Disclaimer: Still not mine.
6-Instinct
"Need more paint." Mrs. Valens stood back to study the large wall looming in front of her. Only half of it was completely spring green. The other half was still white. Beside her both Lilly and Mr. Valens had come to inspect the wall. It had been four months since the family dinner. Now Scotty's parents practically lived at the new house, preparing it for the baby. Since that moment Lilly had become family, and at least once a week the entire clan was over for a meal and wedding plans.
Scotty's parents were planning on having a big wedding for their son and future daughter-in-law, especially now that Lilly was sporting a small engagement ring on her hand. Rosa and Gloria had taken Lilly shopping for baby supplies every weekend for three weeks until Scotty told them there was more than enough for ten kids after all the trips. But Lilly simply didn't mind. She felt like a part of the family, and she loved every single minute of it.
"I go to store," volunteered Mr. Valens digging through his pockets for his keys.
"I go too. Maybe find border for room. Baby border." Mrs. Valens quickly left the room rambling a mile a minute about wallpaper border designs for the baby's room. Mr. Valens and Lilly exchanged knowing glances before Mr. Valens turned to follow after his wife.
"There go your grandparents," murmured Lilly placing a hand on her stomach. "They're putting a lot of effort in this room so you better like it."
"Talking to yourself again?" teased Scotty as he popped his head into the unfinished room. "Come on, get outta there. You know the paint fumes are bad for you. You're not supposed to be in there, remember? Doctor's orders."
Lilly made a face but took Scotty's extended hand to leave the room. From the pocket of her coveralls she pulled out the first picture of their unborn child. They had finally had the sonogram a couple of days before, and Lilly couldn't stop looking at it. "Do you think his head is too big?" she asked as they walked down the stairs.
Scotty snorted. "She is perfectly normal."
"Well he looks like he might have a big head." Lilly thrust the picture under Scotty's nose, causing the Puerto Rican to stumble on the bottom step. He made note of where Lilly was pointing her finger and chuckled.
"Lil, that's not the head. You're not even close. That's just blank space."
"Really?" Lilly brought the picture inches away from her eyes and squinted as she tried to make out the baby. "They should start doing these damn pictures in color. How the hell do they expect you to know where the baby is?"
"I'm sure they're hard at work at it, Lil," soothed Scotty rolling his eyes. Lilly sniffed unsatisfactorily as she stuffed the picture back in her pocket.
"Is there any food left?" she asked suddenly.
"'Course there is. Rosa brought over another five course meal."
"Isn't she great? How come you can't cook like that, huh, Scotty?" Lilly walked into the kitchen with Scotty on her heels.
"Because God decided I was better off not becoming a professional cook," replied Scotty glibly as he watched Lilly make herself a plate of food from within the fridge.
"Well maybe you should learn how to cook now…I'm sure as hell not cooking."
Before Scotty could argue a knock came at the front door. Scotty disappeared briefly, giving Lilly time to pop her plate into the microwave. Minutes later he returned with Vera, Jeffries, and Stillman behind him.
"What brings you guys here?" questioned Lilly glancing up at the clock. It was barely one o'clock on a Sunday afternoon.
"Thought we'd come by and see the picture of the baby," answered Vera taking a seat at the kitchen table. Lilly brought her plate over to the table and sat down as she handed Vera the picture.
"Good look finding him."
"Her," corrected Scotty.
"Still can't agree?" murmured Stillman as he and Jeffries sat down along with Scotty. The younger officer shrugged nonchalantly.
"So what's the real reason you're here?" Scotty waited until the sonogram picture had been passed around before asking his question.
Stillman cleared his throat. "We need to do an unofficial rundown on the Abigail Martin case."
"Mrs. Martin called the department up after you guys left to get the sonogram on Friday. She wants answers," added Jeffries wryly.
"Did you tell her to go screw herself?" mumbled Lilly placing a fork-full of fresh beans in her mouth.
"As much as I would have liked to, no." Stillman heaved a weary sigh. "Where exactly are we with this case?"
"We've interviewed all parties involved," started Scotty counting off his fingers as he named names. "Annabelle, "Max", Calvin, Jeff…no one's giving us a coherent story."
