This story is a sequal to Crimial Acts, I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One

Did Daniel really hear a scream? How did Andrew steal the necklace? What was Louise building for Boris? Was someone else involved in the crime? Too many questions unanswered, but I am here to tell you the answers. Yep, I’m back, its Rae Rae! It’s been a little over a year since I have told you about the mysterious summer in Abshire, England. This past fall, more mysterious acts began to unfold before our eyes once again. Things haven’t really been the same ever since Andrew stole the necklace. The Queen has gotten more security around the castle, she has gotten new servants, but none of them are detectives….she told us herself. She has also become very protective over her fabulous stuff. Also, if we want someone else to do our job, for one reason or another, we need to get the Queen’s consent. So things are run much more meticulous now. But in a strange way, it’s still the same as it was before Andrew’s crime. During the fall my niece and nephew came to visit me. Their names are Ellie and Tim. Ellie is seven and Tim is five. Ellie is very lengthy and slender and her brown hair goes perfectly with the autumn colors. Tim is on the taller side and is also slim and he has sometimes wild, sometimes tamed blond hair.
For a while there had been rumors that Andrew wasn’t the only one involved in the crime. We assumed nobody knew who it was that helped him, if there even was someone that helped him. Nobody really believed the rumors that were going around, until things began to happen that were out of the ordinary.
Marie was taking a walk around the castle when she spotted Tim digging under a tree. She stopped to watch him from a distance, she was a little curious to see if he would find anything. He kept digging and digging and digging and then he stopped. He dropped the shovel and fell to his knees. Tim reached into the whole and pulled something out. Marie couldn’t tell what it was. Tim went dashing into the castle and Marie started to run into the castle at the same time. I was in the living room cleaning up a bit when I heard,
“Rae Rae, Rae Rae, look what I found!” Tim exclaimed to me.
“What is it?” I asked
“I don’t know I just found it outside when I was digging.” he answered.
I looked at it more closely and then I realized that it was one of the Queen’s bracelets.
“Is it yours?” he asked
“No, it’s the Queen’s.” I answered and just then Marie came in out of breath. She looked at me, then at my hand, then at Tim. Then it hit me,
“Tim, where were you digging?” I asked
“Under the tree right out front.” he answered, I looked at Marie,
“Show us.” I said and we quickly walked outside and he showed us the hole that he had dug. He had been digging in the exact same spot that Joseph was digging the night he was burying Kiku’s necklace. I got on my knees and looked onto the whole. I reached in and pulled out two diamond rings. These are the Queen’s also. Tim’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“Do you think Joseph was hiding these along with Kiku’s necklace?” I asked Marie. She had no answer.
“Do we get to keep them?” he asked
“No, that is the last thing we would want to do.” I told him, and his dazzling smile turned into a gloomy frown.
“What should we do?” I asked Marie. She shook her head not knowing the answer.
“Tim, put these back and bury them again.” I told him.
“Okay.” he answered.
“Oh, and do not mention this to anyone.” Marie added,
“I can’t even tell the Queen.”
“NO!” we both exclaimed at the same time, “Let’s just keep this between us.”
“Okay.” he said
“And if anyone asks you what you are doing just tell who ever it is that you are just playing around. Don’t mention anything about burying something.” Marie said. Tim nodded his head. Marie and I looked at each other and then we started to walk towards the castle.

Chapter Two

“Do you think Joseph was a part of the crime last summer.” Marie asked
“I don’t know, maybe. I would think that Boris would have found those things when he dug up Kiku’s necklace.” I told her.
“Maybe they weren’t there when Boris was.” I said as we stopped in the door way and I looked back at Tim who was working hard burying what he had found.
“Well who ever did this has done it elaborately. Marie commented and we walked into the castle. As Tim finished he wiped the sweet off of his forehead and sat down, Matt, one of the new servants with buzzed dark hair and dark brown eyes and is of medium height and he also has a dry sense of humor, walked by.
“Hey Tim,” Matt called out to him as he took a detour from his course and walked toward Tim.
“Hey!” Tim called back to him
“What are you up too?” Matt asked as he approached him.
“I was just Ummmm, playing around.” Tim answered.
“With what?”
“With what I have,” answered Tim while he held up his hands. He had hidden the shovel behind the tree when he saw Matt coming so there wouldn’t be too many questions.
“I see,” said Matt as he raised his head higher and looked down at Tim who had a crooked smile on his face.
“Well, I’ll see you later.” Matt said in conclusion of the conversation and Tim waved his slightly to say goodbye. He waited until Matt was out of his sight when he grabbed the shovel from behind the tree and ran into the castle. As he was running up the steps he ran into his sister, Ellie,
“Tim where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” She asked
“I was outside.” Tim answered
“Doing what?”
“Nothing.” Tim said leaving the conversation hanging and he ran up the steps and went into his room and shut the door hard.
“Okeyyyy.” Ellie said to herself and then walked down the steps.
Marshall was in the kitchen wiping down the counters when the phone rang,
“Hello,” He said as a greeting and the voice on the other side of the phone said mysteriously,
“It’s not over yet.”
“Hello, who is this?” Marshall asked into the phone. Then there was a click and then the buzzing sound of the dial tone. Marshall moved the phone from his hear and looked at it,
“What’s not over?” He questioned himself and started to walk out of the kitchen. As he walked around the corner he ran into Daniel,
“Hey, someone just called and said ‘its not over.’ do you have any idea what that means?” Marshall asked.
“No idea.” answered Daniel.
“I’ll see ya,”
“See ya,” Daniel replied and they walked in opposite directions. There was a knock on the Queen’s office door.
“Come in.” said the Queen and Marshall opened the door and walked in.
“Hello your Majesty.”
“Hello Marshall, what can I do for you?” she then asked him,
“Well, when I was in the kitchen the phone rang and I picked it up. The person on the other side said ‘its not over yet’.” Marshall told her
“Was a name given?” she asked
“No, no name.”
“Could you tell if it was a guy or a girl?”
“It was a guy for sure,” he answered, “do you have any idea what this person was talking about or who it could have been?”
“Ummmm,” she said quietly and touched the necklace that was around her neck. Marshall’s eyes widened and asked,
“Do you think it has to do with last summer?”
“It might be.”
“Do you think he had help within the castle? Do you think the person on the phone could have been Andrew? Oh, what are we going to do?”
“Marshall, Marshall, don’t asked too many questions at once.” The Queen said sweetly
“Sorry,” responded Marshall
”Do you mind going and finding Karl and asking him to come and see me?”
“Sure,” Marshall said as he rose from his chair and walked out door.

Chapter Three

Marshall walked up to Karl, who is the head of the security and he is medium height with thin blond hair and sparkly blue eyes, and he said to him
“The Queen would like to see you in her office.” Karl nodded his head and walked to her office door, knocked and then walked in. The Queen told Karl everything that Marshall had told her,
“I want your guys to be vigorously on guard.” The Queen told him
“Yes mama,” responded Karl.
“Have you seen Karl?” Matt asked Erik
“Yeah, I just saw him walk into the Queen’s office.”
“Thanks.” said Matt and Erik watched him walk down the hall and enter the office without even knocking.
“Huh,” Erik said as her furrowed his brow.
The rest of that day was pretty calm. Us servants had a game night which was fun. All though, in the middle of a game, Joseph got up and walked out of the room. He didn’t tell us where he was going, in fact he didn’t say anything, and he never came back. We started to get a little worried about him. When Alexander went to his room, in which he shared with Joseph, he found Joseph fast a sleep on his bed.
The next morning, around 10 o’clock, Louise was cleaning the dining room. She was dusting a table that has numerous candle sticks on them. She picked each of them up so she could dust from under them. She picked up one, and it made a clank sound. She hadn’t hit it against anything. She shook the candle from side to side and again, there was a clank, clank, clank.
“That’s weird.” she said to herself, she looked at the bottom of the of the candle stick and there was a whole. It looked like a key whole,
“What could be in there?” She asked herself, “Where would the person hide the key? Ah” and she walked over to the door and reached up to see if the key was above the door, but she felt nothing. She took her hand down and looked around the room. Her eyes were searching the room eagerly looking for a place where the key could be hidden. She felt a hand slowly come upon her shoulder, she jumped and gasped. She turned around quickly to find that it was Kiku with the phone in her hand,
“The phone is for you,” she said as she handed the phone to her.
“Do you know who it is?” Louise asked and Kiku shook her head and walked away
“Hello,”
“You will never find it,” said the voice on the other side,
“Find what?” she asked, but it was too late. The person had already hung up. Louise hung up the phone and put it down.
“How can this person see me?” she asked herself and she looked around at all of the window, she couldn’t see anyone, “How could he of possibly seen me if he wasn’t looking through a window?” she started to clean again, then she stopped. She dropped her dust rag and ran outside into the garden. She ran to the small garden that was just below the Queen’s window to her bed room. She dug through the dirt, and then she looked up and stopped. She reached out her hand and picked up a key. She held it up and stared at it. Then a sudden movement propelled her to move behind a bush. She saw, through all of the branches of the bush, Matt walk by eating an apple. He walked right by not even noticing her. When she was sure that Matt was not around anymore, she came out from behind the bush and ran into the castle. She went back into the dining room; she looked around to make sure that no one was watching. She went back over to where the mysterious candle stick, turned it upside down. She took out the key from her pocket and with shaky hands she put the key into the whole that was in the bottom of the candle stick, it fit perfectly. She turned the key and the bottom of the candle stick fell off along with some jewelry. There was a necklace and ring.
“These must be the Queen’s.” she said to herself. She put them back into the stick and locked it up and continued her cleaning. As she was doing so, she heard a rustle from a bush just outside one of the windows. She turned around and ran over to the window. She looked out eagerly, but she did not see anything. All she found was a shoe print that was left behind by the person.
“This is getting very interesting.” she said to herself.

