Chapter 2: Led Away By Imperfect Impostors

"Well doctor Beckett, what do you have for me?"

The addressed doctor didn't look up from her work, but then, there was no need to. She had already recognized the voice as detective Payton's. Instead, she snorted at his needlessly professional mode of address.

"Matthias, please just call me by my first name."

She heard him sigh, and chuckled to herself. He complied, though. "Alright, fine. Olympia, what do you have for me?"

"Well," she started, turning around to look at him while they were talking. "Not much, to be honest. As I suspected at the crime scene, it wasn't a recent event. The corpse has been buried for a while, long enough that any traces of ectoplasm that might have been left behind would have evaporated ages ago.

"It's almost impossible to determine a cause of death, but we haven't been able to find any injuries beyond the obvious. It's likely that he was killed by the same thing that burned him so badly, but we're not sure what, exactly, that was." She stared him down, having finished her speech.

Payton nodded, a grim expression on his face. "Any luck IDing the body?"

She hummed. "Between the decay and the burns, the easy ways of identifying him are out. We've been able to figure out that our victim is male, and that he was a teenager when he died, but there isn't even enough of his hair left to tell what color it was when he was alive."

A quick look at Payton showed that he was still following the conversation, and she continued. "Now, normally we would go for dental records with a case like this one. Unfortunately, we have no clue who the body could have belonged to, so we have no one to compare the teeth to."

"So that leaves what, DNA?"

She nodded, a distasteful expression on her face. "Yep. And that, unfortunately, takes a while to get results from."

"Great," Payton sighed. "Be sure to let me know when the results are in."

"Of course Matthias. Now go on, I'm sure you have more people to talk to." She offered him a kind smile. In turn, he rolled his eyes but smiled back, before leaving the way he had come.

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The sound of heels clicking drew the attention of the entire team. The determined expression on doctor Beckett's face ensured that said attention remained on her.

"I got the results of the DNA test for our body." Her voice was hard and cutting, like steel.

Payton quirked an eyebrow at her. "You don't sound pleased with them. No match?"

"No, I got a match alright," she practically hissed, and wow, Payton doesn't think he has ever heard her this upset. Actually, he doesn't think any of his officers have ever heard her upset at all. They must think that she's pissed.

He saw Mike glance at Rosie, who shrugged in return, which apparently was all the encouragement Mike needed.

"So then what's the problem?" The tone of his voice was casual, but Payton knew that it was faked.

"The problem is that it doesn't make any god damn sense!" She accompanied the snarl with a glare towards Mike, who shrunk away from the furious doctor. Kid could face a hostile ghost, no problem, but apparently Beckett was too much for him. Payton decided to take mercy on him.

He cleared his throat, then spoke with his voice as calm as he could manage. "Have you tried double-checking them?"

Beckett's stare could probably melt steel, but Payton has seen worse. Mike's thankful expression helped, too.

"No, Matthias," she snapped at him, "I'm obviously a complete idiot and hadn't thought of that. Of course I double-checked! Even the dental records are a perfect match!"

"So then what's the problem, doctor Beckett?" Rosie attempted to soothe the situation, but was rewarded with another glare.

"The problem is that the match is still alive."

The entire team froze. Then they all simultaneously unfroze, exclaiming various expressions of surprise.

Beckett rolled her eyes, but had finally calmed down. "So yes, that is the problem."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Mike groaned, frustration lacing his voice.

Seeing the chaos, Payton decided to put the discussion back on track. "Olympia, who is the kid?"

"The corpse is a perfect match for Daniel Fenton." Seeing the shock on the faces of the team, she smiled. "Yes, he's that Daniel Fenton. Son of ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton."

Payton hummed, thoughtfully. "And we know that their son is still alive, since he's obviously in the city, still lives with them, and still attends school."

"So then how did we find a corpse that is a perfect match with him?" Rosie is the one who asked, but Mike's expression made it clear that he had been moments away from asking as well.

Beckett snorted. "That's the real question, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Payton huffed. "Should've known we wouldn't get a normal case in this city."

Mike grinned at him, impishly. "Please boss, that would've been too easy."

Payton rolled his eyes in fond exasperation before attempting to steer the conversation back on track. Again. "So now that we've established that somehow we have the dead body of a teenager who is still living in this city, does anybody here have any theories?"

