S T A L K E D
By: incoherenThought

Note: Okay, I went over this a few days ago but would normally do so again right before posting. As it is, I don't have the time right now. I hope it's okay. Any grammar errors blame on my computer. It's evil! It hates me!

Chapter Ten: Sound of Laughter

"I didn't mean to bother anyone," Sage Penning said. Her and Scotty were walking through the visitor parking lot of PPD. They were headed for the car she had parked there with the remaining police files inside. "I could have brought them up myself."

Scotty shrugged. "It's no problem," he informed her. "I'm sorry about your... grandfather?"

"Um, yeah, and don't be," she said uncertainly. "He was kind of a jerk. No one really liked him. Or spoke to him. He was really the black sheep of our family."

Scotty nodded. "I know the type."

"I mean," she continued, "we just never really understood him either. His decision to spend his life as a cop never made any sense." She stopped then and looked over at Scotty, then back down at the ground sheepishly. "I mean... I'm sorry. I didn't mean that insultingly."

Scotty shrugged and let out a small chuckle. "It's cool."

"No. It was rude and I'm sorry. Being a cop is an honorable job. It's just, you see, my family has money. Lots of money. And, so did he." She looked over at him to see if he were following her meaning. Scotty gave her a nod to tell her to continue. She did. "He was rich but he lived in this small studio apartment, on the bad side of town, most all his life. Working as a cop. We just never understood it."

She stopped walking then. So did Scotty. She pulled her keys out from her purse and pushed a button on them. The trunk, to a car at their left, clicked to an unlocked state and popped up just slightly. Sage reached out and lifted it open the rest of the way. Inside were three white evidence boxes.

"Maybe," Scotty spoke, "he just really liked the life." The detective then reached for two of the boxes inside her trunk. He stacked them on top of each other and lifted them out of the car. Sage grabbed the last one and slammed shut the trunk. The two of them turned and headed back towards PPD.

"And when he died," Sage continued her story almost at once and Scotty got the feeling this girl liked to talk, "he left all that money to you guys. Twelve-million dollars."

The detective nearly tripped over his own feet. "Twelve-million dollars?" he asked incredulously. "He left twelve-million dollars to the police department of Philadelphia?"

"No," Sage shook her head and Scotty was certain he'd misheard something. "He left twelve-million dollars to the cops of Philadelphia. To you guys. To be distributed among those still working and those retired, regardless of rank and position."

He had misheard, but only sort of, and the truth wasn't any less bizarre. Scotty stared, unblinking, as the ground passed beneath his feet. This Penning guy was getting more interesting, and more strange, with each new piece of information they gathered on him.

"But," Sage continued with a shrug, "considering how many of you there are... It's not really going to be that much money in the end. Per person. You know."

"Still," wondered Scotty aloud, "why would he do it? Wouldn't that kind of money do a lot better being kept as a whole and donated... somewhere as a whole?"

"Probably," responded Sage with a nod as they reached the building. "But it was his wish and my family won't stand in the way. I mean, you know, even if they could and all. It is an honorable job and we figure you all deserve it. Although, I suppose, it may appear more insulting than anything, depending on how little it actually comes out to in the end."

"Twelve-million dollars?" asked Vera. His eyes were wide as he stood near Scotty and Lilly's desks.

"Yup," nodded Scotty. He leaned back in his chair and tossed his baseball up in the air. It came back down and he caught it with ease.

"Twelve-million... What's a guy with twelve-million dollars doing working for the PPD?" Vera asked aloud.

"That's what his family wanted to know," Scotty said. He missed catching the baseball and it landed on the floor, rolled off, and bounced against a nearby desk. The detective sighed, then stood up and went to retrieve it.

"Does it really matter?" Lilly spoke up. She was still peeved at having three more boxes of files and evidence sat in front of her and it sounded in her voice. "That'll come out to, what, twenty-dollars a cop when you spread it out between all of us? There's a lot of us."

"Which begs the question of why he did it," pointed out Scotty as he returned to his seat, baseball in hand.

"Maybe he was senile," suggested Lilly. "Or, maybe, he thought it was good payment for my new job as file clerk." Scotty smiled over at her. He thought she was cute. Annoyed and all.

"Maybe," Vera said and Scotty could immediately hear the hint of humor in the older detective's voice, "but why am I getting my twenty-bucks? I'm not having to go through any old files."

Lilly shot Vera a look that a lesser man would have run from. Even Scotty found himself cringing from the stare. But, Nick Vera, wasn't a lesser man and he had become immune to all Lilly's glares. Indeed, the detective didn't seem to even notice it, as he reached for his suit jacket and began pulling it on.

