A/N:

-Crescent moon- {The rest of you people don't have to read this if you don't want to}. Anyway, normally I take the advice that the reviewer gives me and try and apply it to my story. {I do not accuse people of flames. Or at least I try not to.} I get suggestions from people on how to improve my stories all the time.}I've gotten A TON of these suggestions from a lot of people, most of these people have really assisted me in improving my stories. {for example Vicki and Teazer have helped enormously!! I used to be writting this story in Script but now look at my story} -clears throat- anyway............

What' I'm trying to say is that your reviews aren't helping me at all So, "Why don't you take Vicki and Teazer's advice? I'm also saying that I'm really trying not to yell at you or anything. {and if you hate my story that much, then quit reading it and go somewhere else} I'm really trying not to be rude here. I'm also trying my hardest to keep my cool. {however Crescent moon, it's VERY difficult}

"Also, I can't sit back and allow you to say things like "Kiss my Butt" to Vicki and Teazer on your last review. That wasn't nice at all.

Chapter 18

"Another Important Clue"

Fillmore raises one of his eyebrows. He had to confess that this case was getting stranger by the minute. It seemed suspicious that Penny was here so dang early. On the other hand reporters were out all hours of the night.

"Penny are you sure that you didn't see anything while you were here," Roberts asked curiously. He was hoping she saw something. Maybe she could provide them with some useful evidence.

"Well no," She answered in a hesitant voice.

"You didn't see anyone or anything? Are you absolutely positive?" Roberts asked. By the sound of his voice, he was skeptical. Was Penny telling the absolute truth or was she keeping something from them?

If she was keeping something from them, there was a good chance it would be useful to them. However they knew when a suspect was intimidated, they wouldn't say anything.

It looked like she didn't know or wasn't going to tell them anything. That meant they'd reached another dead end.

Penny pulls herself back over to her desk, opens the desk drawer and pulls out a pen. When she opened the drawer she accidentally pulled it too hard which jerked all the papers off the top of her desk. Now all of her papers were scattered all over the floor.

She sighs, bends over to pick everything up. While she was picking all the papers up, something caught Fillmore's eye. It was a magazine. The cover showed a cheerleader in uniform hold their blue and white pom-poms up over her head.

Obviously it was some kind of cheerleading magazine, but what was Penny doing with it? Penny wasn't the cheerleading type at all. This was very unusual indeed.

Fillmore picked up the magazine and the moment he did something fell out of it. Fillmore picked it up to find it was fabric that looked like it came from a cheerleading uniform. He held it up and showed it to Roberts.

They both started examining it. It was definitely part of a cheerleading uniform. It was the same color as the schools uniforms. The fabric was the kind that the missing cheerleading uniforms were made of.

"Is this what I think it is?" Fillmore asked.

If this was a piece of the missing cheerleading uniforms then they would have to take Penny back to HQ for questioning. It wouldn't be easy for Fillmore.

Fillmore had a feeling that they might have discovered their criminal. Unfortunately Fillmore was reluctant to accept her as the one. Fillmore watched as Roberts pulled out his white sterile gloves, put them on and continued examining the object.

When they were looking over things, safety always came first!

"Yes. It seemed to be part of one of the missing cheerleading uniforms," Roberts finally answered after a few minutes.

It was just as Fillmore hoped it wouldn't be. Penny was considered a prime suspect now.

Roberts and Fillmore's glances both went to Penny. It was looking like she was the criminal here. Then they might have solved the case. However Fillmore wouldn't celebrate yet, it could just turn out to be another dead end.

Fillmore takes Penny's arm. "Look Penny, we need to take you in for questioning," He tells her. He's trying to be as calm as possible at this moment.

Penny pulls away from him.

"Penny, please don't make this more difficult than it has to be," Fillmore says. He absolutely hated it when people made the situation worse than it needed to be. It actually had become one of his pet peeves.

