The scene at Buckland was vastly different from the mess that Quake had been earlier that morning. Where Quake had been a scene of disorder, Buckland was a scene of complete order. Too much order-every piece that had been on the shelves was now gone.
Andy surveyed the empty shelves with reluctant respect. "Wow," he commented to his partner, "When these guys clean out a place they're definitely thorough. The question, though, is why? Why trash the exhibit and Quake then pick this place clean? Unless it's not the same guys..."
"I don't know about that," commented Morris, "But I do know we have one thing here we didn't have at the other crime scenes." At Andy's curious look, Morris revealed a videotape. "The security camera caught it all on tape. Want to watch?"
Andy's response was a sly smile. "You have to ask? Can we make out faces on this tape?"
"You have to ask? Let's go."
The closest VCR was in the warehouse foreman's office, so within moments the investigative team was able to watch the tape on closed circuit television. Morris was fast-forwarding through several minutes of tape as he explained, "According to the foreman, the first camera didn't pick up anything useful. The second one, though, shows the faces clearly." Coming to the point on the tape where the foreman told him that the faces could be seen, Morris slowed down the tape from fast-forward scan to play.
It didn't take long for three faces to be clearly visible, but the three faces on the tape were the last ones Andy would have ever hoped to see. "My God..." Andy's voice trailed off as he was rendered speechless by the sight of Prue, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, apparently supervising the theft of Buckland's entire inventory, as Phoebe held their pet cat in her arms, stroking its fur.
Morris paused on a frame that showed all three faces clearly. He was just as surprised as his partner. So he was even more surprised when the expression on Andy's face changed from shock to emotionless resolve in a heartbeat. "Andy?"
"According to this tape, when did the robbery take place?"
"About two hours ago." Morris was growing increasingly concerned. Where Prue Halliwell was involved, Andy Trudeau's state of mind could hardly be considered all that stable.
Andy, for his part, found the information on the tape to be less enlightening and more frustrating. Three hours earlier, he had seen the sisters at Quake helping Piper recover from the first robbery, although no one else had seen him there. In a court of law, they would be able to come up with a pretty solid alibi.
So who was on that tape?
"Andy?"
The investigating team turned around to find Prue and Phoebe, two of the 'stars' of the tape, standing at the entrance to the door. Prue was the one who had been speaking. "I just heard about the robbery."
Morris wordlessly stepped aside to allow Andy to cross the room and face his ex-girlfriend. "Prue," asked Andy, "This is very important. Where were you two hours ago?"
"At Quake. I was helping Piper clean up-Andy what's going on?"
Ignoring the question for the moment, Andy gave a quick nod to his partner, who quietly replied, "I'll check it out," and excused himself from the room.
Andy kept himself from sighing with relief. While an alibi that solid would have meant that anyone else couldn't possibly have coordinated the robbery, Andy had seen far too much. Who knows maybe clones of Piper and Phoebe were running around San Francisco with the "Prue" that escaped from the morgue! "Prue, some evidence has surfaced that implicates you and your sisters in the robbery that occurred here last night." Andy studied Prue's face carefully, watching for any reaction that might be even closely related to surprise.
There wasn't one. Instead, Prue handed him a small metal tag and replied matter-of-factly, "We found this at Quake."
Andy flipped over the tag in his hand to reveal the same trefoil design they had found at the museum as well as on one of the cleaned out warehouse shelves. _So the burglary at Quake is definitely connected to the burglary at the museum,_ he thought. Stepping out of the office, Andy fingered the tag in his hand as he continued to ponder the problem. _But is this burglary definitely connected to those two?_
His answer came when the glint of another small piece of metal caught his eye. _I could have sworn the shelves had been picked clean. So what-_ Picking up the small object, he soon recognized it as a copy of the tag he held in his other hand. _So all three robberies are connected. Quake and Buckland I understand. But why the museum? Unless-_
He didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be possible. And yet the evidence was staring him right in the face as he turned around-and saw the pyramid-shaped paperweight sitting on the warehouse foreman's desk.
_Andy, I'm a witch._
Memories of another conversation came flooding back. Walking into the office, Andy put down the tags and picked up the paperweight, describing the memory out loud even as it came back to him in vivid detail. "You asked me how well I thought I knew you. I told you that I wished you trusted me enough to tell me your secret. You moved this paperweight across your desk..."
When he was finally able to look Prue in the eye, the pain in Andy's heart was obvious. "Why couldn't I remember this before now?"
