Cordelia sat in her office pouring over fashion magazines. She took a long sip of coffee. Ah, she thought. Who does Wesley think he is comparing tea to coffee? She absentmindedly turned the page. He could've at least picked something-wow, that is a cute shirt.
Suddenly Angel came in. "Cordelia?" he said. She jumped and splattered coffee all over the picture of the halter top shirt. "Angel!" She glared at him. "When are you going to learn that sneaking up on people, especially people with hot coffee in their hand, is not a good idea? I mean, the can't-see-you-in-mirrors thing is creepy enough, but -" Cordelia stopped, seeing the look on his face. "What?"
"Kate called." He set the police report on her desk. She flipped through it. "All the air was completely gone? Just like that?" Angel nodded.
"Eww." Cordelia shuddered. "Seems like before they took the air, they immobilized the victims. The doctors found some kind of poison injected in the bodies-" "Who exactly is 'they'?" Cordelia interrupted. "I don't know," Angel said simply.
Cordelia thought for a moment. "Where's Gunn?" "With Michael." Cordelia sighed. "That kid is bad news. He actually had the nerve to ask me if I liked his shirt. Like I cared. Where's Wesley?" "With Veronica." "Oh."
Cordelia was silent. Then, "So what's the plan?" "I want to go check out where it happened. See if we can find anything." Cordelia groaned and laid her head on her desk. "You know, this job gets better and better every day," she grumbled. "I'll get my coat."
* * *
Gunn sat in the waiting room of The Spider, where Michael and his buddies lived. You can't call this a waiting room, Gunn thought, looking around at the grayish walls and chipped paint. Heck, this ain't even a room.
Michael came out then, followed by CJ and Rocky, two of the other boys. "So?" Gunn inquired. Michael sat down. "Last week, Damon, one of the guys here, went to find this kid. He wanted to bring the kid back here." "So he left around seven or so," CJ spoke up. "Well, Damon got there fine. He had the kid, and they were making their way back here." "They must've been no more than a block away. But they were attacked," Rocky said. Gunn leaned forward. "By who?" CJ shook his head. "Not who. What." "We heard a scream, and we followed it to the next street. Damon and the kid, Jake, were just lying there, mouths open and eyes shut in terror," Michael picked up. "We called the police, but they seemed pretty suspicious. Seemed to thing we'd set it all up." I wonder why, Gunn thought to himself. "But they did file a report. They took Damon and Jake away for an autopsy. Said they'd poisoned, then suffocated." Michael shook his head, as if he was insulted. "The police kind of blew it off. Said it could've been some kind of ordinary gang fight. But it wasn't. No way." "How can you tell?" "We went back later. Found a trail of huge, clawed footprints. No gang member could've done that." Michael looked proud of his detective work.
Gunn stood up. "Thanks, guys. I gotta get goin'." "You'll tell us if you find anything, right?" Rocky shouted. Gunn waved and ran off into the night, towards Angel Investigations.