"Yeah," agreed Vera leaning back in the wooden chair. "They all seem to contradict what the other person says. Jeff says he and Abby took a break and that he had proposed to her on the day she died."
Jeffries nodded along. ""Max" says that Abby had done drugs for a while, and then she quit and became afraid for her life. He says he found her body and took the drugs before running."
Lilly looked up with a frown. "But wasn't Abby found with drugs on her at the scene?"
Stillman paused thoughtfully. "We may want to double check that."
"So someone else had to have come across Abby's body and plant more drugs," pointed out Scotty.
"Unless the killer was still around," mused Lilly.
"Or "Max" was lying to us," snorted Vera shaking his head. "Man this case has almost as many twists and turns as the last one we did."
"What about Annabelle? What's her version of the story?" Stillman looked to Lilly for an answer.
"She claimed that Jake was Abby's dealer…and now she's getting married to him."
"Yeah, but Jeff's story didn't go down like that. He says he and Annabelle connected and fell in love. He made Abby out to be too damn busy for him," said Scotty. "Said she was always doing a bunch of extracurricular activities. You know, it sounds to me like wasn't too sorry for Abby when she died."
"Seemed a little relieved to me…especially since it was because of Abby's murder that he and Annabelle hooked up," remarked Vera. The gruff man looked down at the sound of a cat's meow. The expression on his face was priceless when the cat jumped into his lap and settled in for the long haul.
"New cat?" questioned Jeffries raising an eyebrow as Vera tried to get the cat off of him without touching it with his hands.
"Lil's other two cats found it outside one day—it hasn't left since then. Kind of annoying little critter if you ask me. Lil named it Stickers since it never lets go of you once he gets in your lap," answered Scotty with a grin.
"Now you tell me," groaned Vera. By now he was on his feet, but the tiny cat was hanging on for dear life. He plopped back down in his seat and gave an exaggerated sigh as the cat closed its eyes to go to sleep.
Lilly finally spoke up thoughtfully. "You know, there's something fishy about the whole Abby-Jake-Annabelle triangle."
"What do you mean? The guy obviously isn't over Abby," declared Vera darkly. He glared down at the cat in his lap as Lilly continued talking.
"Well for one thing I clearly remember Annabelle saying that she and Abby ran in two completely different groups. Why would Jake find comfort in the one person who looked exactly like his dead girlfriend? Annabelle is supposedly nothing like Abby. He had to have figured that out after hanging around Annabelle the last couple of years."
"Opposites attract," murmured Jeffries.
Lilly shook her head. "Yeah, but not like this. If Jeff really was over Abby and relieved when she died why would he torture himself by dating Annabelle?"
"What if we're going about this the wrong way?" asked Stillman. "What if Annabelle wouldn't give up her last link to Abby? It doesn't hurt as well that Jeff is coming into some serious money."
Vera frowned. "I dunno, Annabelle didn't seem all that interested in money. She seemed more the type to care about the person. She lives in a small apartment, kinda like she doesn't like bigger and better things. Just what she has."
"Didn't Calvin say that it was hard to tell Annabelle and Abigail apart?" Lilly's question hung in the air as the men tried to go over the case in their heads.
"What are you getting at, Lil?" Scotty narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the blonde woman sitting across from him.
"Just that Calvin mentioned the fact that not even Mrs. Martin was able to tell the girls apart since she didn't spend enough time with them. What if Abby wasn't the one who died that day? What if Annabelle was the one who died?"
"But that wouldn't make any sense," argued Vera.
"Sure it would. What do we know about Annabelle? Next to nothing? I say we dig up a little dirt on her and compare it to what we know about Abby. My instinct tells me that we're going to find Abby reincarnated."
"But what would be the point of saying that Abby was dead if she wasn't?" questioned Jeffries.
Lilly shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I just think that Annabelle is a lot like the Abby we've been hearing about for the past few months."
"So we still have no motive, and no suspect," sighed Stillman.
"That depends," replied Scotty. "Maybe Abby had a good reason to get rid of her twin and take her place."
A/N—It's been a while, I know, sorry. I'm already working on the next chapter. It's almost done. Enjoy.