Sorry for the short length of this chapter, but I wouldn't have been able to write anything probably until Monday and knowing my muse it likes to write ninety nine percent of the time. Have to satisfy the muse that gives the ideas. That and I haven't really been feeling particularly very well on and off the past few days. Probably has to do with my knack of staying up too late all the time. Looks at my watch. Anyway be looking for 'On The Surface Part II' next.

--

Charlee nodded at her, a pleased line of satisfaction lighting her features. "But why?...you're changing jobs." Then without warning she yawned, clearly exhausted. It was already eleven. What Megan didn't exactly know was that Charlee had been up since about five. Okay, so not even Charlee knew that; the only thing she did know was that the sun wasn't even up as she lay there on the couch, with Megan on a mattress beside her on the floor.

Her tiny fingers had refrained from touching Megan's cheek as they had dangled above her from the couch. Charlee blinked back to reality and then the thought dissipated just as quickly as she had remembered, her heart sinking a little knowing all this...Megan, Don...and the two other men who she couldn't remember their names... this wasn't going to be here for long. Even she knew that--although with uncertainty.

She was going somewhere...she was going to be adopted? Was that the word?... Charlee's heart sunk a little. Whatever that meant, she had to place these unfamiliar places...that she was never going home. Never. But really where she was, never felt like home. Megan's home felt the closest to what home felt like...she would take that.

"It's hard to explain Charlee...I know it's confusing, but there's a lot that I can't tell any one about."

"Like what?" Charlee asked curiously, stifling another yawn. "I won't tell anyone. Promise." She held up her pinky finger.

Megan smiled gratefully, but grabbed her hand and held it with comfort as she spoke. "I can't Charlee. Even if I could..."

"Yeah." Charlee exhaled, sighing. "My mommy said the same thing when she saw daddy with another lady. She said it was...cheating?" Charlee's lips puckered out like a fish as she sucked in a noisy breath. Megan on the other hand tilted her head to the side as something clicked.

"Charlee how long has your dad been seeing this lady?"

The little girl shrugged. "I dunno. Mommy said that's why we moved out. She called the house a few times."

"Which house? you're house?"

Charlee nodded affirmatively. "Mommy was not happy, but daddy still wanted me."

"Charlee, did your daddy talk to your mommy at any time?"

"No." She paused to shake her head. "Only the lady. She can start cars, without keys."

Megan heightened a little as she sat up in recognition. The mysterious blond was probably no longer mysterious. "And you've never gone to meet her."

Charlee nodded. "Yes...after school. I play with her son some times."

"Do you know how many times have you gone to see her? or a name?"

Counting silently on her fingers, Charlee counted all five of her fingers. "One. She was pretty, and no I don't know his name. But how do I know daddy loves her like he loves mommy?" The question set in, and then a firm crease of a frown lined her expression.

"At one time he probably loved her Charlee. We're going to find out what happened...pinky promise." With that Megan held up her pinky, to which Charlee's expression lit up again. She loved pinky promises.

--

"Whatever you're planning on finding Agent Eppes, you're probably not going to find." One of the men offered with a tantalizing grin as he sat in his chair handcuffed. "Not like you have the right to go through my things any way."

Don turned to Colby. "I think attempted kidnapping and possession of deadly weapons could be enough to obtain a warrant, don't you Colby?" It was time to play a little good cop, bad cop. "That's not excluding that your car is most likely on our turf, so all is fair game."

Colby nodded, offering his own smile. "In fact if I didn't know better somebody would be going through it right now." Checking his watch, he looked back towards the door. "And what do you think we'll be expecting to find?"

"I'm thinking ID's. And I mean the real ones, telling us who you are. Since you don't feel the need to tell us...And sooner or later we'll find out. And when we do..."

The man leaned forward with a sneer. "That's impossible, I have the keys in my pocket. How in the world do you think you're going to get in if you don't know where it is?"

Colby exchanged a glance with Don, who answered. "We do now."

--

"What do you know...rope, bleach and tape, all here." Colby offered as they went through the van. Another agent was going through the van with him. Don was checking in the front of the van as Colby lifted up a blue tarp. The content underneath was surprising, although another thing that connected the two men sitting in their interrogation rooms. "Don, we've got a body. He looks pretty beat up."

Closing the door to the front, Don rounded the van to the back, excusing the other agent out to give instruction to mark this van as a crime scene. He joined Colby at the back of the van, and was already putting on gloves as well as handing a pair to Colby.

"... Put murder on the already growing list of undeniable pieces of evidence." Colby offered grimly after noting that this man was long gone before looking over carefully all the bruises, the tears on his shirt, not to mention the scratch on the man's left cheek. Luck be it that a small orange chip was embedded in the wound.

"We already know that Andrea Lucas put up a good fight. Even though we don't have the murder weapon or getaway car yet, we can back up evidence wise what Charlee saw that night as we already know that Andrea was wearing orange nail polish at the time of her murder."

"Which means we no longer have to worry about a killer on the loose, but rather to find out who killed the killer."

--

"How's Charlee?" David asked, just as Megan closed the door to the break room. This was the second time in at least twenty four hours that Charlee had taken refuge on the couch of the break room.

"She fell asleep right after I pinky promised that we would find her father. Any luck cracking the DCSF wonder?"

"Yeah...Don and Colby are down in the parking lot rummaging through their van. I guess a little good cop, bad cop was practically when the guy gave up the location of his car keys." Raising her eyebrow, she chuckled slightly as they made their way back to their desks. Megan sat down immediately typing in some information into the database. "You hoping on finding something else that we don't know about?"

Typing fast on the keyboard, Megan nodded before giving her response. "Charlee mentioned a woman that could be our mysterious blond. Not to mention, one who hot wires cars without needing the keys and has a son that is in the same school as Charlee was. So I was thinking what if both her son and her as well were just bait in effort to unwrapping where Andrea and Charlee were located."

"And all Anthony really needed after finding their location was to get them into the trap... and he already knew that Andrea nor Charlee would be able to trust him again after what he did."

"...That and he knew that if he had another woman, there was a big chance that Andrea would think that she was in danger of going through the same tunnel she had." Megan added, turning the screen towards him. "There"

"And there she'll be." David searched over all the information listed. "It looks like she even has a little breaking and entering going on."

Megan was looking over the information as well. "Although it doesn't look like they were anywhere near each other when they were serving time."

"Which makes me wonder how they met." He chimed in, sucking in a breath. "Battery assault on a police officer..."

"So Anthony knew this and took advantage of her." Megan took off her glasses and laid them on her desk.

"It's possible." Colby cut in both he and Don walked into the cubicle area of desks. "We found somebody who we're sure is Anthony Harrison dead underneath a tarp. Now we just need to figure out what guy killed him."

"Maybe they both did." David suggested, as Colby and Don took interest on the woman on the screen."They're both acting like they have something to hide."