A/N: Two chapters in the same month. Woo! And to the guest that reviewed, I have three brothers. My underwear drawer was the only place I knew they wouldn't get into because girl underwear was "gross". XD

Enjoy.

Chapter 39

"Good morning, Catherine!" Torvald greeted the knife thrower cheerfully. "And how are you feeling this morning Kirimek?" he asked the girl trailing Cathy like a shadow.

The girl gave him a small shrug but didn't say anything.

"I'm taking her to see Paul this morning. The Manager thinks working with the animals will be good for her. I think she's a little nervous about it," Cathy explained.

"Ah. I see. You have no need to fear Johnson," Torvald told the girl. He knelt down and whispered conspiratorially, "He is big pushover. You'll see."

The girl he had dubbed Kirimek lived up to her nickname and stayed silent but he thought she looked just a little less nervous.

"Come on, hon. The sooner we get it over with, the sooner you can relax," Cathy told her gently.

The girl nodded and followed Cathy to the animal tent.

"Paul?" Cathy called when she didn't see the hostler.

"Back here!"

Cathy followed the voice back to the horse stalls and stopped by the hay bales piled nearby.

"Just getting the stalls mucked out," Paul explained as he spread out fresh hay with a pitchfork. He could see the girl hovering behind Cathy. "Hey, Kirimek, ready to start working?"

Cathy frowned. "Torvald used that word before. Is it a greeting?"

"It's her name," Paul said with a shrug. "Torvald picked it out and she said she liked it."

"What was it? Keerim…"

"Kirimek. Torvald pronounces it Keer-im-kay," Paul said slowly.

"Keer-im-kay? Did I say that right?"

Paul shrugged. "Sounded right to me, but then, I don't speak Azerbaijani. You might want to check with Torvald to make sure."

"I'll do that." Cathy turned to the girl. "So, Kirimek, will you be alright with Paul? He's going to show you what to do."

Kirimek took a breath and gave a small nod. She was clearly nervous. Cathy wondered if she ought to stay for a while.

"Don't worry about anything. We're going to have fun today," Paul assured her. "You'll be rehearsing in the main tent, right? If anything happens we'll look for you there."

Cathy nodded and left them to their work.

Paul looked at Kirimek who was biting her lip as she tried to melt into the background. "Well, I know you like the horses, so how about we start with them? Come with me."

Paul led the girl out to the corral and handed her a feed bag. "I'm going to show you how to put this on the horses so that you don't have to stand there and hold it. We don't use these all the time because it's usually easier to just let them graze or eat out of the trough. But sometimes the bags are good for keeping them from nipping at each other when they're bored."

Paul clicked his tongue and Goliath came trotting over. Paul hadn't quite figured out what the horse's issue was yet but he hated the idea of having to get rid of him. "I'll show you on Goliath and then you can try on Buttercup. She's a lot more patient than this big lug."

Paul patted the black horse's neck affectionately before strapping on the feed bag. "There. It's easy. Just slip the strap over the ears." Paul clicked his tongue again, this time in a different rhythm, and Buttercup ambled over. "I'll teach you their signals later so you can call them yourself. Go ahead. Give it a try."

The girl looked unsure but held the bag out for Buttercup to stick her head in. The horse pushed her head inside and Kirimek dropped the bag to the ground. She looked up at Paul, clearly afraid he was going to yell at her.

"It's okay," Paul assured her as he bent down and slipped the strap over the horse's ears. "Sometimes the horses get a little excited. You'll get it."

Paul handed her the next feed bag. "Try again with Rocky. He's a bit more rambunctious than Buttercup, so be ready."

Rocky practically ran over at his signal, stopping in front of Paul. Kirimek held the bag out and the horse stuck his head in. This time she almost dropped it, but managed to slide it over the gelding's ears.

"Good. If you look closely at the bags they're marked. Each horse has their own so we don't have to adjust them every time we use them." Paul showed her where the horse's names were while the horses contentedly munched on their treat. "If the bags are too tight the horses could suffocate. We definitely don't want that."

