Emmett shook with barely contained fury as he looked down at the body that was so cruelly twisted in that wooden crate. Edward and Jasper had just pried off one of the sides and we had been met with the sight of a magic trick gone horribly wrong.

She was a young girl, seventeen at the oldest, and she was shoved in a box where her knees were forced into her chest and her arms where trapped by her sides. Then one by one, it appeared as if the swords were thrust through the box. The only problem with this trick was that there was no mirrors, no hidden doors, and, so, the girl had been cruelly impaled.

"What a bastard!" Emmett roared, kicking another crate with all his might. The crate screamed in agony but it didn't break or bend. "He's on sick…bastard!"

"Nice vocabulary." Edward commented. Emmett just glowered at him. Edward held his hands up. "I don't disagree with you, man. I think this guy deserves the needle but you can't let cases like this get you down. Remember that, Rookies."

I flinched at being called Rookie. Yes, this was our first serial killer and our second dead body but we've been wearing these uniforms for a year and a half now. Edward Cullen and Jasper Hale were one of the best in the field and, considering my bear of a partner was married to Jasper's twin, they volunteered to be our guide through our first big case like this.

"So," Jasper said, taking a step back, "Tell us what you see." Emmett and I walked forward, nearly gagging on the putrid smell that invaded our noses, and surveyed the scene closely. Emmett only commented on the fact that the victim's wrists were bruised and the bruise under her eye suggested a fight.

Being more of the observant of the partners, I looked over the entire scene carefully. "The side of her head was hit. Her clothes suggest some money in her family." I looked around and then pointed to the way the boxes were hiding the street. "It was planned out before hand."

Edward nodded approvingly. "Good but you're still not looking deep enough." He leaned down. "She's been impaled by ten different swords and yet there is only a little amount of blood here. This actually suggest that she was killed somewhere else and dead when this was done to her. You can see," Jasper said as he bent down to get a better look at the body, "The bruises on her arms and neck, which suggest a struggle. The hands," he reached out and lifted a single finger, "Have been scrubbed clean almost religiously which means that our victim did some damage but was cleaned up at a later date."

"Jasper." Edward called. We turned to where Edward had climbed up on some oddly stacked crates that were probably not the most stable things in the world. "Come on up here." Jasper leapt up after Edward. Emmett stared at the creaking crates. I decided, being the daredevil I was, that the crates could support one more person and started to climb upwards.

Edward gave me a side glance but he returned to look at whatever he was looking at. I got to the crate right below the boys and looked to what they were staring at. There, just barely in sight, were the old fair grounds.

Edward looked over to me. "Connect the dots."

"The last body was tied to a runaway horse from Cirque D' Reject." I said, when I finally realized the connection. "This is one of the fair grounds they use when they come into town." Jasper nodded.

"Two years ago there was murder that we tried to tie to that circus but we couldn't get any real leads. A girl, fifteen years old, was found in two boxes. Sawed in half. The saw was from the magic show they did but we could find no actual suspect besides Isabella Swan but she had an airtight alibi."

Edward scowled as Jasper spoke. "I still think she did it. She's clever enough to get away with it and she's daring enough to do something like that." Edward Cullen was a very mild mannered man who rarely ever disliked someone but the way he spoke of this Isabella Swan was nothing short of absolute hatred.

I looked over to Jasper who grimaced. "She isn't the easiest of people to try to investigate." He explained. "I believe she talked circles around Edward for three hours straight." Edward huffed and glared at his lover. Jasper gave a soft smile in return that nearly melted Edward's stiff posture.

"Stop that." I growled. "You're making the single people all lonely over here." With that, I leapt down from the crates and walked over to Emmett who had his back turned to the dead body and was waiting for the recovery team to show up and pick up the body.

"Come on, big guy." I patted his shoulder. "Looks like, while the love birds enjoy the view, we get to do some real police work." I handed him his 'kit' that consisted of tons of baggies, gloves, fingerprinting kits, and containers to take blood in. I simply stuck to the camera. I had a knack for catching clues in the pictures even if we usually never found them until the case was solved.

