CHAPTER TWO

( The next morning.)

"Piper!"

Phoebe's foghorn mimicking voice, flounced devastatingly up the stairs.

Paige Mathews appeared bed headed and bleary eyed, on the landing.

"Could you tone it down Phoebs? Some of us haven't had coffee yet." She moaned.

"Piper!"

Paige clumsily grabbed the antique banister, as Phoebe deafly barged past her, and continued up the stairs.

"PIPER!" Phoebe boomed.

"What!"

Piper threw open the bathroom door. She angrily folded her arms across her pyjama clad chest, and through a foamy mouth of toothpaste, with some difficulty, muffled:

"Whadda ooh wan?"

"Have you seen this mornings paper?"

Piper put a hand on her hip impatiently.

Paige yawned.

"I'm thinking 'No'. Why, what's up?"

Phoebe unceremoniously tore open the crumpled excuse for that morning's paper, and read out the headline, from the front page.

" 'Doctor dies, duping detectives.'"

Paige shrugged dismissively.

"People die all the time-"

"That's not the news!"

"Then why is it in a newspaper?" Paige joked.

"He was murdered. And it was Doctor Frankland." Phoebe said.

"He was a teacher at mine and Pipers old school."

Piper frowned, prior to more badly pronounced muffles.

"I don't tink I wememer him…" she slurred, whipping toothpaste off her chin.

Phoebe smiled faintly.

"Yes you do. Cocoa the clown? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da …"

Piper looked up thoughtfully at Phoebes a skewed version of the circus song. Paige looked up questioningly, and waited for phoebe to include her in the conversation. She hated that. Not sharing the memories of her sister's childhood. The one she was so constantly reminded that she hadn't been a part of.

Like now…-

" He was a physics teacher." Phoebe explained, reading Paige's: 'Your leaving me out.' expression.

"He gave Piper her first and only detention. She was devastated." Phoebe grinned reminiscently.

"So Prue spread this rumour, that he was a clown called Cocoa, in his spare time. It was all over the school."

Phoebe and Piper burst into simultaneous laughter. Neither of them even saw Paige's: 'You're leaving me out.' face.

Piper clasped a guilty hand over her mouth.

"No! We-we cant laugh." She stuttered.

"Phoebe he's dead! Phoebe… Phoebe, stop it! He's dead!"

"Okay. Okay… But it just struck me as weird is all. His throat was slit with an athame. And an emerald set, solid gold athame at that."

"Interesting." Paige exclaimed.

"I mean in a terrible, awful, 'must catch the murderer, dammit!' kind of way."

"Right." Piper said.

"Or in a, 'I must spit out this toothpaste, and call Darryl.' kind of way."

"Oooh." Phoebe nodded,

"Good plan."

( Ten minutes later.)

"Hey guys. I was gonna call you later."

Darryl Morris's friendly voice emanated from the speakerphone, easily migrating the full extent of the Halliwell's living room.

Sprawled across the coach, Paige idly twirled a lock of her loosely curled hair around her manicured fingers.

"Should we be flattered or scared?" She asked dryly.

"Probably scared."

Paige forced herself into an upright position, and cast a worried glance at her two sisters and their beaus.

Piper was slumped next to her on the couch, absentmindedly playing with her belt tassels. At Darryl's confirmation, she shot a look similar to Paige's at Leo; who was casually leaning over the couch behind her.

Phoebe was comfortably nestled on the sofa opposite, in Cole's affectionate embrace. She suppressed a giggle when he inappropriately muttered:

"So what else is new?"

Paige rolled her eyes; secretly wondering how Phoebe could be in love with someone as physically sickening as Cole. And that was without taking the whole ex-demon thing into consideration.

Eeeeeeewwwwww.-

"Something wrong Paige?" he asked coldly, tightening his smarmy hold on her sister.

Paige smiled sweetly.

"Probably." She quipped.

"Carry on Darryl."

"We've had a few cases recently. Murders." He said, pausing for dramatic effect.

"My guess is that they're supernatural, but as we all know, I'm no expert; so I thought it best to ask you lovely people."

Piper raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows, in pre-sarcasm fashion.

"How will we ever express our undying gratitude?" She drawled monotonously.

Paige sighed. Sometimes she seriously worried about her sisters. Phoebe was a complete optimist who, when it came to Cole, had her head permanently stuck in the clouds. Piper on the other hand, was often way to grounded by her pessimistic half. Not that Paige could blame her. Loosing their late sister Prue, had hit her hard.

I know the saying.- Paige thought.

Once bitten, twice as shy…-

Although they were now very close, Paige had more than a few unfond memories of how unwilling Piper had been to accept her as a sister, when they had first discovered Paige's existence.

That's all in the past now.- she reminded herself.

Focus on the present. Dead physicist, supernatural killings, Darryl's droning voice…-

She snapped back into concentration, just as Darryl started talking again.

"I'm sure you'll find a way." He laughed.

"Anyway back to these cases…"

"What makes you think they were supernatural?" Leo asked.

"Well, all three murders were committed with an athame."

"Could be a complete coincidence." Cole suggested.

"It was the same athame." Darryl said, immediately quashing Cole's theory.

"It was a-"

"Solid gold, emerald encrusted athame?" Phoebe finished.

Paige threw her arms up in mock amazement.

"The girl can read!"

"The bizarre thing was," Darryl continued.

"the athame managed to find its way out of police custody, twice. And that's not easy." He promised.

"It was the murder weapon and major evidence in a major case; which by the way is the other weird thing. The original case involved a cop of twenty years, stabbing his wife of thirty years to death. I knew him. He was a decent guy. About an hour after it happened, he turned himself in, athame in hand, covered in blood, and pleaded guilty to everything. But he swore blind he didn't remember doing it, or know how the athame came into his possession. The other two cases are pretty much the same. No motive, and serious memory loss."

"Are you sure Paige didn't have anything to do with it?" Cole smirked.

Okay he has got to stop these inappropriate comments!- Paige thought.

"It seems a little more your style." She said harshly, immediately regretting it when Phoebe gave her a withering look.

"Okay!" Piper said over enthusiastically.

"I think we should kill the athame wielding warlock, now, and argue latter."

Leo sighed.

"Which leads to the questions, how do we know it's a warlock? And if so, how do we kill it?"

"That's where you come in, honey." Piper said.

"Darryl, is there any chance that you could, um, borrow that athame for us?"

(Don't forget to review! Id REALLY like some feed back on this story! Not trying to sound like a broken record, but this is my first fan fiction and I really want to know what you think… I'll up date it when I get my first review!)