Annabeth

Minutes passed where the CSI agents around me stared at the body in shock. I lowered my gun and re-sheathed it.

Almost as lifeless as Loir, I walked over to him and pulled the second gun from his hand. I collected the other two and offered them to the three men now standing in front of me. The older man was the first to recover, take, and sheath his gun. The other two snapped out of their shock and followed shortly after.

I took the moments they spent gawking at me to get a better look at the three of them. The older man's white/grey/brown hair was cut in a very short style, and his hairline was receding. He wore a light brown suit and grey striped tie. His blue eyes sparkled a bit as he looked at me; an action I found a bit strange.

The youngest looking one standing in the middle had very dark, curly, brown hair. He had a loose military hair cut, but with more hair. He wore a dark brown suit, staring at me with his jaw a slack; his brown eyes showed traces of admiration.

The man closest to me was taller than all of them, and me, by at least 10 cm (4 inches). He had unruly black hair, it looked like he never brushed it-or even attempted to tame it at the rate. Like the other two, he wore a black suit. His piercing green eyes were glued to mine, even when I wasn't looking at him. Suddenly he offered his hand.

"Jackson. Percy, Jackson." He greeted trying to mock a British accent. I rolled my eyes and nodded at him, ignoring his outstretched hand.

"Annabeth."

"Nice to meet you too." he muttered under his breath, thinking I couldn't hear him when I obviously could.

"Pleasure is all yours." I commented, amused when his eyes widened slightly.

"Whoa. That was so epic!" The youngest burst out. I turn to him slowly. "And I've seen some pretty cool things! My name's Nico. Nice to meet you, and thanks for saving my life!" I nodded and gave his hand a quick shake, trying to avoid contact with him. I saw Percy frown out of the corner of my eye and had to repress the smirk that was threatening to breach my expression.

"Well young lady, I had my doubts, but now...Welcome to my team." The older man took my hand in both of his. I allowed it only because he reminded me of my father. "You may call me Chiron." I nodded to show him I understood.

"Do you ever talk?" Percy blurted.

"I talk." I told him sharply. "Not more than necessary."

"You could take a chapter out of her book Jackson." Chiron joked, the corners of his eyes wrinkled in amusement.

"Your accent is cool." Nico commented. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye but said nothing.

"Well," Joy said, walking over from the elevator. "That was quite the welcome! Good work Agent Chase. Welcome to CSI. I'll have a crew sent to clean up." She turned and was whisked away by the elevator.

Chiron led me to an empty desk and gave me some paperwork to start on. I groaned on the inside. I hated paper work, I was more of a hands on kind of girl.

"So," Percy's voice came from the desk next to mine. "Annabeth isn't really an Israel-ish name."

"That is because, it is not." I answered reluctantly, not looking up from the paper in front of me.

"Well if it's not, then why would your parents name you that?"

I growled. "You could not pronounce my real name." He probably could, but that sounded more threatening.

He changed the subject. "That guy is your brother?"

"Not, any more."

"And who was Noah? What did he start?" Nico piped up from the desk across from me.

"Noe-am." I corrected him. "My little brother. He was a suicide bomber." I checked my emotions so I didn't end up breaking down at the thought of my precious baby brother.

"Was?"

I swallowed hard. "Yes. Was." That seemed to shut them up, and I was glad for it. Talking about my family was the last thing I wanted to do right now.

A phone started ringing, it wasn't mine so I ignored it. Chiron picked it up. After a minute he wrapped it up saying, "Alright, yes, we're on our way."

"What's the case?" Percy asked, already standing with a backpack slung over his right shoulder.

"Murder of the news reporter Johnathan Garth. Jackson, DiAngelo; take the van. Chase," Chiron stopped in front of my desk. "You're riding with me. Come on, your gear is in the car."

I stood from my chair, pulling my light brown trench coat over my quarter sleeve red plaid shirt, and followed him out of the building after Percy and Nico. Chiron lead me to a silver car, from the trunk he produced a backpack similar to the one the other two had, and jumped in one side. I opened the door to the other side and climbed in.

Neither of us talked on the drive over, making it very awkward. When we pulled into the driveway, there was a large metal van already sitting there; Percy and Nico were pulling equipment from it. Chiron threw a fourth backpack at me and we walked into the house. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was the blood strewn all over the walls of the kitchen. "Yikes." Percy commented.

"No sign of forced entry." Nico observed.

"He knew his murderer." Chiron agreed. "James can tell us the cause and time of death when he-"

"Gun shot to the shoulder, it did not kill him so he was beat with a hammer until he stopped breathing. Even after just to make sure." I reported. They all looked at me; surprised.

"How did you know that?" Nico marveled.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "There is a bullet wound in his shoulder, that is not a fatal shot; the shooter was not a marksmen. Either did not want to waste another shot, did not have another shot, or they wanted him to suffer. They were smart enough to take the gun with them none the less. There are several bruises and cuts that could only come from the two sides of a hammer. Plus, there is a bloody hammer in the sink." I pointed.

"Do you have a time of death too? Because then I might as well leave." A man around 40 walked in. He had dirty blond hair cut short on the sides and longer on the top. He was wearing a black coat that covered blue medical clothing. This must be James.

Chiron laughed. "Of course not James." He nodded to me in approval. "Jackson, take pictures. DiAngelo, mark and bag evidence. Chase, interview the mother; she's the one that found the body."

I nodded and walked over to the sniffling woman standing outside the door to the kitchen, looking in horror at her son's body. I placed a hand on her shoulder and lead her to the couch in the room we were in. I put on a compassion/caring face. "Mrs. Garth, I know this is painful for you, but would you mind answering some questions?"

