Danny, Lindsay and Stella walked into the messy room in front of them. There were discarded pizza boxes, cola cans and half empty beer bottles everywhere.

But in the middle of the room was another body, with 5 knives stuck into his back.

'No signs of forced entry,' Stella said, glancing at the clean door. 'Must have known his attacker.'

'Yeah. Let's get going.' Danny said, grimacing.

And so they set to work in silence, but it didn't last long as Lindsay shattered it by saying,

'Hey... can you guys smell that?'

'Hm... yeah. Like pancakes.' Danny said shortly.

'That's because it is pancakes!' Lindsay replied, surprise in her voice. She peered into the several pans of pancakes left on the cooker.

Danny and Stella went over to were Lindsay was standing.

'Well that's weird. Do you think they were done by our victim or the killer?' Lindsay said. 'Or maybe the victim was cooking when he was attacked.'

'No, because these are ready to eat. If he was attacked in the middle of cooking then they would have burnt or still not ready. Plus the cooker's switched off.' Stella contradicted.

'Hm, well, I dunno, but it sure smells good.' Danny said, inhaling deeply.

'Danny! What if it's got some kind of toxin in it? You could be inhaling it... although it does smell good...' Lindsay agreed. 'But not as good as my pancakes.' she finished, and she and Stella went back to processing.

'Hang on a minute,' he interrupted. 'I think you'll find that MY pancakes will have the best aroma in the whole of New York City...'

'Excuse me? Are you contradicting the traditional, home-made recipe that I use? You probably use some kind of electronic pancake maker!' she retorted.

They were now standing face to face, trying to glare each other out.

'Okay, okay,' Stella said, an idea brewing in her mind. 'How about... when this case is closed, we'll have a pancake-making contest at my apartment, and the winner... will win, obviously, and the loser...'

She racked her brains for an idea. Danny and Lindsay staring at her curiously didn't really help.

'And the loser has to do a forfeit picked out of a hat!' she rushed. It was the only thing that would come to her mind.

Danny and Lindsay faced each other again, both thinking it over.

'A'right, Montana,' Danny said, smirking. 'Ready to get your ass beaten by the Supreme-Pancake Cook?'

'Who will most definitely turn out to be me.' she fired back, and they shook hands.

They went back to processing in silence, occasionally sneaking a few glares at each other, leaving Stella smiling.

Yay... Stella thought. My plans are finally working...


Yes, Stella's got some sneaky schemes in her mind... hee hee...

Just in case you didn't know, Danny and Lindsay aren't quite together yet... see what I mean by Stella's Sneaky Scheme? Oh, alliteration!

Thank you to Devil-may-care101 again for, ahem, "beta-ing"!