Right, this chapter is going to be a little fluffy :/ please comment!

Kennie013

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[First steps] Peter's point of view (past tense)

We both walked slowly back to the office in silence. I hadn't told Megan yet, but Katherine had texted me asking for Megan's number cause she couldn't find her. As he could remember, Kat hated it when people were late! Woops, oh well. It wasn't till just before we got to the office when Megan finally spoke, "do you have any idea what's going on here peter?"

"Nope but once the local PD find something we will do, come on Kat'll be waiting for us." I rushed her into the building and she led me through the halls to the office.

"Where have you, Peter? What are you doing here?"

"Got bored, me and Megan just went for a coffee as you weren't back yet"

"You were meant to be resting, driving all the way here and going out for coffee isn't resting!" just as Katherine said that I turned to Megan who nodded to Katherine's comment, damn I'm outnumbered! Suddenly a rumble came down the hall towards the office; we all looked at the door waiting for something to happen. Almost a second later a young dark haired policeman ran into the office without even knocking, in his hand was a file filled with information on the case and hopefully a lead!

"Good morning!" the young detective addressed to us, he then quickly handed the file to Katherine, and he was out of breath from running all the way through the office at top speed to get this file to us. Kat opened her mouth to speak but before notes come out of her lips the detective rushed into explaining what he had brought, "in that file" he pointed to it as if there were thousands of files around him and he wanted to make sure we knew exactly which one he meant, he then turned to me and carried on, "in that file are all of the connecting notes between the first three victims and the last; miss and Mrs. Heldershot. I think this last murder was the push we all needed to get e breakthrough. In May last year the Heldershot daughter and the first victim, Kate burners competed in the Paris international beauty princess pageant. Kate was the first 'princess' to be thrown out of the competition, remember that!" he said to Megan, he then turned to a page in the file which showed a picture of the second daughter standing next to Angelina, the picture was a close up of one taken of all the girls entered in the London Ladies Show 2008, "look Angelina next to Kristen Mann, in this photo taken in 1980 there is Marie Heldershot standing next to Gillian Maison, they both won the St. Petersburg beauty contest, looks like it must run in the family as both their daughters both one the same competition earlier this year! Few, so now we have the connections, who do you think we should be looking for, doc?" the detective finally turned his attention to Katherine who began to think about his question. "Ask family and managers, it would have had to be someone strong with a good aim if that helps. Peter you can go with him and take my report, Megan you can come with me and look at the latest victims, that sound good?" both me and Megan nodded to her question, I walked out of the office with the detective feeling really out of place, when I was about 5 yards away from the office I felt a hand on my back and I spun to see who it was. Right behind me Megan was standing looking like she needed to talk, "hello again" I joked with a big smile, "hello, um, where are we going to meet to-night?"

"Kat's got us rooms so why not I call you when I'm done and we head there and book in, dump our stuff and find somewhere to eat if you're hungry" she smiled back at me showing that she was satisfied with my answer. She than span around, hitting me in the face with the edge of her long hair in the process, and walked the 5 yard back to the office that she had come from. Me and the detective- who's name I later learned was Brick Patterson- took the police car across town to the models and beauty studios to meet with the numerous agents of the younger victims.

"Do you know anyone who would have had a grudge against her or her mother" was a common question, the answers where equally repetitive, "I can't think of anyone that would kill them but you must guess that they had enemies, it's inevitable in this business!" every manager said that to us, all of them! Another dead end! Walking down the road of beauty shops and studios when we walked past a family photo album shop and something caught my eye. On the wall in the formal looking foyer- which could be seen through the window- was a long rectangular print of 8 young girls if about the age of 14. They were wearing vintage style dresses and had their hair pinned back in bobs and pony tails, it looked like a scene out of grease, the tallest and thinnest of the girls reminded me of someone, and I couldn't tell who it was until I saw her eyes. They were dark and cold! Full of the sparkle that I remembered as the closest thing to evil. It was Marie Heldershot! "Detective look at this!" I called at him and motioned him to look through the window. "What am I looking at?" he asked sounding very tired and bored, "it's Marie Heldershot, the mum, there in the middle of the picture in the black dress, it is her when she was younger!" I looked up at Patterson who had begun to walk into the studio. We walked straight to the front of the line, Patterson flashed his badge at the receptionist who-without saying a word- ran out to the main studio.

"I really hope the old manager is still here!" as soon as the words flew into the open the receptionist walked sheepishly back to her desk followed by an old man who had a large badge on his chest stating that he was the manager. He was tall and thin with muscular arms but he had a tired, wrinkly face with a long gray beard and short gray/ white hair on his head. He had on a mud brown suit with a green tie on, he looked very odd to say the least.