Edward and Jasper came down right as we finished up and the recovery team had shown up and was starting the messy job of moving the body, crate and all.

"So," Edward asked, as we walked down to the car, "Can I please be the one that goes and drags that fire brat in for questioning?" Jasper gave a shrug and held the door open for his lover before going into the driver's seat. Emmett and I squeezed into the backseat.

We backed up before Jasper answered. "Last time, we brought her in with only a little evidence and she used that against us. I think we should try an informal questioning first and then bring her in. You know Billy always backs us up and we can pull her at any time."

Emmett leaned back. "I hate being out of the loop." He whined. "Wanna tell us what's up with this Isabella chick?"

The story that they both stated followed this outline. Two years ago a girl was found sawn in half and hidden under a large oak tree that seemed far too romantic and happy for a murder to committed in. When questioning the mother, they found that the place was special to the dead. She had recently dumped her girlfriend, Isabella Swan, in that same spot. That same girlfriend who had joined Cirque D' Reject two months earlier. That gave Isabella a motive to kill Leah, gave her access to the murder weapon among the circus's saws, and gave a personal connection and knowledge of the spot of that oak.

However, when questioned, Isabella had had an airtight alibi. She'd been at a rehearsal for the upcoming show and while she couldn't be accounted for at the time of the murder, she was too far from the murder scene to get to the oak tree and back in the thirty minutes when she was unaccounted for.

"So, why is she a suspect?" I questioned.

Edward grunted. "She didn't even cry when her girlfriend dies. She was aggressive, hostile, and she has an awful temper. Add that to the 'her girlfriend of two years just dumped her to go out with another girl' and she's guilty."

Emmett nodded next to me. "When are we going to meet this 'fire brat'? Why do you call her than anyways?"

Jasper smiled. "You'll see when you meet her."

"Ugg let's stop talking about that woman!" Edward growled. "Jasper and I are having dinner tonight. Would you guys like to come?"

Emmett sighed. "No. Rosalie and I are having a special night tonight." Jasper flinched in the front at the mention of a special night with his twin. "I haven't been spending enough time with her as of late. That's all gunna change soon."

I shook my head. "I can't. I've got some stuff to do at home that needs to be done before tomorrow morning." They really didn't look disappointed because that just meant they got the house to themselves for the night. Damn me and my dry-spell involving my sexual partners.

I was dropped off first. I lived in a house my parents left for me. I'd had a girlfriend that had once lived with me but she stayed for only a week before we realized that we could not live together what so ever. She was a super neat freak. I was a little messy but would clean after myself if someone asked me to but she…well, she screamed at me.

I slipped into my house to be greeted by my two cats; Grady being my black cat and Gideon being my crippled, partly blinded orange cat. I reached down to pick up Gideon who was my little cuddle monster. They followed me into my room where I stripped myself of my uniform.

I lounged on my couch, flicked on the t.v. for some background noise, and pulled out my laptop. I quickly searched the name Isabella Swan. I came up with a few speeding tickets, all the data that Edward had relaid to me but without the opinion, and some basic information on her. She was born in a small town; Forks, Washington, and was the daughter of the divorced parents of Charlie Swan and the newly married Renee Shallows.

The only information that caught my attention at all was a small paragraph that described her participation in the circus. The suspect is a fulltime employee of the known establishment Cirque D'Reject. She is a performer of unique ability and of dangerous profession. It then went into words that caused me to wish I'd paid better attention in high school. I did, however, deduct that this Isabella Swan did something with fire.

When I looked her up on trusty YouTube, I realized that she didn't do something with fire, she did everything with fire. I was honestly amazed and awestruck as I watched the performer move along the stage from a horrible attempt at a video.

She would dance around with fire roaring around her, blow the fire from her mouth, make the fire into shapes, make it change its color, and would, at times, disappear into the fire to reappear in another location all together in another fire. It was simply amazing.

