A/N: I originally had a few different scenes in this chapter. However, none of them seemed thorough enough. I finally settled on writing two detailed scenes in this chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Reviews are greatly appreciated as always. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story in the past!

The Unusual Suspects


"I think I have everything I need. Thank you for your cooperation Miss Waldorf. You seem tired. You should probably head home and get some rest," Nate suggested.

"I will. Dan is coming to pick me up," she answered, smiling up at him gratefully for his concern.

Nate nodded, trying to keep the atmosphere of the conversation professional. He excused himself and returned to monitor the rest of the homicide team as they bustled around the suite in search of evidence.

Blair continued to sit there in silence. She stole a glance at the body on the bed, hoping that she would wake up in her bed at any moment to realize that this had only been a horrible nightmare. Unfortunately, Pete Fairmont was most certainly dead. He was still in the same position that Blair had found him in. He was stark naked and a thick pool of blood surrounded his rigid body. There was a huge gash across his back, the edges crusted with dried blood. Blair shook her head to erase the horrendous image from her mind, but to no avail. She shivered as she desperately fought back a tear. She had no idea why she felt like crying. She hated feeling vulnerable.

Chuck scowled as he approached her. This had to be his lucky day. Blair Waldorf was the one who had found the body. She told Nate that she had fainted, but that she had called 911 the moment she was conscious again. It was the fact that she had stayed in the suite until his team arrived that mesmerized him. He would have thought that she would have at least waited in the lobby or stayed as far away from the dead body as possible. The Blair Waldorf he knew from high school would certainly have scrunched up her nose at the very idea of keeping a dead body company for even a split second.

"Miss Waldorf?"

Blair knew that voice. She turned her head towards Chuck and gave him a taut smile.

"Detective Bass," she acknowledged, emphasizing his last name to let him know she knew exactly who he was.

Chuck smirked. So, she did remember him. He would be hard to forget of course. No one ever rejected Blair Waldorf.

"I simply want to ask you a few questions," Chuck stated, suppressing his thoughts of the past.

"Detective Archibald has already done so, but you should know that already," she said curtly, folding her arms across her chest.

Chuck let his eyes fall on her breasts momentarily. He was only human and it was her fault that she had brought his attention to them. Blair caught him staring and lowered her arms in response, casting a glare in his direction.

"My eyes are up here," she snapped, motioning towards them in one fluid motion.

His mind knew that this would hardly be deemed as appropriate behavior, but he instantly leaned forward until his steady breathing gently grazed her right earlobe.

Blair held her breath in response to his proximity as he whispered in a low growl, "You have a nice set of those too."

Blair blushed at the sound of his voice, her face turning a bright shade of crimson red. Chuck resumed to a standing position and took a step back. He could see that her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, although he knew she would never admit it. He had to admit that he enjoyed watching her squirm in discomfort though.

"Miss Waldorf, I realize that Detective Archibald has already questioned you. However, he is my supervisor..."

"And yet, you need to follow up on his work?" Blair retorted, recovering from her moment of weakness.

Chuck ignored her comment and drug on.

"...and he has asked me to further the questioning that he conducted earlier."

"Make it quick, Detective Bass."

He nodded, acknowledging her request.

"Miss Waldorf...from the statement you gave Detective Archibald, I gather you didn't witness the murder?"

She rolled her eyes at him. How many times would she have to answer these tedious questions? Where was Dan already?

"No, and I didn't notice anything unusual except for...oh, I don't know...the dead body of one of my classmates? Look, you're wasting my time."

Chuck opened his mouth, prepared to say something that would surely have put Blair Waldorf in her place, but abruptly changed his mind. He was a professional despite his momentary lack of judgment only a few minutes earlier. Chuck Bass never flirted or got side-tracked on the job.

"Miss Waldorf, what were you doing at the scene of the crime?"

"As I told Detective Archibald only a few moments ago..."

She emphasized each word, pausing in between each one to offer him a sarcastic smile.

"I wasn't able to hand in my essay this morning and Professor Humphrey was kind enough to give me an extension. I just came over here to hand in my assignment. I have no idea why Pete was in this room. The door practically opened on its own when I got here, so I went in to investigate and to hand in my essay of course. That isn't a crime. Is it, detective?"

Chuck continued to jot down notes as his expression remained unreadable.