When Prue refused to answer, Andy continued to let the memory play itself out. "You are witches, aren't you? All three of you?" Even though he expected Prue not to answer, it didn't matter to him-he already knew the answer was yes. With a bitter laugh, Andy pressed on. "You tried to tell me then that you were a 'good witch'. Tell me, Prue, had you already made your decision to stop being 'good' or did you wait until after...until after I couldn't remember any more? What, did you place some sort of spell over me so that you could be sure I would forget?"
Prue flinched like she had been physically struck. While the bitterness in Andy's tone showed clearly that he'd have a hard time believing she was anything but evil at this point, his words still came far too close to the truth. "Andy, we've been set up. Can't you see that?"
"All I see," replied Andy, "is a lying, manipulative witch who would do anything to keep the truth away from me. So if you refuse to tell the truth to me, maybe you'll tell it to someone else. Like a judge." Stepping back, he ordered the two nearby uniformed officers to handcuff Prue and Phoebe. "Prudence and Phoebe Halliwell, you are under arrest for breaking and entering, armed robbery and the murder of Joe Patriani. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney..."
Prue tuned out the rest of the rights speech, instead focusing on Andy's face, hoping to see some sort of sign that he would still fight for them, even when the evidence was as conclusive as Andy said it was. But the only emotion that Prue could see in Andy's eyes was pain-a pain that almost ripped her heart out of its chest with its intensity.
Somehow Prue realized that Andy was finished reading them their rights, and she nodded in agreement when he asked if she understood them. Silently, Prue turned and let herself be led away by the other officers, hoping that somehow Piper would find out who was setting them up and find some way to stop them before it was too late.
Piper tossed her keys on the table near the front door. "Prue! Phoebe! I'm home!" As she flipped through the mail, Piper thanked whatever gods watching over her for convincing Martin to close early instead of trying to continue the cleanup through the dinner rush. She knew she certainly could use the break...
"We're in the kitchen, Piper!" Phoebe called back.
"O.K.," called Piper. Dropping her 'essentials' at various places around the living room, Piper's mind was so distracted by everything on her mind that she barely noticed that the two women sitting at her kitchen table were not her sisters.
That is, until she looked up from the mail. Backing away slowly, Piper demanded, "O.K., would someone care to mention to me what is going on here?"
"It's very simple," replied one of the women, using a voice with an eerie resemblance to Prue's, "We want your powers."
Nervously, Piper started to back away from the two women. "Oh, so you want my powers? Here, you can have 'em!" Piper threw her hands up in the air, expecting to see the witches freeze long enough for her to get out of there and warn her sisters.
But they didn't freeze. Instead, they laughed. "Sorry Piper, that's not going to work on us."
"Darn," she replied, "And I've been practicing too." Hoping she could get a head start on the two seated witches, Piper turned tail and ran out of the kitchen...
...only to make very forceful contact with the fist of a third witch who was standing near the kitchen door. Shaking her hand out, Trish complained, "That girl has too hard a head."
"You're sure that knocking her out like that isn't going to have an effect on the transfer of her powers?" asked Betsey.
Trish nodded. "But we can only do it when we have the three of them together. So let's get her out of here and get ready for tonight." Without another word, the two women nodded in agreement and prepared to complete their plan.
"You did what?"
From the moment Andy realized that Prue and her sisters were witches, this was the point that he dreaded. Having to explain things to his partner. "Morris, you yourself saw them on the tape. The tags all belong to the cat, what more do we need?"
"Oh, maybe little things like evidence! Or motive! Or refuting the dozen or so witnesses at Quake who saw them there at the same time that Buckland was being robbed! Andy, do you realize how many lawsuits you just opened the department up to? Their lawyers could have a field day with this!"
Andy sighed, running a hand through his short hair. "You don't understand..."
"You're right, Andy, I don't. So why don't you explain it to me?"
Andy opened his mouth to respond, then closed it quickly when he realized that if he simply told Morris what he knew, the other man would be calling for the boys in white coats within ten minutes. _Much better to have proof at a time like this..._ Pulling out the now-infamous Prue Halliwell folder from his desk, Andy explained, "Do you remember that murder case a few weeks ago? The one where the victims were stabbed through the stomach with a sword?" Morris nodded as Andy continued, "Prue was one of those victims."
Morris felt like he had just had the wind knocked out of him. "Excuse me?"
Instead of continuing to explain, Andy simply handed Morris part of the file. "Here's the coroner's report. Read it for yourself."
