A/N: Um, whadda ya mean this is not Tuesday? Yes, I know, I'm a few days late. Turns out Tuesday not the optimal day for me to schedule posting chapters. So, better late than never, I give you chapter 3; it's the shortest (by like twenty words).


Penny sat at her little desk, staring at the note she'd added to her case board on her computer. At the same time, she listened to a playback of the second conversation she and Leonard had. He was explaining the theory, and why it was improbable it would ever work. His confidence in this recording stood in stark contrast to the first recording, in which he sounded every bit as nervous and insecure as he had looked.

She couldn't deny having enjoyed Leonard's teaching mode, as she had dubbed it. Most of it went way over her head, but seeing and hearing him so sure, his voice that much stronger, the lack of any kind of stammer, it all had been interesting to witness. It had also stirred up some feelings inside that she'd denied herself for over a year.

Penny paused the playback when her phone rang. "Hey, Kelvin."

"Our dead military man is Corporal Jerrod Mercer, twenty-seven years of age and reported AWOL as of Thursday."

"The day the laser was delivered," Penny said with a nod, adding the info to the dead man's photo and medical examiner's report. "Military Police was looking for him, I assume?"

"Yes, but interestingly, someone up the command chain had sent a memo, informing them the Corporal had fallen ill."

Penny frowned. "But Military Police was still looking into it?"

"Yeah, because the memo was not signed and there was no information on who'd sent the note. They looked into that, as well, and found that memo had been moving around since Wednesday, going up, down and sideways the command chain. Someone's gone through a lot of effort to hide their part, and so far, successfully it seems."

"Huh, weird," Penny said, typing it into a new note, adding the word 'partner' - with a question mark behind it - to the top.

"Did Dr. Hofstadter have anything worthwhile?"

"He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when the laser was being delivered. And the laser wasn't exactly top-secret high tech, but a rather average laser."

"Uh huh." Kelvin's reply was a clear indication he knew there was more to tell.

"Question, a well-respected experimental physicist, specialized in lasers, and someone you have specifically sought out, tells you not once, but twice, that the research you want him to do is unlikely to result in anything usable, would you then still insist on having the research done anyway?"

"That does seem odd. It's like they wanted the laser controller to be at Caltech."

"Or at the very least, off of the base," Penny added with a nod. "They needed a legitimate reason to get it out, and used Leonard to do so. Then they sent a guy to break in, take the laser controller and bring it back to them, and they could then sell the controller."

"But another party knew about it and also went in to steal it, surprised our Corporal, stabbed him, and took the controller."

Penny nodded. "Yeah. So, who else knew about it? Did the seller already have a party, even contacted them on when they could deliver? I feel we should start with finding out who was selling it, work from there."

"Are we sure the Corporal wasn't in it for himself?"

"As sure as we can be. A Corporal wouldn't have the authorization to decide on research to be done or who the contract would go to. And there's the memo. You'd need to be in the officer grades to accomplish anything like that. So, I'm ninety-nine point nine percent sure the Corporal was just a tool an officer used to get his, or her, hands on the controller module."

"Oh, we just obtained a warrant to search Mr. Mercer's residence. Want to come and have a look?"


# # #


Penny smiled at Kelvin as he walked up to the apartment building, a look of disappointment on his face.

"I see you still have trouble reading the speed limit signs."

Her smile turned into a grin. "Sometimes I just need to rest my observational skills, or I wouldn't be able to do my job."

He scoffed. "Right. I suppose I should be glad you waited for us, instead of picking the lock and go in by yourself."

Penny shrugged. "I didn't hear anything that warranted me to enter the building or the apartment in a hurry," she replied, a reference to her oft used excuse - hearing someone in distress or a crying baby - for entering a location without waiting for the police to arrive. She was well aware Kelvin knew it was just an excuse, her true reasons being to be able to catch the criminal before they'd be able get away or dispose of any evidence.

"Yes, and the Corporal apparently didn't forget to close the door."

Her second excuse for why she'd been inside a house or building, before the police arrived. She simply shrugged and put on a pair of latex gloves. Two minutes later the building's super had unlocked Mercer's apartment and Penny strode in after Kelvin. "All that practice and he still botched picking the Caltech lock," she said, pointing to an array of various locks placed neatly in the corner.

Penny did a quick survey from the center of the room. No books but a lot of DVDs, neatly arranged. A very large flat screen on the wall, brand new by the looks of it, as was the range of gaming consoles and the media center. "Looks like he'd already spent his earnings," she commented out loud. "Those are top of the line and installed very recently."

A small desk in the corner, the surface devoid of any notes or papers, was the first thing Penny wanted to look at more closely. The single drawer contained a modest stack of papers, but a quick scan of those yielded nothing of importance. Penny crouched down and looked at the front of the desk's top. It was pretty thick - at least two and a half inches, she estimated - which is exactly what had drawn her attention to the desk in the first place.

