Annabeth

Percy parked in a high school parking lot. I gave him a look. "Are you positive we are in the right location?"

He nodded. "Says he's a janitor here. Let's go." We both climbed out of the car and entered the school. There were kids everywhere, I inched just a little closer to Percy. He chuckled. "What? Afraid of some high schoolers?"

"They are all...staring at me." I muttered so only he could hear. The fact only made him laugh harder.

"You're just exotic. Don't get much of that in high school, trust me." Percy shuttered. He turned around and seemed to see something important. "Stay here. I'm going to talk to the Principal about Matthews."

Exotic? I decided to ignored it and nodded, placing my hands in my trench coat. I looked around at the walls filled with art of the students and posters for various clubs. Suddenly a hand gripped my lower arm. I grabbed the intruder's arm and flipped them over, slamming them against the floor with my knee in their stomach; gun at his neck.

It was boy, a few years younger than me, with short cropped blond hair. He was wearing a black and yellow jacket with a large J on it. "Whoa." He said, his blue eyes wide and breathless.

A crowd formed around us to see what was going on. One of them called out "Matt got beat up by a girl!" and everyone started laughing. After I had calmed down, I stood up and put my gun away; glaring down at him. When the 'Matt' boy remained on the floor, I ordered him to stand, but offered him no assistance.

"I like a woman that takes control." He got very close to me and looked down at me from his 15 cm (6 inches) height advantage.

I glared up at him. "I can kill you with my fake nail, so unless you wish your life to take a unusually short end, I suggest you back away."

Despite my, very real, threat; he didn't give up. The boy was persistent. "Come on, I know you don't mean that."

There was a familiar click behind me and a voice said, "But I think she does." Percy placed his gun to the boy's head. "Now, leave Officer Chase alone, or I'll arrest you for harassment of a federal agent." Matt's eyes widened and he ran away quickly. Percy placed his gun back in it's holster and turned to me. "Come on, principal said today was Matthew's day off."

As we were walking out of the school, I voiced, more to myself than to him. "Publicly showing our badges would prevent, or lessen, that from happening, yes?"

Percy shrugged. "Yeah I guess. What do you suggest?"

I pulled my badge from my coat pocket and situated it in my belt on my left hip. "There."

Percy's eyes glanced over before returning to the road. "Good idea. You seem to be having a lot of those today."

I shrugged but didn't say anything, looking out the window to watch the surroundings rush by. As 10 minutes went by, Percy pulled into a beat up old house. "Here we are." He didn't sound happy about it. I don't blame him, the house looked like it should be quarantined and blown up-I mean...demolished.

We walked to the front door and I knocked. A muffled male voice from inside, "Coming." The door opened less then half a minute later. The man that answered couldn't have been older than 35, he had a white muscle shirt on that showed his well toned chest, and blue jeans. There was a skull tattoo on the left side of his neck, and a long scar going up the inside of his right arm.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" He asked, looking intently at me and completely annoying Percy.

"Billy Matthews?" I assumed.

"Who's askin'?" He eyed Percy.

Percy pulled his badge out, "CSI, we need to ask you a few questions. Do ya' mind?" The way he said it made me think there was something more behind it than just the murder interrogation.

Matthews stood there for a moment, before stepping aside to let us in. "So what is the government trying to pin on me this time?" he acquired. "Though, I appreciate them sending a more attractive officer this time." He beamed at me. I glared.

"Where were you last night, Mr. Matthews?" Percy asked.

"I was cleaning up after the damn dance. Stupid teenagers. It's one of the few jobs I could get with a high school degree and a bad record, but it pays the bills with the other jobs I pick up on the side." Billy shrugged.

"Can someone confirm that?"

"Of course! Ask the darn principal."

I 'hmm'-ed and joined the interrogation. "Do you know, Mr. Matthews, I am from Israel? Do you have anything to say about that?"

"Yeah, good for you. How's the terrorism?" He joked.

I pushed down my anger and answered calmly. "I would have to ask my father, but I am sure he is not planing anything else after a week ago." His eyes widened and he gulped. "So you have nothing against Hebrews, or Jews?"

"Not at all. I mean, you got your religion and I gots mine." Billy shrugged. "Not my place to interfere."

As I wrote that and previous information down, Percy produced a photo of Johnathan and handed it to Matthews."Do you know this man?"

He took it and stared at it a second. I looked up from my notepad and studied his scrunched up eyebrows, his eyes darted all over the dead reporter's face, but he didn't seem to have any trace of guilt, nervousness, or anything that would suggest he murdered him.

Suddenly he smiled and poked the picture a few times before giving it back to Percy. "Hey yeah! That's that reporter dude. I've seen him on the news a few times. What's his name...um...Garth?"

I nodded. "Johnathan Garth."

Billy smiled at me, flashing his yellow teeth.. "Yeah, that's it. So what's he got to do with anything?"

"He was murdered last night at approximately 2100 hours." I said.

He didn't say anything for a second. Then, "When?"

I sighed and cursed in Hebrew under my breath. "Always have to simplify it for you Americans. 9 pm Matthews!"

Billy scratched the back of his neck. "Man, that sucks. Poor dude, I wish him the best and all, but I didn't kill him. I was helpin' setting up the gym for the snot-nosed kids then. Principal can, you know."

"Well, there's our problem Mr. Matthews." Percy pulled another picture from his folder. "See this hammer? It was used to beat Mr. Garth to death when the murderer missed his heart with a gun shot. We found your fingerprint on it."

