"Hello Newt," Charlotte said to the lanky red-haired man as she passed him on her way to her office.

"Hey Char," he said, winking at her.

Newt didn't stop hitting on Charlotte even after she blatantly told him she wasn't interested. She liked Newt as a friend and nothing more, and she was sure it would remain like that. Newt just wasn't her type.

Charlotte was a very beautiful woman, and she knew it, black hair of waist-length that curled at the end, green eyes, full pink lips, pointed nose, and a killer body. Charlotte always willed a second look from a man, married or not. She used this in her job to her benefit. Her looks had never betrayed her. Even the toughest of men still succumbed to their bodies in the end.

"James Anderson," Charlotte thought, the only man Charlotte had met that didn't spare her a second look.

When Charlotte's father, the chief of police in East Wings told her a friend of his would be sending his best detective to head the Plugger case, and that she would work alongside him, she had immediately asked Newt to help her search him up. James Anderson, 40 years old, orphan, grew up in East Wings at Love of God orphanage and was SINGLE. So why didn't he gawk at her as other men did? This fascinated her a lot.

         **********
"I'll go upstairs, you take downstairs," James said to Charlotte. "Maybe he realized he sounded bossy because he quickly amended, "or vice versa. "

"It's fine," she replied.

He nodded and went upstairs while Charlotte got to work. They had spoken to the forensic team and agents who came here in response to the 911 call.

The agents had searched everywhere, nothing was out of place, the fingerprints they took were not yet tested but Charlotte already had the feeling that the case they were dealing with was not simple, it was going to be long and twisted and her intuition never failed her.

She searched the sitting room carefully, checking for details, details that others may have missed while making sure she didn't disturb anything.

She checked everywhere, the TV area, the chairs(under and inside), the glass stools and tables, the lamp holders, and even the vase. She proceeded to the kitchen, guest bedroom, toilet, and dining table. When she was sure she'd done a thorough job, she decided to go outside and check the perimeters.

'Shoulda brought a coat,'she thought to herself as she walked down the road.

What she was looking for wasn't exactly clear, even to her, but her intuition told her it was the right choice.

Hugging herself even tighter, she went down the road. It was a very peaceful place. An estate where only the rich was accepted by the looks of it. All the houses had the same structure, and expensive cars were parked in the driveway. The estate looked like it hadn't even known theft.

How had a murderer been able to enter this estate and leave without being noticed? There was tight security outside the gate, and she had only been able to enter after showing her ID.

Considering all this, Charlotte concluded, the murderer hadn't left the estate yet because he lived here or one of the security men at the gate was in on it.

'Either way,' Charlotte thought as she paused to catch her breath, 'the major suspects would be Lily Plugger's workers, neighbours and the estate's security men.'

James, she had to tell him what her theory was. She turned around and bumped into a man in his early fifties.

"Sorry," he said and left.

"Yeah," she said, not paying attention. She had to go compile her list of suspects.

Reaching the crime scene five minutes later, she saw James on the porch talking to Jamie, a member of the forensic team.

"...seen it happen," she heard James say.

"No one," Jamie replied.

"Alright, thanks," James said, dismissing him.

"Find anything?"he said, looking at Charlotte.

"No, but one thing is for sure, whoever did it is someone not far away. "

"I've thought about that too." James said, pulling out a small diary, "Time for phase two."

"What?"she said utterly confused.

James looked uncomfortable and said, "You weren't meant to hear that."

"Since you're my partner, let's talk about these phases, we'll go through them together."

"Well," James said, looking uncomfortable, "for every case I solve, I write down steps to go through when solving them. I tend to plan things so I also do it when I'm working. Phase one was to go to the crime scene, evaluate and assess, which we've done. Phase two is to compile a list of witnesses and people we need to interrogate"

"OK," Charlotte said, amused," let's do it."

James brought out his diary as Charlotte moved to the car for them to discuss and write down names needed in this case.

Once they were in the car with James in the passenger seat and Charlotte in the driver seat, James pulled out his pen and was surprised to see Charlotte put the car in gear and start the car. He was about to ask where she was going when she answered as if she could read his mind.

"A girl needs to eat," she said plainly.

"So let's start with the driver, Collins, the maid, Tami, the gardener, Jamie, they were at her house the day of the murder except for the gardener of course but it doesn't mean we're running him out", James said looking up while Charlotte nodded, "I think that's it for the staff, we'll basically have to interview everyone in the estate."

"No way, there are around 100 houses," Charlotte replied.

"We'll assign junior officers to do it and compile their reports," James said.

"But why do we have to interview everyone in the estate, we just need to interview the immediate neighbours."Charlotte said.

"I know, but look at what information we could get. Someone may slip up or talk about a fight the victim was involved in recently, that sort of thing,"

"I guess you're right."

"Thanks. Don't let's forget the security men too. We'll also talk to her relatives and friends."

Charlotte nodded, agreeing.

"For now, I guess that's it. We'll assign junior officers to other houses in the estate, but we'll deal with the primary suspects. I think", James said, pausing purposefully to show he wasn't trying to boss the operation, "I think we should split, let me interrogate the staff and security men while you interrogate friends and relatives."

"Fine by me," Charlotte said as she pulled into the drive-in of KFC.

James was silently joyful she agreed. He was not sure he could handle seeing Lily's parents, especially her mom and her friends. They had looked down on him when he had nothing. He didn't think he could handle the look of surprise on their faces when they saw he was well off now. No, he couldn't.

".....burger," he heard Charlotte saying. Why was she looking at him? Was she talking to him?

"Anderson?"

She was talking to him.

"Yeah? I didn't catch that sorry. "

"I asked if you were interested in a burger."

He suddenly realized he was hungry.

"Yes," he said, digging into his pockets and handing her a few notes.

She shook her head and said, "My treat."

When he opened his mouth to protest, she simply smiled and turned away before he could talk.

As Charlotte sat in her office 15 minutes later, munching on a fry, she silently prayed that the operation would go well. She didn't want it to develop into a cold case. Besides, she needed to have a good record of solving cases to join the FBI.

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