The Jewel Thief

Going to the Cinema

I gape at Marissa. "No. No, you can't be. You can't!"

She simpers. "But yes, we are siblings. I lived in England until very recently, but then Richard had me move here so we could put our plan into action. You're not very observant, are you? I lived just two streets away from you! I saw you working in the garden at times. I can't believe how much of a fool you are."

I am utterly speechless. Marissa just sits there, with a smug little smile on her face.

"Wait. Wait – you said that he disposed of his wife. Charlotte died of a heart attack! What are you talking about?"

Her smile widens. "Aha, another surprise revelation." She was clearly having a lot of fun. "No, her death was not at all accidental. Richard informed her of his incredible plan, and she disapproved. She thought it was outrageous, and threatened to finally divorce him, because it was an arranged marriage, you know, but Richard was having none of it. It wouldn't do to have someone who knew about the plan and was against it in the house. That night, Richard injected her with poison in her neck, in a very discreet fashion. The next day, he buried her in the yard, without any sort of funeral, wrote her name on a rock for a gravestone, planted it in the ground, and told you she had died of a heart attack. Come on, you were nine and thirteen, you think you would have questioned it?"

I can't say anything. I physically can't. My jaw drops. Marissa cackles.

"Enough said. Now, where are the chains? Basement... right... I'll just nip down there, lock you in the cupboard for safekeeping, while I'm not here?"

I nod, dazed. I did not take in any of what she just said – if I had, I would have been frantic and panicky. But what I had just seen made me much less so.

While Marissa had been revealing some of the most important bits of the case to me, and telling me that Richard Grayson had murdered Charlotte, I had seen something. Someone, to be precise.

Maddie was outside, slowly inching across another big branch of the tree, one that led almost exactly into Marissa's window. Marissa, of course, had not noticed her, or she would have probably wrenched open the window, screamed at Maddie – probably even pushed her off the branch. I shudder at the thought of that. Marissa was staring right at me, and besides, she had her back somewhat to the window.

I make eye-contact with Maddie so she knows I had seen her. She continues to slither up the branch on her stomach like a serpent and stops next to the window. Marissa is still staring at me, flouncing her skirt, and enjoying taunting me.

"I'll have to go fetch the key to the cupboard, won't I? Where did I put it again?" Marissa starts rifling through the mess in her room with one hand, the other still gripping my forearm. She's not paying attention to me anymore.

I look back out the window at Maddie. Suddenly, I am baffled. She has begun to make bizarre hand gestures – first, she points to her neck, and then she points at Marissa.

"Not over here... not over there..." Marissa is still searching frantically for the key.

Maddie continued to make the peculiar hand gestures – she pointed to her neck, and then at Marissa. Neck, Marissa. Neck, Marissa. What was she trying to communicate?

"Well, seeing as I can't find the key to the closet, I'll just have to take you down into the basement with me, I can just chain you up right away, down there. Yes, that's a good plan. It'll be a nice little adventure, won't it? Just like the ridiculous little books I saw lying around when I came to your house? You want to be just like characters in your little fictional stories, don't you? Solve sweet little mysteries, like you're so clever? You'll soon find out that not every story has a happy ending."