNA checks, so we can update you on that tomorrow."

"Coolio, I can start now and fill you in tomorrow then."

"Sounds great, see you tomorrow."

"Bye."

She hangs up and takes a big sigh. She heads over to the bed where Florence is sitting, Toby seems to have already gone to bed.

"So, can he do it?" Florence spins round to face Grace.

"He said he will do it, but it might not be family, so keep that in mind."

"That's nice, see you in the morning then."

"Night Florence." Gracie lays down, but one question is still floating in her mind.

"Florence?"

"What am I actually going to do tomorrow?"

"You will join the case that Toby and I are on with some others."

"What's it about?"

"I will explain further in the morning, but it is life or death for Toby at this point."

"Oh...ok." Gracie turns her lamp off and can soon hear the snores from Florence and Toby, but it's not long before she drifts off, too.

Gracie awoke with sun rays spilling onto her face. She turned over in bed, only to see Florence's weird sleeping face drooling on the pillow. She turned back over and sighed. Today is going to be an exciting day, she told herself, just she was still so tired. However, her mind was already whirring with questions. What case will I work on? Why do I feel uneasy around Toby still? WHY WAS THERE A GUN ON JOSHUA SMITHSON BOAT, READY TO BE USED? She brings herself back into the moment and looks at the clock. It is hung up on the flourecent pink wall that faces the bed. It read 6:45 AM. Florence won't get up for about another 2 hours max. She sits up and carefully Saunders over the where her phone was charging. She takes it off charge and checks to see if Henry has any news, which he doesn't yet, so she goes to put it into her pocket.

"Argh!" Gracue lets out a stifled scream as her phone hits her foot. She must have missed her pocket. She rubs her foot, picks up her phone, and hobbles over to the kitchen in search of food. She opens all the cupboards, draws, the fridge, and even the freezer, but the only things left are frozen milk and mouldy grapes. She picks up the punet of grapes whilst holding her nose because they STINK and threw them in the bin. Unsuccessful in her mission to find edible food, she sat down at the kitchen table and started to scroll on her phone in the hope that it would help disguise her hunger.

Toby, hearing Gracies stifled scream, woke up with a start. He can immediately feel that sleeping in formal trousers and a tight shirt was not friendly to his back, for it felt tight and achey. He realised he had been having a nightmare again. It had been the familiar nightmare that he had been having over the past few weeks. His house was on fire, and all his family was dead or dying. The perpetrator was someone he had put in jail 4 years ago at the fresh age of 16. He was called Alejandro Draufgänger. They were trailing him because he had murdered 14 people out of his attempted 27. He had also stolen over 56 billion pounds, which thankfully was restored to its rightful place. A couple of months ago, Toby was living his life to the fullest until he heard the news that Alejandro had escaped and was heading straight for him. Within the first week Toby and his family had been threatened 3 times with death, beheading and the kidnappers of his two younger sisters, who were twins, Toby hate to think about what Alejandro would do to them. This would be the case that Gracie would find herself involved in today, finding Alejandro. This was his biggest case so far, basically because it was life or death to him and his family but mainly and most painfully to him. He shook the thought from his mind and got up to see what was the cause of the scream. Toby slowly ambled towards the kitchen and found Gracie slouching at the table on her phone.

"Gracie, was it you who screamed?"

She didn't look at him or even acknowledge him.

"Gracie? Hello?"

She was obviously quite sucked into her phone, so he moved over to her and plucked it out of her hands.

"Hey!"

"You, little missy, were ignoring me. Which is rude in case you were wondering." He taunts her with the phone.

"I know it's rude, I didn't hear you. Give... it...back..." She is jumping up to try and grab her phone whilst Toby hovers it over her head, just out of reach.

"Ok, fine, don't ignore me again." He takes the phone back down to grab the level, and she snatches it back.

"What do you want anyways?"

"Was it you who screamed?"

"Yes." That was it. A simple short answer. Toby gave a gesture for more information, and it took a moment for Gracie to realise that he wanted more information. "I dropped my phone on my foot."

"You banana."

She faces him again, confused at why she was just called a banana. He quickly notices this and explains.

"My mum used to call me a banana when I was clumsy."

"Oh, ok."

They both move over to the table and take opposite seats.

"Aw, dang it." Gracie raises a hand to her forehead

"What?"

"Don't worry, I just need to get clothes from home." She stands up and goes towards the front door.

"Don't go yet, let me come. I need to grab some clothes from my house too, I would not recommend sleeping in a shirt and work trousers."

"Ok, I'll wait outside your when you change, and you'll wait outside mine whilst I do the same."

"Aw, I dont get a tour of your house then."

"Definitely not. Let's go."

"I will leave a message for Floremce." Toby pulls out his phone and goes to message Florence for when she wakes up.

"Me and Gracie getting a change of clothes, leaving now, will be an hour. DONT LEAVE WITHOUT US." He sound it all aloud.

"Right, let's go."

They both leave the apartment and back down the 11 flights of stairs and out into fresh air. Gracie stops for a moment and takes a deep breath of fresh air.

"What are you doing?"

"It makes me feel calm."

"But what are you doing?"

"Breathing slowly in fresh air."

"Oh,"

"Try it."

"Ok."

He takes a deep breath in and exhales.

"Huh, that does actually feel relaxing."

They both continue walking.

"So Gracie, tell me about yourself, I dont really know much about yourself."

"Oh, umm," She is struggling in what to say as she is not good on the spot.

"I have a brother called Henry and my parents live near with their dog bullet."

"Ooo sounds like a big fiesty dog."

"Till you know he is a miniature poodle."

Toby starts to laugh.

"I'm trying to picture that."

"Anyways I'm sixteen, I used to live in Australia, where I was born. We moved when I was four because my mum is part french.

"So your half australian and half french?"

"No, half australian quater french quarter german.

"So your dad is just australian and your mum is also german."

"Bingo."

" I am just English, but I have been stationed here for the foreseeable future."

"That explains your accent then."

"What, no, YOU have the accent."

"Haha, maybe just a little one then."

"Just a little one." He mimicks

They turn down a side alleyway and Toby gets his keys out.

"I live right here."

"Not that far from Florence then I see."

"Yes but it's annoying, she always just randomly turns up."

"Haha sounds like her."

He opens the door and says.

"Wait here for me won't be long."

"Ok."

She gets a short glimpse of the house interior and it just looks messy, clothes everywhere, shoes strewn across the floor and just lots of random things.

He sees the gobsmacked look on her faces amd laughs a little.

"Maybe you could come back another time and help me organise."

He shuts the door softly.

She just stood there for a couple minutes, pondering in her head wether his request was genuinely because he needed help or something a bit more to a friendship, a new starting of something. She regains her composure and turns around. Lots of closely packed streets and rubbish bins are nearby. It's quite dark and dingy.

She has almost completed her 360 when she spots a man quite far down the path. He looked quite formal but mysterious, black shades, black baseball cap and black tracksuit. He was also smoking, probably weed by the look of this area. She starts to laugh when it reminds her of a moment a long time ago when she was watching a film and the police officer always said cigaweed instead of cigarette when someone was smoking weed. She looked back up on to see he was gone Getting worried she back up to a wall infront of Toby's house.

"Hello again."

Before she saw who said it she turned around and punched the speaker in the face.