A/N: Okay, clearly y'all didn't like the last chapter much. That's okay. I didn't either. And because I don't think it's a very good chapter, I'm bringing you this chapter a few days early! Also, the next chapter will be posted this weekend as if nothing has changed! I hope this chapter is more to your liking.

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Varley called Baker and Miller into his office immediately when he got back to the station that night.

"How'd it go?" he asked as he took his jacket off and hung it on his hanger.

"He's not cooperatin'," said Baker. "He answered a few questions at first, then shut up quick when we started diggin'."

"What's your gut?" asked Varley, now leaning back in his chair.

"Guilty. He's not even offerin' an alibi. Just says he was 'drivin' around' the whole time."

Varley nodded and turned to Miller. "What do you think?"

"I'm not sure Lieutenant, but I'm leaning towards guilty."

"All right. How'd he react to the tape?"

"Shocked," said Baker. "Acted like he wasn't expectin' it when the shots fired. But it could have been just an act. He's hard to read with those shades on."

"What do you mean?" asked Varley, now leaning forward on his hands.

"He's got these red sunglasses that he wears."

"So take 'em off."

Baker and Miller shared a brief look that told Varley something more was going on.

"Okay, what's the story?"

"You ever heard of mutants, Frank?"

"No," said Varley in a confused tone.

Baker sighed. He was very aware of how crazy this sounded. "They're people with these weird powers that the scientists can't explain. Anyway, this kid's a mutant. He shoots red lasers out of his eyes if he takes the glasses off."

Varley stared at his detectives in complete silence when he heard this. "Ed, this isn't some corny sci-fi movie! I thought you knew better than to buy a story like that!"

Baker and Miller shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"It's true," said Miller. "He showed us."

"He showed you?" mocked Varley, clearly enjoying the ludicrousness of it all.

Baker stood up from his seat. He didn't like to be laughed at. "Why don't ya come see for yerself, Frank."

*****

Fifteen minutes later, Miller locked back the door to Scott's cell and then followed Baker and Varley out of the room and down the hallway.

"Okay, so he's a mutant," said Varley, still reeling slightly from the shock of seeing that red light glowing from the kid's eyes. "What does that mean for the case?"

"It means we gotta be careful," said Baker. "The media's gonna eat this up when they find out."

"So we don't let 'em find out," suggested Miller.

"No, we have to," said Varley. "This adds a new dimension to the case. Maybe the Matthews kid figured out Summers' secret and so Summers killed him."

"So, what? You sayin' this is some new twisted type of racial crime?" asked Baker.

"I'm sayin' it gets more interesting now. Keep me updated. This could turn out to be the biggest case in Bayville history."

"Sure thing," said Miller.

It was now almost midnight. The three of them stepped outside to the parking lot, exchanged pleasant good-byes, and drove to their respective homes where they would get a few hours of sleep and go back to work at 9:00 the next morning.

*****

Detective Baker walked into the office and took his coat off before sitting down at his desk. As soon as he was seated, Varley walked up and half sat on the corner of the desk beside him with some papers in his hand.

"Got some late-breaking news for ya," he said.

"Too early fer games, Frank. Just tell me what's goin' on." Baker was not a pleasant man before he had his morning coffee.

"Uniforms found the gun around 1:30 last night. It was in the woods around the mansion, probably thrown out a second-story window."

"It been tested yet?" Baker reached behind him and began pouring a cup of coffee. The smell itself was enough to raise his spirits a little.

"Yep. It matches the bullets pulled from Matthews' back and the bullets in the floor. On top of that, it's covered in Summers' fingerprints."

"Sounds like we're startin' the day off well."

"Yeah, but that's not all."

Baker looked up, surprised. "What else?"

Varley smiled as he dropped the papers in his hand onto Baker's desk. "Those came from Communications about two hours ago. They're the phone records from the Institute. Someone called the Matthews home last night at 8:10. Now, the other students left Summers alone in the house at 7:30 while they went to dinner. Forty minutes later Summers calls Matthews. 911 call came at 8:50. Uniforms got there about 9:00. By then Matthews was dead."

Baker nodded as he listened and looked at the records for himself. "So maybe he uses that forty minute window to get the gun, then goes home and calls Matthews saying he wants to patch things up. When the kid gets there, Summers pulls the gun out. Matthews gets away and hides in the kitchen while he calls 911. While he's on the phone, Summers finds him and kills him."

"Looks that way."

"All right. Let's run with it," said Baker. "Have the CSI boys figured out how it went down yet?"

"Yep. First shot was fired while Matthews was facing Summers. The bullet hit his right shoulder and he grabbed at it with his other hand."

Varley stood up to reenact the scene for Baker. His left hand reached up and grabbed hold of his right shoulder while he bent over a little and pushed his right shoulder backwards, twisting his spine around so that half of his back now faced Baker.

"While he's in this position," continued Varley, "three more shots fire into his back. There's a gap as Matthews falls to the ground on his stomach. Summers shoots at the body from the same place that he's been standing the whole time, about 20 feet away. He fired four bullets after Matthews fell. One landed in the kid's back. The other three hit the ground."