It took her a few seconds to discern the thin lines framing a separate section of the desk. With her hand she felt the bottom and within ten seconds a satisfying click pushed the section outward, just enough to grab it and pull it out. "Jackpot," she said, drawing Kelvin's attention. "Looks like someone had some leverage over the poor Corporal," she added just as Kelvin approached, handing him the incriminating piece of paper.

Kelvin skimmed it, then nodded. "Threatened to seriously injure his siblings and mother if he wouldn't steal the laser control module for them."

Penny nodded. "Here's a second letter, which says the laser would likely be at Caltech by the end of last week, and he received the first half of his payment." She passed it to Kelvin. "And this one has instructions on when and where to deliver the module." She hummed and held up the sheet in front of the window, showing her the indentations from a note that had apparently been written on a post-it on top of the letter. "You might want to look for someone named R. Spears. Whoever was threatening the Corporal had an appointment with this person on Wednesday at nine thirty." She frowned at the address. "Isn't there some sort of military research facility on East Foothill Boulevard?"


# # #


Penny entered the precinct and walked over to Kelvin's desk. Seeing that he was on the phone, she gave him a small wave, forgoing her usual chirpy vocal greeting, which she was well aware he hated. Penny wasn't exactly a morning person, but Kelvin genuinely seemed to hate early mornings. Not that you could call eight forty-five early, but it would take another cup of coffee and about thirty minutes before he'd be pleasant enough. Penny sat down in the chair next to his desk, just as he ended his phone call.

"Ralph Spears," Kelvin started without so much as a hello, "is a software engineer."

"Good morning, Penny, how are you today? Good morning to you too, Kelvin. I'm fine, how about you?" Penny looked at him pointedly, very much enjoying this little game.

"'Morning," Kelvin said after a few seconds. "He works at..."

"...the defense research facility on East Foothill Boulevard," Penny completed, getting a sheet of paper out. "Twenty-four years of age, completed his studies two years ago, lives in LA." She handed the sheet over to Kelvin. "That information wasn't hard to come by, it's all public. It's too bad his Facebook profile can only be viewed by people who are on his friends list."

"Right," Kelvin said, checking her bullet points against his own. "Well, I'm gonna get another coffee and then I think we should have a little talk with Mr. Spears."

It was nearly an hour later when they arrived at the research facility. During sign in, Penny 'accidentally' dropped the clipboard; she'd noticed there weren't many visitors the previous day, and she wanted to take a peek at the preceding week, which would require her to flip back. She bent down to retrieve the fallen clipboard, took a good look at the two pages before the current one and placed it back on the counter to write her name below Kelvin's.

They were directed to a conference room, where Mr. Spears would join them soon. Penny used the time to store the names she'd read on the sign in sheet, on to her phone and started a search on the name that occurred several times in the past two and a half weeks she'd been able to see. After two minutes Ralph walked in and shook hands. He was only an inch or two taller than her and thus unlikely to be the killer. He did appear to see the inside of a gym on a regular basis, and clearly thought he'd be off to a good start by looking down her top, or at least try to.

The interview yielded little information; it was clear the line of questioning was making Ralph very nervous, though he tried to hide it as best as he could. His nervousness reached its peak when Kelvin asked about the Caltech laser and if he had had any part in it. He admitted to have written the controller software, but other than that, he was not involved in the project. He was evading several followup questions, something she was sure Kelvin noticed as well. After about ten minutes, Kelvin ended the interview and Penny and he left.

"Besides being very nervous and evading my questions, I seriously doubt he's the killer."

"I agree. He's too short and right handed. I think we should pay a visit to Phil Bonner, though."

Kelvin raised an eyebrow, but kept his eyes on the road. "Who's he, and how would that help?"

"Phil is Ralph's cousin. Based on the photo he's six-four and he has lots of muscles."

"How the hell do you know his height? How did you even find out about him? Mr. Spears' Facebook profile is hidden, right?"

"It was a police mugshot, with handy height indicator lines," Penny replied. "Arrested several times, the last few times for breaking-and-entering, but there have been a few times when he was arrested for assault, including one stabbing, but the victim survived. As to how I found out about him, his name was on the sign-in sheet, three times in the last two and a half weeks. I've noted the other names on my phone and will do a search on them later. And Ralph may have secured his profile, Phil hasn't and has several pictures of him with his, and I quote, nerdy but cool cuz, end quote."

"I guess the clipboard didn't accidentally fall," Kelvin said. "One of these days you have to teach me how to speed-read. I'll contact the precinct and ask for his address."

"Kelvin, Kelvin," she said, shaking her head. "Do you think you're working with an amateur here?"


To Be Continued

A/N2: I did not just point randomly at a map and came up with the address at Mercer's place. 3452 East Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena, is in fact one of the US Defense Investigation Services locations in Pasadena (there's another one at 202 South Lake Avenue, if you must know); yes, I do research things sometimes.