Cherry Red Murder

The Police's Story

If you were to enter the Kingwell mansion through the front door about two minutes after the events of the last chapter, you would hear loud footsteps in the hallway above. You would not see the red haired woman walking briskly, nor would you see the short, plump boy following her, running as fast as he could.

The hallway was about one hundred feet long and poorly lit; the only light came in from the blank, mid-winter sky, that shone eerie, white light through the windows. The floor, which had been first (and only) done 20 years prior, creaked under their footsteps.

They entered the study, which was rather large and had a tall, mahogany bookshelf at the back. There was a lit fireplace in the room to the side, and a desk was in the center of the room. Behind the desk, on a leather-backed chair sat Jacob Kingwell. He was leaning against the desk with his face in his hands. 

"Excuse me?" asked Madeline, "Lord Kingwell?"

"Yes?" he said looking up, "Miss Hawksworth, I thought my wife hired Ronald Bullstock."

Madeline was getting tired of explaining that she was still investigating, and was struggling to not express her thoughts on Bullstock's intelligence. Fortunately, Stephan piped up. "Father, Ronald Bullstock is an incompetent detective! I have rehired Miss Hawksworth! Hopefully she will be able to properly do the job."

Jacob stared at his son like he had never seen him before. After a long time, he said, "What do you want?"

"Do you know the man, Tim, who did the ice carving? Do you have his number?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, "It was given to me, actually. Someone sent it to me last month for the ball."

Madeline frowned. "Could we have it, please?"

"Sure," he said, fishing the small business card from his desk drawer and handing it to her, "I won't have much need for it after all; there's talk of ending these. People won't want to come anymore; they won't feel safe, not when the host's own daughter died."

Stephan looked at his feet. "Well thank you father," he said sadly.

They rushed back across the hall to the nearest phone; it was in the room across the hall, it was a sitting room, next to the informal dining room. Slowly, Madeline dialed the number. They prepared themselves for a long wait, but suddenly they heard a ring. 

"That's odd," said Stephan, "Shouldn't that be coming through the other end?"

"It is," the detective replied, walking out the door, leaving Stephan with the phone. 

Turning to the dining room, she saw Martin and Martina standing there arguing in whispers. In front of them, on the table was a ringing phone.

The officers became very quiet when they saw her. They stared at her. Then at the phone. Then back at her."I assume you'll be wanting an explanation," said Martina, finally. She reached up to her blond hair and pulled gently on it. It was a wig. 

"We're not police officers," she said.

"I figured as much, " replied Madeline, "I know who you are, but how did you get mixed up in murder?"

"Me and Josh (my idiot brother) are thieves. I know what you're thinking. Some intro Jeanne! But it's important. Of course we didn't want to become thieves, I mean, how many ten-year-olds do you walk up to and ask about their life plans and their answer is a thief. But we're thieves. More like long-term borrowers now that I think about it. It started when we were about ten. The orphanage sent kids out onto the street after their eleventh birthday if they didn't get adopted. Anyway, so one day, this rich woman came and asked to adopt us. She didn't want me; I had all twisted teeth and frizzy hair and talked too much.  She only wanted Josh (I mention that he's a goody goody idiot). He and his bright blue eyes, even smiles, and PLEASES and THANK YOUSES. That's all anyone ever wanted. So of course, she wanted him. But my brother (the stupid one, yes) LITERALLY DECLINED AND REFUSED TO GO! WHY? BECAUSE HE WOULDN'T LEAVE HIS SISTER BEHIND. You're probably thinking what a brave and good brother he must be, but it's pretty stupid, actually. We were orphans. One of us rarely got adopted. If he wanted a chance at life, he should've gone with her. But then I (the most brilliant girl who ever lived) came up with a plan. It was a plan at a hard life, but we'd have each other. The woman was rich, so I told him to go to the house. Get to know things. Then rob her. Run away, meet  me at the orphanage. We'd run. We'd steal only when we needed to. But that was promise we couldn't keep. We stole whenever, from whoever. And we never stopped running. We wore disguise after disguise. When we heard about this party with a load of rich people, we couldn't help ourselves. We came. Josh came as the ice man, and I came as a maid. But then... something happened. Josh, well, someone took a knife and put it to his throat from behind. Then they told him that if his freezer wasn't given to them instantly, they would inform someone of who we were. Of course, we can't go to jail, and so we agreed to the weirdo's request. We came back to steal, but also to see if we could find whoever that was. We suspected that they had something to do with the death."

Madeline wrote down something occasionally on her notepad. "Do you remember anything about the person who wanted your freezer?"

"Yeah," said Jake, "Something kept poking into my back. It wasn't the knife though. Maybe they put more things to torture me."

She put her head in her hands. Suddenly she jolted up. She had a small idea, but first, she needed proof, not motive. She needed to talk to Daiya quickly. She had found a connection.

A/N: One of my favorite parts of this story is the era; I mixed so many time periods up that it even gives me a headache. So just know that the phone called in this chapter is a big, bulky phone that's practically new technology in this universe. It's not the i-Phone 12 guys. Don't forget to share and upvote. Also *smirks* we may or may not have a new story coming out after this one (we meaning me, it just sounded nicer XD). Comment who you think it is now! Enjoy!

Love,

-C