Disclaimer: I do not own anything; I am just borrowing it.

Ben was standing behind her, hands on his hips, a cheeky grin on his face. Despite having been tricked into it, he seemed to be having a good time.

Then again, Ben had a way about him that made it seem like he was always enjoying what he was doing.

"You came," the words, and an accompanying smile, were out of her mouth before she had even a moment to think about them. Like the disappointment of a few minutes prior, Trixie was surprised by how glad she was that Ben had actually shown up.

"I said it before – it wouldn't be very manly of me to leave the damsel all on her lonesome would it?"
Trixie rolled her eyes, and endeavored to keep all her feelings down, and act more blasé as she should be.

"I needed a guide, not protection," Trixie responded, her dull tone just barely keeping down her amusement, "If you're going to do either, you might want a horse."

Ben just gave her another cheeky grin, and disappeared into the stable.

A few moments later, he had come back out again, leading a saddled mare behind him, and they were on their way.

They rode in silence for a long while, Ben slightly in front, and Trixie following.

"So," Ben casually threw back to her, "what exactly are we hoping to find from Zachariah?"

"I don't know exactly," Trixie replied slowly.

"You don't know?" Ben turned to raise a teasing eyebrow back at her.

Trixie huffed, her temper rising easily, "I don't know what he'll say, but I just know he'll have to say something – he was here, that means he knows something we don't."

Ben made a sound in the back of his throat, that although fundamentally was supposed to be a sound of agreement, his air of complete amusement made it much more one of disagreement and teasing.

"That's how it works!" Trixie exploded, "you have to follow every hunch or you'll never find anything!"
She found she had a sudden longing for Honey, who would be on her side no matter what, and she definitely wouldn't have to explain this to her.

But ever since the finding of the body, Honey and Di had been a little shaky on the thought of any mystery, especially this one. Trixie knew if she asked her, Honey would put it all aside for her, but Trixie didn't want to put her friend through that.

Besides, Ben seemed to be coming around – she hoped.

"Why is this so important to you? Why do you have to solve this mystery?" Ben's voice wasn't accusatory; he truly wanted to know the answer.

Trixie paused. People had always teased her about her gum-shoeing, and when she got herself into some hot water they always asked her those questions imploringly, not really looking for an answer, but trying to convince her of the exact opposite – that she didn't need to solve the mystery.

But no one ever really wanted to know. They either took her for what she was, or wished she would change – no one ever really tried to understand.

Now that someone was, Trixie wasn't sure she completely understood.

"Don't you just want to know?" she finally asked, "I guess, when it all comes down to it, I just want to know… so I find out." They rode on a bit more, and another thought struck her, "I like when I help people; one time we found $1000 left by a sailor for his widow and son. He had hidden it before he had died, and his wife knew nothing about it. The money helped the boy pay for his school without leaving for a year… he became a doctor… we still get letters from them sometimes."

Trixie didn't say anymore, but the smile from that memory, and others like it, remained on her face.

"You have a big heart Trix," Ben said making her blush. He looked like he was about to say something else when the horses trotted through the tree line into a modest sized clearing with two small buildings on it. It reminded Trixie a lot of Mr. Maypenny's home back at the Wheelers.

"Her we are. What are you—?"

Ben's words were lost as the doors of the larger building burst open and a hunched over, withered old man came out holding a shot gun. His clothes were faded, but clean looking, and if Trixie had to guess, she would say he had to be somewhere in his eighties.

Trixie's eyes widened at the sight of the gun, and for a moment she could see how someone could suspect this man of murder. That thought, however, was quickly replaced by a guilty one when she realized this man reminded her of Jim's uncle and she recalled how she had miss judged him.

"What are yous a-doin' on me land?"

Ben, calm as if he didn't have a gun pointed at him, held his hands up, "Mr. Bates, we're sorry to bother you – I don't know if you remember me. My names Ben Riker, I work for your neighbor, Jim Frayne."

The old man eyed them both suspiciously before pointing his rifle in Trixie's direction.

"Who's the girlie?"