"Well," Mike drew the word out, waiting until everyone focused on him before continuing. "Do we know if he's still living in the city?"

Beckett frowned at him. "Explain?"

"Well, he's obviously still in the city, but we don't have any proof that he's, well, alive, do we? We deal with plenty of ghosts in this city, who says we can't have one living among us?"

The others blinked at him a few times, a variety of emotions flitting across their faces as they processed the statement.

"That's..." Rosie trailed off, but Beckett picked up.

"It wouldn't be the strangest thing we've come across in Amity Park."

Payton hummed an affirmative, before nodding. "Alright, so why don't we check if it's possible. Rosie, check his school attendance records. See if he went missing for any suspicious amounts of time." Hearing an affirmative from her, he turned to his other officer. "Mike, you check his medical records. I'm not sure how well a ghost can mimic human anatomy, but I bet that a doctor would take notice."

"Yes sir, right away!"

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Payton clapped his hands to draw the attention of his team, and looked at them as they gathered around him.

"So team, what did we find?"

Rosie stood up and cleared her throat. "The victim's school records are… not great. His attendance during pretty much all of high school has been poor, he's often late, skips lessons, and sometimes even leaves in the middle of class. The only extended period of time where he didn't attend was about two and a half years ago, just after the start of his high school career. He was sick for about a week before returning."

"Anything else noteworthy?"

She shrugged, and moved to sit down again. "No, unless you count his poor grades. Kinda weird, considering his genius family, but he might just be slacking off."

Payton nodded, then turned to Mike. "And you, officer Milligan?"

"Uh yeah." He licked his lips as he stood up. "He hasn't been to any kind of medical check-ups in roughly two years. No trips to the hospital, no visits to the dentist, nothing."

"Which supports our theory that if the boy is a ghost, he can't mimic being alive convincingly enough to trick doctors. And, it coincides with the only time he didn't attend school for a prolonged period of time." Payton turned to face Beckett. "Doctor, is it possible that the body has been buried for that long?"

She hummed, appearing deep in thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that's definitely possible. Can't confirm it based on the state of the body, though."

"Wow Mike, looks like your theory might be right after all," Rosie ribbed, winking at him. Mike, in turn, was clearly struggling to stop himself from sticking out his tongue in childish retaliation.

Sometimes Payton wondered why he still worked in this city.

"Alright gentlemen, that's enough." He glared down both of his officers, who offered him sheepish expressions in apology.

Seeing that he had drawn the attention back to himself, he decided to summarize the case. "So, we have the body of Daniel Fenton, who probably died 2 years ago. No one noticed, however, because a ghost has taken his place and has been living as Daniel since then. We'll have to schedule an interview with him to see if we can find conclusive evidence in either direction. But even if the current Daniel Fenton is, in fact, a ghost, he might be Daniel as well."

Beckett frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"I think," Mike hesitated, but continued when he saw Payton nod, "that he means that Daniel might be his own ghost."

Rosie made a face. "If that's the case, why didn't he tell anyone? I don't know about you guys, but if I was killed, I would make sure the murderer gets caught."

"Yeah, I agree with officer Carver. If he was stubborn enough to not only come back as a ghost, but to move back in with his parents as well, I can't imagine that he would shy away from informing the police."

"Unless he doesn't remember." Mike shrugged upon seeing the incredulous expressions on the faces of Rosie and Beckett. "We don't really know anything about ghosts. Daniel might remember things from when he was alive, so he can blend in like nothing happened, but maybe the memories of his death are lost."

Beckett hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose that that makes sense. The murderer might have caught him off-guard and killed him before Daniel ever noticed." She frowned. "But he would still be aware of the fact that he died. He shies away from doctors, so he must be aware."

"Unless the ghost isn't Daniel's after all." Payton smirked at the raised eyebrows of his team. "I said that the ghost might be Daniel's, not that he is. We should consider the possibility that this is some other ghost playing pretend."

"But why would a ghost pretend to be some random teenager?"

Mike snorted at his colleague. "Why do ghosts do anything? And it's not like they never pretend to be alive, either. There have been a number of ghosts in this city that could pull it off so well that no one knew until they blew their own cover in a fight with Phantom. I'm sure we all remember the whole Ember craze? Or even that counselor at Casper High, whatever her name was?"