"Thank you, Miss Waldorf, but I'm curious to know...how exactly did you know to find him here? Did Professor Humphrey ask you to meet him here to hand in your paper? Do you two know each other well?"

Chuck knew this was a stretch, but he couldn't rule out anyone or any scenario just yet. Blair was a smart girl though. She caught on to what he was implying.

"You're not insinuating something here, are you, detective?" Blair challenged, furious that he would even suggest something like that.

"Just answer the question, Miss Waldorf," Chuck replied, starting to get tired of their temporary power struggle.

He rubbed his forehead in frustration. Blair could see that he was probably just as tired with their bantering as she was. They were both probably having a rough day. She decided to cut him some slack.

"I'm dating his son, Dan Humphrey. You remember Dan from high school? Professor Humphrey had a bit of a rift with his wife, so I know he's been staying here for a while. I had no idea about the room change though."

Chuck was grateful that Blair was starting to cooperate. He honestly was not in the mood for this. He had just drained his body of a nightmare from his past and already another homicide investigation was begging for his attention.

Dan took the opportunity and stepped in to interrupt their conversation.

"Dan Humphrey," he said, introducing himself to the detective before him. "I can testify that what Miss Waldorf has said is true. My father..."

"...switched hotel rooms with Pete Fairmont because he was being a spoiled drunk brat. Tell me something I don't know, Dumbphrey. I guess your father got out in time, didn't he?"

Dan cringed at the sound of his high school nickname. Only Chuck Bass had ever used it religiously in high school.

"Chuck Bass? I didn't even...Wow. So, you're a homicide detective now? I had no idea."

Chuck responded without so much as looking up from his notes.

"No, I actually bus tables at a local restaurant. I simply have nothing better to do with my time than to impersonate a homicide detective and investigate a murder of someone that I don't even care about."

Blair stifled a giggle. It was no laughing matter, but the look on Dan's face at that moment was absolutely priceless and Chuck did have a way with sarcasm. It was funny how she had never paid much attention to his wit in high school.

Dan cleared his throat. "In all seriousness Detective Bass, is my father in any danger right now? Maybe the killer came here looking for him."

"We're not going to eliminate that possibility, but please, Mr. Humphrey...let me do my job."

Dan understood that he wasn't going to get much more out of Chuck, so he stayed quiet.

"I am curious though, Mr. Humphrey. Were you with Miss Waldorf a few hours ago?"

Dan pondered on his question, clearly not realizing his accusation, but Blair noticed it immediately. She subsequently became furious. Again. How dare he? It was like he was plotting against her! She was the one who had found the dead body! She was the one who was the indirect victim in this matter! Not only did she have to see Pete dead, but she saw him dead and naked for crying out loud!

"You're not suggesting, Detective Bass, that I killed Pete hours ago only to call 911 on myself a few hours later and then act as if I had nothing to do with the murder, right? Even an irrational man like yourself would have to be on some kind of drug to make that kind of accusation. Even if I did kill Pete, I wouldn't have been so stupid," she shot back, a venomous layer of anger coating each and every word.

"So, you did kill him?" Chuck asked without missing a beat.

Blair gave him an icy stare.

"You're crazy."

"And you're avoiding my question," Chuck replied in a calm and steady voice.

Blair clenched her teeth.

"I just said I didn't," she seethed.

"No, Miss Waldorf. You said that even if you did kill the victim, you wouldn't have been so stupid as to have stayed at the scene of the crime and called 911 hours later. That could imply that you did kill him, but you were stupid enough to do what you said you wouldn't do in the first place."

He hoped his confusion technique would work on her. Confusion always made his suspects easier to read. Much to his dismay, he could only see genuine confusion on her face instead of the guilt he was looking for.

"Am I supposed to understand what you just said or were you just trying the whole confusion technique on me?"

Chuck blinked a few times. How did she...? Never mind. That wasn't important.

"Look, Miss Waldorf. The point is that as a detective, I can assure you that people who commit murder are generally not in the right state of mind. Right now, it would have been stupid for you to have called 911, but in the heat of the moment, it may have seemed like the right thing to do. You'd do anything to throw suspicion off of yourself."

Blair stood up abruptly, feeling small since she had been sitting down the entire time with him looming over her. At the same time he took a step forward so that their faces were now only mere inches apart.