Chapter Five
Josh was heading outside to get some fresh air, as he passed the living room he glanced in and then took a second look. He saw Daniel standing there talking to the Queen and in his side pocket there was a knife and his hand was on the handle. Josh could not hear what he was saying because he was talking in a whisper. But then he saw him pull his knife half way out of his pocket. Just then from the other side of the room Andrew walked in holding a glass of water. Daniel put his knife back in his pocket all of the way and let go of the handle.
“Here you go your majesty.” Andrew said as he handed her the glass of water.
“Thank you Andrew.” said the Queen as she took the glass of water out of his hands.
“Is everything all right?” asked Andrew as he looked at Daniel and then at the Queen.
“Yes, everything is fine.” said Daniel
“Huh,” thought Josh and he looked across the room and saw a pair of eyes emerge from behind a door on the other side of the room. He did not know who’s they were, but he couldn’t look any harder because Daniel started to turn around. Josh quickly started to walk out of the castle. When Daniel was out of the living room, he looked to his side and saw Josh quickly walking out of the door. He took the knife from out of his pocket and started to go out the door.
“Hey Rae Rae!” I heard someone call from behind and I turned around and saw that it was Marshal.
“Have you seen Boris lately?” he asked me.
“No, Why?” I asked
“Just wondering, he keeps popping up in the most random places!” he told me
“Really, I haven’t noticed.” I told him
“But what is really bothering me is that the Queen doesn’t really care about him or what he does.” he then said.
“Yeah, I have noticed that he gets more freedom than we do. But I don’t think that we have to worry.” I said.
“All right…well, I am going to go back to my work. He said to me,
“Okey, see you later.” I said and we went in the opposite directions. As Marshal was walking to his work he passed the Queen who was going to the dinning room for her lunch, and Alexander was following behind her. His face had a very serious and sober look, which seemed rather unusual to Marshal. He pretended that he was just going to keep going and when he knew that Alexander wasn’t going to turn around to see if he was following him, Marshal turned around and started to go towards the dining room. He walked through the kitchen so he could look through a small window that was in the door that connected the dining room and kitchen. The dining room is painted light green and the table is black and so are the chairs. On the buffet tables there are many crystal cups that make numerous prisms all around the room during the day time. Marshal looked through the little window and saw that Alexander was talking to the Queen and he had a candle stick in his hand. The way he was talking looked somewhat forceful.
“What are they talking about? Look at the way he is swinging his arms with the candle stick in his hand. That looks like it might not end pretty.” he said to himself. Marshal turned around and saw that Boris was standing in the door way of the kitchen.
“Oh, hi!” Marshal said, Boris just smiled
“I’m….just….going to my work…now.” Marshal said to him as he walked passed.

Chapter Six
“That was weird.” Marshal said to himself, and he went to his work. After a while Marie came up to Marshal,
“Hey, have you seen Joseph?” she asked
“No I haven’t, why are you looking for him?”
“The Queen wants him.” Marie said.
“For what?” Marshal asked.
“I’m not sure, she wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Well, if I see him I’ll tell him that the Queen is looking for him.” Marshal said.
“Thanks.” Marie responded and she walked away. Both of them did not see Joseph all day. They began to get a little worried. But that night Marie did see him. She was getting ready for bed and looked out the window, it was a very windy night, it seemed that a storm was about to erupt, and she saw Joseph digging a whole under a tree. Then she saw him bury something that was enveloped in a small box!
“What could be in the box?” she asked herself. Then it dawned on her,
“The necklace!” she said in a loud whisper. She had decided that she was going to go out there in the middle of the night to see what was in the box. She woke up around three o’clock in the morning and put on her soft white robe and started down the hall way and towards the steps. She walked very slowly down the steps and then she went to the front door of the castle and she opened it. She saw that Joseph was still there! He was sitting with his back up against the tree and his blond hair was blowing in the wind. Joseph looked at Marie and he quickly stood up. Marie closed the door and ran back up to her room. She waited a minute and then she looked out the window again. Joseph wasn’t there and whatever he buried, he dug back up and ran off! Marie got no sleep that night. The next morning, we all were in the kitchen eating breakfast when Queen came in for a brief moment and said,
“It’s about time we find out who this criminal is. I order a meeting in the living room at ten o’clock. I have hired a detective that has been following each and every one of you around.”
“We’ll be there.” said Josh nervously. The Queen nodded her head in agreement and walked out of the kitchen. We all looked around at each other. Crazy thoughts were running through my head, and I am sure that crazy thoughts were going through the minds of the others. We finished our breakfast and cleaned up all the dishes and by that time it was ten o’clock. We all nervously started to walk towards the living room.

Chapter Seven
When we got to the living room, we sat down anticipating.
“Where’s Boris?” I thought to myself, “He was just with us in the kitchen. How very strange.” The Queen then walked in and said,
“Now I will introduce you to the detective.”
“Could it be….you’ve got to be joking!” I exclaimed in my head when Boris came walking in! Everyone was in shock! Either our eyes got big, or our faces got red, or our jaws dropped. For some of us it was all three!
“Yes to all of your surprise, I’m sure, Boris is the detective.” The Queen said,
“But, how did you know to get a detective. You didn’t know that your necklace was going to be stolen…….or did you?” asked Marie,
“No, I didn’t know that my necklace was going to be stolen, but someone has been stealing little odds and ends. Now, I don’t know who did the crime, but Boris is pretty confident that he knows, so I shall hand you over to him now.” The Queen stepped back and took a seat while Boris stood up and walked up to us. He looked around menacingly at us; we were all trying not to make eye contact with him. Then he said,
“Rae Rae,”
“Yes,” I said nervously as I sat up straight.
“Let’s start with you.” He said, “Where were you the night of the crime?” he asked.
“I was in my room asleep.” I answered.
“Oh really.” said Joseph, “I saw you in the kitchen with a cup of tea and you put some weird looking stuff in it.”
“Oh, that was for her Majesty.” I said.
“Your Majesty, did Rae Rae bring you a cup of tea that night?” Boris asked. And she shook her head.
“It wasn’t for the Queen, it was for her daughter.” I said.
“But I saw you standing in front of the Queen’s door, and then you went in.” Boris said.
“I was scared, I felt eyes on me, and the princess’s room is connected to the Queen’s room. So I went through there.” I told him, Boris just stared at me,
“It’s true!” I pleaded. “The stuff I put in the tea was her medicine that she needs to take every night, it is very vital that she gets her medicine every night.”
“Then why were you acting so nervous when I walked into the kitchen?” Joseph asked me.
“Because Kiku….” I began to say
“KIKU!” Boris said as he quickly turned his head over to her. “I’m sorry Rae Rae, continue.”
“Because Kiku usually takes the medicine to her, but she wasn’t feeling good, and asked me if I could do it for her, and I said I would.” I replied,
“But that still doesn’t answer my question.” said Joseph.
“I was nervous because….because…, I wasn’t sure that I had the right medicine, because Kiku didn’t tell what the bottle looked like. So I was worried that I didn’t have the right one.” I then said trying to answer Joseph’s question correctly.
“If Kiku didn’t tell you what the bottle looked like, is it possible that you are lying to us?” Boris then asked me.
“Every word that I said is true.” I said trying to sound confident.
“Why then were you so touchy when I asked you about it the other day?” Joseph asked me.
“Because I was afraid that if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me and you would get the wrong idea.” I answered.
“Thank you Rae Rae.” Boris said and then looked around the room for the next suspect. I just leaded back in my chair in relief that my turn was over…. for the moment.