Billy frowned and gulped. "What did you say the address to the house was?" He asked pointing to the picture. I belayed the address and he smiled. Something about the smile ate at me, but I couldn't place it. It was almost like he was relived. "Yeah that's what I thought. You know those side jobs I was tellin' you about? This lady that lives at that house put an ad in the paper for a quick maintenance project."

"Why did she not call a specialist?" My eyes narrowed.

He shrugged smoothly. "Got me ma'am, but I answered; needed the money. She had me build a deck in her backyard, of course I had to use the hammer."

"Do you mind coming in with us so we can officially rule you out?" Percy stood up.

Matthews ran a hand threw his hair. "I can't miss work, I'll be behind on my payments."

Percy looked at me like he expected me to come up with something. I shook my head. "Do not look at me. I know nothing of the American working program, or whatever it is called."

He sighed. "Every job has paid vacation days Matthews. Just use one or two of them, max." Billy opened his mouth, probably to rebuttal, when Percy shut him off, pulling his handcuffs out. "Or we can just arrest you, make it harder to find jobs."

Billy sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll call in. Just give me a second."

"Rachel," Percy called to the scientist when we walked back into level four lobby. "Take a DNA sample from Matthews. Bring him over to interrogation when you're done."

"Aye eye captin'!" She giggled as she lead him to, I assumed, her lab. Percy rolled his eyes at her.

"Wonder how Nico's doing with the brother, what was his name again? Jimmy?" I nodded.

"I am going to interview the boy's girlfriend." I grabbed my backpack and held my hand out for the keys. Percy gave them to me reluctantly. I gave him a fake, over sweet smile and walked out.

It took me a few extra...dozen minutes to find her house, but I finally pulled into the right apartment complex. I walked to the man behind the desk. "Which apartment does Ms. Penny Switcher reside in?"

He smiled at me, "Are you sure that's who you want, hun?" I pulled back my coat so he could see my badge and more importantly-my gun, better and glared at him. He gulped and typed on his computer. "She's in apartment 47-B."

I nodded and walked to the elevator, pressing level four and glared at the guy behind the desk until it closed. The doors opened a minute later and I began my search for apartment 47-B. When I found it, I knocked on the door. A relatively attractive woman with brown hair and green eyes opened it. "Can I help you?"

I pulled back my coat once more. Her eyes flashed down to my badge. "I need to ask you a few questions Ms Switcher."

"What about?" She acquired and handed me a glass of water.

I took it. "Your boyfriend."

"Well you got the wrong girl then agent Chase." Penny took a sip of her water. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Johnathan Garth, name ring a bell?"

Penny scratched the back of her neck. "Yeah, we broke up about a week ago."

"Do you mind telling me why?"

She rubbed her hands together and stared at the coffee table for moment. "It may sound a bit...I don't know how to describe it, but he had insisted on converting to Judaism. Then he tried to make me, we got into a lot of fights about it before I finally just ended it."

"Why is converting to Judaism a reason to break up with him?"

"Well it wasn't so much the Judaism, but more of the fact he tried to make me too." Penny paused to shake her head. "What is this about, agent Chase?"

"Annabeth, Johnathan was murdered yesterday."

Her hand went to her mouth and she lowered her head, she looked to the right. I looked her up and down. "Penny," She looked up at me, tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "Where were you last night at 2100?"

"I was at a bar, with my girls, celebrating Minnie's birthday." Her eyes flashed left.

"Name, address." I demanded. Penny gave it to me. "I also need you to come in for DNA testing."

She opened her mouth to respond when the door opened and a male voice called, "Pen! You ready to go babe?" A male walked into the room we were sitting in and stopped short. "Who's this Pen?"

"Mark, this is CSI agent Annabeth Chase."

"Well, you certainly...oh what is the phrase...rebound fast." I told her.

"You say that like you don't know." Mark laughed jokingly.

I stared up at him. "We do not have much English interaction in Israel, so no, I would not know." They both shared a look. I stood up. "Come with me, Ms Switcher." When she didn't, I pulled my handcuffs out. "Peacefully or against your will; your choice."

"Just go with her Pen, we'll make this up after you get out." He placed a kiss on the top of her head. "You will get out."

She nodded briefly and turned to me. "Let's go." I led her to my car and back to the CSI building.

"Confirm Matthews' alibi yet?" Chiron asked as I walked in.

"Doing it now." Percy answered with his phone to his ear.

Nico came in right behind me with a new cut on his cheek. "What happened to you?" Percy tried, and failed, to keep from laughing.

"Jimmy boy decided he didn't want to talk to me and tried to run away." Nico grumbled.

"How did you get cut?" I asked as I pulled my portable first aid kit out. I walked over to him and dabbed some anti-bacterial cleaner on a gauze pad and began cleaning his cut. He winced but answered my question. "I ran into a glass door he shut to try to slow me down."

I nodded and covered the wound. "There. Now, shall we question our runaway?" I turned on my heel and walked to the elevator. I entered when it opened, the two of them were still standing there staring at each other. "I do not know the way." I called to them.

Nico shrugged and joined me. Percy came in last and pressed the button that would send us to floor six. Nico turned to me as we were ascending. "Where did you learn medical care?"

Staring straight ahead at the closed metal doors, I said in a monotone "When I was learning how to kill people, I was also briefed in making sure I did not kill myself in the process. This covered how to take care of myself or my partner when, and if, my target was a fighter."

Neither of them talked the rest of the ride.