Whey did people want to make a bigger ordeal out of a situation where they didn't need to? I mean when they did that it seemed to Fillmore that they enjoyed the attention they would get. It seemed that the longer they got attention, the longer they would make a big scene when people were around.

"I swear I didn't do anything," Penny said in an aggravated tone. Her glance seemed to fall towards Fillmore.

Fillmore could tell that she wasn't happy and her anger was escalating rapidly. If they pushed her too far, she would blow her top. He was thankful that he'd only seen her get that furious once. Most of the time she'd start ignoring the people that really made her angry.

"You still need to come with us," Fillmore says. He was trying to be nice so not to upset her.

He really wasn't in the mood today to see Penny get angry today. He was attempting to avoid making her mad all together.

Penny looks deep into Fillmore's eyes. "Fillmore you don't really think I could be the criminal do you? I mean you know me better than anyone," Penny says.

She gives Fillmore the saddest, most innocent look she possibly could. She even stuck out the bottom lip. She literally looked as though she was going to weep.

Fillmore really needed to be careful what he did and said. If he did it wrong, he would pay for it, big time. What should he say though? What wouldn't upset her too badly? He had to think quickly.

Penny started batting her eyelashes a him, hoping that would assist him in making his decision. However it just made things a little more complicated. "Come on Fillmore, Do you really want to take little old me off?" Penny asked. She puts her head on his shoulder.

It was obvious that Penny still had feelings for Fillmore. Of course she always kind of been lovey-dovey towards him, even when they were delinquents together. But hadn't she found a boyfriend of her own yet? Fillmore didn't want to be rude to her, but he didn't have the same feelings for her.

"Penny, please just come with us," Roberts said.

Penny angrily spun around to Roberts with fire in her eyes. Roberts immediately backed off. There was nothing in the world worse than an angry woman! Roberts had found that out first hand when he was back in middle school. That's why you don't mess with woman and make them furious.

"Penny listen to me. First of all, I don't have the same kind of feelings for you. Second you're a prime suspect in this case so we have to bring you in," Fillmore told her. He waited for her to either start sobbing or to become infuriated.

"But Fillmore" Penny started. By the sound of her voice she really seemed upset by his answer.

Fillmore sighs. He hadn't wanted to hurt her feeling but he had to tell Penny the truth. He wasn't one of those shallow guys that pretended to like a girl until a better girl came around.

He would never be a jerk like that to anyone. It made him absolutely sick to watch other men do it all around school. He'd watch the girls after they got dumped. The girls would sob openly. They were so heart broken!

"Fine." Penny says standing up and stomping her foot. She wasn't going to sit here and take this. She really had thought Fillmore was on her side. Now she saw that it wasn't true. She'd been totally wrong about Fillmore. He definitely wasn't the guy he'd been back in middle school.

"Fillmore just listen to me for a moment. I can't explain the cheerleading magazine and the piece of uniform, which fell out of the book. She said.

Penny hoped that Fillmore believed her. If he didn't then she was in trouble.

"Okay," He replied.

Penny pulls away and grabs the magazine and flips through the pages. What was she doing? Finally she opened the book to a certain page and ran her finger down it. She showed the book to Fillmore.

Fillmore stared at the page after Penny handed it to him. He started reading a little of the page and found that it was pretty interesting. The article talked about women that sewed things for a living. It also talked about going into business for yourself.

"How to Sew Cheerleading Uniforms" Fillmore read aloud. "The steps to sewing a cheerleading uniform are basically easy, it's just it's a little difficult because of how long it takes to make it," He continued reading.

"Cheerleading uniforms?" Tehama and Anza asked.

"Mm-hm! And—"Fillmore asked handing the magazine to Roberts.

Penny holds up a cheerleading uniform. "I'm....I'm....sewing bran- new cheerleading uniforms for the drama club," she answered.

Fillmore looked stunned. "You're in the drama club too?" Fillmore asked. She must have really wanted to keep busy. Between newspaper and the drama club, there had to be a ton of work involved.

