Fee Fi Fo Fum

"Yeah, Mate," Angus said, busy chopping some pecans. "The brown teapot on the counter. Kate made a larger pot so anyone who wanted some could have it. Help yourself. I promised Abbey some pecan shortbread biscuits. So what's your thoughts about Marcus? Think he's going to work out?"

Robert finished putting Abbey down for a nap and came back downstairs, told Kate he was heading back to work. He had countless things he had to do, and he couldn't be way any longer and then ported out.

Outside, Brian had decided to join Khaat and share her lounge chair with her. He settled in with her and simply wrapped her close.

"You're awfully quiet. What's going on?" he asked.

"Just a lot to think about," she said curling into him.

"I think you've done enough thinking," he told her. "And you've just about had enough sun too."

"Maybe I should change my hair. Change my perfume..."

"Maybe you should get your mind on something else," he smiled. "Don't you usually have a whole briefcase full of paperwork?"

"I do. Always."

"Then, I think you need to work at it for awhile this afternoon. How about I take you inside and you can work on it? And then I need to get ack to work myself." She nodded.

He helped her up to her room and left her to go back to work. She started to work on the briefcase of paperwork but didn't have what she needed. She had an envelope on her desk that she absolutely needed. She decided that if she simply popped back into her office that she could go and be back and no one would even know she was gone. She got up and tried to go to the dresser to get her purse, without her crutches, and couldn't stand on her bad leg, and fell. That brought Marcus at once.

"Misbehaving?" he asked, going over and putting his hands under her shoulders to help her up. "Be honest. Where were you going?"

"Back to my office just to get an envelope off my desk."

"In your Daisy Dukes?"

"That's why I was going in a hurry, before anyone could see I was there," she said. He laughed out loud.

"Alright. I'll go with you. Where's your portkey?"

"In my bag," she said. He handed her the bag, and she got her keys. He took them from her.

"I'll do the driving, thank you very much," he told her. "Two minutes." He ported her out.

"It usually does," Angus said, putting a sheet of shortbread cookies into the oven. "Not sure where all the cookies go in this house. They seem to just completely disappear."

In her office at St. Mungo's, Khaat started to flick through papers on her desk, but she wasn't finding what she wanted. She sighed, frustrated.

"Can I help you with something?" Marcus asked.

"There was a blue envelope here yesterday," she said as someone knocked on the door. She was certainly not dressed for work.

"Allow me," Marcus said, flicking his wand at her, changing her short shorts to gray dress slacks and her tank top to a red dress blouse. "You look fine. Now, sit. I'll get the door." She sat down at the desk and Marcus answered the door. It was Khaat's secretary.

"I thought I heard someone in here. I didn't see you come in, though," her secretary frowned.

"We just slipped by," Khaat said. "Let me introduce you. This is Marcus Belby. He's accompanying me today."

"I thought you werent' coming in. Your father said you hurt your leg and might not be in for a few days."

"He was right," I said. "Marcus is here to make sure I don't fall on my face. I came to get that blue envelope that was on my desk yesterday. I can't finish my paperwork without it." Her secretary rooted in a stack of paperwork on Khaat's credenza, found the envelope, and handed it to her.

"Thank you," she said.

"Well, if you don't mind my saying, its a good thing you have someone with you," her secretary said.

"Why is that?"

"A young woman was found murdered last night,and another this noontime. People are already talking. They say they're related. It isn't safe to go out, they say."

"Then we must all take more care, won't we?" Marcus said. "Khaat and I will be avoiding the street, I think. Anything else, Khaat?"

"Are there autopsy reports yet for these women?" Khaat asked.

"Not yet. Your father did the first autopsy this morning, but no one's had time to get to the second yet."

"I see," Khaat said. "No, I think that's all, Marcus."

"Then, we should go," he said. She nodded and stood and he put a bracing arm under her. "Nice to meet you," he told the secretary and ported them back home.

"Two killings? What is James up to?" she asked.

"If they're both his? He's trying to get your attention, I'd wager. Sit. How about some of that almond tea, if your mother brewed it?"

"I'm sure she did. It's one of her favorites."

"I'll send for some for you," he said. He sent a paper bird down to the kitchen to see if Angus would send some tea up for Khaat.

"Catch that bird, will you, Jack?" Angus said seeing a paper bird flutter in and make circles in the air in the kitchen.

"That would be good. She wants some of the almond. She's been too quiet all day. I think she's a bit edgy about last night, if you ask me, but no wonder. It was a close shave, that. Robert is right. It isn't good for the girls to go out by themselves." He took a mug and poured tea in it and handed it to Angus. "That should do it. Let me know if she needs anything else."

Upstairs, Marcus reversed his clothing spell and changed her back from business dress to her shorts and tank top. She sat back down on the bed and took the blue envelope and settled in to try to focus on her paperwork.