Trixie introduced herself as Jim's friend, and the old man lowered the rifle slightly, but only slightly. The look of distrust never left his face. He was always on guard.

"What-d-yah want?"

"We wanted to talk to you," Ben responded smoothly, "about Jane Waltman."

Suddenly, Zachariah's rifle was pointed steadily once more.

"I told those coppers – I didn't do nuttin' to that girlie."

Trixie urged her horse forward slightly, "And we don't think you do. We just want to know if you know something, anything, about it. You do know something, don't you?"
He continued his suspicious glowering for a long moment, glancing between Trixie, and then Ben, and then back again.

Finally he lowered his weapon completely.

"Tie yur hoss over there," he pointed a lazy hand in the direction of the small building which Trixie assumed was a barn, and he wandered back into the one he came out of, expecting them to follow when they were done.

"I told them hooligan's nuttin' good would come of playin' in them here woods – but not a one of them listen to old Zachariah. Then when trouble come a callin' who did they come a-blamin'?"

Trixie slowly seated herself beside Ben at a rickety old table, and looked around the room as the older man spoke.

It was small, smaller than Mr. Maypenny's, but better kept than she had been expecting. The room that they were in now seemed to serve as a dual Kitchen-living room, and was very well kept indeed. Every item seemed to have its own place, if covered by a thin film of dust. But who was Trixie, who hated dusting herself, to blame someone else for not doing it?

"They should have listened," Ben was saying diplomatically, "Might not be in the mess they're in now."

"Mr. Bates –"

"It's Zachariah girlie, ain't been no Mr. Bates in a long time."

Zachariah up to this point had been bustling around the room. Now he sat, placing a clean, if slightly chipped, mug in front of each of them, and a tarnished coffee pot in the center of the table.

Ben filled his cup, but Trixie was too excited to do anything of the sort.

"Zachariah," she said beginning her question once again, "I'm not sure if you're aware of this – but the other day the workers dug up a – a body. And although the police have yet to confirm it, we believe it belongs to Jane – so you can see, it would be really helpful if we could know anything you remember from that night."

The old man's face saddened, his clear blue eyes taking on a look of deep sympathy.

He sighed, "Always thought that no good had a-come to that there girlie. A sad thing it were; always such a sweet girlie, she were… one of the better ones – respected me and me land. Not like that no good boy of hers."

"Boy?" Trixie's ears peaked up. She shared a glance with Ben; as Mart would say, the plot as thickening.

"That no good Colter boy," Zachariah nodded a look of disgust on his face, "his daddy owns half of town – gets to his head I say. That girlie was too sweet for a rotten apple like that."

Ben's face had shifted slightly at the mention of 'Colter', "Did Colter have a first name?"

"Thomas – he were Thomas Colter III, just like his daddy, and Grand-daddy. A pompous bunch of blubbers the lot of 'em."

"Thomas… Thomas Colter," Ben continued to mumble the name to himself, but when it appeared to Trixie he wasn't going to share his train of thought with her, she proceeded to ignore him.

"Did you see Thomas that night? There was a party here wasn't there?" Trixie was bursting with energy; she was so close to something she could feel it. She just had to peel back enough wrapping to reveal it.

"Oh yes sirree, theys were havin' a big shindig that there night. Something about graduation." Trixie stopped a moment, remembering how her own graduation party had gone. I guess things could be worse, Trixie thought sadly, Jane didn't survive hers.

"And Thomas – her boyfriend?—was he there?"

"Yup to both those there accounts – those I'm nones too sure he was her sweetheart when that there night was done," Zachariah smiled mysteriously.

Trixie nearly jumped out of her seat with anticipation. As it was she started bouncing her legs, "Why's that? What happened?"
"Well now, if I remembers correctly – which I knows I does – I walked up on them two in quite the argumentation. I couldn't hears any words, but I don't want to, I'm no snoop; but the boy there was piping mad, that he were. Yellin' and screamin' like nobodies business. And his girlie there just let him have at 'er. I don't much appreciate the ruckus they weres making so close to me abode, and so's I told them so. That's when your girlie there stormed off, but the boy…" Zachariah trailed off for a long moment and Trixie thought she would die from the wait, but she could also tell that this time, Zachariah needed the moment to collect himself. "I've been alive a long time Girlie – lived through two wars, fought in the first one I did, and a depression between 'em, and I can tell you something about Man… When they look like that there boy did… violence is never far from their minds."