Resisting the urge to call for the local paddywagon, Morris scanned the report that Andy had handed to him. Sure enough, the report stated that a Jane Doe brought in around the time of those murders was positively identified to be one Prue Halliwell. A later fingerprint test provided further confirmation. "How?"
"Beats me," Andy shrugged. "I gave the preliminary ID, then went to tell Piper and Phoebe. She was right there. Met me at the door not ten minutes after I had ID'd her body at the morgue. That's when I asked for fingerprints to be run. The body was Prue."
"So where is it now?"
"I wish I knew. After the case ended, I brought Prue in to confront her about the body, but it was gone."
Overwhelmed, Morris collapsed into a nearby chair. "And you're sure the coroner didn't make a mistake?"
"One hundred percent positive. The clothes were found in the drawer, laid out in the way that the dead Prue was wearing them. They're still in evidence lockup. Forensics traced them back to Prue about three days after the body disappeared."
"Wow," exclaimed Morris. "So either Prue Halliwell or someone who's a dead ringer for her-no pun intended-has learned the secret of coming back from the dead."
"Either that or Prue's able to be in two places at once."
Morris' eyes widened. "That's what you think happened today, isn't it?"
Andy nodded. "She's a witch, Morris. A real, very powerful witch."
"A witch?" Morris was beginning to change his viewpoint. Maybe Andy had gone off the deep end after all..."Where did that idea come from?"
"She told me, Morris, and then brainwashed me into forgetting we ever had the conversation. I only remembered it an hour ago. Morris, I've seen her move things with her mind. I heard Phoebe talk about a vision she had. And," he waved his hand across the files strewn over his desk to punctuate the point, "Too much evidence is piling up to dismiss it anymore. My one question now is, do you believe me?"
Morris sighed. Much as he hated to admit it..."Yeah, I believe you. But none of this is going to hold up in court, Trudeau, and you know it. How are you going to prove they did it?"
"They didn't."
Both men turned around to find that a third man had entered their conversation. Andy tried to sound as cordial as possible. "Leo? What can we do for you?"
Leo shifted his weight, nervously looking around as if he was looking for something to pop out of the sky any minute. "Is there some place more private where we can talk?"
The two inspectors shared a moment of unspoken communication. Finally Andy answered, "Sure. Let's use one of the interrogation rooms."
When both men started to get up from their chairs, though, Leo stopped them. "No offense meant to your partner, Andy, but I'd prefer to talk to you alone."
Andy glanced back at Morris, who simply shrugged, "Hey man, the Twilight Zone is your department! Just call me when you need me."
"Thanks." Andy smiled briefly, then turning to Leo he instructed, "Let's go."
As the door closed, sealing off the interrogation room from the rest of the station, Andy couldn't help but notice the unnatural silence in the room. Leo sat down in the chair while Andy closed the door. "They didn't do these things you're accusing them of, and you know it," Leo insisted.
"Oh really?" asked Andy. Coming around to sit in the chair across from Leo, Andy took an evidence bag containing one of the tags and pushed it across the table. "Do you know what that is?"
Leo's eyes widened as he looked at the tag. "It's a Wiccan symbol of protection..." Looking up, Leo hoped that Andy could see the desperation he was feeling. "Please, we have to get them out of here. Their lives are in danger."
Of the many responses Andy thought Leo could come up with to the question of 'what's in the bag', that wasn't one of them. Still, though, the inspector was skeptical. "What are you talking about?"
"If you're finding this at the crime scenes, it's a challenge to Prue and her sisters. Get protection, because they're going to need it."
"And how do I know that this isn't something they planted to taunt me?" Andy had to resist the urge to laugh.
Leo, for his part, fought back the urge to sigh. Apparently, he needed to take a different approach. "You know what they are, right?"
"That they're witches?" Andy tried to laugh, but it came across as a bitter snort of disgust. "Yeah, I know. All the more reason to believe they did this."
"You don't believe that there are good witches, do you?" Leo challenged.
Andy's response was firm. "No."
"Then if Prue and her sisters are as powerful as you believe them to be, what makes you think you're going to be able to keep them in jail?"
Andy started to respond, but stopped before an answer escaped his lips. Leo was right. If Prue were telekinetic, wouldn't it be entirely possible that she could use that power to pick the lock on the jail cell? Who knew what she was capable of? Jumping out of his chair, Andy ran out of the interrogation room and down the two flights of stairs to the holding cells.
