Chapter 4- The First Case or Is It The Last….

Two Weeks Later

" Lunch!" yelled Anza with a grin as he walked into the Safety Patrol office with Tehama and Fillmore. Cody and Ingrid were sitting on their desks and had been talking about a band that they both liked a lot.

" Yeah yeah," Cody said as he shot Ingrid a grin, " we know that you're a freak for food."

" No kidding," Fillmore said with a grin, " all you ever want is food."

" You are weird," Tehama put in while giving him a grin, " try thinking about school instead of food and you might end up passing something." Everyone roared with laughter except for Anza, who looked a bit angry.

" Oh shut up," he snapped, and when they did nothing to try and stop laughing he shoved Ingrid into Cody and Tehama into Fillmore, Cody saw Ingrid falling towards him so he instinctively put out his arms and caught her ignoring the spark that went through his arms. Huh? She's pretty light, she smells good…what? Where did that come from? He shook his head and looked down at her, she just looked up at him.

Anza shoved her, and now she was falling, she waited for the floor to come up and meet her but instead she felt a pair of strong arms catch her. Looking up she saw Cody; he was looking down at her with a curious look on his face. She stood up, but they were still standing close together, and then they heard their radios.

" Calling all Safety Patrol officers," squawked Vallejo, " calling all Safety Patrol officers, we have an emergency. I need all officers to report to the cheerleader's shed, where they keep all their extra supplies. Immediately and no Anza, there is no time for lunch."

Anza groaned unhappily, and everyone tossed their stuff on their desks and headed towards the door. Cody looked at Ingrid again and then walked away towards the door after Anza and Ingrid shook her head and followed after him.

Walking outside they realized immediately how serious this was, there was a fire truck stopped across the field, where the cheerleader's shed was. All five of us broke into a run and made it across the field in half the time it would have taken them if they had walked. As we stopped in front of what remained of the shed, we just stared. Everything that was left was burnt completely black and nothing would be salvaged out of the remains. The roof had sort of fallen in, but there were some pieces of it still up and the outer part of the building was basically in one piece, but the fire had burnt a few large holes in the walls, it was like a box with holes.

" Whoa…." Said Tehama, taking in the scene of destruction.

" Double whoa…." Anza murmured softly as he glanced at Tehama, looking for reassurance.

" What…who…" Fillmore was trying to make words, but not a lot was coming out. Cody opened his mouth to say something but was cut off, by a loud squeal.

" Cody!" shrieked the same voice, and a girl came practically out of nowhere and flung herself into Cody's arms, he staggered just not falling. A look of shock was upon his face as he looked down trying to figure out who was hugging him. Penny Madrid was the girl who had her arms wrapped around him, looking over her head at Anza, Fillmore, Tehama and Ingrid, he gave them a curious look, as if saying where did she come from. But Anza and Fillmore were doubled over with silent laughter and Tehama was smiling and Ingrid put all of her effort into her bored uncaring expression. Seeing them he scowled and simply put his arms around her and pulled her off him a bit so that he could see her face. Seeing that it was tear stained he sighed and put a softer look on his face.

" Penny…." Cody said softly, " What happened here."

" Cody…" Penny whispered, " We don't know we were walking over to get some extra pom-poms and we saw that it was on fire. So we ran back to the school and called the Safety Patrol and then we called the fire department. And they came and put the fire out, and we've been answering questions from them ever since." She pointed to Vallejo, Danny, the firemen and Principal Folsom as she said them.

" Okay," Anza said drawing Penny's attention on to him, and allowing Cody to step away from her and closer to the others, " what was in there?"

" Spare uniforms, spare pom-poms, some banners, and just some extra clothes, I think that, that's it," she said slowly, " why, do you think that whoever did this took some stuff?"

" It's possible," said Fillmore, " then they could have torched it to get rid of any evidence, do the cheerleaders have any enemies or anyone with a grudge?"

" Are you kidding?" Penny said with an astonished look at him, " of course not. Everyone loves us, I mean we're X's cheerleaders! Who would have a grudge against us?" and with that she turned and walked back to the other cheerleaders.

" Oh please," scowled Cody as he rolled his eyes, " the cheerleaders have got to have plenty of enemies. And even if all of them don't, I know that Penny does have a few enemies. Right guys." Looking around the small circle, Anza, Fillmore and Tehama nodded their heads.

" So we have a fire," started Tehama everyone nodded again, " no suspects yet, because the cheerleaders are perfect." She said the last part with so much sarcasm that they had to smile.

" Ok then," Anza said with a smile, " how do we start a case with no suspects?"

" We search for clues in that." Cody said while turning and pointing at what was left of the shed.

" Me and Anza will go," he said while taking off his jacket, " you guys search the surrounding area for clues. Ok?"

" Okay." Everyone said simultaneously, and all of them turned and walked away. Anza and Cody having taken off their jackets they walked towards the remains of the shed, after being cleared to go in by the firemen they walked in slowly. Checking around, they could see that they probably wouldn't find anything in here, but they kept looking anyways.

" Cody," Anza called him over, " look at this, I don't think that the cheerleading team would have much use for a guys watch do you?"