The statement hung in the air for a long moment. Trixie's excitement at finding a new lead mingled with the sickening realization that someone could actually do such a thing. Take a life with their own hands. Trixie could never imagine being so mad.

Finally Ben spoke up, "Thank you Zachariah, for your time, and knowledge, but we have to be heading back now."

Zachariah showed them to the door, and in complete reversal to their entrance, claimed them nice children, and welcomed them back anytime.

It was a silent ride back to the school. Trixie spent the time wondering over what she had just heard. Could Thomas have done such a thing – to someone he was supposed to love? Then again, she thought back to the argument Zachariah had seen – those I'm nones too sure he was her sweetheart when that there night was done – Trixie knew better than most the kind of choices a broken heart makes.

"You and Ben went off to find out about that body, didn't you?" Honey cornered T

rixie that evening while they were all having a small camp fire, "And don't you dare lie to me Trixie Belden."

"I didn't think you wanted me or anyone else to solve this mystery… I thought you felt like everyone else," Trixie said, a note of hurt mingling with her tone, and her eyes wide with surprise.

"Maybe I do, but that doesn't matter, we're partners; we do these things together," she said stubbornly, "I don't want to lose you so soon after getting you back.

Trixie smiled at Honey's determined profile illuminated in the fire's glow. She had thought it before, and she was sure she would have reason to think it again: Honey was the most wonderful girl in the world, and she really didn't deserve her.

Quickly and quietly, so no one else would hear, Trixie filled Honey in on everything she had learned so far.

"Oh my goodness!" Honey gasped, eyes wide, when Trixie was done, "Do you thing he did this… that a boy could…"

Trixie shrugged, "Someone had to have done it, and most murders are done by someone the victim knew."

Honey nodded slowly, letting that fact sink in, and get past her usual reflex to see good in everyone.

"What were they arguing about?" she finally asked, "What could someone say to make someone so mad?"

Trixie had been thinking those same questions all afternoon, and presently had a long list of answers, and in usual Trixie fashion, they got more and more outlandish as she went.

"Obviously she must have been breaking up with him… maybe he hurt her, or he cheated and got caught, maybe she cheated," Trixie paused a moment, a lump forming in her throat as she glanced across the fire at Jim. She swallowed the lump away and went on, "or maybe she could have been in trouble." When Honey looked confused she lowered her voice, and put her hand on her lower abdomen, "you know womanly trouble."

Honey's eyes widened as she gasped, "Trixie! Don't' even suggest such a thing… it's not proper."

"I'm just saying that it's a possibility," she shrugged, "and if Thomas didn't want—"

Ben pushed his way into the gap between the two of them with an odd glint in his eye, "Not interrupting, am I?"

Honey shoved her cousin playfully, but Trixie was caught up by the look on his face.

"What do you know?" Ben knew something; he had to with that look.

"Remember back at Zachariah's when I was caught up by the name Thomas Colter?" Trixie nodded and Honey started at him solemnly, "well I was sure I knew it from somewhere, but I couldn't figure it out at the time."

Trixie's eyes widened with excitement, "and now?" she as having trouble keeping her voice low.

"Now I remember," Ben said somberly, pulling out a piece of paper. Trixie squinted in the faint light the fire was giving. It looked like an employee file, an employee file with the name Thomas Colter III at the top.

Trixie and Honey both turned to Ben in confusion.

"He's right here, working for Jim – he's on the property at this moment."

A/N: and so that was the next chapter. I really hope you enjoy it. I know for you Jim fans I didn't get much Jim in there this time, but don't worry, I should get back to him soon. Anyways, as always reveiw, tell me what you liked, didn't like, your favourite or least favourite lines/part, what I can improve on. I want to hear it all! So give it to me! Thanks for reading.