Rosie frowned back at him. "So you're saying what, exactly? That a ghost attacked and killed an innocent teenager and then replaced him? And of all the possible victims, said ghost targeted the son of the cities best-known ghost hunters?"

"His parents..." Beckett whispered, but despite her soft voice all conversation dropped. As everyone turned to look at her, they saw her increasingly horrified expression. "His parents are ghost hunters. If Daniel was replaced by a ghost, either his own or another, surely they would have known."

She looked up, meeting everyone's eyes. "Unless they were responsible."

An uneasy silence fell over them, as they all considered her words. Payton ended up being the one to break it. "You're suggesting that the parents killed the boy, and that they're forcing him to stay quiet about it?"

"Just think about it. If it happened two and a half years ago, it would have been before our first recorded spectral visitors. Everyone thought that they were nuts back then, as they had no conclusive proof that ghosts existed." Beckett shrugged, uneasy. "If they found a way to guarantee that Daniel would become a ghost, they might have done it just so they had proof."

Rosie shifted, a disturbed expression on her face. "And what, now that ghosts are known to exist they've decided to keep quiet about it?"

"Look, I agree that the Fentons are a questionable bunch. And while they love ghosts, they love their kids more, I'm sure of it."

Payton sighed. "Unfortunately, Mike, sometimes people can put on very convincing acts." He stood up, folding his hands together and putting on a determined expression. "But we were going to interview Daniel Fenton anyway, so we may as well involve the entire family.

"Even if the parents aren't responsible, surely either them or their daughter would have noticed that Daniel died."

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The arrival of the Fenton family happened in typical Fenton fashion. It involved the god-awful screeching of tires and what sounded like metal being introduced to the walls of their building at worrying speeds.

Jack Fenton must have been driving the RV today.

The good thing about this was that the team handling the investigation was ready to receive the Fentons the moment they entered the building. The children were left in a waiting room, while Payton led the adult Fentons to an interrogation room. Rosie and Mike were already waiting behind the glass to watch.

While, admittedly, suspects normally wouldn't be interrogated together, Jack's tendency to ramble on about ghosts was legendary. Payton hoped that Maddie would help curb said rambling.

And so Payton found himself standing in front of the two possible murderers, dressed as always in their orange and teal jumpsuits. How was it that he could handle malevolent ghosts and possible killers with no sweat, but the two ghost hunters made him so worried?

Oh yeah. It was because they were nuts.

He shoved the thoughts away to focus on the case. The hunters looked at him with curiosity clear on their faces. Neither of them seemed concerned by the fact that they had been called in, no signs of concern or guilt.

He smiled at them, politely, and offered his hand for them to shake. "Jack and Maddie Fenton, I'm detective Payton. Lead investigator for the case involving the dead body found in the woods, which I'm sure you've heard of."

Maddie shook his hand and nodded. "We've heard that a body was found, but I'm afraid that that's the extend of our knowledge." She released his hand, but Jack was quick to grab it in her stead. The ensuing handshake was overly enthusiastic, and Payton forced himself not to grimace as Jack finally released his hand.

"Yes, we tried to keep details about the case hidden from the public. For that same reason, we must ask you to keep anything you learn during this meeting to yourself."

Jack grinned, wide and boisterous. "Of course, detective! We won't tell anyone!"

Maddie, however, frowned at Payton. "So why were we asked to come in?"

Payton licked his lips, weighing his words for a moment. "We believe that the case might involve a ghost." It wasn't a lie, per se, but the Fentons would likely assume that he meant that they suspected the killer to be the ghost in question. It wasn't a detail they would normally give out, but the Fentons would probably blame a ghost for the murder anyway, with or without proof.

Maddie's eyes narrowed, her expression twisting into something foul. "Yes, of course. We should have known that a ghost was responsible for such a vile act. What do you want to know?"

"We've already established that it has been too long after the fact to determine the involvement of ghosts based on traces of ectoplasm. Can we find proof in a different way? A certain characteristic in ectoplasm-based burns, or something along those lines?"