I tried to find more videos of her, telling myself that I was not enjoying the daring theatrics and was doing police work, but was disappointed to find that Cirque D' Reject had a strict no cameras policy. It made sense but it disappointed me. I was even more disappointed when I found that no one was quite sure how Isabella Swan did what she did. Sure, there were people that had their theories but no one could recreate it.

Grady leapt next to me, meowing his complaints about my lack of attention to him, and I moved the laptop so he could get into my lap. "I think this is going to be a fun case." I told him softly.

Cirque D' Reject was a huge circus. I remembered it once from my childhood. I'd gone with my father and younger sister. I'd been entranced the second I'd walked into that oversized tent and watched as a man grew frustrated with his preforming bear who was, instead of sitting on the stool to take pictures with the audience, attempting to eat the stool and simply batted his paws at the man when he tried to make him stop.

We'd sat high up in the stands, the cheap seats, but I liked it up there. Sure there were times that I couldn't hear what the ring master had said and, sometimes, it was hard to make out what the clowns were doing, but it made the acrobatic performances larger than life. I was so sure that they were going to plummet to their deaths on a number of occasions but, at the last second, another performer would catch them and off they'd swing.

I liked the circus so much, in fact, that I tried to convince my parents to let me join the circus as a lion tamer. Of course, my parents had been appalled at such a thing and simply told me that no daughter of theirs would even be in a circus. Watching a circus was okay but being in a circus was like crime; making a living on charging people too much and tricking them.

I'd wanted to be in the circus until I saw one of those action movies that portrays a cop as some type of daredevil with the intense motorcycle chase scenes and jumping off large buildings onto escaping helicopters. My parents were more supportive of that career choice and here I was, fifteen years later, a rookie cop.

As I entered into that circus, those fifteen years later, I still felt that familiar awe I'd felt when I was seven. It was bigger than I remembered but it held that old age charm to it even if I could see motorcycles in the arena practicing their daredevil act of riding around, three at a time, in a large metal ball.

"Look at that!" Emmett gasped as a man, in those ridiculously high stilts, walked by. I would have been impressed if the man wasn't a clown with very creepy makeup.

"Please act professional." Jasper groaned. "We aren't here for fun."

Emmett pouted before he gave me a grin. "What do you say, Shortie? Want to come with me to this thing and actually be a part of the audience." I agreed without any hesitation.

Edward ended up shooing Emmett and I away while he and Jasper were forced to wait for the owner of the circus to return from a lunch he had been attending to. Apparently, he'd been irritated to find that one of his performers was, once again, being a suspect for murder.

Jasper simply said that Aro Volturi, the owner, could be very protective of his staff and sometimes cruel, so the last thing they needed was Emmett and I causing any problems with our big mouths; questioning people was neither of our strong points.

Emmett and I had been happy to oblige and took off to explore the circus while being professional, of course. The circus people had been a little suspicious of us at first, the badges and all, but instantly warmed up when they saw the childish fascination in our faces.

They actually went as far as to let Emmett attempt to climb up on one of the huge white horses that performed. The girl that rode the horse, Heidi, found it funny as Emmett wasn't even flexible enough to try to swing his leg up.

I laughed as Heidi helped Emmett up. Suddenly, I felt someone collide into my side and me and my attacker let out startled yelps as we fell to the ground. I leapt to my feet, hand on my gun, and whirled around, ready to defend myself.

A young blonde girl laid there, rubbing her head, and looking up at me with a horrified look. "I'm so sorry." She nearly shouted, struggling to get to her feet. "I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm just late…"

"It's okay." I assured the panicking girl. "You better go if you're going to be late." The girl gaped and glanced at her wrist as if looking for a watch. There wasn't one there.

"I'm so dead!" The girl cried, leaping to her feet. "She hates it when I'm late!" The girl was about to flee, so I grabbed her wrist to calm her down. She glanced in horror at my arm and looked desperately in the direction she'd been going. "I'm really sorry but I've got to go!"

