A/N: If all goes well, this will be up on Tuesday at the latest. I know I said this a few chapters back, but this may be the second to last chapter. I hadn't planned on killing Laura, but the idea was given to me by rudaxf and I ran with it. It was brought to my attention (Thanks Nix) that Ridley Scott is the name of one of the Numb3rs producers. For reasons unknown to me, his name was the one that that popped into my head when I was picking a name for this Ridley Scott. That was unintentional, and the name is not mine. Lil, Scottie, Vera, Jeffries and most of the characters don't belong to me either. Gosh, I'm a little thief, aren't I?
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"So, Mr. Scott. Do you know any of these people?" Vera demanded showing the pawnshop owner pictures of a younger Lil, Laura, John, and Laura's parents.
"Well of course I know the Hilsons. Ginger and Mike, and Laura. And John comes into the shop all the time. But I don't know this other cutie. Who is she?"
"That's something you don't need to know. Tell me about the ones you do know. Let's start with the Hilsons. How do you know them?"
"Well my daughter was playmates with Laura. Jenny's seven years older then Laura, but they were close friends."
"Were?" Ridley sighed.
"I'm divorced. My wife took my daughter out west somewhere. Haven't seen her in…gosh, fourteen years."
"I see. How'd you and your wife get along with the Hilsons?"
"Quite well. Sure there were the little arguments, like once Jenny had pulled Laura's hair and they weren't too happy about that, but Jenny apologized."
"How old was Jenny when your wife left you?"
"She was eleven. That was fourteen years ago, maybe thirteen years."
"Okay, thank you. How do you know John Vabbot?"
"Well, John comes into my shop every once in a while. Sells me things every once in a while."
"What kind of things?"
"Oh, various things. Antique stuff mostly."
"So, you know him through the Hilsons?"
"No, what makes you say that?"
"Well, we think he knows them. Can you confirm that?"
"No. I'm pretty sure he doesn't."
"Okay Mr. Scott. Thanks for your help, you're free to go."
"Oh, I doubt that helped you that much."
"Actually you've been quite helpful."
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLS"So he doesn't know the Hilsons?" Lil demanded, very confused.
"Not as far as Ridley Scott knows," Vera insisted, having just filled Lil in.
"But that makes absolutely no sense," pointed out Scottie, needlessly.
"Well we know it's a serial, and obviously there's the possibility that he's lying, but there's also the possibility that…" In the moment of silence that followed, Scottie realized exactly what the possibility that Vera was thinking of was, and willed him not to voice it. But Vera sighed, clearly not catching Scottie's hint, and said, "that we're looking at the wrong guy."
Lil was quiet for a while, and then, to Scottie's surprise and slight horror, she nodded silently.
"Yeah, maybe," she more or less whispered. She sighed, turning to Scottie.
"We have to go. I was thinking we should interview the vic's sister today. I called and told her we might stop by in about fifteen minutes." Scottie, had he been any less sure of what Lil's cold, matter-of-fact, manner meant, or if Vera wasn't there, would have said something to ease the pain he saw in Lil's eyes. As it was, the only thing that kept him from doing so was knowing that she would never break her tough-girl façade at work, and pushing her to do so would only cause her more pain. And so, suppressing his instinct to comfort her, he followed her in to the elevator, willing his mind to focus on the case that he and Lil were supposed to be working on.
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Jeffries watched Vera break the news to Lil and Scottie noting the way that Lil's face fell, and the way Scottie's hand almost instinctively reached to comfort her before it fell back down to his side. Jeffries smiled. If he didn't know any better he'd swear there was something going on between those two. He watched as they left, leaving Vera to sigh.
"Well, that went well," Vera muttered sarcastically.
"Hey, nothing you can do to bend the facts. She'd be worse if you hadn't been straight up with her."
"Should've listened to Scottie. He knew it was a bad idea. But no, I had to go and suggest that she'd fingered the wrong guy." Jeffries winced.
"Yeah, not too smart. So, let's work this through. There are quite a few possibilities here. John kills Laura for personal reasons, meaning Ridley Scott's lying for him. But why."
"There has to be some way that Ridley would go down if he gave up John. That could be for many reasons. John could have bought him. He could have threatened him. He could be in with him."
"I don't know. Assault and rape is a one-person job. What's in it for Ridley?"
"Darned if I know. What are we over looking?" They were silent, both thinking it through. Then, Jeffries had it.
"The necklaces. Both…victims had necklaces that were stolen during the attacks."
"Necklaces? This guy rapes little girls for necklaces?"
"Hey, you just asked what we missed. You didn't ask me if it made sense."
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSSorry this is so short. So, how cute was that one scene in yesterday's episode where Scottie looks at Lil and she flinches and turns away (after the mom tells them that she was trying to find Cedric's body.) I know it doesn't sound too cute, but if you saw it you know what I'm talking about. Wow, I need to go to sleep.
givemecookies- Yay! You're back. Soon enough for you?
Mellie- Thank you. I think it's kinda cheesy, but whatever...
rudaxf- I am not raping Lil. Okay? Okay. But I will keep going.
Nix- Hey, my mom recognized him first. I was like OMG how did I miss that? I love Mikey. But now he's chips. Ah well. Seeing him made me miss JAG. alot.
justawriter- Homework's a...female dog. LOL.
Daya- Thank you for reviewing. Sometimes, they give me ideas, and sometimes the just push me to update faster. Either way, they help.
kawaii-peach14- Guess waiting for the next chapter is a necessity... HAHAHA
XDareXDevilX- Thank you again.