Chapter Eight

“Kiku.” Boris said and she looked up from staring at her hands,
“Yes,” she said very placidly
“Is it possible that you could have gotten Rae Rae to do your job so you could go steal the necklace?” Boris asked her,
“No sir, that is not possible, I was in my room sleeping,” she said, starting to sound a little nervous.
“Are you sure?” asked Boris.
“Positive.” Kiku answered. Boris looked like he was going to start asking questions to some else but then Louise quickly butted in and said,
“I saw Kiku the night after the crime; get up in the middle of the night and check something in her dresser.” Boris turned toward Kiku. She was just looking down at her hands,
“Is this true?” Boris asked and she nodded her head slowly.
“And when I asked her if she had gotten up in the middle of the night, she told me that she didn’t.” Louise chimed in.
“So what did you check?” Boris asked her.
“I was…checking to see if I still had a….a…a necklace.” she answered.
“You did it then!” exclaimed Michael and Louise gasped.
“Now wait a minuet,” said Boris “She said a necklace, she didn’t say the necklace. What necklace was it?” he then asked.
“It was and is the necklace that my mother gave to me before she died. I wanted to make sure that no one had stolen it.” Kiku answered. Boris nodded his head and began to look around at the others.
“Erik,” said Boris, “I have my suspicions about you. Where were you the night of the crime?”
“I was in my room asleep.” Erik answered.
“Ah, the typical answer.” Said Boris
“Honestly, I was.” Erik said sounding desperate.
“Okay, so maybe you were, maybe you weren’t, but what were you doing with a pistol in your back pocket?” I then asked him.
“Yeah, what were you doing with a pistol in your back pocket?” Boris repeated after me and I looked at him in confusion.
“I saw him too.” he said
“Oh,” I responded.
“What pistol?” asked Erik?
“You know very well what pistol we are talking about.” said Boris firmly
“Oh that pistol…..well, I was ahhhhh, Mmmmm,” He began to say
“Come on now, we don’t have all day.” Said Boris
“Well, I was somewhat paranoid about someone…..I guess you could say.” He told him.
“Who were you paranoid about?” Boris asked.
“Well, ahhhhh, you actually.” Erik said
“Me!” exclaimed Boris
“Yeah, you were kind of mysterious to me and I didn’t really trust you.” he said
“What were you talking to the queen about?” I asked him
“I was talking to her about Boris, and how I thought that we should try and get rid of him.” He answered.
“And why did you slow down your walking pace when you saw me?” I asked.
“I didn’t want you to think that I was off to kill someone.” he answered.
“Mmmmm” Boris mumbled to himself as he raised one eye brow. There was a slight pause of silence and then Boris said,
“Daniel!” Louise and I jumped a little, “I am sure that Josh has a few questions for you.”
“He does?” asked Daniel
“I do, oh yeah I do.” Said Josh and he cleared his throat, and then asked,
“What were you doing with a knife in your pocket the other day, while you were talking to the Queen?”
“Oh, I had just come in from doing some whittling.” he answered
“Why then, when you were talking to the Queen did you pull it half way out looking like you were going to strike? And then when Andrew came walking in you put the knife back into your pocket and let go of the handle?” Josh then asked him
“I thought I heard a scream and then I heard foot steps coming, so I was getting ready to fight if the criminal came in, but it was only Andrew.” Daniel answered.
“I didn’t hear a scream.” Said Josh, Boris just sat there deep in thought, I don’t know what the thought was, but that is what it looked like.
“Marie, what were you and your best friend, the Queen’s main maid talking about?” Boris asked her.
“Did you see her too?” asked Michael and Boris nodded his head.
“We weren’t talking about anything.” said Marie.
“So you were just standing there?” Boris asked cleverly.
“Well, no, we were talking….” She began to say when Boris interrupted her and said,
“About what? You were standing in front of the Queen’s door to her room. Where you both in this together?” He asked
“NO, we weren’t….we didn’t have anything to do with this. We were talking about….. well she had heard from Rae Rae what Erik thought about you, so she told me what Rae Rae told her and then she asked what I thought about you.” Marie answered.
“And…what…did….you…..say?” Boris asked.
“I disagreed with what Erik said.” Marie answered.
“What did Erik say again?” Boris asked
“He thought that you were mys…” I began to say then Boris finished for me,
“I had a mysterious characteristic that he didn’t like…..I dissent with Erik.”
“That’s no surprise.” said Erik under his breath as he sat with his elbows on his knees and his head was down and he was twiddling his thumbs.

Chapter Nine
“Can I ask Joseph a question?” Marie asked,
“By all means,” Boris replied “I was just going to ask him a question myself, but you can go first.”
“Thanks …Joseph; what were you burying last night under the tree out front?” and Joseph answered,
“I was burring nothing of your concern.”
“Well, why did you jump up from sitting down when you saw me?” she asked.
“You just scared me…..that’s all.” Joseph answered.
“When I shut the door of the castle, why did you dig back up whatever you buried and run off?” Marie then asked him.
“I didn’t dig it up, but I did run off.” He answered.
“Wait…you didn’t dig up whatever you buried!” said Marie in confusion.
“No, I did.” said Boris
“You did.” said Joseph.
“Yeah, I was curious to see what was in the box.” Boris said.
“What was it?” asked Alexander eagerly.
“It was a necklace, but it wasn’t the necklace, it was Kiku’s necklace.” said Boris.
“I asked Joseph to bury it for me; I wanted to make sure that no one would steal it.” Kiku said.
“OIC.” said Boris and there was another slight pause of silence, then Boris said,
“Alexander.” as he turned his head towards him.
“I’m listening.” said Alexander.
“What in the world were you doing with a candle stick in your hand?” Boris then asked.
“And the way you were waving it around looked somewhat suspicious.” Marshal added, “And the way you were talking looked a little forceful.”
“I was just talking to the Queen, you know that I like hand motions.” said Alexander
“Yeah, but you had a candle stick in your hand!” Said Marshal,
“Oh yeah that. The Queen asked me to clean it.” Said Alexander, and Boris turned to the Queen and she nodded her head in agreement.
“What about Josh and Michael?” asked Alexander, “I saw them arguing, Michael said that Josh had stolen something and Michael was trying to get whatever it was back from him. Josh refused to give it to him, so Michael punched Josh in the face and then took a small draw string back from his pocket and then ran off.
“Yes I saw that too, and as a matter of fact, I have that little bag.” said Boris, Josh and Michael looked at each other.
“You have it? How did you get it?” asked Michael.
“I was hiding in a tree, just like Alexander was, and as you walked by I quickly pick pocketed you and switched the bag. I wanted to see what was in the bag.” Said Boris and Michael felt his pocket and pulled out the switched bag.
“What was in the bag?” asked Louise
“It was just money inside. That is what I expected, but I was just making sure that it wasn’t the necklace.” Boris added and Michael opened the draw string bag and dumped out fake money.
“Why did you yell at Josh when you knew that you had your money….well, kind of.” asked Marie.
“As I was walking by the kitchen and I heard Josh talking to you about what happened. I didn’t want you to start to think that we had stolen the necklace. So it was a way to get him out of the kitchen.” Michael answered.
“So where did you steal that money from?” asked Boris
“I stole it from Michael, I was mad at him. I thought that it was a good way to get him back. But I don’t really want the money anymore. So we’re good.” Josh answered.
“What about Louise?” asked Erik
“What about her?” asked Boris
“I have seen her garden a lot right under the Queen’s bed room window. The strange thing is that she is not the gardener.” Erik then said.
“She has been gardening there because I told her too,” said Boris, “I asked her to build something for me, and then I told her to bury there for me.”
“What did you ask her to build?” I asked
“I don’t need to tell you, in fact, I am not going to tell you.” he answered, and I sat there in disappointment. I wanted to know what she built.
“Marshal, I suppose you were in your bed asleep during the crime?” Boris asked him.
“Yes…well kinda….well I’m not sure.” he answered.
“What do you mean you don’t know if you were awake or not?” Boris asked firmly.
“Well, when I had just gotten into bed Andrew asked me if I could go get him a glass of water. I don’t know why he couldn’t have gotten it. So I don’t know if I was getting him a drink during the crime, in which I would be awake, or if I was in my room asleep.” explained Marshal.
“So that is why you were up that night.” said Kiku.
“Wait a minute.” said Boris “Was Andrew in your room when you got back with his water?” He then asked Marshal and Andrew’s face became red.
“No, he wasn’t. That was another thing I couldn’t figure out.” He answered.
“Andrew? Where were you the night of the crime?” Boris asked him
“I was just ahhhhh…..I was…..was….Ummmm.” He was trying to think of where he was.
“You see my friends; he can’t remember where he was that night. So ether he really can’t remember or he did the crime. And I believe that Andrew stole the necklace.” Boris said.
“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed the Queen “Is this true?” she asked him. Andrew was silent for a while and he was looking around at all of us and then he relinquished and said,
“Yes, of course it’s true, of course I wanted it for myself, and I wanted to get free from this terrible job and sell the necklace and be rich!” Andrew answered in a loud voice. He took the necklace of his pocket and restored it by throwing it on the ground.” Boris went over to him and put his hands in hand cuffs and lead Andrew out to his police car. Everyone was in complete shock. The Queen’s favorite servant, the nicest guy in the castle stole the necklace. Well, I guess he isn’t the nicest guy anymore.


Chapter Ten
Sighhhh, I am afraid that that is the end of my story. And yes Andrew went to jail for a while, and the Queen decided to have no more favorites! There are still some questions that have not been answered, like how come Boris wouldn’t tell us what he had asked Louise to build? Or did Daniel really hear a scream, or did he use that as an excuse? And how did Andrew actually steel the necklace? And there are more, I wish I could tell you the answer, but I can’t, I’m sorry. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it out for you. Where you surprised?! I hope I got you! Well, I have sat here long enough writing about my summer; I must get back to my work in the castle. See Ya!

I hope you enjoy the story!!!! if anyone has some suggestions please let me know!!

