My Dear Sweet Murder-A Murder Most Unladylike Fanfic

Daisy

Unbelievable. This woman didn't even know why she was here.

  "You might as well keep hiding your little secret," I sniffed. "But that's no use; our friend has already told us all about what you have told her."

  Hazel blushed, embarrassed that she had been dragged into this conversation at such an early stage. Amber look at her, incredulous. 

  "I thought it was our little secret," she hissed. She made to stand up, but a stampede of children passing forced her back down into her seat. Amber rolled her eyes and glared at us.

  I cleared my throat. "I'm Daisy Wells," I continued. "The boy who is paying no attention whatsoever-" I glanced angrily at James. He shrugged. "-is James Haulings. And Hazel you already know."

  "Okay," muttered Amber.

  "We're here on an investigation about the murder of a 39 year old lady," James piped up.

  Amber froze for a fraction of a second, but jolted back to life. She snapped her eyes on James and put on a pasty smile on her face. "What was that?"

  "A 39 year old lady who we believe has been murdered," said Hazel. "Her name is-" She quickly looked at her notebook. "-Mrs Annie Blueberry."

  "What?!" snapped Amber.

  My back hit my chair in surprise. What was this all about?

  "You know," said Amber apologetically, biting her lip and getting up. "I think you lot should go back home. To London. I doubt you children are going to find out what the police hasn't yet."

  "No, no," I said hurriedly. "As you know, the 1900s has become rather...dark. Which is why you're covering the fact that you're Asian?"

  Amber nodded.

  "Chinese?"

  Amber nodded again, this time impatiently.

  I leaned forward. "Annie Blueberry's best friend was named Alice Liu and we have proof that she disappeared off to China."

  Amber laughed. "So?"

  I waited and Hazel put her hand on my arm.

  Amber looked at me weirdly and muttered something. I saw James's eyes light up with interest and I took the hint.

  "You can go now," I announced abruptly, carefully removing Hazel's hand off.

  Amber shook her head and vanished into the crowd of still screaming kids. The moment I was 100% sure she was gone, I turned to James. "I think you have something to tell us."

  "I do," said James confidently. "After all, we didn't interrogate her for nothing."

                                                              ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

We did have a reason to try to get answers out of Amber. A woman dressed like that must've been rich and as she said, she had gone back to England for a while. Maybe she'd heard of the murder, or even better, knew Alice. I know this is a very small chance, smaller than James's blueberry, but maybe...

  Hiding her skin colour was a huge suspicion for us. I had also wanted to know what made her put more than a fair bit of pale foundation on her face. Racism, of course, but had she been personally affected by it? And by who?

  I had another suspicion, of course. We had looked in the newspapers for the report of the murder, and it was on the front page on every paper we had bought. They gave descriptions and grey and white photos of each person Mrs Blueberry had close contact with, and what really intrigued me was the photo taken of a harassed-looking Alice Liu. Hazel and I, as well as the rest of the Detective Society (which includes James), couldn't exactly identify her face features. Mrs Blueberry's best friend had been shielding her face from the press, making sure the only thing anyone who read the papers could see was a mole on her neck. It wasn't small, but it wasn't large either.

  James took a deep breath as he began talking about Amber.

  "What she muttered was the name of a ship. Well, boat. The Carrington II was a small boat built for twenty people at the max. The boat departed the day right after Mrs Blueberry's death, which happened on August 29th."

  "That meant that Alice went to China on the 30th and probably arrived a month or so after," murmured Hazel, scribbling everything down in her notebook on a fresh page.

  I nodded. "Good calculations Wong. Not too bad yourself, Haulings."

  James smiled in appreciation and I saw the corners of Hazel's mouth tilt up as well.

  That's when I remembered something.

  "Wait," I said.

  "What is it, Daisy?" asked Hazel.

  "Did any of you two see Amber's mole on her neck?"

  James thought about it for a bit. "Well, I was seated near her, but I was on the right-hand side and there wasn't anything there."

  Hazel, however, nodded slowly, unsure. "There was a mole on the left-side of her neck."

  "Didn't Alice have one as well?"

  James's eyes went wide. "Are you suggesting that-"

  "-that Amber could be Alice in disguise, which explains the whole reason why she wanted to find an excuse to leave, then yes, yes I am."

  We had a lot of work to do.