"I'll come with you." I jumped at a chance to get in with someone at the circus. Friends were usually more willing to give out sensitive information than just the normal person. "I'll explain that I was the one that made you late."

"No, you weren't." The girl said, pulling at her arm. "I overslept."

"No, what are you talking about?" I said with a sigh. "I'm afraid that I forced you to show me around since I didn't know anything and made you late. I really should apologize to your mentor in person." The girl beamed at me, grabbed my wrist, and took off running. This girl was taller than me and much, much faster. I flung my feet in front of me in a manner that couldn't even be considered running just to keep up with her.

The girl brought me to a smaller tent, still big, but smaller than the main tent. She doubled over to catch her breath after casting a worried look around the empty tent. "Yes." She breathed. "I beat her!" She turned to me with a smile. "Sorry about that but I guess I don't need your help anyways. My name's Jane."

I shook the girl's hand. "Alice. Do you get to mad at her for being late?" I asked, gesturing to the deserted tent. Jane's eyes widened comically.

"That's not how it works. I need to get here on time. She can come whenever she wants."

"That doesn't seem fair."

Jane shrugged off her coat, displaying a revealing outfit that lacked sleeves, legs, most of the stomach, and about half of the back. "I guess it's not but she's the mentor and she can do whatever she wants. I'm the apprentice and if I've learned one thing, it's that the only way to make it in a business like this, it's please your mentor anyway you possibly can." Jane started doing some stretches. "So what's a decked out cop doing at Cirque D' Reject?"

I rolled my eyes. "We're investigating a double homicide." I watched for her reaction, expecting horror, but instead her eyes narrowed and she gave an annoyed huff.

"Why does every homicide across the nation have something to do with Cirque D' Reject? Just because we're circus people doesn't mean we're bad people." Jane shook her head, clearly frustrated, and her stretching became a little more jerky.

"Every homicide across the nation?" I grinned.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Okay, not every homicide but one of our performers was accused of murder a couple of years ago. It was before my time here but they had no right to." Jane was rigid and it was clear that the blow to the circus's reputation was something she took personally.

"My partners are just going to question a few people." I supplied. "No arresting or bringing in for interrogations or anything like that. I promise." Jane calmed down a little.

"I'm sorry about that." Jane did look apologetic. "It's just last time it really upset their 'number one' suspect. They no evidence against her and they hold her for questioning for a god awful amount of time. It's harassment. My mentor won't go for it a second time."

I blinked. "Your mentor? Who's your mentor?"

Jane opened her mouth to answer but the answer came from somewhere behind me.

"Isabella Swan."

I turned around to come face to face with the Master of Fire herself. She stood, her arms crossed across her chest, and a sneer. Her clothing was similar to what Jane was wearing but, considering Isabella was very, very well built, it looked much better on her.

Isabella walked forward, not taking her angry eyes off of me, before she turned to look at Jane. Jane just lowered her head and backed away from her unhappy mentor, finding the ground by her feet very interesting.

"I can't say I'm happy to see another cop in my practice arena." Her voice was musical, well would be musical, if it wasn't coming out as a deep growl. "Don't you people have anything better to do than harass me every time I come into town?"

I tried to talk, I really did, but her presence was making me feel like I was six inches tall. I don't know if it was her height over me, the way her voice growled, or how extremely sexy she was but I was scared witless.

"Cat got your tongue?" She sneered. "How about I try to guess why you're here. You found another piece of useless evidence of Leah's death and you've somehow came to the conclusion that it proves me guilty but it actually doesn't prove anything, so you're going to drag me into a little hot room and question me for hours on end hoping you're going to get a confessions out of me before you realize that I didn't do it and you have to let me go." By the end of her speech, she was in my face. It wasn't a threatening way, not really, but it did demand me to take a step back.

I shook my head slightly to regain my composure. "Actually, I made your student late for her meeting with you and I came to apologize." My voice was strong and I saw a flash in her eyes; she was impressed. "Though I'm afraid we are here to ask you some question." Her jaw tightened; she was angry.

