Chapter 37 - CSI: Lowerton - Part III

(10:15am)

The Rustbucket continued to sputter down Highway 19 on the way to Lowerton. The body of the car was continuing to vibrate up and down with the poor shocks.

"KP, do you really think that the Lowerton cheer squad would be behind this theft?" Ron asked. He was having doubts about the evidence that Wade had shown them not too long ago.

"Rest assured, Ron." Kim replied confidently while riding on the hunk of junk whose roof was held together by Smarty-Mart brand duct tape."They have the motive and we got surveillance footage of one of their cheerleaders with GO LEMURS on her cheeks wearing one of Middleton High's cheer uniforms. I don't know how she even got to the uniform, but I know she's prime suspect number one. We should be at Lowerton High in about five minutes."

"Speaking of which!" Ron interjected, "Are we going to play the whole good cop/bad cop routine?"

"Precisely. It's going to break that cheerleader's spirit and force her to confess!" Kim replied. "You get the good cop and I will be the bad cop!"

"Aww man..." Ron whined, "Why can't I be the bad cop?"

"So not intimidating much to the villains, Ron." Kim said, saying her reason.

(10:25am, Lowerton High)

Once Kim parked the Rustbucket in the lot, she entered into the high school with her boyfriend.

"Name, please?" the school secretary asked.

"Kim Possible, and this is my sidekick/boyfriend Ron Stoppable! I'm here to investigate the recent theft of the Golden Bone from Middleton High."

"Oh yes, the Lowerton PD phoned in ahead of your arrival, but you came to the wrong place, Miss Possible!" the secretary replied, "No one currently at this school had taken part in any theft of your high school's trophy."

"According to the story of the rivalry, the theft always took place on the week of the Middleton-Lowerton game and was returned after the game." Kim said. "Yet, the Bone was not stolen this year!"

"Credit that to the high-tech security system!" Ron added.

"But someone from within your cheer squad managed to steal the Bone and framed one of my cheerleaders! We need to find out who and we're not leaving the school until the perp is in custody!" Kim said.

The secretary sighed and said, "Very well. I'll phone in the cheer teacher to bring them up. Follow me to the detention room."

Kim, Ron and Rufus followed the secretary to where the detention room was at...in the very back of the school.

(10:34am)

The detention room at Lowerton High was a normal-sized classroom but it was extremely cold. Rufus got out a small parka as well. It had 20 student desks in the room, plus a desk for the teacher.

"The Lowerton cheerleaders should be in here shortly, Miss Possible." the secretary said.

"Good!" Kim said, "The sooner we interview them all, the sooner we'll have the suspect in custory and the sooner we'll be heading back to Middleton with the Bone!"

The secretary raised a stern eyebrow at Kim and left the room.

"KP, are you sure about your theory?" Ron asked.

"Are you joking, Ron?" Kim replied, countering her boyfriend, "My idea that one of the Lowerton Lemur cheerleaders being the mastermind of the Golden Bone theft is un-sinkable!I have both visual evidence AND the history of the rivalry between Middleton High and Lowerton High to back me up!"

"I'm just saying." Ron said, "You may want to try and back up just in case if it falls through!"

"Ron, it's clear that the prime suspect is cheering on the Lemurs as of this very moment!" Kim said, "All we have to do is to match the perfect description of her, blonde hair and blue eyes in this instance, and bam, we have our thief and arrest her on the spot!"
_

(10:44am)

"You'd better have a good explanation for why we're here in school, in the detention room, on a Saturday afternoon, and seeing your ugly face, Possible!" Vanessa sneered. Vanessa was the Queen Bee and Lowerton's cheer captain. She was wearing baggy jeans and a belt to hold them up, plus a croptop. The other 15 Lowerton cheerleaders had a combination of jeans and shirt or a short dress and shirt as their main attire.

"All of you Lowerton cheerleaders are here because one of you stole the Golden Bone from Middleton High last night and blamed one of my cheerleaders for the entire incident! I can make this much easier on you, interviewing you one at a time. From there, I will finally piece the clues together to make sure that one of you is going to be behind bars for this until the age of 21!" Kim eagerly said, "Now...we can make this easy on you so that you will be in here for only a few hours...or I can stay here and play hardball against you Lowerton cheerleaders until the wee hours of Sunday morning!"