"Well," said Vera, "I've got an interview to go on." He looked over at Lilly. "You know, for a case." Scotty could not help the small chuckle that escaped his lips. Lilly immediately turned her glare on him. He tried to drop the smile but, somehow, failed.

"Anything on Andrew Perry?" Lilly suddenly asked, looking back at Vera, and Scotty's smile did fade. Vera looked back at the two, his eyes shifting from one detective to the other, finally they landed on the back office where their boss was. Scotty's own gaze followed and he found that Stillman was on the phone with his door shut.

"Sort of," he informed them. "Boss, he doesn't really want you in on this. At least, not until we know more, for certain."

"What do you know?" asked Lilly. She wasn't used to taking no comment as an accepted answer.

Vera sighed and Scotty knew he was going to cave. "We found a vial in the car."

"A vile?" asked Scotty.

"Yeah, like an evidence vial. Only, it didn't come from us." The detective's eyes darted back to the office and then settled, once again, on Scotty. "We found a hair inside it."

"A hair?" Scotty and Lilly echoed and Vera nodded.

"A hair," he confirmed. "Like the bastard planted it there in the same way we'd of collected it had we found it at the scene as evidence. It's at forensics now. They're testing it and will run it through a database when they're done. See if it pops up any known criminals or whatnot."

"Like he's gonna leave his own DNA at the scene," Lilly said, "on purpose."

"Probably not," Vera agreed, "but it means something. It's got to."

"Yeah," Lilly picked back up the file she had been reading earlier, "because killers and stalkers are always so obvious."

It had gotten late. Scotty was tired. He was hungry. And his eyes hurt. He rubbed at them. He and his partner had been doing nothing but reading over old documents for hours now. He wanted to go home and get some food and sleep. He glanced across his desk at Lilly. She was biting at her bottom lip in concentration of whatever it was she was reading. Food, sleep and maybe something else. Not necessarily in that order.

Lilly must have felt his stare. She suddenly looked up and their eyes met. He smiled and she shook her head at him. Clearly, she knew what he was thinking. She looked back down at the file in her hands. Scotty's smile only broadened. Most everyone had already left the office for the night and so he wasn't too worried about this exchange being seen.

"I've found no evidence that Penning continued work on these cases," Lilly suddenly spoke. "You?" She looked back over at him. He took in a deep breath and shook his head.

"Naw," Scotty answered. "Not unless he put his findings elsewhere."

"Which wouldn't make much sense," Lilly pointed out.

"Nope," Scotty agreed and continued to watch her, maybe a bit too intently, but his mind was now far from the cases at hand. He wanted to go home. Which was pretty much any place that she was with him that wasn't headquarters. His desk phone rang. He cursed inwardly at the intrusion but instinctively reached out to answer it. "Valens."

"Hello, Detective," at the sound of the familiar voice, Scotty immediately tensed up. He stared over at Lilly, his eyes telling her who was on the line with him, and she nodded her understanding. She stood up and walked over to Vera's empty desk.

"Nice of you to call again," Scotty said. "Oh, and, my partner? She's doing just fine, thanks for asking." At Vera's desk Lilly had picked up the phone and dialed in a number.

"I noticed you met with Henry today," the caller said. Scotty's brow creased in thought. Lilly was now speaking faintly into the phone at Vera's desk. "How'd that go?"

"The repairman you hired to place a camera into my partner's house," Scotty said. "Really, man, you gotta get yourself a girl."

"I'll just wait for yours," he spoke and Scotty's jaw set in anger. "Now, tell me, did you hurt him? Did you maybe beat him up a little?"

"What are you playing at?" asked Scotty. Dread was already growing inside him.

"Because if you did," Scotty could hear the sneer in the caller's words, "I'm afraid this is going to look real bad for you."

"What is..." the detective never got the chance to finish his words. A piercing scream filtered through the phone. It was filled with both terror and, Scotty thought, pain. Scotty sat up straighter in his chair and gripped the phone so tight his hand began to ache. But he barely even noticed the discomfort. "What the hell have you done?" he asked as the scream slowly faded. It was replaced, quickly, with the sound of laughter.

"Didn't you ever wonder, Detective, why it was I didn't just place that camera myself? It would have been very easy but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun." Another laugh and the line went dead.

Scotty didn't move. He didn't place the phone down, not even when it began beeping back at him. His heart was beating so heavy that he could hear the pounding of blood in his ears.

"Scotty," his partner's worried voice filtered through to his ears. He blinked and looked up at her. She gently took the phone from his hands and placed it back on the base. "Trace didn't get anything... What did he say to you, Scotty?"

"I think I'm in trouble, Lil."