Footsteps in the Night

Chapter 7

After school, I get Aunt Edith to take me to my house.

Or my old house, i should say.

Anyway, she brings me and I take out the key I still carry in my backpack and (after fighting through caution tape that I don't care about) unlock the door. The alarm chirps and I start. It's amazing how everything had changed in so little time. There's a clear inch of dust and the place has an abandoned, desolate quality to it. 

I go to the kitchen and get some plastic bags out of the cabinet. Then, I head upstairs to my brother's room and look around. The police have already removed anything they thought could be evidence, but they weren't here when my family was killed.

I was.

I look around and suddenly, the memories come. Washing over me like water. 

My brother used to keep his Legos on that shelf. That was his favorite airplane. He loved that toy, the one with the neon gun. Oh! There is the toy tank I gave him for his birthday. He harassed cats with it.  

How I miss him. 

By the look of things, the police didn't dust anything for fingerprints. I don't know why. I yell down to Aunt Edith "Will you please bring me a garbage bag? They are under the sink." 

"Okay," she bellows back up the stairs. Once she comes up and gives me the garbage bag (she brought 2), I put my hands inside the plastic bags and strip my brother's bed. I put the sheets and stuff into the garbage bag and take it downstairs. I also scour the carpet to see if ANYTHING at all was left behind by Mr. Akeldama. I find nothing, so either he was really good at this or the police did this already. There are 3 indentations on the carpet where the bodies were lying. I shiver. I also pick up the baseball bat that my mother hit him with. 

Back at Aunt Edith's house, I puzzle over why the police did not find out that it was Mr. Akeldama. I guess he "picked up after himself" so to speak. I ride my bike to the police station (it's closer than my house) and I talk to Mr. Felder, one of the officers. I give him the bag filled with my brother's sheets and the other containing the baseball bat. I ask him to dust them and he rolls his eyes.

"You have brought me a lot of evidence from your house, missy." he says, slightly exasperated.

"I know this will yield fingerprints!" I declare. 

"If you violate the caution tape again, you could be in serious trouble."

"Fine," I storm. 

"I'll dust these for you, but this is it. The last time."

"Thank you!" I exclaim. 

I bike back home, heart lighter, hoping he will be caught. I went to the office immediately after school and told them my suspicions. They said there was nothing they could do about it. And- DANG IT! I was going to talk to Mr. Felder about Mr. Akeldama and I forgot! I will go there again and tell him then. But for now, I can rest and pray that this will yield fingerprints.