"Eugh..."

Piper grimaces as she sits in a chair she had pulled up next to Nick's desk. She holds up a photograph from the crime scene – one of David who not only has his throat slashed open like Earl had said, but also his eyes cut out. The reporter swallows and grabs another photo from the file. It is of Ivy in much the same state: covered in stab wounds, her eyes gouged out just as David's had been. She only looks at the photos a moment longer before she sets them both face down on the desk, then sits quietly with what she has just seen.

A few feet away, Ellie is standing next to Nick, and they are both rooting through the filing cabinets in search of the notes Nick had taken only a couple days prior during his visit with the Bennets.

"I know I put them away in here." Nick mutters, scratching at the back of his neck, his brow furrowed in confusion. Ellie continues sifting through files and paperwork, working quickly as her eyes scan over everything in the drawer. Finally, she stops, pulls a file from the cabinet, and gives Nick a look of triumph. Nick sighs in relief, his shoulders rising and falling slightly, and grins as he takes the file. "See?" he says. "This is why I need you, Ellie."

"Uh huh, Mr. I-Can-File-That-Myself." Ellie ribs him playfully, then turns to resume what she had been doing before Nick interrupted her. Nick smirks – he is truly thankful for Ellie and all she does for him.

He turns back to Piper, who he notices is pale as she zones out and stares at the wall before her. His lips press into a thin line, and he saunters back to his own seat. "I think I'd lose my head if it weren't screwed on tight enough," he says, then smiles lightly and mumbles, "which reminds me, I oughta have that checked soon." He jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood a little and ease Piper's discomfort and it works – she blinks, then laughs softly at what Nick has said.

"That in Ellie's job description, too?" she quips, and Ellie snorts from across the room.

"He doesn't pay me enough for that."

Nick chuckles and shakes his head as he takes his seat and sets his recent notes down on the desk. He glances to the two face down photos and frowns. "Gruesome, huh?"

Piper nods. "Looks like the work of a raider." she says, then chuffs. "I mean, I know Security here sucks but I don't think they'd let a raider in."

"Well frankly, I don't know what's worse." Nick shifts in his seat, "The thought that a raider may have gotten past security and done this, or the possibility that it was another resident of Diamond City..."

There is a beat of silence as Piper considers his words, and the only thing that really brings her any semblance of comfort is that nothing similar seems to have happened before or since this incident. Nick grabs his new notes and sets them down in front of Piper, over top the photographs, encouraging her to look them over.

"This is what I got from the Bennets the other day when I went to see them." he tells her then sits back in his seat and watches as she picks up the paper. Piper's eyes flick between the new notes and the old notes, which she holds in her other hand, and as she continues to read, she looks somewhere between confused and frustrated.

"They're the same." she concludes, and Nick nods.

"Not a single divergence from their original story." he laments, then sighs again. "Think the only thing I learned was that the kid had a favourite song." He places his elbow on the table and holds his head in his non-skeletal hand.

Piper looks up from the notes and raises an eyebrow. She smiles faintly and gingerly sets the papers down. "Well?" she matches Nick's posture, leaning back in her own chair and resting her arm on the desk. "What was it?"

Nick smiles wistfully, his golden gaze drifting toward his own radio nearby. "It was that Skeeter Davis song. You know. End of the World. Guess she'd blast it full volume at all hours of the day and night and drive the Bennets crazy." he recounts what Betty and Earl had told him, and Piper makes a small sound of exaggerated disgust and laughs.

"Ugh. That one? Out of all the songs Travis plays?" she ridicules though her words are merely reflective of her own opinions and not at all meant to insult Maggie and her tastes. Nick knows this and smiles lightly, eyes flicking to Ellie who is now looking at the two over her shoulder.

"That's the best break-up song." she argues, playfully defensive smile upon her face. "Makes you kinda want to stare mournfully out the window, or lay in your bed in the dark and cry."

"Jeez, El." Piper chuckles softly. "Who hurt you?"

