Cypress Alley

Chapter 6

Eliza didn't talk to me on the way home. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she wouldn't even lift her head. Which was fine by me. A few minutes of silence would have been great.

Except there was no silence. There never was. We were back at our chaotic home before I'd even had a chance to settle into the quiet. On the plus side, everyone else seemed to be in the living room, so Eliza and I slipped into her room to discuss our findings.

"Wendy has to be our prime suspect," Eliza muttered, almost inaudibly.

"Yeah..."

"She's hiding something, and I have a feeling that 'something' is inside the notebook."

"Maybe..."

"Do you think that she wrote out her murder plan inside the notebook? Do you think that's why it said 'North' on it? Or maybe she wrote about the murder afterwards?"

"If she really did murder North, I doubt she would've written about it. What if someone found it?"

"Yeah but Wendy's dumb."

It was true. Wendy was not known to be one of the smartest people in our year. She was well below average academically... and in most other regards.

"Yes, but even she would have enough sense to not write about these things. I don't think we're going to find murder plans anytime soon, but the notebook is an item of interest since we saw North's name on it."

"But how do we have to get our hands on it?" Eliza grumbled, flicking scraps of paper onto the floor.

"I have no idea. If she brings it back to school, then we might be able to take it."

"But she'd never let anyone touch it. She won't let us come anywhere near her!"

"So, we have to find a way. Isn't that what Sherlock Holmes does best?"

Eliza perked up, her face taking on a sudden brightness. "Yep! And that's also what Shylock Jones is going to do. We're going to follow her tomorrow, ok? And we're going to find out what she's been up to."

"Especially in the lead up to the murder. We can see if she's had arguments or anything else of the sort... and find out what her last interaction with North was like."

"Yeah. What classes does she have tomorrow?"

I pulled my school timetable out of my bag. "Wendy's in your maths class first up. Then you have English and History which we'll have to wait out. Recess and lunch would be a good chance to look for her. But Wendy has art after that so we can't spy on her then."

"Oh, but we can," Eliza said slyly, a gleam in her eyes. I was slightly concerned. It never meant anything sensible when her eyes shone like that.

Although, I wouldn't find out about her plan until the next day. Eliza kept me in the dark for our first few classes. She didn't find anything interesting during Maths. All Wendy did, was chew some gum and text Veronica behind her maths textbook. Even when Eliza snuck glances at her screen, all she found was how much Wendy hated their maths teacher, Mr Constandi.

We didn't find much at recess either. She and Veronica sat in a corner with their small group of friends and did nothing but talk about ordinary things. Lunch was no different, to our dismay.

When it came time for electives, Eliza finally told me what she was planning. We were going to sneak out of class (I didn't like music much anyway) and go to the art room. I didn't know why this was necessary – if Wendy hadn't done anything suspicious during Maths, recess or lunch, what's to say she would do anything during art? After all, it was just another subject. Eliza justified herself by saying that art was the only class that Wendy used to have with North.