She anticipated that one of the cheerleaders would confess to the crime.
_

(And so, 2 hours pass. 12:45pm)

"Possible, you should know that there were attempts in the past before..." the first Lowerton cheerleader said.

"...to steal that Golden Bone by the Lowerton students." the second cheerleader said.

"But that only occurred at the annual Middleton-Lowerton football game in the first week and that student was caught!" the third cheerleader added.

"None of us could've done the deed last night..." the fourth cheerleader replied.

"...because we were cheering for our Lemurs at the Lowerton-Wiley Ribbs game that night to see if..." the fifth cheerleader added.

"...we were still in the hunt for the playoffs." the sixth cheerleader added. "None of us ever were near Middleton High at 10:20pm."

_

(12:45pm)

"No...this is so wrong!" Kim exclaimed. She was getting more and more desperate.

"Unfortunately, Kim..." Wade said from the Kimmunicator, "...it is. The Lowerton cheerleaders were indeed at Wiley Ribbs High School at the time of the theft."

He showed them a clip from yesterday's news of the football game.

...and Demarcus Ray for the Lemurs dove into the goal-line for the game-winning touchdown for the Lowerton Lemurs against the Ribbs High School Raiders. The final score was 44 to 43 in double overtime and the Lemurs are still alive in the playoffs.

Kim muttered, "So far, I have interviewed 15 of the 16 cheerleaders on their official roster and they all said pretty much the same thing, that they were at Ribbs High School and they had nothing to do with the Golden Bone theft. Then that leaves only one cheerleader who could've been there at the scene of the crime."

_

The only people now in the detention room were Kim, Ron, and Vanessa.

"So it looks like you're the only one still standing." Kim snarled.

"Yeah, do I get a prize?" Vanessa questioned mockingly.

"Yes, a shiny pair of handcuffs behind your back!" Kim grinned viciously, "For I know that the only person that fits the description of the security camera footage when the theft was ongoing was you!"

"Just don't anger Kim too much." Ron said in being the good cop to Vanessa. "She knows 16 styles of kung-fu, you know."

She turned on the desk light just mere inches in front of Vanessa's face.

"Possible, I've told you this SEVEN times already, I was not at Middleton High at the time that the Bone was stolen!" Vanessa sneered, blinded by the glare of the light.

"Don't give me that! I know that you were there at the time of the theft!" Kim shouted, "This was a lone-wolf job! While you Lemur cheerleaders were packing up, you must've snuck into the woods

"Possible...I am not the thief in this stupid case!" Vanessa exclaimed.

Kim got out a dinner plate, a knife, and a fork, and earmuffs from the desk.

"What are you going to do to me?" Vanessa asked, looking at the plate and utensils.

"Whatever I have to do to get some answers out of you!" Kim grinned. She put on the earmuffs and then scraped the fork and knife at the same time on the dinner plate.

The screeching sound against the plate irritated Vanessa's ears, but also inadvertently Ron's and Rufus' as well.

"That's annoying, Possible! That's annoying!" Vanessa whined.

"Plastic plates do wonders!" Ron agreed while sticking his fingers in his ears.

"Face it, the footage, plus your hair and facial features, puts you at Middleton High! And The Go Lemurs facepaint can't fool me!" Kim proclaimed, thinking she had the pieces together, "Plus, you had the motive as well: revenge for us Mad Dogs beating your football team earlier in the season! Plus, you've had a sibling rivalry with Tara for some time, being that you are one of her cousins!"

"From her dad's side, yes. But all I do to her is blowing rasperries at her and making faces at her...not putting her IN JAIL!" Vanessa countered.

"Uh...KP?" Ron interjected.

"Not now, Ron! I almost got this in the bag!" Kim insisted.

Kim then flicked the light in front of Vanessa. "Fess up! Come on! Fess up!"

Vanessa screamed, "Please! Don't! Please! I'm going to get my lawyer on you!"

"KP? Mucho importante here!" Ron said, using some broken Spanish.

"In a few, Ron! We'll get you Bueno Nacho for lunch after I put the handcuffs behind her back!" Kim said.

"Partially that but Wade needs you!" Ron replied, handing Kim the Kimmunicator.

"Wade, do you have any more clues that would close the case on Vanessa for good? She's the lone person that stole the Golden Bone."

"Actually, Kim..." Wade said. He knew that Kim wouldn't be pleased by this news.