Chapter 9 – Makeup & Screwups
Despite Mia's rebellious and confident demeanour, she was actually terrified.
Back in Australia she was best-known for her clumsy nature, and when she was in the 'Force' she had been cruelly nicknamed the "Klutzy-Cop", or "She-Stooge".
Until quite recently Mia looked like she had when she was thirteen - tall, lanky, uncoordinated and incredibly child-like - but on her arrival in America, the first thing she did was visit an experienced stylist, who waved his magic hairbrush and transformed her from a wanna-be winner to a stylish, go-getter girl with a kick-ass attitude and an amazing strut. This transformation was literallyovernight, so nobody was to know who she actually was, unless, of course, she lived up to her nickname.
"Hey, Ms Montenegro" Mia greeted her boss warmly, hanging her handbag on the coat rack and shaking Angela's hand.
Angela grinned, "Hey, Mia. You know, Angela's fine, it's only the others who you need to call "Doctor" and "Miss", otherwise they get pissed."
"'Kay" Mia shrugged off her trench coat and hung that on the coat rack too, then looked around Angela's office in awe, "Nice place. So what can I do?"
"Well," Angela replied, grabbing two standard-issue blue lab coats from behind the door, and shrugging her own on, "First, you can put this fashion-disaster on, and then you can follow me. You can decorate it in your own time, if you want, I did, and it looks slightly better." Angela walked out of the office with Mia trailing closely behind her, amazed at how easily Angela walked in her pencil-thin stilettos.
Like a cheesy game of "Follow the Leader", Mia put her lab coat on too, pausing only for a second to admire her name, Ms M. Piper, Assistant, which had been neatly printed on the pocket.
Bee-beep.
Mia used her ID card to follow Angela into the lab and smiled; happy she hadn't screwed up – yet.
"Mia this is Dr Camille Saroyan, she's the Head of this department and also the Coroner. Cam, this is Mia Piper."
"Lovely to meet you, Mia." Dr Saroyan smiled, hands digging through the decaying corpse situated on the lab table, "I won't shake your hand, which I'm sure you'll appreciate, but if you are paranoid about germs like Angela, there are disposable gloves on that table."
"Uh…thanks, I guess," Mia said, snapping on some gloves in an exaggerated manner, "nice to meet you too!"
"Right." Angela's nose scrunched up, "What's that smell? Or don't I want to know…"
"Most likely the dead rat situated in the left lung," a fourth person said, entering the lab with another ID card, "the rodent ate the victim's third and fourth phalanges, but then died of poisoning."
"So we have a cause of death?" Cam asked, removing a watch from the victim's stomach and frowning in confusion. "-and a watch… a very nice Baby-G, this person had expensive taste!"
"I would not feel comfortable with that assumption until further evidence is gathered." Brennan said.
"Ah," Angela grimaced at the sight of the blood-splattered watch, "this is Dr Brennan, and this is Mia."
"Right," Mia frowned slightly then slipped her "Baby-G" watch off and into her coat pocket, "Pleased to meet you, Dr Brennan. I have heard about your books, but, I'm afraid your intelligence and knowledge interests me more."
"That is true, Miss Piper, my IQ is extremely high. I would also like to say I am pleased to meet you, but I have not had time to decide that, so for now I shall merely say 'hello'."
"She's awfully literal and direct, isn't she?" Mia whispered to Angela, "Does she have Autism?"
Angela snorted. "Yeah, if only, she's not Autistic, just your typical 'Squint'."
"Squid? I thought we only said that in Australia…" Mia said in wonder
"No." Angela shook her head, "Squint, because Scientists' and such are constantly examining stuff and squinting. What did you mean?"
"Oh. Squid is an offensive term for someone who studies a lot or does well in Science and Maths, the same thing. Woops! I meant 'Math'." Mia cringed.
"Oh, okay." Angela said, nodding her head, "You need us for anything?" Angela asked, regarding the body with a mixture of disgust and dismay, "'Cos if not –"
"Yes, Angela, we do. I need you to reconstruct the face." Camille dug around in the victim's mouth, "It would appear our victim – who I now have discovered as male – had his teeth removed, presumably by the murderer."
"Gorgeous." Mia frowned, then raised her eyebrows doubtfully, "how are we going to do that?"
Angela gave Mia a cheeky grin then winked, "Magic."