"How'd he miss? Matthews wasn't moving at that point."

"Nerves, probably. He's never killed a guy before so his hand starts to shake a little. Pretty common for someone not used to firing a gun. Plus, he is standing 20 feet away from the body. That's a tough angle to hit from."

"Okay, so Matthews is lying face down on the floor. He was face up when Miller and I got there."

"Yeah, but ya gotta remember that the uniforms said Summers was moving the body when they arrived. He's the one who rolled it over. Probably did it to make sure Matthews was dead."

"Makes sense," conceded Baker. He stood and took a sip of his coffee before reaching for his coat again.

Miller walked in just as Baker and Varley were standing up. "Hey, what's going on?"

Baker grabbed his keys and motioned for Miller to follow him. "I'll fill ya in on the way."

Miller turned and followed her partner through the door quickly, still slightly confused. "Where are we going?"

"Gun and pawn shops. Every one in town we can think of."

*****

Kurt lay in bed for hours that night without being able to sleep. He had gone to bed near midnight, but couldn't sleep until closer to 3 am. Of course, all the other X-Men had the same problem. The next morning, everyone was up early. None of the kids were going to school and the Professor had no intention of forcing them to.

The kitchen was still roped off by police tape, something which the Professor felt was a little unnecessary. Frankly, none of the inhabitants of the mansion had any plans of going near the kitchen anyway. The refrigerator had been moved to the downstairs den, so there was really no reason for them to be near the room. But the police insisted that it was standard procedure to keep an area marked off until they were positive they were done with it.

Once he woke up, Kurt dragged himself to the upstairs den as the Professor had requested. When he got there, he saw that he was the last of the students to arrive. Kurt slumped into a spot on the couch and looked around. Everyone else seemed as tired as he was. Rogue's face was paler than usual. Kitty wasn't talking a mile a minute. She wasn't talking at all, actually. Evan just sat and sipped on a glass of milk. Jean sat alone in the corner of the room. Her eyes were red and puffy, a hint that she had spent most of the night crying in her bed. Finally, the Professor came in the room.

"I want to thank you all for coming here. I know that this is going to be difficult, but I think we all need to talk about last night."

"Do they know anything else about what happened?" asked Evan.

The Professor hesitated for a second before answering. "Yes, they do."

"Well can ya tell us?"

He sighed. He had kept secrets from them before and it had always cost them. He decided not to make the same mistake again. "They are charging Scott with first-degree murder. A hearing is set for tomorrow to decide if he'll be allowed bond or not, but the police seem to think he won't get it. He's in the Blackwall Detention Center right now and will probably stay there until the trial."

"Can we visit him?" asked Jean.

"I would rather you not," said the Professor slowly, knowing that the students wouldn't like that rule.

"Vhy not?!" asked Kurt with a sense of hurt in his voice.

"During the interrogations last night," explained the Professor, "Scott was forced to tell the detectives that he's a mutant. He explained to them just what mutants are and what his powers are. I'm afraid it's possible that people will begin to put two and two together and realize that we are all mutants if we're not careful. It is for this reason that I think you all should not draw any strong connections between yourselves and him. Also, if too many people visited him too often, I'm afraid the police would get suspicious of a conspiracy. They might start asking more questions about where all of you were last night. Even if they figure out that we're mutants, we must not let them learn about the X-Men as well."

The students all nodded. The logic made sense, no matter how much it hurt. Nonetheless, they all felt completely cut off from their friend now.

"So what do they know about the murder itself?" asked Evan.

"Duncan was shot and killed at about 8:50 last night while all of you were fighting the Brotherhood. The gun was found in the woods outside the mansion early this morning. They've looked at the Institute's phone records and it seems a call was made to Duncan's house at 8:10, probably inviting him to the mansion. The police were called at 8:50 by Duncan just before he was killed. When the officers arrived here, they found Scott trying to move Duncan's body. He was immediately arrested and taken into custody."

Silence took over the room as everyone sat and thought about the timeline that the Professor had just given them. They had left the mansion at 7:30 and hadn't been back until after 9:00. They all had to admit that there was plenty of time to commit the murder.

"Man," said Evan, "he almost got away with it! If he had just done it sooner no one would have known."

Silence grasped the room again, but it was a different type of silence this time. Everyone turned to stare at Evan with an awkward sense of shock.

"Vhat?!" cried Kurt, penetrating the silence. His jaw hung as low as it could go and he was visibly angered by the accusation. "Vhat do you mean he almost got avay vith it? Do you really zink Zcott iz capable ov zis?"

"Dude," said Evan defensively, "I'm just sayin' that he had the opportunity."

"Zat's not vhat I asked," said Kurt angrily. "Do you zink Zcott iz guilty?"

Evan looked around at the faces in the room. Some were angry. Some almost looked sympathetic. All were shocked.

"I don't know man. I mean, it's still too soon to tell."

Kurt jumped to his feet. "Vell let me explain zomething to you. Zcott iz not a murderer!"