Chapter One

In England in the large town of Abshire, there are thirteen servants who work for the Queen of England, and I am one of them. My name is Rae, but the others call me Rae Rae. And I am here to tell you about the summer last when many mysterious acts took place.
I walked into the castle after I took my morning stroll down the park in the arid air on the dry dusty road, when Daniel approached me and said,
“There is a new servant, and the Queen has ordered us to meet her in the living room so she can introduce him to us.” Now Daniel is on the taller side and he has longish hair, but not too long, that is somewhat curly, and its color is a blondish/brown. He has a sun bronzed skin and is very well built and blue eyes. He is extremely smart and he often likes to pick on me. That is because I am a short blue eyed blond headed girl. We walked into the absolutely huge living room. Its ceiling is two stories high, and there is a trim of gold crown molding that stands out from the light blue painted walls with a black design of flowers. Its furniture is quite superb and elegant. It has black upholstery and its arms and legs are gold. The coffee tables are black and the handles are also gold. The fire place is built with big sturdy bricks and the mantle is made out of an ancient piece of wood. Above the mantle is a portrait of the Queen and her daughter. Everyone was sitting down, and we were all in our uniforms which are, for the guys, kaki paints and white polo’s, and for the girls they are kaki skirts that a little above the knee and we also wear white polo’s. Simple, but nice. By the fire place we saw the Queen, who is tall and she always wears very elegant clothes and her hair is always pulled back in a fashionable way, and standing next to her was the new servant. He is tall and pretty well fit, his skin has a darker tone to it and his hair is black and his eyes are a very dark brown. He also has a very overpowering look about him.
“This is Boris,” said the Queen, “He is going to join you all, he came from Serbia. He would like to try and get a fresh start in his life”
“It’s nice to meet you all.” said Boris in his Serbian accent and toothy smile.
“Now, I am going to get back to work and you guys can introduce yourselves personally and then you can get back to your work also. I have already told Boris what his position shall be.” the Queen then told us
“What position is that?” asked Louise
“That is none of your business.” answered the Queen and she turned around and walked away into her office.
“Oh I just hate not knowing things.” Louise whispered to herself.
From the other side of the room a chipper voice said
“Well I guess I’ll start, I’m Marshal.” he told Boris. Marshal is of medium height with longish brown hair, but again not too long, and he has brown eyes.
“I’m Erik, I’m Kiku, I’m Alexander, I’m Louise, I’m Michael, I’m Joseph, I’m Marie, I’m Rae, but you can call me Rae Rae, I’m Josh, I’m Andrew, and I’m Daniel.” we all told him.
“Nice to meet you.” Boris said again looking a little flustered with how many names there were.
“You will get all of our names soon enough.” I told him and he just nodded his head.
“Well, we should get back to work.” Said Louise, she is a wee bit taller than me; she has blond hair and blue eyes…..like me. She often likes to take charge of things. We all agreed with her and we started to go to our work. As we were leaving the living room Erik, who is very long and his blond hair is somewhat spiked, pulled me aside and said
“I don’t trust this Boris, there seems to be some mischievous characteristics about him that I don’t like.”
“Don’t be so apprehensive about him Erik, he seems like a nice guy to me,” I told him, but he just shrugged his shoulders up and put them back down, to me he seemed that he was rather skeptical, but after that we then went to our jobs.

Chapter Two

I went to the kitchen after I cleaned the whole main level of the castle to get a drink of water and I found Kiku cleaning the dishes, her long slender fingers, just like the rest of her, were slithering around the edges of the dishes while popping the soap bubbles. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back into a bun and her brown eyes expressing her thoughts, and I could tell that something was wrong.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her
“I don’t know,” she told me, “I seem to feel a little uneasy with Boris being here.” The way she was talking wasn’t normal; she wasn’t talking with her usual sweet smile and contagious laugh.
“Why?!” I then asked her trying to figure out why some people didn’t like Boris.
“There is just something about him……he’s mysterious.” Kiku then said.
“Erik said the same thing!” I said in somewhat of a shock because it seemed strange that they thought the same thing.
“I don’t understand why you guys are so worried about him!” I exclaimed as I poured myself a glass of water. Kiku did not respond. As I took a sip of my brisk ice water Andrew walked into the kitchen. He is medium height with very blond hair and blue eyes, he is Queen’s favorite servant, and I guess it because he is so polite. He said to us
“Boris is quite a nice fellow.”
“Finally!” I thought to myself, “Someone who agrees with me!”
“I don’t like him.” Kiku said in a clear and prejudice tone.
“We all have our opinions.” Andrew said. That was long day. Everyone was arguing about their opinions about Boris. There had never been so much arguing in the castle before! The majority of us didn’t like Boris, but I did. The onset of the mysterious acts was that night. I was sitting in the kitchen that night, with my hair in French braids with pink ribbons tied on the ends of them, and a tray with a cup of tea sitting right in front of me. I had a bottle of liquid that was filled to the rim in my hand.
“Should I?” I thought to myself
“Is this the right stuff? Should I take it to her? Oh I don’t know! I hope it’s the right stuff, I don’t want to get accused!” Then Joseph, a strong and hard worker, walked in, I looked up and he startled me and I jumped and some of the liquid spilled into the cup of tea.
“Act normal, act normal!” I said to myself in panic and I began stirring the tea.
“Joseph! What are you doing here?” I asked him.
“I came to get a drink of water.” he said looking at me with suspicion.
“Oh.” I said in a low voice. I put the spoon down and I got up and picked up the tray and walked out of the kitchen. I went a little ways and then I turned around to see if Joseph was watching me. He wasn’t, he was just chugging a glass of water down. The whole time I was walking to and up the steps I felt eyes watching me, watching my every step, but I could not see anyone. I stood in front of the large door, I looked around…and then I went in. I walked very quietly over to her bed; I had to wake her in order for me to give her the cup of tea

“Your majesty, I brought you a cup of tea.” I said to her in a loud whisper while shaking her a little. She awoke and sat up and took the cup of tea from my hand and drank in rather quickly and then gave the cup back to me. She then laid back down and feel right to sleep again. I looked around at all of her beautiful things. Her room is very large and, the walls are painted a cream color and on them were numerous black and white pictures of Pairs France. The furniture is white embroidery with black arms and legs. On one of the walls there is a mirror that goes from the ceiling all the way down to the floor, and the trim of the mirror is black. I looked at those pictures and at the beautiful jewelry, and then I walked out of the room. Also that night, Kiku was in her bed and she heard some slow moving footsteps. She felt uneasy and she got up out of bed and went to the door and opened it a crack. She saw a shadow loom across the floor. Some one was walking down the hall, but she could not see who it was. Then the person walked past her door, she missed the face, but then the person stopped and turned his head and she could tell from the profile that it was Marshal! That was a little strange because he never gets up in the middle of the night.
“That’s interesting,” she said to herself and then she closed the door and went back to her bed. A couple minutes later she heard faster moving foot steps coming. She jumped out of her bed and went to the door again and opened it, but she did not see anyone at first, but then she looked down the hall a bit and saw a faint shadow that seemed stationary. She could figure out who it was, she knew that it wasn’t Marshal’s shadow, it was someone else’s, but she didn’t recognize the shadow.
“Even more interesting.” she said aloud, and yet again she went to bed. Michael, who has abbreviated height, and full of energy and is always ready to put up a fight, was wondering around and he heard and then saw Marie with her brown hair down talking to her best friend who the Queen’s main maid. He could not tell what they were saying. They were standing in front of the Queen’s bed room door, which is a little peculiar.
“What are they planning?” Michael asked to himself and then he went to his room, in which he shared with Josh. Josh was on the top bunk reading a book and Michael jumped on the latter and said
“Hey Josh!” and Josh jumped at the surprise,
“You scared me…what?” he answered
“I saw Marie and her best friend standing in front of the Queen’s bed room door talking in a whisper.” Michael then told him.
“So,” said Josh in a careless way.
“Isn’t that kinda strange?” Michael then asked.
“Not really.” Josh answered.
“Really, oh…okay…..well good night.” Michael said
“Good night.”
Boris was walking back from who knows where and he past Andrew,
“Goodnight.” said Boris very quickly and with his head down.
“Goodnight.” Andrew said back with a smile.

Chapter Three

When I woke up the next morning everyone was in an uproar!
“What’s going on?” I asked Marshal and then he said to me,
“Last night the Queens most treasured possession was stolen!”
“STOLEN!” I exclaimed “You mean her gold necklace with the priceless gem on it?”
“Yeah, she has ordered a meeting in the living room.” He then told me. We walked into the living room and we all sat down.
“I just have one question to ask you all, did anyone of you or does anyone know who stole my possession?” The Queen asked us all in a woeful voice and we all shook our heads. Louise leaned over to Marie, and she asked her in a whisper,
“Where is Boris?” Marie looked around and Boris was nowhere in sight and she leaned over and whispered back
“I don’t….oh wait….here he comes.” He came in and said,
“Sorry I’m late.”
“Why is he so late?” Louise asked herself curiously.
“That’s okay.” said the Queen sweetly. “Well, if anyone finds out whom did this….please tell me.” she then said.
“We will.” I told her
“Thank you.” she said back to me and then she turned around and went into her office.
“Whoever did this put themselves in great jeopardy.” I said to myself in hoarse whisper.
We all stood up to go back to our work and I as I did I caught Joseph’s bright blue eyes and he was looking at me, with not his usual nice smile but with a not so pleasant looking frown, and it looked like he thought that I was the one who stole it. I just smiled at him and walked out of the room. A little later that afternoon I was outside sitting on a bench taking a break from my work and enjoying the beautiful weather, when Joseph came walking towards me.
“Hey Rae Rae.” he said as a greeting.
“Hey.” I responded back.
“How’s everything going?” he then asked me.
“Everything is going well.” I told him.
“Good.” he said, there was a slight lull and then he asked me,
“What were you doing last night…..in the kitchen?”
“I was making a cup of tea.” I answered him.
“For whom?” he asked
“Why do you want to know?” I asked him trying to get out of the conversation.
“Just wondering.” he answered. I looked at him and then I told him,
“I need to get back to work.”
“Rae Rae, why are you so touchy about this conversation?” he yelled to me as I began to walk away.
“I’m not touchy; I just need to get back to my work.” I yelled back to him from over my shoulder. When I went onto the castle I began to dust the hallway’s furniture. The hall way is quite large in size compared to the average hallway, its walls are painted gold and there are numerous mirrors hanging. In the middle of the hall stands a little table that is painted white and this table holds the mail, as I was dusting this table and I looked up and through a mirror I saw Erik walking rather quickly towards the living room. He looked over and saw my face in a mirror; he stopped with a small jerk and then kept on walking but at a much slower pace. I ignored the fact that he started to walk slower when he saw me until I realized that in his back pocket there was a pistol! And I knew that he was and is very deft at handling one. When he had disappeared around the corner I put my dust rag down and began to follow him. I poked my head around the corner, Erik turned his head toward my direction and I dodged behind the corner. I didn’t think he saw me. I heard him open the door to the living room, and when I heard it shut, I quietly walked over to the door. I opened the door just a crack and I saw him talking to the Queen. He was standing with his back towards the wall and his hands were behind his back, ready to grab his pistol at any moment if needed. I couldn’t watch, I couldn’t bear to see what happened. So I closed the door and went back to my work. The rest of that day I felt kind of uneasy about what I saw and about my conversation with Joseph. I just didn’t get what was going on around the castle! As I was just finishing my dusting, Louise came up to me and asked
“Do you know what is going on around here? I just have no idea what is going on! Which I don’t like. Am I the only one that feels that way?”
“No, I feel the same way.” I told her.
“Well, I have to figure out something, I’ll see you later.” she then said and she walked away.
Towards the evening Alexander, who is tall with strawberry blond hair, came out of the Ball Room, and he heard arguing, and it was coming closer and closer. He jumped behind a small tree and he saw shorter then average Josh, who is Asian, and has thick bushy black hair with gold streaks in it, arguing with Michael. They were in a brawl. Alexander obviously was listening in, in the middle of their argument because he had no idea what they were fighting about. Michael’s spiked brown hair matched his attitude. He was going to step out and break up the argument, but then Michael yelled something that really caught Alexander’s attention.
“Give it to me Josh! You know it doesn’t belong to you!” Michael exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” Josh yelled back, “I have every right to have it! You just want it for yourself!”
“It’s mine anyway!” Michael fired back at Josh!
“No it’s not! I’m the one who stole it, so it should be mine!” Josh yelled getting extremely frustrated.
“Give it back!!!” Exclaimed Michael
“NO!” yelled Josh and then Michael punched Josh in the face and he fell to the ground. He began to search Josh’s pockets. He reached into his right side pocket and pulled out a small draw string bag, he put it into his pocket and quickly ran off.