Surprisingly, it was Jack who answered. "No, unless the death was directly caused by supernatural means. A ghost can kill by using their intrinsic abilities, but they don't have to. The only guaranteed way is by checking for traces of ectoplasm."

"Are there certain conditions that would have prevented the ectoplasm from dispelling? By burying the body, for example, or by burning it to a certain degree?"

"No." Maddie shook her head. "The ectoplasm that ghosts naturally expel, both in its gaseous form and in its energized form, dispels too easily to conserve."

"Yeah, the only ectoplasm we can keep to work with is liquid ectoplasm! It's what we use to power out inventions, you know?"

"So there is no way to prove, or disprove, the involvement of a ghost?" Payton frowned. He hadn't thought that there was a way to prove ghostly involvement, but it would've been good to have proof.

Maddie sighed. "I'm afraid not. Even high amounts of ectoplasm would have evaporated by now, and if the death was caused with ghostly abilities, you would have been able to tell without involving ghost experts."

Payton nodded, offering them another polite smile. "Well, thank you for your time regardless. We're still going to interview your children, but you two are free to leave."

"Our kids?" Jack frowned at him, puffing up with a rather protective air. "Why do you need to talk to our kids?"

Payton hesitated for a moment, trying to determine the best course of action. He decided to try and play on said protective nature to distract them.

"The victim was a teenager, likely around the same age as your children would have been at the time. They might have noticed someone disappearing, even if they hadn't thought anything about it at the time."

Maddie gasped as Jack melted back into a more relaxed position. "Oh, poor kid! Their parents must be so torn up about it."

Jack nodded along, before booming his own answer. "Yes, if you find out which ghost is responsible, be sure to tell us! We'll tear the ectoplasmic scum to pieces!"

"Yes, we'll let you know if we need your services. For now, please keep the details quiet." As they moved to leave the room, he called to them again. "Oh, and please ask your daughter to come in next."

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When Jasmine entered the room, Payton shook her hand and smiled. "I'm detective Payton, and you're Jasmine Fenton, yes?"

She nodded and fixed him with an investigative stare that reminded him of her mother. "That's me alright. Why did you want to speak to me?"

"There are… concerns about your family, especially your brother." She stiffened slightly at the mention of Daniel, but melted back into a relaxed position almost immediately. Curious.

"What about Danny?" Her tone was sharp, accusing. She knew something, but wasn't going to give it up easy. Payton had to play this carefully.

"His track record with school is worrying. Between his low grades and frequent truancy, people are afraid that something is up with him."

The gaze she set on him was calculating, and Payton realized that this girl was taking in and memorizing every single thing he said (and even what he didn't say). He would have to watch his words, or he might accidentally let details about the case slip.

The expression on her face shifted into something less accusing, and she shrugged. "Yes, I agree that it is concerning. But I don't think that it's problematic enough to involve the police."

Payton resisted the urge to scowl at her, and raised an eyebrow instead. "You aren't worried about the fact that your brother has changed these last few years?"

"Nah," she scoffed. "He's a teenager, I would be worried if he hadn't changed."

Payton considered asking her more, but he could still see her analytical gaze beneath the carefree mask she put on, and decided to cut off the interview. She was too sharp, and he decided not to risk her figuring out details they were trying to keep hidden.

Instead he waved his hand towards the door. "Thank you for your time, Jasmine. You're free to leave."

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Daniel entered the room with a hesitant expression on his face, and Payton caught a glimpse of doctor Beckett as she guided him in. She must have been on her way to watch the interview from behind the glass.

Payton put on his most encouraging smile and offered his hand. The boy accepted it, his own hand slightly cool to the touch, but not inhumanly so. Nothing about it suggested that this kid was a ghost.

But Payton wasn't convinced so easily.

"Daniel Fenton, I'm detective Matthias Payton. Please, have a seat."

The boy nodded and slumped into the seat before quirking an eyebrow towards Payton. "So uh, what's up?"

Payton frowned inwardly at the typical teenage behavior. He knew he should've expected it, because if Daniel was, in fact, a ghost, the specter would have been skilled enough to fool the entire town into thinking it was a regular teenager. But still, it didn't make his job of finding out the truth any easier.

Instead he sat down in his own chair. "You've heard of the body found in the woods, yes?"

