Chapter Four

Hatred Wagon

Piper carefully slid between a frozen police officer and the half opened door of the house, trying not to disturb either one of them. She gave a sharp intake of breath and automatically averted her eyes.

"Oh yuck," Paige said from the doorway.

"Oh yuck" was a rather simple way to put it, and somehow it didn't quite sum up the bloody scene. The couch was on its backside, its cushions ripped to shreds; a standing lamp was on the floor, its lamp shade gone and its bulb smashed; along with other assorted mess on the ground, old magazines and left over pizza, was the bloodied remains of a man.

"It looks like a wild animal attacked," Paige said softly, approaching the body, and turning a little green in the face. "Yeah look, there're claw marks." She pointed at the mans neck.

Piper, forcing herself not to throw up, looked at the body. However, instead of looking at the claw marks, she couldn't help but look at the man's face. His eyes were wide with terror, and his mouth was hanging open. Whatever had attacked him had certainly given him quite a shock...

"What's this?" Paige asked, pointing her finger towards something green on the man's chest.

Piper grabbed Paige's wrist. "Don't touch that!"

"I wasn't going to, I know its a crime scene," Paige rolled her eyes.

"That's not why," Piper said, shock creeping into her voice. "The last time I saw green slime like that, a demon was crouched over my head." She glanced up, almost expecting to see the creature she had vanquished the day before sitting on the ceiling.

Paige stared in surprise. "This must be what Darryl meant..." She glanced around looking for more evidence of a demon having been present. Instead something else caught her eye: a bicycle helmet laying in the corner.

She stood up and walked over to it, careful not to step on any frozen officer's feet.

"This looks familiar," she said, picking it up.

"Paige! You aren't suppose to be touching things!"

"Well, oh well! Look at it," she thrust it towards Piper.

"It's a helmet, what's your point?"

"This," she spun the helmet around and pointed at the deep scratches in the side of it. Along with the scratches were several pieces of gravel deeply embedded into the plastic covering of the foam helmet. "Most helmets don't get marks like that unless their riders fall off very hard... or are, say... hit by a car!"

Piper stared. While this new theory registered, something caught her eye. Something was clutched in the dead man hand.

"Paige... I think you maybe onto something..." Forgetting it was a crime scene, she slid the piece of paper out of his frozen grip. "Ever Ready Issuance," she read from the paper.

"The accident yesterday! That was the drivers insurance!"

"Then this is the girl's house," Piper finished the thought.

"Where is she then?" Paige asked, glancing at the mangled body of what she was now assuming was the girls father and shuddered.

"I don't know... let's check upstairs."

On the stairs they had to dodge between two frozen detectives, taking pictures of a trail of blood leading down the stairs. The two sisters followed the trail to a bed room. Here they found another body, a woman, the girls mother, more brutally mangled than the man's downstairs.

"Look there's more of the demon's slime," Paige pointed at the floor which was covered in small burn marks with slime residue.

Suddenly a though struck Piper.

"What did Phoebe say she felt at the accident?"

Paige stared blankly for a moment, then remembered what Piper was referring to. "Something about feeling something scattered and demonic."

"What if the parents didn't call back Mr. My-Car-Is-Worth-So-Much... and he turned out to be a revenge seeking demon..." Piper thought out loud.

"She did give him her home address since she didn't have their insurance information," Paige's eyes lit up as all the pieces fell into place.

"We have to track this guy down somehow..." Piper bit her lip.

"Hatred wagon!" Paige cried out enthusiastically.

Piper raised her eyebrows confused. "What?"

"His license plate! It was one of those vanity plates it said 'hatred wagon!'" Paige was delighted with her remembering the small detail of the plate. "Well I guess it didn't really say 'Hatred Wagon'... but it said H-T-R-D-W-G-N!" She moved her index finger through the air as she spoke, as if writing out each letter in the air.

Piper stared at her, her mouth opening and closing slowly like a fish.
"Paige..." Piper covered her eyes with her hand. "Are you sure it wasn't suppose to say 'Hot Red Wagon?'"

Paige blinked and drew back in mild surprise. "Oh."

"Yeah. 'Oh'." Piper nodded sarcastically. "Come on, let's get Darryl to run the plate number."

"Letters."

"Whatever!"

The two of them inched their way around the crime scene, being careful not to touch anything or anyone, and retook their positions standing directly in front of Darryl on the front lawn.

With a quick wave of Piper's hands the crowd was suddenly muttering to itself again, the police officers were shouting orders of dispersal, and Darryl was standing there, starring at them expectantly.

"So whenever you're ready," he said, nodding rapidly.

"We need you to run a plate number," Piper told him.

"But you haven't – Oh..." he had gestured at the house, but then realized where he erred.

"Hatred wagon," Paige said quickly.

"Hot red wagon," Piper corrected, exasperated.

Darryl looked confused.

"H-T-R-D-W-G-N" the two said in perfect synchronism.

Darryl drew his eyebrows together in surprise and confusion, and, dumbstruck, walked to his patrol car and climbed inside it. After a minute of typing on a small keyboard in the patrol car, and another moment of scribbling the information on a piece of paper, he stepped back out of the car.

"Owner is Matthew Rowe, age 43, five foot-sev-"

"Less details, more location!" Paige said frustrated, not particularly caring if Darryl could tell her his shoe size.

"Well you might like the little detail that he's been arrested and charged twice for assault with a deadly weapon," Darryl said bluntly. "Do you mind telling me how he fits into that," he pointed at the house.

"We don't know for a fact that it does... Not yet atleast," Piper bit her lip. "But it's defiantly something demonic, and he might have a connection."

"Well here is his last known home address and company address as of when this record was last updated, three years ago," he handed them the piece of paper.

Piper took it from him and read it quickly.