Chapter Four
Alexander waited a minute or two before coming out from behind the tree to go to Josh’s aid. When he went to Josh and rolled him over, he found that he was bleeding at the mouth. Just then Andrew came up.
“Oh my goodness, what happened?” he asked. Alexander did not know if he should tell Andrew what happened because Andrew would for sure tell the Queen and Alexander didn’t exactly know what Josh and Michael were fighting about, he didn’t want to get them in trouble. So he just said
“I don’t know, I just walked out from the Ball Room and he was lying here.” “Let’s get him to the kitchen and get him cleaned up.” said Andrew and they both picked him up, Andrew got his legs and Alexander grab him from under the arm and they started to carry him to the kitchen. As they were slowly walking to the kitchen Boris poked his head around the corner and was watching them walk away with a smile on his face. Then he looked down at his hand and in it was the small draw string bag that Michael had taken from Josh.
* * *
No one trusted anyone anymore! Almost everyone had seen someone do something that they didn’t like.
“Have you gotten anywhere with the investigation?” the Queen asked.
“I have a couple things.” said the deep voice that was sitting across from her. They were in her office, which is somewhat large. The walls are painted red and her desk and chair are a light wood.
“Do you have any suspects?” she then asked the man.
“I guess you could say that it is no stranger.” the man answered
“You mean it’s one of the servants.” the Queen said and the man nodded his head.
“Which one is it?” she asked in eagerness.
“That I can not tell you yet, I have a good idea, but I want to be sure before I tell you who I think it is.” he responded.
“Then how do you know that it’s one of the servants?” the Queen asked.
“Just trust me.” said the man.

I was in the kitchen doing the dishes, and I was leaning over the black counter tops so I could reach the sink, the counter tops went well with the black and white checkered floor and the white cabinets, when Daniel came in,
“There are a lot of strange things going on around here!” he said to me.
“Yeah,” I said in a sigh.
“Don’t you think that it was kinda strange that Boris was late for the meeting this morning?” he asked me
“Oh I don’t know……why?” I asked.
“I don’t know, the Queen didn’t seem to mind that he was late….like she understood why he was late.” He then told me.
“I don’t know Daniel; I haven’t really known anything these past few days.” I told him.
“Yeah, same here.” he agreed and walked out of the kitchen.
That night Kiku and Louise went to bed. Kiku waited a little bit and then in a rough whisper said
“Louise…you awake?” But she did not answer even though she was awake. Kiku had been acting a little strange that day, so she wanted to see what she did. Kiku got up out of her bed really slowly and walked very quietly to her dresser. She opened a small drawer and checked something. Louise did not know what obviously, but it was a little mysterious to her. Kiku closed her dresser drawer and quietly walked back to her bed and went to sleep. In the morning Louise asked Kiku,
“Did you get up in the middle of the night last night?” Kiku’s eyes got larger and her face began to turn as red as fire and she said,
“No,” as she shook her head putting out the fire on her face.
“Oh…Okey.” said Louise.
She was struggling with many thoughts racing through her head, why did Kiku get up in the middle of the night? How come when I asked her if she did, she said no? Why did her face get red and why did her eyes get big when I asked her? Did she steal the necklace? All of these thoughts were in her head all day, and she could not get them out. Josh was taking things easy that day. He was in the kitchen sitting at the counter with a pack of ice on his mouth.
“So what happened?” Diminutive Marie asked.
“All I can remember is that Michael and I were fighting…”
“What about?” Marie interrupted
“I…..I….Can’t remember….oh, wait, we were fighting about me stealing something and who it belonged too.” he said to her
“You stole something!” Marie said in shock. “Are you sure you are feeling all right?” she then asked him.
“Yeah….I’m fine.” he answered.
“JOSH!” Michael exclaimed as he came walking into the kitchen.
“What?” Josh answered in an ‘oh great here he comes’ tone.
“Where did you put it?” Michael asked with much force.
“Put what?” Said Josh sounding oblivious
“You know what.” said Michael
“No I don’t!” said Josh trying to get Michael to go away.
“Josh come here, we need to talk.” Michael said and Josh slammed the ice pack on the counter and walked out of the kitchen with Michael. Marie just stood there in a cloud of confusion. After they walked a little ways Michael stopped Josh and said
“Hey, you can’t talk about what happened and how you stole the little bag with the…”
“Wait, do you still have the bag?” Josh interrupted and asked and Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out the little draw string bag.
They looked at each other and smiled and then they walked away.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions for the story, please let me know, I could use all of the help I can get! Keep on reading!!!

Chapter Ten

“Hey Emily, Elias wants to see that letter we found.”

“You mean the threat one?”

“Yeap,”

“Okey, I’ll go get it.”

Emily got it from her room and gave it to Norm and he took it to

Elias.

“Here you are.” Norm said as he walked into the office and

gave the letter to him.

“Thank you.” Elias took it and read it very carefully a

couple times.

“Hummmmm, you don’t recognize the hand writing?”

“No sir I don’t”

Elias read it again,

“Do you know where Jacob Sligh is?”

“Nope,”

“Do you mind going and finding him for me.”

“Sure,”

“I would much like to ask him a couple questions.”

“I will do so; I don’t know how long I will be though.”

“That’s fine.”

Norm got up and walked out of the office.

“Hummmmm….”

“What is it?” Luke asked

“Nothing-------did you write down that Margaret’s eyes were

brown?”

“Yes sir I did------why.” Elias did not answer.

Norm went looking for Jacob. He eventually found him outside sitting

on a bench reading a book.

“Jacob!” Norm called out as he walked up to him.

“What do you want?” Jacob said somewhat rudely

“The detective wants to ask you some questions.”

“About what?”

“The murder of Margaret.”

“What does he think I know?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is he?”

“In the manager’s office. I’ll show you where it is.”

Jacob got up and walked followed Norm to the manager’s office.

Jacob walked in,

“So……you’re Jacob Sligh.” Elias said as he watched Jacob

walk in.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Do sit down.”

“Thanks,” Jacob responded

“Why did you come here?” Elias then asked,

“For Christmas vacation of course.”

“Did you know Margaret Boss?”

“Yes I did. We went to the same school when we were

younger.”

“Did you know Harriet Jitter also?”

“Yes, she went to school with me and Margaret also. Me,

Harriet and Margaret were considered the trouble makers of our

class.”

“What was Margaret like when she was young?”

“Just like she was when she was alive yesterday.”

“And what was that like?”

“Mean, bossy, stern, stubborn.”

“Hummm………Is Miss Jitter still here?”

“No, she checked out this morning.”

“This morning,” Elias repeated sounding a little shocked to

here that, “That was a quick turn around for a holiday vacation.”

“Yeah, it kinda was.”

Elias leaned back on the desk and started to drum his fingers

against it.

“What did Harriet look like?”

“Well, she had red curly hair with bright, bright blue eyes

and she was pretty skinny too.”

Elias put his hand over is mouth in a pondering way.

“Did you two meet here for a reason?”

“No……we didn’t. I came here to do find stuff out about

Margaret, we met here by chance and she joined me in my detecting.”

“Detecting? Are you a detective?”

“Well, no.”

“So you really didn’t come here for Christmas vacation.”

“Not really.”

“Why were you detecting Margaret? Did you expecting

something of her?”

“N……no.”

Elias didn’t quite believe that statement, but he wasn’t going to

push him.

“Do you know Alfred?”

“Alfred……oh Alfred Bookum……I meet him randomly.”

“I see……..did you pass something on to him or did he pass

something on to you?” Elias asked while raising his eyebrows. Jacob

scooted in his chair uncomfortably and cleared his throat.

“Yes, I passed something on to him and then he passed it

back to me.”

“What did you give him?”

“I wanted to copy a letter for me.”

“What kind of letter?”

Jacob cleared his throat again.

“A letter of concern.”

“Concern about what?”

“A concern for someone’s life.”

“Who’s life?”

There was a pause in the conversation before Jacob answered,

“Harriet’s.” He murmured

“What?”

