_I am onto something

If there was any clue that pointed to Kate being the culprit, Rune wanted to find it fast. The faster she finds the clue, the faster they get to locate the culprit and save Fender's life.

She would die of curiosity while waiting for Farris's return from the healer who was treating Fender.

" Where do you school?" Rune asked Kate in a bid to gather more information about the girl.

Kate shrugged, moving over to take her seat on the couch. " Done with high school. Have no plans for college yet"

" Where did you study for high school?" She tried to sound casual and hoped to hell her voice came out as casual as she wanted it to.

Kate's defense was up now. " Why? Do you know me perhaps?"

Hm, she was onto something here.

Why raise her defense just because she was asking about her high school? Rune had lived too long to know that girls Kate's age are usually eager to give gists about topics like that.

Definitely, this girl was hiding something.

She smiled anyway. " No of course, not. I recently just moved into the house next door with my family."

" Here is no place for girls gossip. Take your girlish conversation elsewhere." Asher interrupted their conversation and seemed a bit more relaxed now as he wheeled himself over to the couch where she stood and Kate sat.

Abruptly, Kate stood up. " I left some cookies baking in the oven, silly me!" she lamented as she took to her heels, rushing to the kitchen.

"Can I come to lend a hand?" Rune quickly jumped, already taking a step closer to follow Kate.

Kate halted for a moment and finally blurted. " Why, yes. Run along" she said and dashed into the kitchen.

Rune's heart danced in joy. She was one step closer to completing her quest in this house.

As she walked into the kitchen, her ears and eyes caught on to something.

Her ears heard Duncan whisper to Asher. " Do all girls likes to cook so much?"

" Course not!" the latter replied.

However, what her eyes caught on was a more interesting element.

There was a smear of mud under the kitchen door just stuck in the middle of the small space between the door and the wall.

It looked like someone had swept or cleaned the floor before but a little cloud of mud managed to seat their clumsiness right in between the door.

This could only mean one thing but still, she was here to gather facts not assumptions so, she would wait until she was able to investigate the mud, she wouldn't jump to conclusions.

" I hate it when my cookie burns above 350 Fahrenheit. They taste too thick even if I use cold butter" Kate was nagging over her overbaked cookies.

Rune really had nothing to say to that. She doesn't cook, not a fan of it. " But your oven's temperature is set to 350" Rune observed when her eyes darted around and finally settled on the oven and there, she found something to say.

" I know" Kate was removing the cooking she had worn to bring the cookies out of the oven now. " I just thought if the temperature was set to 320 Fahrenheit, maybe the cookies would have been saved while I chose to be forgetful and neglect them in the oven!" she lamented.

At a complete loss for what to say, " Uhmm, I'm sure they taste fine still"

" You think so?" Kate brought her gaze up to look at her and Rune made sure to stare deeply into the eyes of the girl to see if there was any supernatural glint to them.

She found none.

However, Kate found in her eyes what she looked for in hers. " You have the eyes of my Leannie," she said.

Rune was lost. " What or who is Leannie?"

" My cat," Kate said and was already walking towards Rune with a cookie in hand.

" Ohh" Rune nodded. " I get that a lot." She replied but was surprised, Kate was extending a cookie in her direction and was ordering her to open up.

" Ahhh" the small-sized frame girl instructed.

Hell no!

What if it was already poisoned like the way the chicken Fender ate was?

But she was here. Standing here all along and watching Kate and she hadn't seen her add anything to the cookies. What if she added it before she put it in the oven?

Nah- she couldn't have wanted to harm Asher and his friend right? She knew they would be eating in the cookies and couldn't have possibly added any poison to them.

She was merely being paranoid.

Bargaining on her chances but choosing to trust her fifth sense, she opened up while Kate dumped the crunchy cookie into her mouth.

" Hmmm," she said amidst mouthfuls. " A little bit crumbly but still good. Don't worry Kate, those cookies are saved" she crunched. She was speaking the truth too.

The girl breathed a deep sigh of relief. " Thank God. I would have eaten those boys' libidos before they could call me names for baking cookies" she grunted.

Wild, Kate thought.

Eat the boy's balls?

She was memorized when Kate came to tap her shoulders lightly. " You just saved them, girl"

Girl?

This teeny-tiny thing was calling her 'girl'?

Her guts!

Rune watched her adorable looking back as she carried the tray filled with the rest of the cookies into the sitting room.

She decided to seize the opportunity to execute her plan. As she made to walk out of the kitchen, she bent near the mud and took a smear of it with her palm. She rubbed it against it and felt its texture.

It was the same mud as the one from the hole dug in their garden.

That's it, her quest was accomplished. There was no use staying here any longer.

" Rune, don't tell me you plan on pooing in front of the kitchen door" Duncan queried when she had remained in the same spot for long.

She stood up abruptly and dusted the mud off her hands. " No" she tried to chuckle. " My cloth got stuck in the door before" she lied and walked to join them in the sitting room.

" Come have some cookies" Kate motioned for her to come forward.

" You can generously offer girls but be stingy with boys cookies you made with my brother's money?" Asher spat in irritation at Kate.

Kate of course was ready to fire back. "Well then if you think so, good luck growing a pussy in place of your toothbrush-sized balls"

Oh damn!

The girl was too brutal with words.

Duncan burst out in hearty laughter.

As Duncan's laughter resounded in the sitting room, Rune's eyes settled upon Kate and study hard for something at least that could crown her investigation and give the Chameleon away.

If anything like that existed, she did not find it. The Chameleon had concealed herself with expertise. If she was this Kate girl, there was nothing in her appearance that spells that.

The only things in support of her suspicion of Kate were all the clues and facts that pointed to this house. Except for Kate's attitude and words which seemed too old for a young girl like her, she was good too.

" Thanks, guys, I have to go now. My family will probably be looking for me now" she said to the lot and walked to the door without waiting for their reply.

Wait!

She halted, there was something she forgot to do.

" Bye Asher. I hope we get to talk later" she said to Asher. She couldn't leave like that when she had actually said she was here to see him.

With that, she opened the door, ready to tell the others what she had discovered.

A few steps were what separated her from Asher's house when she heard him say to his friends. " She barely even talked to me yet she says she came to see me" he grumbled.

" Why? Were you looking forward to her talking to you?" Kate countered him.

His defense was up. " Of course, not!"

Rune finally continued her walk with a big smirk on her face.

Asher had been looking forward to having a conversation with her even though he was acting otherwise. She was pleased to hear that. Her feminine ego sprawled up in pride.