"Wilson and Allen Investing," she mumbled. "Never heard of them, but the address is downtown." She turned to Paige, "we better get Phoebe for this."

# # # #

"Would you mind telling me what is going on atleast?" Leo asked picking up Wyatt.

"There is a demon somewhere killing innocents and we have to find it, I just want to make sure Wyatt is safe," Piper told him easily. She didn't add the fact that she didn't know anything about the demon other than it drooled burning green acid. "Leo please."

"Alright, alright," he orbed, taking Wyatt with him.

With their always perfect timing Paige and Phoebe walked through the front door.

"I hope this is important, I was in the middle of a very important business meeting," Phoebe said, looking flushed and flustered.

"Gawking at underage interns doesn't count as a business meeting," Paige mumbled in a peevish sing song voice.

Phoebe slapped Paige's arm while Piper make a face, "Yeech..."

"Hey! Why are we wasting time! I thought we had a demon to fight!" Phoebe snap, desperate to change the subject.

"We wouldn't have wasted so much time if you hadn't insisted on driving back," Paige said, still enjoying irritating her half sister.

"Alright, that's enough," Piper cut in before Phoebe could make a rebuttal. "Let's go."

The traffic was fairly light, and most of the traffic lights were in their favor, so it only took ten minutes for the sisters to arrive at the investing firm's parking lot; it was more than enough time to fill Phoebe in on what was going on. As they walked towards the entrance of the multistory building, Paige suddenly gave a short harsh laugh. Phoebe and Piper turned in surprise, and found Paige pointing at "Employee of the Month" parking space, and a familiar red car parked in it. Piper rolled her eyes, but Phoebe had a sudden childish urge to scratch her car keys over the heavily waxed driver side door.

Inside the building they met an unexpected obstacle: the receptionist.

"Good morning! How can I help you!" She said cheerfully and flashed them a full smile.

Piper thought she was going to be physically ill if the woman kept smiling like that for much longer.

"We're here to see Matthew Rowe," she forced her own little smile.

"Do you have an appointment?"

Mentally Piper kicked herself. No of course they didn't.

"No..." Piper said slowly hoping an idea would come to mind. Nothing did.

"Oh I'm sorry then, you'll have to make an appointment," her shiny smile never wavered.

"This is about the kid he ran down yesterday with his car," Paige jumped in, always the diplomat.

Finally, much to Piper's relief, the overly perky smile faded and was replaced by shock.

"Uncle Matty did what?" She gasped.

Uncle? Piper thought in surprise.

"We're here on behalf of one of the investigators," Phoebe chimed in. "We'd like to go up and talk to him."

The receptionist gapped at them, but didn't say anything. The three took that as permission and quickly went to the elevators. Fortunately one of them was already on the ground floor, and the door opened up before the poor girl had time to recover.

When the doors slide close Phoebe smacked herself in the head.

"What floor are we going to?!"

"Three," Paige said easily, pressing the button.

"How do you know?" Phoebe asked, shocked.

"I know how to read a directory," she said in a high-and-mighty voice, as if this was a grand accomplishment.

Piper rolled her eyes as the elevator dinged announcing it had arrived. She stepped off of the elevator promptly followed by a cockily smiling Paige, and an, again, irritated Phoebe.

The three sister followed signs pointing them in the direction of the proper office, then knocked and opened the door without waiting for a response from inside. The man inside jumped in surprise, knocking several papers on the ground.

"Excuse me but who are-" he started, rising to his feet. His desk intercom cut him off.

"Uncle Matty!" Came the flustered voice of the receptionist, "Uncle Matty there are three women who want to talk to you about your accident!"

The man blinked and stared at the intercom, then back at the Halliwell sisters. Suddenly he recognized them, and pressed a button on the intercom.

"Thank you Susan." Releasing the button he sat back down. "How can I help you?"

Instead of answering the question Piper and Paige looked at Phoebe.

"Anything?" Piper asked, her hands casually raised and ready to blow the guy up if he was indeed a demon.

Slowly Phoebe shook her head, "I sense irritation, nothing demonic."

"Ladies I'm a very busy man, if there is something I can do to help you, please be quick."

"Did you ever get called back from Kayla Couter's parents?" Paige asked.

The man frowned. "No I did not. I certainly hope they plan to take responsibility for their daughter's actions."

Piper and Paige were already ignoring him and looking at Phoebe.

"He's telling the truth," she shook her head slowly, confused.

"Well of course I am!" the man turned bright red. "What is this all about! Who are you and wha-"

With a quick flick of her hands Piper froze the room and the raving man along with it.

"Well if he isn't our demon who is?" Piper asked.

Phoebe and Paige shook their heads, they had no more idea than Piper did.

Piper shrugged and unfroze the room.

"-t right do you have to be questioning me!?" He continued his rant, unaware of the brief time stop.

The sisters ignored him and simply walked towards the door of the office.

"Hey! Where are you going?" He demanded.

As the door closed behind them they could hear him push the intercom button and call for security.

Paige quickly pushed the down button on the elevator, and the three of them stepped inside.

When the elevator reached the lobby, two security guards found it empty. Unknown to the confused guards, the three who were inside had already orbed to the parking the lot and were driving away.

After a through searching of the building, the security guards concluded the "three insane women" (the only description they had to go on) had left the building.

[A/N, Hey folks, hope you enjoyed that. Now just so that you know I do (very happily) read review, here are some replies to some:

Triquetra: You seriously must be my most dedicated reader dude!

Thinkhard: I meant for the end of chapter one to be confusing :D

Silvermoon8705: 11 was just the arbitrary age I picked... no it wasn't an HP reference... lol

Rachael: Look! I posted more more more more more!

Thanks to: CharmedGirl4, SAMARA, charmedfan and Moose for writing too!]