Kirimek nodded.

"Come with me and I'll show you where we keep their tack and brushes. Once I've shown you that, we'll bring in Buttercup and I'll show you how to groom them. That'll be a big help for me because Rocky likes to roll in the dirt. He takes forever to get clean some days and I have other things I need to do."

"So how'd she take it?"

Heero plopped into a chair and looked at his boyfriend. "As well as could be expected. I had to show her the girl's picture before she would cooperate." Heero scowled. "I don't understand her. She begs us to provide security for her and then when I tell her she isn't safe she argues with me. If she didn't intend to listen to what we have to say why did she want us here in the first place?"

Duo had his own theory on Relena's motives but decided to keep his trap shut for once. He didn't want Heero to think he was being immature by pointing out that Relena just wanted them around so she could ogle Heero's backside. He'd agreed to give Relena a chance and he had to admit that the princess wasn't so bad most of the time.

"Have you checked the bugs recently?"

"Huh?"

Heero frowned. "Have you been listening? I asked if you checked the transmissions from the bugs you left at Whitaker's estate."

"Oh…uh…I was just pulling them up." Duo quickly brought up the program that was recording the bug transmissions.

Heero stood. "I'll get us some dinner. This looks like it might take a while."

"Yeah…thanks. I guess we ought to check this a little more often so it doesn't build up like this," Duo muttered as he pulled up the first file. "Or maybe we should have one of the other guys check this while they're hanging out in the hospital."

"Have you cracked it yet, Trowa?" Wufei asked as he brought the green eyed pilot a mug of coffee.

"Yes. Her computer was rather easy to hack. Thank you," Trowa added as he took the coffee. "What are we looking for?"

Wufei sat with a cup of tea. "Any sign of bullying or anything that might give us a clue as to why she killed herself."

Trowa nodded and started digging through the computer's history. Wufei picked up Penelope's diary and began flipping through it, starting at the end and working his way back. He figured that anything that would have been traumatic enough to make her hang herself would have happened shortly before she decided to go through with it.

"Hmmm…"

Wufei looked up from the diary. All he'd found so far was that she was pining over some guy. "Did you find something?"

"I'm not sure. Do you have the list of students she went to school with?"

Wufei opened his laptop and brought up the list. "Who am I looking for?"

"Kid by the name of JC Harris."

Wufei frowned. "Harris? Why is that name familiar? Wait…isn't that who we suspect Chase really is?"

Trowa nodded. "Yeah. That's why I want to see if he exists at her school. He has a student email address."

Wufei searched through the names. "There's a Jordan Harris…nope. According to the school records his middle name is Ryan. Harris is a fairly common last name but the first and middle names don't match up. He's a ghost."

Trowa swore. "You should read some of the emails this guy sent her. He starts out innocently enough, asking for homework help and saying he thinks she's pretty but he's too shy to talk to her in person. But then he starts asking her what she does for work and how much she makes. This one says he knows how she can make a lot of money really fast and if she's interested to meet up with him."

Wufei frowned. "What date was she supposed to meet with him? Maybe she wrote about it in here."

"April 17th."

Wufei flipped through the book. "Here it is. 'Met with JC today. He's really cute but he looks a lot older than me. Maybe he repeated a few grades. He's always asking me for homework help. He said he knows a man that will get me good money if I agree to be an escort. I don't know how I feel about that. JC said it wouldn't be sex or anything, just being a date for someone who needs it. He said the man he knows is friends with a lot of politicians and rich guys that don't like to show up to charity balls and stuff alone. I told him I would think about it but the more I do, the less I like the idea. I mean, the money would be great but at the same time, what if one of those creepy old guys tried something? I'd rather not mess with it. I'll just have to save up for my car.'"

"Does she meet with him after that?" Trowa asked. "The emails are pretty vague about meeting up. But some of these are pretty threatening."

Wufei read through the diary. "She met with him again and told him thanks but no thanks. He got mad…threatened to start a rumor about her at school…she writes that she never hears any rumors but is certain they'll start any day…"

"Does she seem worried about the rumors?"

