Chapter 1.

"When was the last time you spoke to your brother?" Melissa asked as she handed a cup of coffee to the woman in her late forties who was sitting in their couch at the office.

The woman, Mary Brown, accepted the coffee and smiled up towards Melissa. Her green eyes were bloodshot from the amount of crying she had done in the last couple of days.

"About a week ago I think." The woman said, looking down in her lap as she thought for a minute. "Yeah, Monday night."

"And when did you report him missing?" Sandra asked, sitting next to Janet in the couch in front of their client.

"Wednesday."

"How did you realize so soon that he was missing?" Sandra asked as she sipped her coffee.

"I have dinner with my brother every evening at seven. He has never missed out on a dinner without letting me know before. I tried to call him but there was no answer, but I guessed maybe he had been forced to work and wasn't able to answer. I kept calling him that evening and during Wednesday but when he didn't come for dinner that evening either I called the police."

"And what did they say?"

"They said that I needed some definite proof of that he was missing before they started looking, they are overloaded with more important cases." She whispered with disgust in her voice.

"And then on Friday…?"

"A woman found him in a park." Mary whispered, tears beginning to fall down from her eyes again.

"And he had been murdered?" Janet asked carefully, not wanting to send the woman over the edge.

"The police think so. The coroner said that he'd died from an injection of Mojave toxin…" Ms Brown said, not really knowing what that was.

"Mojave toxin?" Sandra asked confused with her eyebrows raised.

"It's from the Crotalus scutulatus, it has a presynaptic neurotoxin composed of two distinct peptide subunits. The basic subunit, which is phospholipase A2, is mildly toxic and rather common in the venoms, but the other is a far less common acidic subunit and it's really not toxic by itself but when you combine it with the phospholipase A2 it produces the potent neurotoxin called `Mojave toxin.´"

Everyone stared at Melissa as she finished her lecture. They had started to get used to Melissa's knowledge in … everything, but it still amazed them.

"So in English…?" Sandra smiled.

Melissa smiled embarrassed.

"Mojave toxin is the venom from the Mojave rattlesnake, the Crotalus scutulatus, which is said to be the most dangerous of all our American species."

"Oh…"

"Do you know anyone who would want to hurt your brother?" Janet asked, unconsciously stroking her scaphoid bone.

She had been able to remove the cast about four weeks ago and had been cleared three days ago that she was in shape to work again. It had been 12 weeks since she'd been buried alive. It had taken her many, many hours of therapy, and she had spent the nights talking to Sandra and Melissa who were still staying at her place during the nights, and Janet's nightmares had finally begun to clear up.

"Well, he is… was… a crime reporter and he has pointed accusing fingers to many people in his life. I know some of them have been quite mad."

"Is it possible that he was getting too close on some case and the one he was going to accuse killed him?" Melissa suggested, and Ms Brown shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess it's a possibility."

"Do you have any idea of what he was working on?"

"No, I wish I had. He was very personal about what he wrote, until it was published."

"So if he was killed due to something he was writing on, the person who killed him must have been an insider." Melissa said as conclusion.

"And that means we need to get inside his work office." Kelly agreed. "You have a job interview there in the morning Mel, be there at 9 am sharp. You're supposed to meet up with William Toll, he's the boss and owner of the paper. That way you'll be able to get into files and archives and speak to his old coworkers."

Melissa nodded. It had been a long time since they had done any undercover job and she was looking forward to it.

"Do I look for a job as a crime reporter?"

"Yeah. Here's your file." Kelly smiled and handed Melissa the file containing all facts she needed about the business and her fake identity that Kelly had set up.

It was always so much easier when they had Jenny Craig alongside them, she could create or erase full records within a matter of minutes. Kelly always smiled about the thought of how much more smoothly things ran with Jenny next to them.

"What about me and Janet?"

"He spent his evenings on the University, listening in on different classes in profiling and crime scene investigations. I want you Sandra to go down there and listen in, and also ask around if he has spoken to anyone there."

Sandra nodded as she got the file with information from Kelly, who then turned to Janet.

"And you my dear Angel is going to go to the same place as Mel, but you'll be there as an investigator for the insurance company. Try to see if you can get into what he was working on. That could be hard for Melissa to do without looking too suspicious. But the insurance company is always too nosy so that won't seem strange. See if you can find old articles he's written, they might be at help." Kelly grinned.

Janet smiled as she grabbed the file from Kelly.

"I'll put my nose into everyone's business, I promise." She grinned.

"Good." Kelly smiled. "And I will get a list of all employers that work for the paper and run computer checks to see if anyone seems extra interesting. Mel and Jane, when you're at the office, write down notes about people that seem strange or to keep an extra eye on, or the other way around, and maybe we can eliminate a little people. Jenny is already looking around to see if she can find out if anyone has bought or sold rattlesnake venom to Washington, and she's also looking to see if she can find anyone else who has been killed the same way."

"Perfect." They all said in union.

"Everyone knows what your doing? Good. Then I'll take you home Ms Brown and then I'm going over to Kris' place." Kelly said, looking from their client to her angels.

