"This is crazy," Phoebe said as the four sat in the living room.
"Is it?" asked Todd, pulling a folder out of his briefcase. "Then why did you invite me inside?"
"To clear up this nonsense once and for all," Piper said. "Andy's death has been hard enough on all of us, especially on Prue. Now you come here with this ludicrous accusation. We don't want you spreading this idea around, that's all."
"Then how do you explain this?" Todd asked, opening the folder.
The girls looked at the numerous clippings and other scraps of paper inside the folder. All had some connection to Prue. Many of the scraps were handwritten notes. And they all recognized Andy's handwriting.
"I was assigned to clear out Inspector Trudeau's desk," explained Todd. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered this. It seems that Trudeau had some questions about Prue himself."
"He always did have an active imagination," said Prue. "We can't be held accountable for what he might have suspected. That doesn't make us witches."
"No, it doesn't," said Todd. "But this file did get me thinking. So I did some checking of my own. Your three names seem to come up quite a bit on a number of unsolved cases. And most of the cases have definite connections to the occult. Too many to be simply coincidence.
"Let's see, there was the case involving Brendan Rowe. A young man who was entering the priesthood when his two brothers seemed to have attacked Father Austin, the priest who sponsored Rowe. Two brothers who seemed to have simply vanished from the face of the earth.
"Then there was the wedding of Elliot Spenser. One of the most prominent families in San Francisco. Several days before his wedding, he suddenly changed brides. Then, without any apparent reason, he went back to his previous bride. And his 'new' bride also seems to have simply vanished.
"Then there was a young boy named Max Franklin. Linked to the break in of a local business and whose father claims to have been shot. Then, as he explained it, an angel simply appeared and healed him. And you, Prue, were in the middle of it.
"There was also the case of several mysterious deaths involving such noted scientists as Dr. Alex Pearson and Dr. Oliver Mitchell. Both found dead with an unidentifiable burn mark on their foreheads and their eyes clouded over. And two security men at Bucklands' Auction House tell of a young woman named Tanya Parker who seemed to be involved. As were you, Prue."
"That doesn't prove anything," Prue said. "If you could prove anything, we wouldn't be sitting here talking. I learned that much from Andy."
"Oh, I can prove a great deal," said Todd, pulling another folder out of his briefcase. "In fact, this is actually my favorite piece of information. As I said, I did some checking once I discovered this file in Trudeau's desk. Part of that checking involved running your names through some of the standard police channels.
"I figured if you were involved in anything, your names might have come up elsewhere. To be honest, I did expect to find something. Mostly I just expected to find more of the same insubstantial 'coincidences' that I found in Trudeau's file. Imagine my surprise when I discovered these."
He pulled three cards out of the folder and handed one to each of the sisters. They all looked at the cards. They appeared to be similar in most respects. Each contained three pictures of an individual; a front view and both side views. Similar to the mug shots taken by police when a suspect was booked for a crime.
Below the pictures were the unmistakable reproductions of fingerprint cards. All bearing the fingerprints of the person in the picture presumably. And below the fingerprints were a detailed police report. Police reports that were dated 1975. And the pictures of the people on the cards were the three girls themselves.
"Now," said Todd, smiling, "care to explain how the three of your could have been arrested more than twenty-five years ago and still appear to be no older than you were then? And why you were charged with the kidnapping of two very young girls? Girls named Prue and Piper Halliwell? Who, by 'coincidence', just happened to live at this very same address at the time?"
Prue looked over at Piper and Phoebe. None of them spoke.