Chapter 3

"You better be having a good reason and some choco chip cookies if you have the guts to come here, unannounced, and disturb my class. I even finished the godforsaken assignment! And mind you, that was a maths assignment, and we're even starting new-" Piper went off as soon as the principal left the room, giving them some privacy to talk.

"There were two more bodies found, though this one is different than the others." Zhang spoke gravely. Piper stopped in her tracks, and frowned.

"One."

She pondered on his words, and her eyes widened.

"Merde. No. That can't be. Two women, together?" He nodded, "Agent Chase is already at the scene, along with the Stolls, they're talking to the parents of the desceased twins. Agent Dare is in the car, she'll take you there, and brief you on the way. If you need anything, pevious files, crime scene pctures, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask anyone of them, or even me, though I have to be in a meeting in an hour or so."

She could see how desperate he was, his eyes said so, his voice said so. It was not that he wanted the burden of this case off him, he wanted the killings to stop. It was driving everyone over the edge. If all this crap somehow got to the media... Piper shuddered at the thought. Whole of Sacramento would fall apart.

-X-

"Oh good, Pipes, you're here. This is Mrs. Julia Robinson, and Mr. Patrick Robinson, the parents. They were out at the time of the murder. And this is Eric Cavanaugh, Summer Robinson's boyfriend. He was the one who found the two sisters dead in their room." She looked at the parents, who were all dressed up as if coming from a formal party.

Piper studied the guy in front of her, he was about 16.

Around the two sisters's age. The two sisters's who were murdered at the age of 16. Shaking her head, she studied Eric's hands, he had a callus on his middle finger. He had a disturbed look on her face, almost as if he was touched emotionally by the deaths, obviously, but there was something else prominent too. She had seen that look many a times on Jane's face, especially when Piper had either intentionally or unintentionally sabotaged Tristan's press conferences, the look was of disappointment.

"So, Eric, I take it that you were writing a book on Summer? Or... No, not on your girlfriend, but on her sister. Right? That would answer the question as to why the flowers are there." Piper paused and glanced at Conner, who looked troubled because she had just entered and she had gotten out more that he had in just a few seconds.

"Giving a girl a white tulip is basically begging her to take you back after you've slept with her twin. It symbolizes forgiveness, and purity, too, but I guess that's not the case here, right?" She smirked, and then continued, "Every girl likes white tulips, so do I. Thank you." He blinked a few times and stared at her as she slid her hand in his front pocket and took a single flower dried out, alongside a neatly pressed note.

She opened it. Her eyes wandered over it, and quietly, she stepped out of his way and went towards the stairs. "Uh, Piper? What's in the note? Is it related to the case? We need to see it, it could be considered evidence." Piper stopped in her tracks, turned around, and spoke to Conner. "Trust me when I say it isn't evidence. Oh, and, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson? Where were you when the two were killed?" At that question, the mother burst into tears and buried her face into her husband's shirt.

Mr. Robinson spoke gravely, "We were at a gallery of an old friend."

Piper shuddered on the inside at the thought of dressing up in the morning and going to a boring art gallery. Well, she was a kid at heart, she got bored doing adult stuff.

Doing adult stuff... Okay. I don't have a childlike mind. I have a dirty one. An extremely dirty one, she thought.

"Oh, and didn't the two have school today? And you also, Eric?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I was going but I had to deliver the note and the, uh... flower."

Mrs. Robinson cleared her throat, and spoke, "Briana was sick, so Summer planned to stay and look after her. Things had been cold between the two lately, but still, Summer was looking after her sister. So I let her stay, I was glad that they were finally making up, but..." She broke into another cry, and then continued, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that! I shouldn't have let them stay at home, Patrick! I-"

Piper winced, she hated this part. Eying Dare -who was making Eric sign some stuff- she quickly went up the stairs, to Malcolm and Travis.

The first thing she saw when she entered was the sign, made with dried blood. "So, where are the bodies...oh." She took in the bodies, both of them were lying on the bed. She studied the faces, they were about her age, and this fact was haunting her ever since the start of the case. Malcolm noted her distress, he knew what she was worrying about. "This one is Brianna and the other one is Summer. I think you met her-"

He was cut off by Piper, who asked, "Do you have a suit?"

Malcolm blinked, and then thought if she were kidding him. He frowned. Last night when they were investigating, she seemed serious, and now?

"Do you?" She asked again.

"Piper are you alright? Has the case gotten to you? Are you sick or something? You should go back if you aren't feeling-"

"Do. You. Or. Do. You. Not?"

She sounded impatient. He nodded, "I do. I need it for a few meetings and events."

"Excellent. And some ridiculously expensive perfume?"

"Yeah?" It came out like a question.

"Good. We're heading back to your place." She spoke, turned around, and motioned for him to follow. Travis, who was there during all that, followed Piper and Malcolm down the stairs, and asked, "Piper, I know you. At least, I think I do. Though I'm not sure. But you behave like this only when you are somewhat close to solving the case. Are you? Right now?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no."