“Harriet’s” he said louder.

“So you thought that Harriet’s life was in danger.”

“Yes sir.”

“Who did you think was threatening her?”

“I don’t know. I just felt that she was in danger for some

reason. I guess I had the right idea but the wrong person.”

“Yeah I guess you did.”

“Who delivered your message?”

“One of the hostess.”

“Which one?”

“I don’t know his name, but he was short, average weight and

he had light brown hair.”

“Did you give Harriet any other messages before or after

that specific one?”

“I gave her two before. I had Alfred copy it for me because

she wasn’t really listening to what I was saying in my other letters

so I thought that if it was in different hand writing, then she

might…you know.”

Elias nodded his head slowly,

“Right……..well, that’s…..thank you.”

“Sure.” Jacob got up and walked out of the office.

“Any ideas boss?” Luke asked

“I’ve got some.”

“Do you think you know who did it?”

“Maybe.”

“Are you going to tell me your ideas?”

Elias looked over at Luke and answered with no expression,

“No.”

Luke gave a hard sigh of disappointment to the answer.

“I’ll be right back.” Elias finally said as he began to walk

towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I just need to go and check something.” and he walked out

of the office. He walked up to the front desk,

“Detective Elias Debonair,” he said to the man who was

behind the desk, “I am going to go through some files.” The man

nodded his head. Elias went behind the desk and he got out some

files, and started to look through them. One of the files had a very

peculiar name….it was called M.O.M.

“This is interesting.” he thought to himself and he began to look

through it. One page from a file caught his attention. “Ahhhhh…yes……

yesss.” he closed the file and took it with him back to the

office.

“What’s that boss?” Luke asked as Elias returned into the

office.

“Oh just a file of evidence”

“What kind of evidence?”

“Oh you know…….just evidence.”

“So you’re not going to tell me anything about the case.”

Elias looked up from reading the file and looked at him,

“Not now.”

There was a pause of silence while Elias reviewed the file he got.

“Can you go and find Alfred Bookum……please. He could be in

his room which is room…….” he paused as he ran his finger down a

page of the file, “Ah here it is room ?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.”

Luke walked out of the office and to the elevator. The two doors

opened and he walked in. The doors were closing when Alfred called

out,

“Can you hold those doors please!”

Like stuck out his arm to stop the doors from closing.

“What floor?” Luke asked as Alfred walked into the elevator.

“Two please…”

Luke punched the number two.

“Thanks.” Alfred said

The doors opened at level two, Luke walked out first and Alfred

followed. Luke went to Alfred’s door and gave it a nock.

“Can I help you?” Alfred asked

“Oh no, I’m just trying to find the man who is rooming in

this room.”

“Alfred Bookum?”

“Yes that’s the man…….do you know him?”

“I am him.”

“Oh, I’m sorry; I’m Luke Trustworthy, the assistant to

Detective Elias Debonair. He would like to ask you a couple of

questions about the murder of Margaret Boss.”

“Okay.”

“So if you will just follow me to the office.”

They went back down to the first floor on the elevator and Luke led

him to the office.

“Alfred Bookum is here boss.” Luke said as the entered.

“Ahhhhh, Alfred…….do have a seat.”

“Thanks but I prefer standing.”

“Okay……...I just have a few questions for you.”

“Okay.”

“First, did you know Margaret?”

“Ah well, I had only meet her once, she just yelled at me.”

“For what?”

“She accidentally tripped over my feet when she was walking

and she thought that I had done it on purpose.”

“Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Do it on purpose?”

“Oh no, I must of just been so into my book I didn’t realize

how far my legs were sticking out.”

“I see. Now, what did the letter that Jacob passed on to you
say?”

“Ummm, it was just a letter of warning.”

“Do you remember what the letter said?”

“No, I don’t remember sir. Sorry.”

“Are you sure?”

Alfred moved his glasses up a little and shifted somewhat

uncomfortably back and forth with his feet,

“Yeah.”

“Okay…….Before Jacob had asked you to copy the letter for

him, had you ever seen or talk to him before?”

“No sir.”

“Did you ever talk to him again after you gave him his

letter back?”

“I talked to him briefly at the party last night.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Nothing in particular, we just said hi and how are

you….that type of stuff.”

“Okey, can you tell me all of your movements for yesterday?”

Alfred went to the chair and sat down and leaned his elbows on his

knees.

“Well, I woke up around eight. I then to breakfast around

nine. I was supposed to meet Norm Norman in the lounge at ten

because he wanted to ask me some questions, I don’t know what kind

of questions. I went to the lounge at ten, but when I got there he

canceled on me for some reason. I don’t know why. I then went up to

my room and stayed in there for the rest of the day just reading and

writing. And then of course I got ready for the party and I went to

the party around 7:15 or so.”

Alfred had finished and there was a slight silence. Elias just sat

there staring at the floor pondering.

“Is there anything else?” Alfred asked breaking the silence.

“Mmm…..oh no, that will be all….thank you.”

Alfred nodded his head and got up and walked out of the office.



Chapter Eleven

“So boss, how are things coming together?”

Elias rubbed his chin,

“Quite good…….quite good.” He paused, “Can you go and find

everyone I have talked to and tell them to meet us in the lounge at

five o’clock.”

“Sure”

“Oh and can you find the Chief Police and tell him to come

here.”

“Sure.” and Luke left to do his job.

After he found everyone, he found the Chief Police and brought him

to Elias. When they walked into the office Elias turned from looking

out the window.

“Ahhhhh, Fred.”

“Hey Elias.” and the Police man walked over to him and shook

his hand. “How’s everything coming?”

“Pretty good. I actually wanted to ask you if you could meet

us in the lounge at five o’clock, I think I’ve got the man.”

“Oh……..so you’re going to need the old hand cuffs.” Fred

said as he patted the hand cuffs that were linked to his belt. Elias

just smiled, “What…….you don’t need the hand cuffs.”

Elias shrugged his shoulders. Fred sighed with annoyance, “I’m going

to Starbucks…….do you want anything?”

“Just a coffee.” Elias replied.

Fred looked over at Luke.

“Same.” he said and Fred walked out of the room.

“So why wont you tell anyone who you think the murderer is?”

“Cause I want it to be a surprise.”

One o’clock passed…………..two o’clock passed……….Three……..Four……and it

was finally five o’clock. Time to reveal the murderer!

Everyone got to the lounge at five, and they all nervously

sat down. Norm, Emily and Jacob sat on the couch and Alfred sat on

the red chair. Elias, Luke, and Fred were the last ones to get

there. Luke sat down in the rocking chair ready to take notes if

needed. Fred and Elias remained standing. Everyone gave each other

occasional glance wondering if the other was the one or not. Most of

the glances went to Jacob Sligh who was just sitting there, leaning

forward on his legs and he was staring at the floor. Elias cleared

his throat.

“Now, its time to reveal the murderer.” the tension grew

stronger in the room. “I will just relieve your agony and tell you

right up front that the murderer is not in this area.”

Everyone looked around at each other in confusion. Jacob sat up

straight,

“It’s no one in this room?” He asked

“Nope.”

Jacob leaned back,

“Oh.”

“No the murderer is very much alive.”

“Alive?” Emily asked

“Yes.”

“What are you saying?” Norm asked

“I mean that the murderer is Miss. Margaret Boss.”

“What?!” everyone exclaimed at the same time.

“But she got murdered.” Alfred said.

“Ahhhhh, so you thought.”

“So who got murdered?” Alfred asked

“Harriet Jitter.”

“But it was Margaret’s body for sure that we saw!” Norm said

“How about I explain everything. When you, Emily, saw

Margaret walk out she was going outside to meet someone. An old

friend……Harriet. When Norm and Emily went outside, Margaret must

have been waiting of Harriet to get there; she must have heard you

and just plopped down pretending to be dead. So you two saw the real

Margaret Boss. When you guys went back into the hotel, Margaret

hopped up and when Harriet came, she finished the job.”

Emily gasped,

“So who did we see?” She asked

“Harriet, I did some research on Margaret and I found the

she majored in everything having to do with style, make up, hair……I

mean everything.

Norm, when you followed Jacob when he was following

Margaret, the shopping center she lead you too had everything she

needed. She got make up to make Harriet’s face look like hers. She

got two of the same dresses, she got a wig made to look like her

hair, and the body shop sold body suits.

“When you two went to the manager, she, like I

said…..finished the job and she turned Harriet into Margaret #2. She

made sure that Harriet’s body was in the same position she was when

she just plopped down. We did get finger prints but all of them were

Margaret Boss’s so we didn’t think of anything like we are thinking

now. Well, like I’m thinking now. One mistake she made was what made

me think like I am thinking now.”

“And what was that?” Jacob asked

“Here eyes. When I looked into the face of the woman, she

had the brightest blue eyes I have ever seen a brunet have. So

something didn’t seem right.”

“What about the letter we found?” Norm asked

“Ah, the letter. Well, Margaret didn’t do this crime by

herself. One of the hostesses helped her, he is known as Jim Wit.

Jacob, when you gave Jim the note that you wanted him to give to

Harriet, he switched notes and gave a note to Margaret who acted a

part. The note that she ripped up was for you to find so you two

would get mixed up.”

“So that’s why Harriet didn’t show up.” Jacob said to

himself.

“I knew that the letter that you two found wasn’t copied.”