She turned to face Jane. "Is that true?"

Jane nodded slightly before she froze her head near her chest. She looked up to her mentor, had an internal debate, and shook her head. "I overslept and was late. I tried running to get here before you realized I was late and ran into her. She was lying so I wouldn't get in trouble."

Isabella nodded. "After training you will write a three page essay, single spaced and twelve point font, about the uses of fire in mythology. I want it tomorrow." Jane nodded and looked relieved. Was her normal punishment worse than that?

"Is that really necessary?" I questioned. "She was late but at least she came and she told you the truth when she easily could have lied. Doesn't that count for anything?"

Isabella turned to me. "It does. That's why I'm going easy on her." I dropped the subject. Part of me really wanted to watch the practice just to see a close up of the fire I'd seen on my computer the night before but, by the way both Jane and Isabella were watching me, it was clear that I was not wanted.

"I do have questions for you." I said to Isabella. "Can we take this outside?"

"Am I under arrest?" She questioned and when I shook my head, she started to steer me towards the exit. "If you want to ask me questions then you're going to have to arrest me or at least get a warrant. I know my rights."

"It's about a homicide." I protested, feeling that I was quickly losing control of a situation that I'd never been control of in the first place. "Anything you have to say could be helpful."

"I was helpful last time and it got me as the prime suspect. Come back with a warrant, arrest me, or don't come back to talk to me again." Finally, I was out of the small practice tent. "Now, please leave. I'm in the middle of training and only Cirque D' Reject employees are allowed to attend." The flap was shut and I took that as my cue to leave.

I felt slightly output and started on my way back towards the main tent. I was met with the funny sight of Jasper and Edward lecturing Emmett about goofing off while on a case while the big man just stood there and pouted.

Edward turned towards me and frowned. "We tried to talk to Isabella Swan but Aro simply refused. He said we had to bring a warrant, arrest her, or at least have some proof that would tie her to the crime and until we had at least one of those, we weren't allowed 'to unlawfully harass his star performer'."

"Well I can do you one better." I said. "I talked to Isabella Swan but before you get your hopes up, she said the exact same thing."

Jasper blinked. "How'd you manage that? We tried to 'accidentally' run into Isabella on our way out of Aro's office but all the other performers wouldn't even glance subconsciously in the way that Isabella would be."

"I literally ran into her apprentice and went with her. I didn't even know Isabella Swan was her mentor but we met and I was caught between a knowledgeable citizen and the law, so I had to leave when she told me to."

"I didn't know Isabella had an assistant." Edward commented off handedly. He then looked around, catching some of the glares that circus folk were giving him, and sighed. "We better leave. It's clear that we're unwelcomed here."

We all loaded up in the car and drove away. I retold the events of my meeting with Isabella and was surprised to find Edward blow it way out of proportion. He even suggested that we try to have her arrested for manhandling a uniformed officer. I pointed out, much to his dismay, that while she had touched me, there had been nothing threatening, harsh, or forcing in her touch. I'd left on my own.

Then Edward actually suggested that one of them grab me in the same place hard enough to leave a bruise and then claim it was her. Jasper was the one that told him to knock it off before he started doing something illegal.

"So," Emmett chuckled, "Was it scary being in someone's presence that could have fried you alive with a snap of her fingers?"

I frowned. "I don't know. I was scared but I wasn't scared of her. I don't think her hurting me ever crossed my mind but I've never seen such raw rage in someone's eyes like that without their face twisting into that demonic look. She truly is something to behold." Edward made growling noises in his throat and brooded in the front seat.

Jasper drummed his fingers thoughtfully against the steering wheel. "Well, I guess we should take Aro's advice. Let's find something that ties Isabella in with the three murders. I'd suggest we compile all the knowledge we have on the other two girls and see what the crime lab has turned up on the new one."

With that plan of action in mind, we all headed back towards headquarters.