No Happily Ever After

Chapter 16

MissMarple looked at the famous, the beautiful, the successful JaneHelier and nodded her head gently.

"Isee, my dear," she said very gently. "I see."

Kimberly Crimsonclosed the Agatha Christie collection as she read the finallines of "Miss Marple: A Christmas Tragedy." Shesighed and looked down at her grandmother. Other than the steadybeep beep of grandma's medical equipment, the room was deathly stilland quiet. Grandma's eyes remained closed and there was noindication that she'd heard a single word Kimberly read; though ithad always been one of her favorites.

Contemplating thetitle of the story made Kimberly think of the real life Christmastragedy that had spiraled out of control in Faraway. It was threedays after Christmas, and the town was in shock over the mysteriousdisappearance of Aspen Briar. Since both Mr. and Mrs. Briar had beendiscovered dead from inhaling toxic fumes during a gas leak in theirhome, police were working with the theory that Aspen had killed themand run away. However, given the other terrible disappearances oflocal teens, the more popular theory was that Aspen had beenkidnapped by a psycho killer. Everyone assumed she was also dead. Police worked around the clock to try and discover a link between allthe terrible happenings, to no avail.

The town was besideitself.

People looked toPolice Chief Jiminy for answers, only to find none. The kindly oldfellow had been the head of the Faraway police department for as longas anyone could recall. He had a loving heart and people hadformerly felt safe with him watching over them. However, now theywondered if he should really be holding the post anymore. Perhapshis advancing age had led to a slip up in security. In truth, theyjust needed somebody to blame. And definitely, they demanded thatthe guilty party or parties be apprehended and the missing kidsreturned safely. Most of all, the townsfolk desperately fearedanymore children being taken.

"Grandma,"Kimberly said sadly. "Everything sucks right now."

She forlornlyregarded the tiny frail woman in the bed. Before grandma had fallenill, Kimberly would've shared all her woes with the caring woman. Grandma would've had advice on what to do, and would've made Kimberlyfeel so much better somehow, even if nothing really was better. Shemissed her grandma dearly. But there wasn't much she could do aboutit.

Kimberly staredthrough grandma's lacey eyelet curtains into the snowy night whileshe poured her heart out to the woman. She described all of herschool acquaintances who were now absent. Kimberly was a loner andhadn't been particularly close to any of them, but she still felt badabout the apparent tragedy that had befallen them all. And ofcourse, she didn't know if the streets of her town were safe anylonger.

In the end, eventhough her grandma had nothing to say, Kimberly felt better justhaving talked to her.