"Kurt! Please sit down," said Xavier. He had resolved not to let this meeting get out of hand.

Kurt's eyes glanced over at the Professor but soon returned to Evan, who seemed frightened at Kurt's outburst. He gathered his thoughts and sat back down.

"I'm zorry, Provezzor."

"That's okay, Kurt. But please try to remain calm. Now then Evan, you clearly think that Scott is guilty. Why?"

Evan glanced around nervously. "You want me to say why I think he's guilty?"

"Yes. I think we all need to talk through whatever we're feeling right now and that seems like a good place to start," said the Professor kindly. He didn't want to intimidate Evan out of his speaking his true thoughts.

"Okay, if you say so Prof. For starters, he was mad when we left. I mean, he refused to come with us 'cause he said he didn't care what happened to the school. He had an hour and a half to do it before anybody saw him again. And we all know he's always hated Duncan. They've practically been tryin' to kill each other at least since I got here! That's motive and opportunity right there."

Kurt squirmed in his seat, but a look from the Professor told him to keep quiet until it was his turn.

"Fair enough," said the Professor. He turned to Kitty now, who was sitting next to Evan. "Kitty, what are your thoughts?"

The girl seemed surprised to have been called on. "I don't know. I mean, like Evan said, he had motive and opportunity. But it just seems so completely out of character for him to just kill Duncan like that, y'know. I mean, sure he didn't like Duncan but you don't just kill someone because you don't get along with them! Right?"

"That's very true, Kitty." Of course, the Professor and Jean knew more about Scott's possible motive than the rest of the X-Men did. "Rogue, what about you?" The Professor was simply turning to each student in the order that they were sitting in the circle in the den.

"Ah don't know," said Rogue after some hesitation. "Ah guess what Evan said is true. He coulda done it. But it jus' doesn't make sense to me. But then again, he was really mad an' Ah saw him in that fight with Duncan at school. There was this, Ah don't know, this rage in him. Ah mean, ya got the feelin' from watchin' him that he would've killed Duncan right then and there if he could've. But Scott's not exactly the type o' guy to jus' act without thinkin' of the consequences, y'know? Ah don't know, Professor. The whole thing's confusin'."

"That's fine, Rogue. It is confusing," said the Professor. Again he sensed something deep inside Rogue that she wasn't expressing. It was a strange mixture of sadness and fear. Sure, it was to be expected that she'd be upset by the incident but her feelings were still strange to the Professor. He had never noticed her feeling such ways about anyone else before. He now turned slowly to the redhead on his right. "Jean, what about you?"

Everyone turned their attention to the oldest student in the room. They knew that if anyone would be attached to all this, it'd be her. Afterall, she had dated Duncan for a whole year and now he was dead! But at the same time, she and Scott had always been close friends. They were all interested to hear her opinions on the matter.

"I think we don't know enough to tell one way or the other yet," she said after a moment's pause. "Sure, Duncan and Scott never got along at all, but that doesn't mean Scott would kill him. But we have to admit that all the evidence seems to point to Scott. I guess what I'm saying is we can't rule out the possibility that Scott's guilty no matter how much it hurts to think he might have done this."

Xavier nodded. "And Kurt?"

Kurt looked around the room and huffed. "I can't believe any ov you could zink Zcott could do zis. He'z our vriend and ve should know him vell enough to know zat he vould never do anyzing like zis. Zcott iz innocent. I know it! And I'm azhamed that you guyz zink he might be guilty."

Kurt and Scott had been best friends since Kurt's arrival at the mansion. Everyone knew that. Scott had been the first to accept Kurt's appearance and they had forged a strong relationship in the last few months. Still, while the other students and the Professor admired Kurt's loyalty, they were afraid that he believed in Scott's innocence blindly without even considering the facts.

"Oh," said Kurt almost as an afterthought as he raised up one finger from his two-digit hand, "and I zink Evan haz been vatching too many myztery movies." Kurt glared at Evan as he said this, an expression that was quickly returned from the other boy.

"Well, thank you for all being honest," said the Professor, trying to intervene before Kurt and Evan broke into a fight right there. "I think it's time we all went down for breakfast now."

"What about you, Professor?" asked Rogue before anyone could stand up. "What do you think?"

Xavier looked around at his students and sighed. He didn't want to admit what he thought. Scott had been his student longer than any of the teens in the room with him at the moment. He viewed Scott as a son and the pain of this whole situation had been banging on his heart since he'd first heard the news the night before. "I'm afraid I agree with Jean," he said finally. "I hate to admit that there's even a chance that Scott is guilty of this crime, but the evidence is there whether I like it or not. As much as I'd like to, I can't rule out the possibility quite yet."

A huff from Kurt told everyone what he was thinking.

"Zo I'm ze only one who ztill zinks he's innocent?"

The X-Men each picked a spot on the carpet to become absolutely enthralled with as Kurt's angry gaze passed over each of them individually.

"Vine, but you'll all zee when ze trial comes."

The Professor sighed gently. "Kurt, I hope you're right."