"Not really. A few days after he threatened to start the rumors she writes that he came to her and apologized." Wufei groaned. "She met with the guy JC told her about. She describes him pretty well. Listen to this: 'He's a really old guy. Okay, so maybe he's not super old but his hair is going gray. And he's got a mustache, but it looks like an old guy mustache. His house is pretty sweet. He even has body guards and guard dogs. It's obvious he's loaded. I guess you can get away with having a bad mustache if you're rich. People expect you to be excentric.'" Wufei frowned. "She misspelled 'eccentric.'"

Trowa rolled his eyes. "You're not correcting her spelling, Wufei."

"It just seems odd because nothing else is misspelled and she was an honor student. It's out of place."

"I see your point. Does she say anything else?"

Wufei scanned the rest of the entry. "Just that he offered her a cookie, which she describes as 'a cheap snickerdoodle' and she hadn't made up her mind if she was going to work for him yet."

"He offered her a snickerdoodle? Isn't that the kind of cookie Duo sold Whitaker 50 boxes of?"

Wufei swore and stood. "I'm going to speak with Une. We might have another full investigation on our hands. Keep digging through her computer and see if there's anything else. I'm going to get a copy of the autopsy and see if there's anything out of place. I have a hard time believing this is all coincidental."

"Here are the lead ropes, halters and the bridles. Let's get Buttercup so I can show you how to use these."

Paul took the items off the tack wall and led Kirimek back to the corral. He clicked his tongue for Goliath and removed the nosebag. He did the same for Rocky. When he called Buttercup over, he had the girl remove the bag.

"Okay, so you want to put the halter on her this way." Paul put the halter on the gray horse and then removed it. "Here, why don't you try?"

The girl looked at him like he was crazy.

Paul frowned. "What?"

Kirimek rolled her eyes and pointed at the shoulder brace she wore.

"Oh…right…sorry," Paul muttered as he put the halter back on Buttercup. There was no way she could get the halter on with one hand, especially since she'd never done it before. "Well…you get the idea anyway. We'll try again once you get that thing off. I'll try to get the halters on in the mornings. That way you can just attach the lead rope when you need to lead Buttercup somewhere. I'll show you how to get the bridles on when you can use both hands. It'll be easier. But for now, you just attach the lead rope here."

Paul showed the girl the clip on the end of the rope and where to attach it on the halter. Buttercup held still and Kirimek was able to clip the rope on.

"When you can use both hands to do this I'll show you how to properly tie a rope lead. But for now you can use this one. Buttercup's pretty easy going but it might be better if you get me to move Rocky and Goliath until you get some strength back. They can be a bit of a handful when they want to be."

The girl nodded. Johnson opened the gate and led Buttercup out. He handed the rope to Kirimek and made sure the gate was secure.

"You always want to check the gate. The horses might not roam very far but it's easier in the long run just to take the time to close it properly. Do you understand?"

Kirimek nodded.

"Good. Now lead Buttercup into the animal tent."

Paul let the girl lead the horse and showed her which stall to take the horse into.

"To properly groom the horses, you'll use these different brushes." Paul explained each brush and how to use it. When he was certain that she understood he handed her the curry brush. "Start with this one. When you groom, you want to start at the top of the neck and work your way towards the tail. Do one side and then switch over to the other. Don't worry about the face and legs. They take a little more skill to do right because they're sensitive areas. So until you get some practice in I'll take care of those myself when I take care of the hooves. You won't be able to hold her leg and the tool with one hand so I'll do them until you've got the use of both your hands."

Kirimek nodded, but frowned.

Paul wondered if she thought she would be in trouble because she couldn't do the work. "Don't stress. Once you can use that other arm you'll probably be wishing you had the excuse not to. Now, I'm going to leave you to work on Buttercup while I check on some of the other animals. I won't be far so come find me if you need help, okay?"

When the girl nodded, Paul left her to her work. He still had to figure out what was wrong with Goliath.

A/N: The pronunciation for Kirimek's name comes from Google Translate so take it for what it's worth.