“How did you know?” Emily asked

“Well I thought that it was the letter but then, a few hours

ago, I went to the front desk to look through some files. I fond a

very interesting named file that caught my attention. Its name was

M.O.M.. I started to look through it and I realized that the file

was accidentally left behind by the Hostess. It contained papers on

all of you guys and himself. I also found that Jim started his job

last Sunday, the day Margaret got here. Then he quite his job

yesterday. I thought that that was a little suspicious. Oh, I also

found the letter of concern. I knew then at that letter was the

copied letter. The way I could tell was that after every last letter

of a word there was a small blob of ink. I am supposing that those

blobs got there when Alfred was very carefully coping it, he would

pause after every word he wrote to see what the next word was and he

would leave his pen where he stopped creating a small blob of ink.

Plus the hand writing of this letter was the hand writing of a

writer. The letter that Norm found, the hand writing was just so

sloppy.” He paused for a moment and everyone was just trying to take

in everything that was just said to them. “With all of that said and

done, I must be off.”

“Already?” Emily asked

“Detectives never rest; I must go on a journey searching for

Miss. Moss and Mr. Wit.” He looked around at everybody and smiled

and then said,

“Au revoir!” He turned around and started to walk away. Luke

got up and started to follow Elias and Fred went behind Luke. And

out they went single file. Everyone looked around at each other, and

then Norm said,

“Bo voyage Monsieur!”

I Hope you guys are enjoying this!!!!

Chapter Seven

“Okey I admit that I did know him when I was young.”

“Was he nice to you?”

“I don’t know, nobody ever really liked me, so I suppose he

didn’t like me anymore than all of the others.”

“Okey, have you gotten any kind of……..disturbing

letter…..lately?”

Margaret was silent for a moment. Emily looked at Norm then at

Margaret.

“Disturbing?” she questioned.

“Like unpleasant…..dangerous….”

“You mean a letter of threat?”

“Yeah.”

Margaret took a deep breath and then let it out,

“If you really have to know, the answer is…….”

Norm and Emily stared at her waiting for the answer,

“The answer is no.”

Emily’s shoulders dropped and Norm leaned back into the couch, put

his fingers through his hair and then asked,

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okey then, thank you for answering our questions.”

Margaret got up and walked away without even saying your welcome.

“I guess we were wrong.” Emily said

“I still think it was her who was threatened. I mean it all

makes sense. But for some reason she doesn’t want to admit it.”

“I would think that she would have told us.”

“Apparently she doesn’t………Let’s go try to find Alfred, I

really need to talk to him.”

And they went to go do so. They search all day, but he was no where

to be found. He wasn’t even in his room, or so they thought. They

were eating dinner when Norm said,

“Tomorrow we need to keep an eye on Harriet and Jacob at the

party.”

“You know we don’t want to look too suspicious. Plus I would

like to enjoy some of the evening and not just spend the whole time

spying on people.”

“I know, I know, but we should just make sure that we know

where they are every once in a while.”

“All right.”

Emily took her last bite of dinner and then said,

“I think I’m going to go to my room now. I’m tired and we

have a big day tomorrow.”

Norm smiled greatly,

“Okey then, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Emily said with a small sweet smile on her

face. When Emily got to her room and turned on the lights, she saw

that there was a small box and a piece of paper on the bed. She went

over and picked up the note and read it. Her heart started to beat

faster, she pick up the box and opened it, her face lit up!

Norm was still in the restaurant when Alfred came walking in

and he went over to the bar and sat down. Norm took a sip of his

water, then got up and walked over to the bar and sat next to him.

Alfred turned his head and looked at Norm,

“Hello.” Alfred said with no expressions.

“Hey,”

An acquired silence came and lasted for a minute or two and then

Norm said,

“Do you think we could meet sometime tomorrow and I could

ask you some questions?”

“Sure,”

“Is ten o’clock okey with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Great…….thanks, have a good night.”

“Thanks, you too.” was Alfred’s last comment.

In the morning Emily woke up and got ready for the day. Then she

went to the lounge to wait for Norm, they always met there. It was

10:05 at the time. She waited there for almost a half an hour and

she began to worry. She went up to his room and knocked on his door.

But he didn’t come. She went back down to the front desk and said,

“Excuse me,” The hostess looked up at her, “Did you happen

to see Norm Norman leave this morning at all?”

“Oh yes, are you Emily Shylock?”

“Yes I am.”

“He told me to tell you that the meeting with Alfred Bookum

was canceled and he had some things to do…….oh and also that he

would come to your room tonight around seven o’clock.”

“There was a meeting with Alfred Bookum?”

“Yeah, he said something came up so he had to cancel the

meeting.”

“Oh……….okey…….thank you.” Emily said sounding confused. She

started to walk away, but then she went back and asked,

“Did he tell you where he was going?”

“No he didn’t.”

“Okey thanks.”

“No problem?”

Emily spent the rest of the day doing random stuff. She went skiing,

she read, hung out and of course she got ready for the Christmas

Party. There was a knock on her door at exactly seven o’clock. Emily

opened it. Norm’s heart stopped when he saw her. She was wearing a

black spaghetti-strap dress that ended just above the knee. She had

a black shawl draped around her shoulder and black high healed

shoes; she had a very sparkly necklace on and earrings that matched.

Her hear was done up very fancily with little sparkles randomly

placed in her hair.

“Hello.” Emily said as a shy greeting.

“Sooooo……”

Emily smiled and looked down at her hand; the diamond sparkled on

her ring. She looked up at him and smile and said,

“Yes.”

Norm smiled a smile that was bigger than his face. He cleared his

throat and then offered his arm to her. She took it and closed her

door behind her. They walked down the stairs and into the Ball Room.

The room was brilliantly decorated. On the pillars there were

Christmas light rapped all around, the tables he white table-clothes

with red rose petals scattered about on them. The lights were down

low and there were white candles on each of the tables. It was

simple but beautiful.

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you…….Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.” Emily said back with a smile. “So Norm,”

“Yeah,”

“You didn’t tell me that we had a meeting with Alfred this

morning. When did you see him?”

“I saw him last night after you went up to your room. I was

going to tell you this morning, but something came up.”

“What came up?”

“Well,” Norm cut off his sentence when he saw Harriet coming

towards them.

“Hello my dears……how are we this evening?”

“Good, and what about yourself?” Emily asked

“I am doing much better.”

“That’s good.”

“You look very pretty this evening Emily.” Harriet commented.

“Thank you.” Emily said very shyly and her face became red.

“Well I am sure that I will see you two later.” She said as
she walked away.

Emily and Norm’s eyes followed her. They saw her walk over to Jacob

and they began to talk.

“We just need to know where they are at all times…….while

having fun.”

“Right.” Emily responded.

“Margaret Boss is here.” Norm said.

Emily turned her head and saw that she has just entered.

“The only other person we need is Alfred Bookum.” Emily

remarked.

“He just got here too.”

Emily looked over once again and saw him enter.

“So what where you saying about you meeting him this

morning?”

Chapter Eight

“Oh right, so I was waiting in the lounge for him, we were

to meet at ten o’clock, when I saw Margaret leaving the building.

Alfred had just come. I greeted him and then looked back at the

door, and I saw Jacob leave the building. I wanted to follow them.

So I told Alfred that I was sorry but I had to cancel the meeting

with him. He didn’t mind. I went outside and I saw Margaret drive

away in her car. Then I saw Jacob in his car following her. So I

jumped into my car and followed them. Margaret went into a shopping

center---“

“A shopping center?” Emily questioned

“Yeah,”

“And you were gone all day?”

“Yeah,”

“Man, how many shops did she go into?”

“I don’t know, I lost count.”

“What did Jacob do?”

“Just followed her around.”

“What time did you get back?”

“Oh let’s see…….like…….five or so.”

“I wonder what she was shopping for.” Emily wondered to

herself.

“Who knows………where’s Harriet?” Norm asked

“She over there talking to Margaret.”

“Mmmmm.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

They hung out and talked to random people for a while, while keeping

an eye on Harriet, Jacob, Margaret and Alfred. They were talking to

a man that Norm and Emily had met the other day while they were

skiing when Emily noticed that Margaret went outside by the back

door of the room.

“Norm.” She said in a whisper while she was tugging his

suit. Norm looked at her and she made a face of urgency.

“Will you please excuse us?” Norm said politely and they

took a couple steps away from the man.

“What is it?” Norm asked

“Margaret just went outside by the back door.”

“Did anyone follow her?”

“No……Well, not that know of…….what do you do?”

“Come on…….let’s follow her.”

They went across the room and went outside. They stood there for a

moment to see if they could hear anything. Norm looked around to

make sure that nobody was following them. He then motioned with his

hand to keep walking. Emily poked her head out from behind a bush

and screamed!

“Oh my gosh!!! Margaret!!!”

“What? What is it?”

Norm looked where Emily was looking and saw that Margaret was lying

face to the ground……dead……..murdered! Emily and Norm ran over to

her. Emily bent down and was about to roll her over,

“Emily don’t touch the body!!” Norm exclaimed “Not until the

police get here to investigate.”

Emily stood up with an extreme look of shock on her face and her

eyes began to tear up.

“Come on, let’s go call the police.”

“I’m dizzy.”

“And pail, come on.”

He took her hand and supported her has they walked back into the

Ball Room. He walked her over to a chair and got her a drink of

water,

“You stay here and I’ll go and talk to the manager about what to do.

“Okey.” Emily managed to say very faintly.

“Are you the manager?” Norm asked

“Yes I am……how can I help you?” He asked very nicely.

“Well…….me and my friend, Emily…found something very

disturbing when we went outside to get some fresh hair.”

The manager’s face became very serious,

“What did you find that was disturbing?”

“A……..a……dead body.” Norm said in a low voice.

“A dead body!” the manager exclaimed. Norm nodded his head

slowly.

“Okey well, I’ll go and call the police and then I will have

to break the news to everyone somehow.”