Ellie turns back around. "Oh honey. We ain't got time for that." she says lightheartedly.

Nick by then has grabbed his notes again, his own eyes travelling from page to page and back as he searches for any inconsistencies – just as he has done seemingly hundreds of times since he'd gone to see the Bennets.

Suddenly, Piper gasps and lurches forward, her hand smacking the table which elicits a jump from Ellie. "Wait!" she says, waving her finger toward Nick who regards her quizzically. "Maybe that's it!" Nick tilts his head in a silent plea for her to continue, and Piper stands. She speaks animatedly with her hands. "If Maggie was playing this song that loud, all the time, and she was a teenage girl..." she trails off, wide eyes meeting Nick's.

He perks. "Maybe she was going through heartache of her own." he finishes the thought, and Piper nods enthusiastically.

"Exactly!" she snaps her fingers. "Did she have a boyfriend? Do you know?!" she asks, and Nick shakes his head and stands.

"Not that I recall ever hearing about. But Rosa has some of her old diaries, maybe I oughta comb through those again, see what I can dig up." As far as Nick remembers, though, the diaries had mostly been filled primarily with doodles and poems. Still, it is definitely worth a shot – and something he had yet to consider at length. "Good thinking, Piper."

Piper beams at his compliment. It feels good – hearing someone she looks up to as a fellow investigator praise her. Nick is a great detective, and in her time in Diamond City, she has learned a lot from him which she has applied to her own career in journalism. "You do that, and I'll see if maybe any of her peers know anything." she suggests. Piper is around the age Maggie would have been by now, so she has that in common with the people Maggie would have grown up with.

"Let me know what you find out." Nick says. "Who knows – maybe we come out of this with a new lead." He remains hopeful, and Piper grabs her scarf hastily to head toward the door.

"Maybe!" she calls out, eager to see what she can find. "I'll see you soon!" she says, and before Nick can even say goodbye, Piper is gone.

Nick turns to his desk and moves to tidy his notes, but Ellie stops him, grabbing his arm gently. "Let me take care of this." she says, and gestures toward the door with her head. "Go." she urges softly. Nick smiles in gratitude and backs off, letting Ellie take care of the clerical work. He instead grabs his hat and positions it atop his head.

"I should be back before long, but if I'm not, don't stay too late." he frets, knowing Ellie has a tendency to overwork herself. When Ellie titters dismissively, he turns to her. "I mean it, Ellie. You can't spend all of your time worryin' about this old tin can. You got to take care of yourself, too."

Ellie pauses as she gathers his paperwork, but she gives him a smile eventually. "Okay. I will." she says succinctly, and Nick feels that her words are sincere enough that he can quit ragging on her and get a move on.

He bids her farewell and heads out, towards Rosa's residence. Rosa does not live in the upper stands like her sister did; instead, she lives a short walk down the alley from the agency. Children run by him as he makes his way to her home, and a light breeze follows them through the streets.

He stops in front of her door, offering her neighbours who sit outside a friendly greeting which they semi-reciprocate. He raises his fist to knock on her door, but before he can, one of Rosa's neighbours speaks up.

"If you're lookin' for Rosa, she ain't home." the woman says from where she sits atop a crate, peeling a tato into a compost bucket. "Went out with her friend a few hours ago."

Nick lowers his hand. This isn't really a shock to him – Rosa isn't a homebody, and she has in fact expressed many times in conversation with Nick that she likes to keep herself busy as it helps distract her from the thoughts of what might have happened to her precious niece. "Huh." he says, then turns to the woman. "She by chance say when she would be back?"

The woman shrugs and looks back to her tato. "Nope." she says. Nick shuffles his feet and slides his hands into his pocket.

"Well, if you see her, let her know I was lookin' for her." he requests, and he receives an inhospitable grunt in response. One which reminds him that not everyone in Diamond City is entirely accepting of his synthetic self. He gives the group a parting look and lets their feelings of judgment and antipathy roll off him just as he usually does when dealing with the intolerant, then opts for a short stroll around town to see if he can't find Rosa out and about.