" No not much use no," bending over to pick it up in a handkerchief so that if their were fingerprints on it they wouldn't be smudged, " it might have been dropped by the culprit, or someone else, maybe Tehama can check it out." Hearing a noise behind them, they turned quickly to find Fillmore, Ingrid and Tehama, looking annoyed.

" What?" Anza asked, " I thought that you were going to look for clues outside."

" We were," scowled Tehama, " her royal highness Meagan Sheltzer said that we should look in here, because that's where the clues would be."

" Whose she to tell you guys what to do?" Cody said curiously, " and why would you listen to her anyways?"

" Guys…." Ingrid said softly, trying to get their attention for something, but no one paid any attention right now.

" Because of Vallejo," Fillmore said disgusted, " he likes her so after she said that he sent us in here and went off to ' question' her in private."

" Pathetic," Anza spat out, " and he tells us not to get emotionally involved."

" Guys," Ingrid said louder this time, and with a bit of panic in her voice.

" What?" Cody said looking over at her and the others looked over too.

" Look up" she said grimly, everyone looked up and then nobody moved. There was a remote controlled helicopter, hovering above what was left of the roof. It had a large rock tied to the bottom, and looked like it was about to drop it.

" Don't make any sudden movements," Fillmore whispered, " if that helicopter drops that then…. well you know, it'll just be really bad." He didn't want to say that the remains of the shed would probably fall on them.

" Okay," Cody said softly, " it hasn't dropped it and it's been like five minutes, I don't think that the person controlling it knows that we've seen it." As he said that the helicopter moved a tiny bit, and they all froze and looked up again.

" Hey!" came a loud high voice, they all winced, " what're you guys looking at in there?" as the sentence finished the rock fell from the helicopter and it flew away, it was like in slow motion the rock fell and they all just watched it until it hit the last beam that was supporting what was left of the roof. The rock went right through it and hit the beam that was supporting one of the walls. At first nothing happened but no one dared to breath and then it all started to shake. As the roof came falling down, they all got into action.

" Run like hell!" Anza screamed as it started to fall towards them, and everyone did. Anza grabbed Tehama's hand and they ran out one side, Fillmore ran with his hands over his head the other way. Cody glanced at Ingrid who hadn't moved yet, but as he did he saw a huge piece coming down from the roof it was going to land on her. He ran towards her and grabbed her hand, waking her out of her daze they ran out of the remains just in time, as it all came crashing down. Collapsing down beside Anza, Cody was breathing heavily, Anza was looking at the ground panting heavily, Tehama and Fillmore were sitting on the ground taking deep breaths and Ingrid was looking at her hands beside Cody.

" Holy god," shouted Vallejo as everyone came running towards the group, " that was so close you guys."

" No kidding" snapped Fillmore who regained his composure faster than the others, " wow Vallejo you're a genius."

" Are you all alright?" Folsom asked looking worried, and motioning for the firemen to come and check them.

" We're fine, aren't we guys?" Anza asked getting up shakily and looking around at them.

" Yeah, no one got hurt," Cody, said softly, " luckily, though it was a close call."

After the firemen had checked them all out and pronounced that no one had been injured everyone went looking for clues about the operator of that helicopter until just Cody and Ingrid were left with the adults. He glanced over at Ingrid who was looking at the ground, she was shaking slightly, but the firemen had said that she was fine. He walked over to her; she was facing away from him looking at the school. His instinct was telling him to put his arm around her and comfort her, and make her feel safe. Taking a deep breath he went with his instinct and put his arm around her. She turned her head to look at his face, and then she simply turned and embraced him, sobbing into his shirt he just held her.

I was almost been killed, her mind was screaming, when the rock dropped it was like every muscle in my body decided not to move, if Cody hadn't of grabbed my hand then I think that I would have died. She turned away from the others and stared at the school, replaying the accident in her head over and over. She heard someone walk up behind her but didn't turn until she felt an arm slid around her shoulders. It's Cody, she thought instantly knowing, without looking. Turning to look at his face she saw concern in his eyes, feeling her own eyes start to water she turned fully and wrapped her arms around him crying into his chest. She felt his other arm slid around her waist, and felt completely safe in his arms. After a few minutes they broke apart due to the fact that Anza was yelling for them.

" Hey!" Anza shouted, " Cody! Ingrid! Everyone! I found something that definitely doesn't belong here!" everyone came running over and saw him holding up a jacket with a stick.

" Does it have a name on the collar," asked Ingrid, she had stopped crying and regained her composure. Cody was standing right behind her and he just grinned.

" Yeah it does!" said Tehama happily, " it belongs too a… Derek West. Anyone ever heard of him?"

" Nope" answered Fillmore, " Anza, Cody, and Ingrid you guys ever heard of him?" Anza and Cody shook their heads, but Ingrid nodded slowly.

" He went to one of my old schools," she said softly, they could barely hear her, " he was a real bully, but he got expelled for something. I don't know what, I had already moved when he was expelled." Cody looked at her but she adverted her eyes to the ground. He got the feeling that there was a bit more to this story than what she was telling them.

" Okay," he said stepping forward, " now we have our first suspect, let's go find him!"