"Fine. Do I have to do something?"

"Oh, yes, run to the office and bring me one picture of the crime scene of every Black Jack case, including this, would you?" Piper asked. They had gotten to the car. Malcolm slid into the driver's seat and hoped that Piper didn't do this because she wanted to play dress up.

"And why exactly did you put me in this Armani suit in broad daylight when we could be investigating a murder case?" Malcolm asked her.

Piper tried her hardest not to think about how hot he looked in the suit as she picked up the expensive, tiny bottle of perfume and went near him. They were face to face, more like, chest to face, considering the fact that she was really short. Compared to him, at least. She looked him directly in the eye. Malcolm's breath hitched as he found himself staring into her huge, now cerulean blue eyes. This close, she looked even more pretty, if that was possible. It was literally like those scenes in the telenovelas and romance movies. Magical.

All of a sudden, Piper blinked. Not so magical anymore. The two looked away, and there it was, the awkward silence which always followed. Then, for her investigation, she then sprayed the perfume on his chest. A lot of it. They started coughing.

"God! Why do you need that strong stuff?! To scare people away?"

"Normally, normal people don't use that much of it. Now would you like to tell me why you made me put this on? If it weren't for Agent Zhang telling me to go with whatever you've said, I would've been utilizing my time by doing some actual detective work." Piper sighed, stepped back, and sighed again. Then she sat down on the sofa. "Anyways, we have 15 more minutes, and then 15 more minutes after that. Then you can get out of that suit. But for now," She patted the seat next to her, and then continued, "You may have a seat."

He sat down, and asked, "And?"

"So how did you become an FBI agent at the age of 21? Don't you people have thousands of courses to attend and exams to give?"

"Well, the minimum age is 23, but they... made an exception."

"Nope. They didn't. Your achievements did."

He looked down, and said something, it came out as a mumble, almost as if he was ashamed, "Yeah. That. Hey, how do you know?"

"Seriously? Stop underestimating me. You need to except the fact that I know everything. And also the fact that I am a 9 on the scale of awesomeness, even if it isn't a word. And that Zhang's computer is way too easy to hack. He should keep more security. At least the protection program that lady lawyer had, on that case," She sighed. She had the expression on her face that girls her age had when they thought about hot guys or clothes, Malcolm noted as he stared at her. She continued, "Now that was some work, I had to stay up all night doing that, we couldn't ask the cyber department because, well, stuff like that is illegal, and they didn't have enough evidence. It was fun, though."

"So you hack into any one's personal files?"

"When I need something, yes. Oh, and government's official files too."

He shook his head, wondering how Agent Zhang had reacted to all that. Knowing Zhang, he probably would've thrown her out, but yet again, they needed her. And Malcolm suspected that Zhang did not know about her hacking in the first place.

"You knew the answer, still you asked me, huh?"

"Hey!" She huffed, "Don't blame me for trying to strike up some conversation."

"Sorry!" He quickly spoke, with his hands in the air in surrender position, and a cute smile on his face. She smiled back and said, "Tell me something about you that I don't know."

"Well... Where to start? I-" Piper's iPhone beeped, and she jumped up.

"Times up! Get up."

"Uh... What?"

"Get up, now. My theory was right. I know who the killer is. Now all you have to do is take me out for an extremely late lunch. And you are going out in a suit, so you might as well take me someplace fancy, not just McDonalds, kay?"

He stared at her, and nodded. Half the time, she didn't make sense. It would be foolish to start trying to figure her out when they were this close to figuring the case.

"Fine, then where do you want to go?"

"I'm the new neighbor, remember?"

He grinned and nodded.

-X-

Piper dove into her spaghetti. She was vegetarian. No meatballs for her.

Malcolm had brought her to a high end Italian restaurant famous for its pastas and breads. There were no pizzas, and Piper was glad. Last time she had tried a proper Italian pizza, it wasn't a nice experience. There was nearly no cheese. But the nicer part was that her father was with her and they were having a discussion on Piper's second favorite topic, 'American Pizza'. Her favorite topic for discussion was the Stockholm Syndrome and its different interpretation in different psychological cases, but unfortunately her father was not a big fan of that.

Hey, she could discuss that with Malcolm, he would surely appreciate an intellectual conversation. But some sagacious voice in her head told her to not talk about that.

You see, this was the reason Piper did not have friends. She talked about cognitive neuropsychology, which, by the way, was a branch of psychology that studies brain injury to infer normal cognitive function, while the other girls at school discussed Dylan O'Brien, lipstick shades, 50 Shades Of Grey (whatever that was) and some even maths. Therefore Piper focused on the thing in front of her, spaghetti. Wonderful, yummy spaghetti.

Meanwhile, Malcolm was facing his own problem. His mother was here, at the restaurant, with some of the lawyers who worked under her at her firm. Last time he talked to his mother, she was talking to him about politics. Hell, every time they met, they talked politics. It was their alternative to 'How's the weather?'. But every time Athena brought up the topic of dating, he'd say that he had work and leave the room.