He slows as he turns down a street which leads him back towards the market, where he sees Cass standing in front of a poster of Maggie, hands in his pockets. Cass quickly spots him from the corner of his eye and gives him his signature crooked smile as he waves to him. Nick makes his way to his side, happy to see a friendly face.

"What's up, man?" Cass asks him and offers him a cigarette from his pocket which Nick takes.

"Nothing, really." Nick says. "Just out for a walk. You doing the same?"

Cass nods and lights his own smoke. "Yeah, yeah. Just clearing my head." He turns back to the poster, squinting at the photo. Nick follows his gaze, and Cass exhales. "Man, I can't believe they're still putting these things up."

Nick frowns and takes a drag from his cigarette. Though he exhales most of it, some smoke does filter out from behind his rotting faceplate. "Well I reckon these'll stay up until we find out what happened to her." he says, and the resolve in his words is unmistakable, though he does narrow his eyes. "Or, I guess, 'til some yahoo comes by and rips them down again."

"Someone's been doing that?" Cass asks, eyebrows raising as he looks to Nick who nods. "Why?"

"Beats me. But do me a favour and let me know if you see anything, would ya?" he requests. Cass smiles softly.

"Of course, mi amigo." he brings his hand up to his chest. "I will keep my eyes peeled."

The two men scrutinize the poster together in silence for a few moments, then Nick speaks. "You didn't happen to know her, did you?" he asks, and he glances to Cass from the side of his eyes.

Cass takes a moment to answer. "Sort of." he replies, eyes glued to the poster, and the words grab Nick's attention. The synth turns his head toward Cass now, which the chem dealer aptly notices and so he turns to face Nick. "She was going out with one of our friends, but honestly, man, the whole thing really sketched me and Lana out." he recalls, then laughs wearily. "She was, like, 6 or 7 years younger than us or something like that. Just... way too young."

Nick tries to remain neutral-faced, but the dilation of his mechanical pupils betrays him. "Really?" he asks. Cass shrugs.

"Yeah, honestly, I do not remember a lot." he shakes his head and glances back to the poster, taking a subconscious step backward. "I only ever spoke to her a few times."

"And your friend?" Nick asks quickly. "Who was your friend? The one seein' her?"

Cass is unsure he wants to answer, but he shifts uncomfortably and runs a hand through his shaggy, brown hair before he gives in. "It's, uh. Tim. Timothy Reno, you know him?"

Nick searches his mind for the name and it does ring a bell. He nods slowly. "I think so. He still live here?"

Cass shrugs. "Yeah, I think so. I don't know, after Lana died I lost touch with everyone." he admits, and there is an underlying sadness in his words which grounds Nick. The detective frowns and sighs.

"Right." he says. "Sorry." His condolences are sincere, empathetic. He knows they aren't his own memories, but he thinks back to how Human Nick felt to lose his fiancee and his heart aches for Cass.

The man shakes his head, sombre smile on his face. "It's okay, Valentine." he reassures him, then flicks his cigarette butt into the street and slips his hands back into his pockets. "I heard Tim has a kid now. Since school just got out not long ago, I would bet he is around here somewhere with it. Er. Them. I don't know, might be a daughter." he laughs to himself as he stumbles over his words. "He's tall. Er... brown eyes, curly black hair... When I knew him he had a nice moustache but, eh. It has been a while." he shrugs.

Nick takes a mental note of all Cass has said and steps back, eyes toward the market. "Thank you, Cass." he says. "You've been a big help."

"No problem-o." Cass says, an uneasy smile on his face. Before Nick can step away, he locks eyes with the shorter man.

"Stop by some time." he says warmly. "You know. If you ever need to talk or anything."

Cass grins lightly. "Will do." he says, though as Nick steps around him and hurries off toward the marketplace, his smile twists into a look of concern.