Hey everybody. Sorry for keeping you waiting. School keeps you busy like that. Anyway, I hope to be posting regularly now since I have more free time. Thank you all for sticking with me and for all of your wonderful reviews. You guys are awesome!

P.S. For those of you who have read my Avengers fic Panic, I am overwhelmed by your reviews and all of you who favorited the story. Thank you all so, so much.

The parking lot of the little county station was full. Kurt couldn't imagine where all the people had come from to fill the vehicles. When he and Magnus entered the building, they found themselves crushed up against the walls by the myriad bodies milling about. It was as if the people were appearing out of the woodwork… like termites.

"What the hell is going on?" Magnus exclaimed. "Are they having a town yard sale or something?"

"Whatever it is, it's ridiculous," Kurt bit back. "Move about," he ordered. "See if you can find Schmidt." No sooner had he said that than the man in question emerged from his office. "Schmidt!" Kurt barked with all the vehemence the detective's own precinct knew him for.

Schmidt rolled his gaze toward Kurt with a withering look of impatience. "I believe that is Chief Schmidt, Detective," he said.

"Don't patronize me with courtesies," replied Kurt as he forcefully pushed his way through the throng. "What the hell is happening here!"

The chief moved toward Wallander, purposely stalling at each person that stood between them. It chafed at Kurt's very limited store of patience. "The parents of this town are concerned and rightly so," Schmidt said as the two men finally met. "The youth of our town are being attacked and these good people are worried for their children."

It sickened Kurt to hear the eel-like slickness of the words "good people." More and more Schmidt reminded him of a greasy politician using every move to get more votes. Did he even care about those kids? "This place is a mad house," Kurt stated. "We can't bring Tourneau here. It'll be a veritable lynching."

"That's already been taken care of. I've sent an officer over to his home and when he arrives we'll take Tourneau there." Schmidt explained.

"Fine, where are we on that Casius name we gave you?"

"We haven't been able to look into that yet."

"Okay," Kurt drawled, "how about the woman that attacked us?"

"Look around, you can see we've been very busy here – "

Kurt threw his hands in the air and releasing a dissatisfied huff he turned his back on Schmidt leaving the chief to shake his head at the outburst. The detective scanned the cramped station for his partner, finding Magnus crushed in a corner. He was sitting Indian-style on the floor with his ever present laptop situated on his knees. "I thought computers were a no-no for people with concussions," Kurt said as he approached the young man.

Magnus lifted his head giving a high raise of his eyebrow at the use of the phrase 'no-no'. "It takes my mind off the headache this stupid crowd is giving me," he replied as he lowered his gaze back to his screen.

"And replacing it with one from your computer. Brilliant," was Kurt's retort. "What are you doing anyway?"

"Mapping out our suspects. I would have done it last night but, well…" Magnus ended the sentence with a shrug.

The mangle of panic-obsessed parents hadn't thinned out any, Kurt noticed as he surveyed the station for a free desk or chairs. He felt silly crouching in a corner. It didn't matter though, as everyone's attention was somewhere in the direction of the genial chief. "Well, what have you got then?" He said, resigning himself to the cramps his muscles were sure to endure from the uncomfortable position he forced himself into.

"Alright, look here." Magnus pointed at the screen where a simple idea chart was displayed. "So I have 'murderer' in the center box connected to which are Linda and now Jimmy." Kurt's eyes followed the two lines extending from the center box. "Connected to Linda are her parents who are obviously hiding something. Same thing with Jimmy," Magnus continued. "Now connected to both Jimmy and Linda is John Tourneau because of something that happened four years ago. As far as we know though, he was miles away when Jimmy was killed."

Kurt scrunched up his face in annoyed confusion. "So where are you going with this?" he asked.

"Well both families of our victims are linked with the political world where PR is everything so obviously having psycho kids would be a problem. But is it enough to kill over?" Magnus eyed Kurt with a questioning glance showing his clear disbelief in such a concept.

"So we can't rule out the parents." It was a firm statement. Kurt wasn't nearly naïve enough to believe that killing one's own child over something as silly as public appearance was out the realm of possibilities.

Magnus replied with a diffident "No".

"And we still don't know what connects the kids."

"No," Magnus repeated with a small shake of his head.

"Right, so…this helps us how?"

"Well it organizes our suspect list."

Kurt growled and hung his head. "Magnus, I am this close to giving you another concussion," he railed. "Focus on finding answers, not making pretty pictures on your computer!"

Magnus scowled at Kurt. "Now wait just a minute! If you take a second to look, you'll see that it helps us with our other little problem."

"Oh, and what is that?"

"Now who's being dense?" Kurt once again had to resist the urge to smack his concussed partner on the back of the head. He was, however, curious as to what the hell the boy was talking about. "We don't know who attacked us, remember," Magnus chided. "We know it's a woman and assuming there are no other parties at play we are left with three choices; Mrs. Bromstad, Mrs. Sorn, and also Linda's friend Tracy. Though why she would come after us, I haven't got a clue." Magnus paused as they both mulled it over in their own minds. "The thing I don't get is how any of them found out that we would be there."

He was right, damn-it. It didn't make any sense. Kurt watched as Magnus closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose presumably trying to stave off a headache. For some reason, this made the senior detective burn with anger. He gazed out at the idlers in the room in an attempt to hide his frustration. Suddenly his eyes locked on the over-animated head of Chief Schmidt. "I have an idea," he muttered in a low, vicious growl. He moved quickly to his feet, ignoring the pull in his hip.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Magnus called after Kurt's retreating back.

The bristling man plowed through the crowd, pushing people aside like a wrecking ball through a brick wall. "I'm going to finally get some bloody answers!" he screamed and then barreled out the door.

I know, I'm evil for leaving you hanging.

Don't worry, I know where this is going . Reviews are always welcome and appreciated