Annabeth carefully shut the door and leaned back against it. She stared at the file in her hands and sighed.
Another case. She'd been looking forward to a long vacation after the last one. But Malcolm had begged her, pulling off a particularly spectacular case of puppy eyes while doing so. And Thalia had seemed so excited to get back to work.
How could she refuse those two together? She had taken the case off Malcolm's hands.
Somebody tried to open the door behind her and shoved it so hard she went flying towards her desk. Thalia entered their joint office.
"Sorry 'bout that. Come on, are you still moping? This one is going to be so tough," She said gleefully.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly, is that a good thing?"
"Don't start with me, Annie. You know you like those the best." Thalia pointed a finger at her accusingly.
"Thalia," She warned.
"Sorry, Annabeth," Thalia said, voice mockingly sweet. She grabbed a file similar to the one Annabeth had in her hands from her desk. "So, what's the story?"
Annabeth frowned. "How did you know it was going to be tough if you haven't read the file?" She asked.
"Malcolm said so." Thalia waved her hand in the air. "Anyway, have you started it yet?"
Annabeth felt a flash of excitement. If Malcolm had thought it was going to be tough, then it certainly would be. After all, he was one of their best.
"No, I was just starting to," She answered Thalia. "You should too."
Thalia sat down on the chair behind her own desk. She leaned back, balancing the chair precariously on two of its legs.
"Just read it out loud."
"The height of your laziness astounds me." Annabeth told her wryly.
She opened up Malcolm's report and began to read out loud.
The case was simple and straightforward. Along with being absolutely disgusting.
Basically, some sick psychopath had decided that this was the year he/she was going to kidnap innocent children, strangle them and leave their bodies where more innocent children could find them.
Well, only one body had been found. Malcolm had originally been assigned to the case when it was just kidnapping. Then the body of the first girl- Native American, aged 10 -had been found. All 4 children were of different ethnicities and all of them were girls ranging between the ages of 8-13. The body of the first victim had turned up last week and had showed no signs of sexual assault.
Annabeth continued to read out loud, "….. Detective Jackson sugge-"
Thalia suddenly cut her off by falling to the ground with her chair, with a short shriek.
"Thalia?" She leaned forward, trying to see over her and Thalia's desks. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Came her voice from the floor. She stood up and brushed off her jeans. "Did you say Detective Jackson?"
Annabeth glanced back at the file open on her desk, a little perplexed. "Um, yeah?"
"Does it say his full name any where?" Thalia asked excitedly.
She scanned the document quickly. "No, I do- wait, here it is. It says 'Per-"
Thalia cut her off with a shout of glee.
"Thalia, what-" Annabeth started, but Thalia waved a hand at her to wait. She picked up her phone and started dialing. Annabeth got up and walked to where she was standing. She leaned close to Thalia's ear, trying to hear the other end.
Whoever was on the other side must have picked up because Thalia started speaking. "Dude, we're going to be working together!"
There was pause and then a lot of chatter that Annabeth couldn't understand from the phone. Thalia was grinning from ear-to-ear. She obviously understood what the other person was saying. "Yeah, I know. Finally."
She gave up on trying to understand both ends of the conversation and went back to her desk. Thalia finished off her call a minute later with a "See you tomorrow 'cuz."
"So?"
"We're going to be working with my cousin. We've been waiting for this day since we both ended up working in New York. Ah, the fights, the arguments, the disagreements coming our way." Thalia sighed happily, as though news of potential bloodshed between the two cousins was the best thing that had happened to her all week.
Annabeth shook her head at her. "Let's at least try to finish this today so we can get out on the field tomorrow."
Thalia waved a hand at her. "Continue." And so Annabeth did.