Daniel nodded. "Uh, yeah. There are a bunch of rumors and stuff about it at school, but I'm not sure which of those are true and which aren't."

"The only thing the public currently knows is that we found the body. Everything else is speculation or guesswork." Payton quirked an eyebrow at the boy. "So anything you learn from this conversation has to be kept quiet, okay?"

He nodded again, more vigorously. "Of course, I completely understand."

"Good, good." Payton kept his eye on the boy, to get the best possible read on his reaction to the news. "The body we found belonged to a teenager. Would've been about your age at the time of death."

He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he had expected from the kid. Definitely recognition, though.

But that wasn't what he got.

No, instead the boy clenched his fists, a scowl on his face. His eyes light up with intense fury, and Payton could have sworn that the irises turned a vivid green, but after the boy blinked his eyes were their regular icy blue. For all intents and purposes, the kid looked like he was ready to go out and deal with the person responsible for the crime himself, if only he knew who it was.

It wasn't even remotely similar to Payton's expectations, and thus it caught him completely off-guard. He wavered for a moment, hesitating. But if the boy didn't know anything about the body in the woods, then there was nothing Payton could learn from him. Not now, at least.

He cleared his throat, and the boy snapped back to attention, forcibly relaxing. "You're free to leave, Daniel."

The kid blinked at him, as if dazed. His reply was similar. "Huh?"

"We're done with the interview, you're free to leave." Seeing the boy hesitate, he flapped his hands towards the door. "Go on, shoo. I'm sure you have something better to do than hang out at a police station."

"Uh, yeah." Daniel nodded and finally stood up, moving towards the door. "Um, good luck with the case. I hope you figure out who did it."

And with that, he left.

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"Well! That was rather useless."

Payton quirked an eyebrow at Rosie in answer to her declaration. "You don't know that."

"Yeah I do," she huffed. "The parents obviously didn't do it, and they don't seem to be aware of the fact that Daniel might be a ghost either. The oldest child, the daughter, was admittedly a little sketchy, but she's protective of Daniel. Maybe she knows that he died, but she definitely won't tell us." She shrugged at the rest of the team. "And Daniel, or the ghost replacing Daniel, didn't know anything either. So yeah, all of this was rather useless."

"That's where you're wrong." Rosie whirled around to look at Beckett, who rolled her eyes at the other woman and sighed.

"You've already established that the parents aren't responsible for Daniel's death, and neither is his sister. Based on what I saw during Daniel's interview, and what you've stated as well, the boy doesn't know anything about the situation. Which means that the ghost isn't the killer either."

"So that leaves us with two possibilities for the identity of the ghost. One," Payton held up a finger, "is that this is the ghost of Daniel Fenton, but he forgot about his death when he became a ghost. Or two," he raised another finger, "this is some random ghost who decided to pretend that it was Daniel, and it never stopped."

Mike hummed, thoughtfully. "I think his reaction was very interesting. Strange, too. He seemed genuinely angry about either the situation, or the fact that a teenager died. But there was no recognition of any kind, like he didn't even consider the possibility that it was his body that was found. I don't know what to make of that, though."

"Yes, if this is Daniel's own ghost, he doesn't know anything about the circumstances of his death." Beckett frowned. "I would suggest the possibility that he might not even be aware of the fact that he died at all, but between the avoiding of doctors and what we know of ghosts, I find that unlikely."

"So now what? We invite him back and demand to know if he's a ghost or not? Figure out some way to determine if he's Daniel Fenton?" Rosie scoffed.

"Actually," Payton drew out the word, "we probably should talk with him again. But first we'll need to find some way to identify him without him figuring out what we're trying to do. If this is, in fact, some random ghost, we can't afford to have it find out. If it knows what we're trying to do, it will do its best to stop us from identifying it."

AN: A relatively big chapter, since I ended up merging chapters 2 and 3 for this one. Original title for the second part was "Like Our Time Is Running Out", from The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy. Actual title is from This Is Gospel by Panic! At The Disco.

And yes the interviews are probably a little too short. I couldn't really think of much for Payton to ask and I didn't want to drag it out too far.
Also based on the helpful comments over on AO3, I've realized that Payton's title was incorrect. It has thus been changed from agent to detective.

Next week: Chapter 3 - How Does It Feel To Be A Ghost?