Blair looked him straight in the eyes and said without so much as blinking, "You can interpret what I say anyway you'd like, detective, but I didn't kill Pete. Where were you a few hours ago, Detective Bass? At this rate, everyone in New York ought to be on your suspect list."

Her response had simply gone in one ear and out the other. Their proximity had caused his throat to run dry. He swallowed before clearing his throat and immediately took a step back to distance himself from her incredible aura.

"I'll ask the questions here, Miss Waldorf. We'll be in touch. Thank you for your cooperation...or lack thereof."

With that, he walked away, nodding in Nate's direction as he went. Blair watched him leave, cursing all the while to herself. She felt the mysterious vibe between them vaporize as he retreated from the room. She couldn't quite place her finger on what the vibe actually was, but it resembled the one she had experienced earlier that morning and it was suffocating her. She officially hated Chuck Bass. She had never met anyone so smug and irritating in her entire life. Her? A suspect? Only he would have the nerve. No wonder people rarely reported crimes on the Upper East Side. She certainly wouldn't have if she would have been considered a suspect. Nate didn't seem to have pinned her as such. It was Chuck Bass. There was definitely something wrong with him.

"You look exhausted Blair. Why don't I take you home?" Dan asked, interrupting her voiceless rant.

She snapped out of her unusual trance and revealed a tired smile that she didn't even know she had been masking all the while.

"Yeah, that would be great," she answered, silently forgiving him for their previous argument with her eyes.

Dan took her hand and led her towards the door. He couldn't believe Pete Fairmont had been murdered. He wondered how Vanessa was taking this. He would have to call her as soon as possible. He gave a solemn nod and sympathetic glance towards Vanessa's father only to receive an emotionless stare in return. Dan gulped in intimidation as Bart turned his attention back towards Nate. Wait...Nate? Was everyone a homicide detective now?


Vanessa rose from the sofa and let out a huge yawn. She had fallen asleep on the couch the moment she had arrived home. It had been a tiring conversation. Dan had ultimately chosen Blair, but Vanessa knew that he was only fooling himself. She had accepted that Dan had no feelings for her, but she knew he loved Serena like no other. She really wished he would confront his true feelings sometime. She sighed as her cell phone lit up again. She had turned it off to silent for her nap. Her father had been trying to reach her all this time.

"Father," she greeted him, answering his call.

"I'm at the Palace right now. Your brother is dead," Bart whispered into his phone.

He cast a sideways glance at Detective Archibald who was trying to decipher his every word from a distance.

"Pete is dead?" Vanessa asked, looking for some confirmation.

"Yes," Bart said impatiently. "I may be a suspect in this. If anyone asks you anything regarding this incident, you answer none of them. Am I making myself clear? You will also tell them that I was with you a few hours ago. I'll explain everything later."

He proceeded to hang up without so much as giving his daughter a chance to ask anymore questions.

Vanessa collapsed onto the sofa once more. She couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling right now. She was shocked, confused, and hurt all rolled into one. She felt a wetness in her eyes as a few tears spilled uncontrollably down her cheeks. Her brother was dead and her father was a suspect? She had seen this coming for a while. She knew that one of the many people that Pete had blackmailed or wronged over the years would have snapped eventually, but she had done nothing to stop him from doing those things either. Her short breaths turned into heart-wrenching sobs as the reality of everything had finally begun to set in around her. It was her fault. She should have stopped Pete when he had begun to dabble in his world of lies and deceit. She should have told their father what he was doing. He would have straightened him out then and there.

Who was she kidding really? Her father didn't care about Pete at all, which was why he didn't even sound concerned over the phone. Her father only loved her because she happened to be a spitting image of their mother. In fact, he had always doubted if Pete was really his biological son, but why had her father told her to be his alibi? There was no way her father would have killed Pete. He didn't care enough to do it and even if he did, he would have gotten someone else to do his dirty work for him. She couldn't sit here any longer. She needed answers. She needed comfort. Vanessa hastily grabbed her coat from the closet and ran out the door.

"Taxi!" she yelled, waving her right arm as she stepped off of the curb.

The vehicle slowly pulled to a stop in front of her. There was only one person who could comfort her at a time like this. Vanessa climbed into the taxi and shut the door behind her.

Dan. Pete murdered. I need you. Meet me in the Palace lobby. Please.

- V