"How can I help you gentlemen?" the man said extending a shaky fragile hand as a greeting. When he saw the look on both out faces he drew it away and his friendly face turned deathly serious. "We need to talk to you about the picture over there, who are the girls?" the man took a closer look at the badge and turned to his receptionist, "I'll be in my office, please don't interrupt me!"

"Yes sir"

"Lets go somewhere where we can talk." The men slowly turned around and lead us into a large modern looking office and offered us both seats in front of a large white desk. As soon as he sat down he began to speak. "I heard about the girls, such a terrible thing. That picture was taken a long time ago but I will go and dig out the forms for it. I'll be right back". The manager walked out of the office, which fell silent. After about a minute he walked back and placed himself in his seat. "Ok from left to right we have" he began pushing a smaller copy of the picture across the desk to us, " Millie Jones, Sara Gresse, Gillian Maison, Marie Heldershot, Hannah Burners, Bella Mann and May-Flower-Rose reeves. They were all big beauty pageant winners at the time so their managers clubbed together go get them a photo shoot, all together, to boot PR for the big U.S. princess finals"

"Did all of their managers like the idea"

"I believe so they all shared the cost for the service so I would think so. Mind you those girls were horrible to each other, especially that Marie Heldershot, she was a horrible girl, and I can't say her murder was unexpected"

"Not unexpected, what do you mean?"

"well she would bully the other girls, she got into lots of fights with the local kids, and the ones from back home, she would hit and scratch the other girls, she even got me once or twice" the man carefully pulled up his jacket sleeve to reveal deep claw marks at the top of his forearm. They mirrored the ones on Katherine's chest and back. "She was a horrible girls but she was beautiful, even as she got older. She would win all of the shows and if it looked like she wouldn't she would shatter the other competition to get her way. I am so glad her daughter is... was nicer than she was."

"Wait, you knew her daughter Angelina!"

"Yeah, they came in for bride's maid dress shoot a couple of days ago, three girls, um... their names... eeerrr... oh yeah, there was Angelina, and then Sara's daughter Mari Gresse and a younger girl called Lucille Edwords."

"Can we have the other girls contact details, all the ones from first picture and this one please"

"Even the murdered girl's ones?"

"Yes please"

"Alright, I'll be back in a minute!" the manager walked outside. "We are going to have to make a lot of calls to-morrow!" I jokes, Patterson smiled and pulled out his new looking Iphone. "Dr. Rader texted saying that she has done with the bodies for today"

"Ok, I think we should call the families of all these girls to-night and visit them to-morrow, you got the time?"

"6 nearly, this case is gonna get confusing if anymore names come up, do you think there are going to be many more victims Dunlop?" it had been a long time since someone called me Dunlop. After I quit the force I had always been called Peter, the new nickname brought back good memories. I looked at the young detective and I could see an ounce of fear in his face, he was obviously new to priority homicide. I could sense that he had never had to lead cases like this, I remember my first serial homicide, it set me in a bad mood for months afterwards, and I was so determined to catch the killer that I let the case get to me. I didn't sleep for weeks, I ended up getting myself worked up over the smallest detail making the case take up a lot more time than it needed to.

"I don't know Patterson, I seriously hope not!" the room than fell silent with the sound of thinking.

Soon later the manager came back into the room with a few envelopes and files of details. "These are all the files and contacts for all the work involving the murder victims and the other girls from the shoots." He handed them over to Patterson, as soon as the detective moved the papers out of the managers hand he said quickly, with an obvious concern, "I really hope you catch this guy, these where great girls, none of them deserved to die this way... not even Marie Heldershot.

The manager left us to make our way out of the studio. We began walking back to the squad car still making the unmistakable thinking sound. My mind was buzzing with possible leads that could be out there, we had to solve this case quickly so that no-one else would have to die.

2 hours later, we had called all the contact numbers we could find and had checked addresses for all the people concerned and any other names that came up. I had just finished running the names through the databases when Megan pulled my chair out of the desk I was using so I was sitting right in front of her. Both her palms were leaning on my forearms and she was looming over me. "Mr. Peter Dunlop I have been sat that little coffee shop for 3 hours. 3 hours! I am bored and tired and really hungry! Please stop working for the night!"