She nodded and blew her nose into a handkerchief. I took out a small notepad and a pen I found in my backpack. "Was Johnathan home alone?"

"Y-yes, but not for long I assure you. His brother was supposed to take him to his bowling tournament." I had to hide my distaste at bowling. "Johnny got his license restricted when he was chasing after a robbery suspect." She smiled fondly then frowned. "He was charged for endangerment instead of being praised for crashing the robber into a tree and getting the five thousand dollars stolen, returned." She chuckled dryly. "Some government we have, huh?"

I nodded, not really knowing what she meant. "Does Jonathan's brother hold any...resentment towards him?"

"Oh no, Jimmy loves his little brother. Are you implying Jimmy killed Johnathan? No, no, no, no."

I shook my head, "No that is not what I was saying. I was merely asking." I tried for a smile to comfort her. I scribbled more down on my pad. "Does Johnathan have any enemies, being a reporter?"

"None that I can think of, Johnathan never covered dangerous cases." I hummed to acknowledge her last sentence and wrote more notes down.

"Did he have a girlfriend?"

"Oh yes, sweet sweet girl." She smiled fondly.

"What is her name?"

"Penny Switcher."

"Address?"

I wrote the address down as she told me. "Wha-what are you writing?"

I looked up at her briefly. "Notes, to aid me to find your son's assassin."

"But, its just scribbles."

I glanced down at my writing. She was right, but the 'scribbles' did mean something. "It is Hebrew, I have not learned how to write in English yet ma'am."

She gave me a strange look but didn't say anything, in fact she basically ignored me; refused to answer anymore of my questions from then on. After three ignored questions, I gave up and stood; thanking her for her time and expressing my sorrow.

"What'd you find out?" Percy asked me when I walked into the kitchen. I opened my notepad and relayed him the answers of the four questions I got her to answer. "That's it?"

"No, she refused to answer my questions after I told her I was writing in Hebrew." He tilted my notepad with his index finger and looked at it.

His eyebrows went up a bit. "Looks like a lot of scribbles to me."

I sighed. Americans. "In a thought."

Percy's eyes went to the side and his eyebrows frowned; he looked back at me. "You mean, in a sense?"

I rolled my eyes. "Same opposite."

"Difference."

"Whatever."

He shook his finger at me. "You got that one right." I glared at him and turned on my heel.

"Chase, what did you get out of the mom?" Chiron asked later back in the office.

"No enemies, home alone, brother did not seem to have a violent intention. He had a girlfriend named Penny Switcher, that is all I got. She refused to answer me afterwards." Chiron stopped pacing in front of Nico's desk and looked at me.

"Why?"

"She saw me writing. When I told her it was Hebrew, she stopped talking."

"So she has grudges against Jews?" Percy asked. I glared sharply at him. "Sorry."

"Nico." Chiron turned to the bushy haired man. "Look up all family members with Jewish or Hebrew religion or backgrounds."

I glared at all of them and looked down at my paperwork, covered with said language. A hand was placed on my shoulder and before it could be pulled away, I grabbed it and twisted behind the owner's back. "So much for saying sorry." Percy grunted.

I rolled my eyes, let his wrist go, and sat back down. "Hey Chiron, looks like our reporter had just converted to Judaism less than a week before he was murdered."

"So, you think the mother killed him because she didn't approve of his religion?" Percy questioned.

"Impossible." I shot the idea down.

"And why is that Annabeth?" Chiron smiled at me.

I eyed him before responding. "She is not capable of a killing like that."

"So she hired someone?"

Chiron nodded at Percy's newest theory. "Now, the real question. Who?"

"I think I can answer that one." A female voice came from near Nico's desk.

"Rachel," Chiron waved for her to continue; then put a hand up to stop her. "Oh, before you start, meet our newest agent; Annabeth. Annabeth this is Rachel, she's head of our labs. She, along with a group of scientists, dissect our evidence for fingerprints, blood, everything like that."

I nodded to her briefly. "Doesn't say much does she?"

"We'll explain that later." Nico told her. "But for now.."

"Oh, right. Well I examined the hammer, there was a partial fingerprint on it and I was able to get a match." She pulled a picture out of a folder and handed Chiron a picture. "His name is Billy Matthews. He's been jailed with several violence charges in the past."

"Percy, bring him in. Nico, interview the brother." The two of them scrambled to do as Chiron asked while I sat there and did nothing. "Annabeth, go interview the girl."

I was about it get up, when suddenly Rachel's face popped into my field of vision. Rachel had fiery red hair and piercing green eyes, so she was hard to ignore. "May I help you?" I finally asked.

"So you do talk!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I do believe most humans talk."

"I mean, you weren't talking before."

"I believe there is a time to talk, and a time to listen."

She nodded. "So where you from?"

"Are Americans always this...intrusive?" I questioned, starting to get annoyed.

Rachel nodded enthusiastically. "Yup."

"Or Rachel is at least." Percy said as he passed on his way to the elevator.

"Percy!" Chiron called, he turn around. "Take Annabeth with you, but Annabeth, go by yourself to the girlfriend's."

I nodded, grabbed my backpack and jacket, joining Percy in the elevator. Happy to get away from Rachel's interrogation. "Where are we going?" I asked to fill the silence.

"Well Nico gave me his home address," He said, flipping threw a few of the papers in his hands. "And his work address. What do you want to start with?"

"What do I want to start with?"

"Yeah, sure." Percy lead me to the silver car Chiron had driven earlier.

"Well," I looked at my watch. "I would expect one would be at work at this time of the day, yes?"

He started the car and pulled out of the building parking lot. "Good idea."

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