Genius Undercover

Chapter 15: 1 man down

"I SWEAR I'M GONNA KILL THAT BEAST!!!!" Kai yelled suddenly. He thumped his fist on the table so hard Lottie thought it would actually snap. She stared at him in surprise but he ignored her.

"HE CAN HE DO THAT TO YOU!!!?" he screamed, eyes flashing with anger.

"Kai," said Lottie, "It might not even be him!" 

Bleep. Lottie didn't want to pick up her phone. Kai read it for her.

55,

Tom Lane  was found dead  an emptied wallet in the local swimming pool. Someone's ID card was found next to it name but the name was smudged out. We only found the letter O printed on the card. Any ideas?

Melissa.

"That's it! It's Orlando!" snapped Kai, red in the face. "I'm going to Melissa!" Kai left,  leaving Lottie breathless. This boy could get angry!

Lottie didn't follow Kai. She left the building with a plan playing on her mind. She raced over to her house and pulled out her bicycle. The murderer followed her then, he could follow her now and present himself to her. Forcing a grin to attempt to cheer herself up, she climbed onto the bike and rode of. 

After turning a corner, she cautiously looked behind her and saw no one. Feeling disappointed, she rode on, hoping maybe he'd appear. Or maybe Kai had contacted Melissa and the murderer had already been arrested. Lottie sighed. 

But something felt wrong about the case. Everything had almost happened too quickly. It was too incredible to be true. Across 3 days they'd solved a case. It just didn't seem right.

"Not possible," said Lottie to herself., "It's got to be someone else. A smart killer like this one wouldn't go leave his ID card by a swimming pool." She almost laughed at that. Then she stopped. Her eyes widened."The killer's framing someone!" She punched the air proudly. "I got it!" She grinned and bolted fast down the road, celebrating.
She'd found a very important detail, alone. Maybe she could work out things without kai's help sometimes

"OI!" She froze checking behind her. No one? Who yelled then?

"OI!" the person cried again. Blushing, Lottie looked to the front and saw an angry policeman gesturing to a bright red sign saying 'ROAD CLOSED.' 

"Didn't ya see the sign!" he yelled. He sounded frustrated but in his eyes lurked pure fear and sadness.  An ambulance pulled over. Lottie looked sadly at the scene in front of her. A very bad car crash.

2 cars were badly damaged. One car had a massive dent in the door so it was impossible for the poor person the climb out. The other had broken windows and was thrust against the steering wheel. It was also impossible for him the get out.

It was horrible. Lottie felt sick. Seeing people hurt made her stomach flip over in circles. She felt like she would cry.

"Be of with Ya!" cried the policeman, furiously.

"Don't frighten the poor girl!" said someone. 

A tall, slim woman was climbing out of the ambulance. Lottie would have smiled kindly at her but she'd noticed something. They guy in the second car...looked familiar. 

Blonde, blue eyes....NO! Not him. Lottie felt horrible. If it was Orlando he'd just been framed for murder.

"Clear of!" bellowed the policeman again.

"No," said Lottie softly, "please." She pointed at the guy in the car. "I know this man." 

The woman looked at her, desperately. "Then please... who is he?"

"Orlando Smith," said Lottie. She rubbed her eyes, her mind flashing back to the other day. Clearly, he wasn't trying to kill her the other day. Maybe he just wanted to talk to her and she'd run away. Then he gets accused for murder. It felt like all her fault.

But there could still be a chance he killed someone and ran away in the car. She shook her head. No way....

Bleep.

It was from Melissa.

Congratulations on solving the case. Orlando Smith is going to be arrested.

Melissa.

Lottie wanted to scream "NOOOOOO!" but she couldn't. It was over. Unless she managed to convince Kai he was wrong. That would be a tough job.

---

Somewhere in the shadows...

A smile stretched itself out on his face. He rubbed his strong hands together and let out a loud bellowing laugh, pride filling his stone hard heart. 

"I've stopped them, convinced them it's him! The fortune will be mine!" he cried.

And just then, in the darkness, he celebrated. Dancing a dance of pure joy and hatred, blood dripping down his top, staining the clothes.

The list lay in front of him. 3 names remaining. 

Archie Coxhall.

Orlando Smith. 

Dave Lane

"hmmmm," the man rubbed his hands together and scratched his filthy head.

Then with a pointed pencil, scratched a line through a name. He grinned....

----

Lottie raced into the room where she was met by a smiling Kai.

"WE DID IT!" he yelled happily. But when he saw his expression wasn't on Lottie's face, his smile vanished.

"We didn't," said Lottie sadly. Kai looked horrified.

"what do you mean!?" he cried, nervous. He would hate to be wrong after feeling so great and proud seconds before.

Lottie sighed and grabbed a chair. 

"Orlando was in a car accident," Lottie started. She knew what Kai was going to say next and quickly prepared herself.

"So!" cried Kai, "He was running away from a murder."

Lottie scratched her head. "The swimming pool is near here, Wenslydale, he was coming from South of Wenslydale, probably Milldown and he crashed. He's likely to have been in that state for a good 20 minutes. I arrived there at 11:10. Twenty minutes before 11:10 is 10:50, before the murder. He has been in that car when the murder struck. So it can't be him!" 

Kai's face fell. He was wrong. He scratched his head and sighed, asking the only question on his mind.

"So who is it?" he asked, desperate for an answer.