"Yes, I'm the costume manager," She replied. She held up a flier. "We needed cheerleading uniforms that were similar to our real cheerleading uniforms,"

Fillmore held out his hand as if asking to hold the uniform. After Penny gave it to him, he turned towards Tehama. "Tehama! Could you examine this uniform closer?" He asked tossing it to Tehama.

Tehama catches it and nods.

Fillmore knew that there was a 50-50 chance that Penny was lying. He just needed to make sure she was telling the truth. If she was lying, she'd be in even more trouble than before. It might be held against her later on.

The way Penny was acting made Fillmore suspicious. I mean the drama club? That sounded so unlike her. If Penny truly loved doing these things, then she'd changed more than Fillmore had since Middle school.

The penny he use to know was sort of a laid back person who was content with just taking life the way it came. She worked, but not nearly as hard as she did now.

"I told you that I could explain myself," Penny said looking at Fillmore. She hoped that Fillmore would ease-up a bit now.

It seemed that they were caught in between. Penny's explanation was believable. She really could be as innocent as she said she was.

"Penny" Someone yelled walking straight up to her desk. The teenaged girl looked agitated about something. She wore a dark T-shirt that said "Put the Petal to the metal". Behind the letters on her T-shirt, was a Harley! The motorcycle was shining brightly.

Her hair was pulled back into a nearly perfect bun. Fillmore noticed that behind her ear was a pen. She had sapphire blue eyes that stared at Fillmore and Roberts.

The girl wore normal, everyday jeans, with a belt. In her hand she held a clipboard. Yep, she looked like an average, everyday teenager!

"Penny I told you no visitors unless you're on coffee break" The girl said.

Immediately Penny rolled her chair back up to her desk and began typing again. She'd taken thirty-minutes to talk to them, that's why her boss was so angry at her.

In that time she could have been at least half way done with her report by now. She really needed to get on her work before she got fired. "Right away Kelly," Penny said.

Kelly turned to Fillmore and Roberts. "You've taken up enough of my employees time. Now scram! We all have work to do!" She yelled shooing them towards the door.

"Penny is there a way to contact you if we need to question you further," Fillmore asked.

Penny grabbed a small piece of paper, scribbled a number down and gave it to him.

"Now Shoo" Kelly said leading them to the door. She really didn't seem to be in that good of a mood. Of course, since this place was really busy, it wasn't surprising.

After Kelly pushed them out of the office and slammed the door behind them, Roberts whispered "Pushy,".

LATER IN THE LAB:

"Tehama! Anza! Did you discover anything?" Roberts asked as he and Fillmore joined them. Tehama and Anza had been here a really long time investigating this clue. Hadn't they come up with anything yet?

When they walked in, they found the cheerleading uniform on the table and Tehama finishing the examination.

"Yes. We've found something very interesting" Anza says taking his lab goggles off and wearing them on top of his head. He turned towards Tehama. He'd rather that she tell Roberts and Fillmore the news.

It sounded like Anza was enthusiastic about their findings. That meant they'd found something useful, right? Tehama put her goggles on top of her head too, then turned towards Fillmore and Roberts. "Indeed. We did find something," She replied.

Did Tehama and Anza have to keep them in suspense? How come they didn't just tell them already? It was killing the both of them.

Anza steps back from the table and allows Tehama to stand where he was. She picked up the cheerleading uniform, held it up for Fillmore and Roberts to see. The results would tell whether Penny was lying or telling the truth. Fillmore had his fingers crossed, hoping that she'd been telling them the truth.

"We've compared this uniform with Principal Blunt and found that it's the stolen uniform." Tehama replied.

"Or at least one of them," Anza replies.

Fillmore steps forward. "Are you absolutely sure you two?" He asked.

Anza nodded. "Look," Anza said pulling back the collar of the shirt. Under the collar they found the lead cheerleaders name in permanent marker. It read Stacey.

TO BE CONTINUED