“Okey.”

And the manager went to go do what he said he was going to do. Norm

went over to Emily.
“How are you doing?”

“I’m okey.”

“You got some color back to your face.”

Emily smiled faintly.

“What is the manager going to do?”

“He is calling the police now and then he is going to have

to make an announcement to everyone somehow.”

A couple minutes later the manager came back into the Ball Room and

he had a microphone in his hand.

“Can I have everyone’s attention for just a moment please?”

Everyone quieted down, “Thank you. I have a disturbing announcement

to make. We have discovered a dead body outside this evening.”

There were gasps and chitter chatter of disbelief in the mist of the

crowd,

“We have called the police and they are on there way. We would like

to ask you if you can all go to your rooms for you own safety.”

Emily noticed that Jacob dashed out of the room right away,

“That’s interesting.” She thought to herself.

“Tomorrow morning we will hopefully have more information

for you. We right now have Security at all of the entrances. So no

one can come in or out. Thank you very much for your cooperation.”

The manager put the microphone down and walked over to Emily and

Norm,

“The police said that they would like to talk to the ones

who found the body, so that would be you.”

“Okey.” Norm said

“They should be here any moment.”

“Okey.” Norm said again.

He and Emily went to the lounge and sat down waiting for the police

to get there.

Elias Debonair, a man in his early forties, walked into the

hotel at 10:05pm. He was the well-known detective in Vermont.

Everyone knew his name and face. He was on the shorter side, his

black hair was handsomely slicked back, and his dark brown eyes

sparkled with delight when it came to solving a crime. He had a very

calm characteristic about it that made him easy to work with, or

talk to. He walked over to the lounge to see Emily and Norm. When he

came up to them he said,

“Detective Elias Debonair.”

“Norm Norman”

“Emily Shylock.”

He shook both of their hands.

“So you are the ones who found the body.”

“Yes Sir we are.” Emily answered

“Sorry I’m late.” said a man with a deep voice. Elias turned

his head and looked at him,

“That’s okey Luke. Norm and Emily let me introduce you to my

assistant, Luke Trusty.”

“Hello.” Norm and Emily said at the same time. Luke nodded

his head at them.

“Can you show me the body please?” Elias asked

“Sure.” Norm said and they got up and they lead the two men

to the body outside.

“Did you know this person?”

“Yes we did…….her name was Margaret Boss.”

“Did you know her well?”

“No we didn’t, we only talked to her about two times.”

The medical crew arrived.

“Was she like this when you found her?”

“Yes Sir”

“Did you touch her?”

“No Sir”

“Well I almost did but then Norm stopped me.” Emily said.

Elias looked at Norm,

“Why did you tell her to stop?”

“I told her that you shouldn’t touch a dead body until the

police get there and when they tell you that its okey to touch the

body.”

“Wise man.” Elias complimented

The medical crew rolled Margaret over. There was blood on her dress.

Elias looked at her,

“It looks like she has been shot twice in the heart.”

Emily put her hand over her mouth. Elias took a closer look at her

face. Her eyes were open, cold and dry.

“Huh.” Elias said in a pondering tone.

“What?” Luke asked

“Nothing…….Nothing……..well, maybe its something.”

“What’s something?”

Chapter Nine

“Nothing.” Elias just stood there staring at the body.

“Norm and Emily,” he turned to them, “It’s a little late for

questions right now. So it would be great if you could meet me in

the lounge tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.”

“We’ll do so.” Norm replied and him and Emily went to there

rooms and went to bed.

Neither of them slept that well, too many things happened

the day before. In the morning they went to the lounge at nine

o’clock, just like they were told. Elias was sitting on the couch

reviewing his notes that his assistant took the night before. Emily

took a seat in the red chair and Norm took a seat in the rocking

chair. Elias looked up from his notes.

“Oh, good morning, I do hope that you slept well.”

“No, we didn’t.” Norm and Emily said at the same time while

shaking their heads.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Elias sympathized, “I would like to have an

interview with each of you alone. I arranged us to do it in the

manager’s office. I would like to start with you, Emily.”

Emily looked at Norm and then she got up and followed Elias into the

office.

“Please sit down.” Elias told Emily as he closed the door

behind him. Luke was sitting in a corner ready to take notes on the

conversation.

“Now, tell me what you know about Margaret Boss.”

“Well, she seemed very bossy, and she never talked in a calm

tone. Except for that one time she answered one of our questions

that we asked her---“

“Questions…….what questions?”

“We wanted to know about Jacob Sligh.”

“Jacob Sligh…….did she know Jacob?”

“Apparently they were in school together when they were

younger.”

“And why did you have suspicions about him?”

“Because me and Norm always saw him following Margaret

around.”

“Do you know why he was following her around?”

“No sir, he didn’t answer that question.”

“Answer………so you questioned him too?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Did he admit that he was following her around?”

“Yes sir he did.”

There was a slight silence and then he asked her,

“How long have you known Norm?”

“I have known him for as long as I can remember. Seeing him

here is the first I have seen him for the past five years. He and

his family moved to New York five years ago.”

“And you are now engaged to him.”

Emily blushed and then answered,

“Yes I am.”

“Can you tell me what you did yesterday…….all of your

movements?”

“Sure, I woke up around 8:30, and I got ready for the day. I

came down to the lounge at 10:05 to meet Norm, like I usually do. I

waited for him for a half hour. He didn’t come. I became worried

about him so I went to his room to see if he was still in there.”

“What time was that at?”

“10:40. He wasn’t in his room, so I went down to the front

desk to see if he went any where. One of the Hostess’ said that Norm

told him to tell me that the meeting with Alfred was canceled----”
“What was the hostess’ name?”

“I’m not sure,”

“Was it a man or woman?”

“A man.”

“And who is Alfred?”

“His full name is Alfred Bookum; I’ve only talked to him

once.”

“Why did you want to meet with Alfred?”

“We saw Alfred give Jacob a piece of paper, and we wanted to

know what it was.”

“Did Jacob not tell you what it was?”

“That is true sir.”

“What did you did after you went to the front desk?”

“I ate a brunch; I hadn’t yet eaten that say. Then I went

skiing around 11:30. I came back around 1:30 and ate a small lunch.

I then went to my room around 3:00 and I just read and got ready for

the Party. Norm came to my room at seven o’clock and we went down to

the party.”

“What time did you find the body?”

“It was around nine o’clock.”

“Did Norm ever tell you where he went?”

“Yes he did.”

“Do you want to tell me or do you think he should tell me?”

“He could probably give you a lot more detail than me.”

“Okey, thank you Emily. That’s all for right now. Could you

go get Norm for me?”

“Sure……he’ll be right in.”

Emily was just about to leave

“Oh,” Elias said and Emily poked her head out from behind

the door

“Yes,”

“What color eyes did Margaret have?”

“Brown.” Emily answered looking a little confused with the

randomness of the question.

“Thank you.”

“Sure”

She went back to the lounge to get Norm,

“So how was it?” Norm asked

“Not bad……he wants to talk to you now.”

“Alrighty,” Norm said as he got up and walked to the office.

When he walked in Elias said,

“Hello Norm, have a seat.”

“Thank you.” Norm replied as he took a seat in a chair.

“Can you tell me all of your movements for yesterday?”

“Certainly, I woke up around eight o’clock, I took a shower

and got ready for the day and such, I went to breakfast around nine

o’clock. I went to the lounge around 9:45 to meet Alfred. Around

9:55 I noticed that Margaret left. I didn’t care much about it until

I saw Jacob following her out a few minutes later. Alfred had just

come then. I wanted to follow Jacob so I told Alfred that we would

have to cancel the meeting. He didn’t mind. I went outside and I saw

Margaret drive off in her car, then I saw Jacob following her in his

car, so I jumped into my car and started to follow.”

“What time did you leave?”

“It was ten o’clock.”

“Where did Margaret lead you to?”

“A shopping center.”

“A shopping center.” Elias repeated.

“Yeah”

“What stores were in the shopping center?”

“Oh, let me think……well, there was an Ann Taylor, a T.J.

Max, an Ulta, a Hallmark, and a Body Shop”

“A Body Shop?” Elias questioned

“Like a gym or something.”

“Oh,”

“And, this store was kinda random, but it was a wig shop.”

“A wig shop.” Elias said thoughtfully. Norm nodded hid

head, “Very interesting indeed……..did she go into all of the shops?”

“Yes she did.

“How long of a time did she spend in each store?”

“About and hour on average.”

“What were you doing when she went through all of the
stores?”

“I was following Jacob.”

“And what was he doing?”

“He was just watching her from his car.”

“So you spent six hours just sitting in your car?”

“Yep.”

“How long did it take you to get there and to get back?”

“On the way there it took about 15min. On they way home it

took about a half hour, we ran into a little traffic.”

“What time did you get home?”

“Around five.”

“What did you do when you got back?”

“I dinner and then I went to my room around 5:45 to and hung

out and got ready for the party. I went to Emily’s room at 7:00 to

pick her up. Then we went to the party.”

“What time did you find the body?”

“Around------ nine o’clock.”

There was some silence and then Norm said,

“I believe that Margaret was threatened.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Two days ago when me and Emily were eating lunch in the

restaurant, I saw Margaret rip up a piece of paper and throw it in

the trash. When she was gone I went to the trash and got all of the

pieced and we put it back together and it was a letter of threat.”

“Do you still have the letter?”

“Yes, I think it’s in Emily’s room.”

“Do you mind if you could go ask her to go and get it? I

would very much like to look at it.”

“Sure.” and Norm got up and walked out of the office.

“So boss…..what do you think?” Luke asked

“This case is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.”