"Well, "I have just finished!" I pushed my arms up making her stand up straight, at the same time I stood up and kicked the chair under the desk, I was than standing right in front of Megan who was looking at me with an annoyed face. "What?" Megan asked in an irritated voice, "Nothing, you're just cute when you're angry" I smiled at her and then stood back and picked up my coat. When I looked back at her I met her eyes and her face broke into a small smile. "Lets go!" I said looping my arm through hers and taking her coat and threw it over my arm with my own. We both walked out of the police department and found the rental car that we were supplied with. Megan took the coats off of me and we both slumped into the chairs and drove to the address that Katherine had given me.

After about 5 minutes I pulled the car into a large car park behind a tall hotel. I picked up our stuff and we walked quietly to the check-in desk. On the top of the desk was a note saying "if checking-in/ checking- out after 8pm please ring the bell, thank you" we both looked at each other thinking the exact same thing. At the same time we both turned and searched for the bell, sadly it was nearer to Megan and by the time I had managed to reach over to the button she had already slammed her hand down on it a bit harder than was necessary. I looked up at her with a face annoyed face which was met by her cheesy, childish, 'haha I beat you' face. Her face was adorable, I think Megan must have noticed me looking at her deeply as she turned away quickly and her cheeks coloured a little. Wow I never thought I would see Dr. Hunt blush!

"Can I help you?" a voice kicked me out of my thoughts, it was a pretty receptionist. "We have booked two rooms under the names Dunlop and Hunt" I said politely to her hoping to get a quick answer. "Oh I'm sorry there is only one room under that name"

"What?"

"What?" me and Megan both said.

"Sorry there is only one room, a family room under the names Dunlop and Hunt. Just so you know it is a large room with two separate bedrooms in it so it's like having two rooms" the receptionist added the last sentence with a smile and looked at Megan with re-assuring eyes. I looked at my partner and she shrugged. "Ok, can I have the key please?"

"Sure, it's on the second floor to the left." She handed over the keys and smiled at us both.

"Thank you" we both said at the same time

"Please enjoy you're stay, if you need anything call room service on line 1".

I picked up the bags and headed for the elevator. "Elevator, are you being lazy, here, give me my stuff and we can take the stares", why did she have to be such a health freak! It was too late to argue with her so we – sadly- look the stares.

The room was huge, with modern white and black furniture. There was a big sofa in the middle of the room behind a glass coffee table. I took my case and threw it into the room on the left. That was one heavy case. Megan did the same with the room on the right. She had thrown herself onto the bed and had closed her eyes, it had been a long day! I walked into her room and saw her lying on the bed with her feet hanging off the edge. Her jacket was on the floor and she pulled the edge of the covers over her face. I decided to take the plunge, well one of them anyway. I walked over to her feel and gently pulled off her boots and stood them up at the foot of the bed. I than lied down next to her, it felt so good not being in an office chair! I rolled over to look at Megan, I couldn't help it. I pulled a strand of hair off of her face and took my face towards her ear and whispered, "Wine", without opening her eyes she smiled and said, "God yes!". With that I stood up and made my way to the small kitchen at the back of the room. I opened a bottle of red wine and pulled two glasses out of the cupboard above my head. From behind me I could hear Megan sit down on the sofa. I joined her after pouring there wine. "Thank you I so needed this!" I smiled at her and we both took large gulps of the red liquid letting it sooth us. We sat in silence for a little while letting the wine go down and categorise the thousands of events from the day. Suddenly Megan spoke, "can I ask a question?"

"Of course you can!" I shuffled in my seat to face her and she did the same.

"Who's Marie Heldershot?"

"She was the school bully when I was in high school."

"Oh, she wasn't horrible to you was she?" Megan's voice was full of concern, I was really hoping she wouldn't ask this question. I had to tell her sometime about it though.

"She would get the jocks to beat me up all the time, she would torment me and my sisters, and she would get them into all sorts of fights. She basically made high school a living hell for me and even worse for Katherine."

"Oh peter!" Megan leaned forward and hugged me, she smelled so good, I was actually glad we had this talk. "Megan, just whatever you do, don't talk to Kat about it!"

"I won't, I promise!"

"Thank you, now, what about you, what was your high school like?"

"It was ok actually, cause my mum was in politics and I grew up in the city, no-body ever bullied me too bad apart from the cheer leaders, but they were just jokes and roomers so it wasn't too bad I don't think." I smiled at her, she was so lucky, well for some things. We sat in silence for a while, it took about 5 minutes for me to realize that I had my arm around her. By the time I realized she was asleep and I was too tired to move. I leaned over her and pulled her legs into the sofa and then lifted mine up to get into a more comfortable position without waking her. That was where we both stayed until the next morning.

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Ok super fluffy at the end I know but the rest was epic too :D

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Lots of love and hugs! XD

Kennie013