"Uh... Piper? We have a little problem over here, my mother's here with her colleagues."

"What? Mrs. Chase is here? Where? Oh..." She turned around, and saw her. She was a beautiful woman in her late forties, with blonde hair which had streaks of white. "So... I take it you don't want to meet your mother. Alright then, we'll leave. Call Travis and ask him to call everyone for a meeting and bring that file I asked him, or his brother to bring."

"Right. You're finished?"

"Oh yeah. And because you're wearing the tuxedo, I'll pay."

"No you wouldn't, because I already did." She pouted, and then answered, "Fine. But next time, let me pay. It feels like we're on a date or something."

He blushed.

She smirked.

They walked to the door, and all of a sudden, she pressed her hand on his chest. Something along the lines of, he is so freakingly well-built and rock hard! passed through her mind.

His eyes widened.

"Uh... Piper?" She slipped her hand into his shirt pocket, and brought out a tiny piece of paper.

Oh... So she wasn't feeling me up.

"Disappointed, Agent Chase?"

"Wha-n-no. Of course not."

He loosened his tie.

Why was it suddenly so hot in here?

Apparently, just like in those goddamn cliche romance novels, Mrs. Chase saw all that drama unfold. In a flash, she was by their side. "Malcolm, dear? How lovely it is to see you here! And who is this lovely lady with you? I can't believe Malcolm kept you away from me, my love." The last part was directed towards Piper, of course. Piper smirked at Malcolm. She seemed to be doing that a lot, lately.

"Mom, this is Piper, and she's helping us with an important case. She's just a colleague."

"Oh, of course you're Piper! The genius who's been helping around! Agent Zhang consulted me before forming the agreement your father signed. Annabeth also talked about you, you know! It's simply wonderful to finally meet you. Oh, and you're so pretty! With beautiful eyes like these, and you're intelligent brain, men must be falling at your feet!"

Piper stood there speechless as Athena gushed on. She didn't even notice as Malcolm blushed tomato red. This was different for her. Athena was behaving like an actual, caring (also insert: clever, matchmaking) mother (also insert, again: who didn't want her son to die single and alone).

Piper hadn't been around actual, caring mothers since her own one died. She didn't know how to react. Fortunately, Malcolm understood the look in her eyes and came to her rescue, "Mother. It's been wonderful to have run into you. But we should go, now. We have work, and so do you."

Athena frowned at her son. "Fine, but Piper darling, you have to promise me that you'll come over the house for dinner sometime."

"Uh... Of course I will, Mrs. Chase. I will!" She replied awkwardly with an extra burst of awkwardness at the end. "Oh, call me Athena, dear. Now I've got to go, bye, love. Bye, Malcolm." After she went away, Malcolm glanced at Piper, who was still staring at Athena's retreating figure with a flustered look. "I'm sorry, usually my mother doesn't behave like this-"

"It's alright. She very sweet. And nice. I like her. Let's go. I'll wait in the car, you call Travis." Walking over to Malcolm's sleek black car, she wove a hand through her hair, and released a breathe she didn't know she was holding. If her mother was alive, would she do the same? Would she try to play the matchmaker? Would she? And would Piper be in this position if she did? Well, no. She'd be back in LA, spending time with her father and mother, like a normal family. As normal as it would get with having super famous parents, that is.

She crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for Malcolm to return, the car was parked away from the restaurant, so the street was empty. With her brain turning its nuts and bolt and buzzing, she heard a little crunch of leaves behind her. "Oh, good you're here, Malcolm," She started, blinking back some of her tears and turned around.

She frowned, there was no one there. She swore there was someone there.

"Piper, I talked with Agent Zhang, he's ready for the meeting. Personally, I think he's in for the meeting because the team hasn't been able to gather anything. So I hope that you have reached somewhere..."

This voice, Malcolm's voice, came from behind her. A look of bewilderment covered her face. Well... She definitely needed hearing aids. Or she needed to clear her head.

"Let's go, Malcolm."

He nodded. They reached the place, and it was almost four. And they just ate lunch. She swore under her breath. Work was screwing up with her schedule. Her dad would be unhappy. Of course, he'd let her work with the FBI to catch her a crazy serial killer who killed brunettes, but not taking meals at the correct times? His answer would be "We need to talk, missy."

Though she wasn't sure if Zhang exactly told her father what she did with the FBI. Tristan thought that it was some crash course with computers, not actual murderers. "Malcolm, I have to ask you for a favor."

"And what's that?"

"That when we enter the room, and I'd shout 'Restrain her' you'd leave whatever you're doing, and stop Mrs. Robinson from doing whatever she would do," Malcolm opened his mouth to say something, but Piper cut him off, "And you won't question me."

His eyes left the road for a moment, and he looked at her.

He nodded.