They all rose and the angels shared their goodbyes with their client as Kelly walked her outside and let her into her car.


About an hour later she had dropped Ms Brown off at her place, picked up Ella and Sarah and was now letting herself into Kris' house. She found Tommy in the kitchen preparing dinner, and Jacob was sitting a few feet behind him on a soft rug. He had learned how to sit by himself now, and when Kelly and the girls came inside the kitchen he smiled widely and looked at their direction.

"Hi Kelly, hi girls!" Tommy smiled as they walked inside. Ella and Sarah moved to play with Jacob and Kelly looked over the stove.

"It smells delicious." Kelly smiled.

"Herbal covered salmon and fresh potatoes in dill stew." Tommy smiled.

"Yum!"

Tommy laughed slightly as he sent a look over his shoulder when he heard his boy laughing hard. Ella had him in her lap, holding his hands, and he was jumping in her lap, laughing happily.

Kelly smiled, as always, the kids put a smile in her face.

"Kris is in the bedroom." Tommy said, taking his eyes back to the food.

"Is she asleep?"

"Don't think so, she's probably watching TV."

"How's Jess' colic going?"

"It's better, it's been on and off the last weeks, but it's better."

Kelly smiled, before she turned around to make her way to the bedroom. In the door she stopped and turned around.

"Do you need any help by the way?"

"No, Kelly, no."

"Okay. Just call if you need me."

Kelly smiled and walked away to the bedroom, and quietly peeked in. Kris was halfway sitting on the bed, watching something on TV, while Jessica was happily sleeping on her stomach towards Kris' stomach. Kris turned her face and smiled as Kelly walked inside the room and crawled down in the bed next to Kris, leaning against Tommy's pillows.

"Hi there." Kris whispered. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, started a new case today." Kelly smiled and then began giggling as she shot a look towards the TV.

"What?" Kris asked, looking at Kelly, towards the TV, and then back at Kelly.

"There's an auction on TV." Kelly smiled, still giggling.

Kris looked towards the TV, and nodded. Yes indeed, there was some uninteresting auction going on. Kris hadn't really paid attention to it, she just watched to keep herself awake.

"What about it?" Kris asked, looking back at Kelly.

"Remember Miss Annika Björnbär?"*

Kris thought about it for a second, she was tired and wasn't really in a thinking mode.

"I just love that jade." Kelly said in Kris' awful Swedish accent, and it instantly made Kris laugh. She quickly stopped when Jess made some noises and moved around on her stomach, she didn't want the girl to wake up just yet.

Kelly smiled, Kris had been awesome as that cover, even though she hadn't even been able to pronounce her own last name correctly. But no one had suspected anything anyway. Kelly herself had played many different roles and of course the guy she'd begun to like was the thief. But everything had worked out okay. Now Kelly looked at Kris, noticing that she looked very, very tired. She had been tired ever since the kids came, but not like this.

"How are you doing?" Kelly then asked, putting the back of her hand towards Kris' temple.

"Oh, just tired. Jess hasn't been sleeping much which means I haven't been sleeping much…"

"Tommy said she was doing better?"

"Yeah, well she is, but the last couple of nights she's been crying. It's okay when I have her like this on my stomach, but when she's in the crib and she rolls onto her back, she starts crying." Kris sighed, closing her eyes for a while.

"Why don't you get some sleep now? There's still some time before Tommy's finished the food.

"I don't want to sleep with her on my stomach, I'm worried I'll roll over and crush her." Kris said, looking down at the little girl, carefully smoothing the little blonde hair.

"I can take her and you can sleep." Kelly offered, guessing that Kris would probably not ever crush her daughter, not even unintentionally, but she saw why Kris was worried.

Kris looked up at Kelly and nodded, then carefully moved over the girl, not wanting her to wake up. Kelly took her from Kris and put her down on her stomach. The little girl moved slightly, let out a small sigh and kept sleeping.

"For how long do you usually have her on the tummy like this?" Kelly asked, her eyes on the girl.

When Kris didn't answer Kelly looked over at her. She had slid down onto her side, facing Kelly, with her head on the pillow, the hand under the pillow, sleeping peacefully. Kelly giggled as she pulled up the cover over Kris, then looked at the little girl again, noticing that Jess had her eyes open.

"Hey girl. How are you doing, your tummy hurts?" Kelly whispered as Jess looked up at her and smiled.

Kelly smiled when Jess did, the girl was adorable. Even though the girl was just 19 weeks, Kelly was sure she would grow up looking very much like her beautiful mother. The big, light green, and right now very sleepy eyes that Jess had inherited from her mother, looked at Kris as she let out a snore. Jess then put her head down to Kelly's stomach again, her neck wasn't that strong to be able to keep her head up for longer times yet, but that didn't mean she didn't try. Kelly smiled and strokes the little girl's hair as she leaned her head back on the pillows.


* The Jade Trap - oh, I've never laughed so hard in my life as I did during that episode. That accent... Oh my God. Please. Take this from a Swede - WE DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT! xD And just for your information .. Kris cover name in that episode - Annika Björnbär - means Annika Bramble-berry xD I just love that episode.