Rush Of The Fight

The Girl Knew Too Much.

"Hi Marcus!" Madison screamed, after Marcus had opened up the door to his house to let his next door neighbor in that he tutored.

"Hey Mads." Upon hearing the dull welcome, Madison squinted at him and tilted her head to the side.  While the non-excitement greet was something Marcus usually shared with everyone, he never used it with Madison. The little girl was too sweet and undeserving of it. "What?" He questioned dumbly.

"Don't what me." She folded her arms a crossed her chest and tried to stand taller. "I'm a freshmen in high school now Marc.  I can tell when something's up." While she did get tutoring from Marcus she was never actually needy of it. It was really just to help her study. "C'mon man. Spill the beans."

"Mads, I don't think I can tutor you today. I got a-" Marcus sighed, running a hand through his hair, "well, a lot going on."

"Anything to do with why detective Oscar dropped this off at my house?" Madison pulled out an envelope.

Marcus grabbed the Manila envelope from the girl. He opened it to find a piece of paper, with it six words written on it:

The Kat jumped over the Wood

Marcus peered at the words longer. Nothing coming to mind. Faith said past experiences would come into play, but this reminded him of nothing. What did this even mean?

"You're sure you saw Faith drop this off?"

Madison shrugged, "She handed it to me one day when I came home from school. Told me to wait until tomorrow to drop it off. But I got impatient and my father started getting suspicious, and you know how things are between us, so..."

"Right." Marcus peered at the sentence again. "And she didn't happen to give you any clues?"

"Not that I know of." Madison bit her lip. "Why? What's going on?"

Marcus took a deep breath. As much as he could probably use the help, he wasn't going to involve anyone especially not sweet little Madison. "Don't worry about it, kid."

"Marc." She gave an obvious tone.

"Mads." Marcus replied with the same.

"Marcus! C'mon man! You think I don't know when something is different. Oscar never talked to me, even when you guys hung out together and I was over here. Then suddenly she asks for a favor and tells me about her day plans as if I actually give a damn?" Madison slaps her legs and rolls her eyes. "I mean come ON. You're super distant and like 'eww that's a kid' and then one day out of the blue you just start talking to me?" She stomped her way to the living room and sat down on the couch. In order to avoid the photos and such without being suspicious, Marcus say on the coffee table. "And now you're acting weird too! Just let me in on it already!"

"Madison, you're fifteen. Honestly, I'm not even happy with Faith for giving you this damn folder."

"It means something though." She huffed.

"Yes... Well maybe. I- I don't really know yet, but I do know is that I don't want you getting involved."

"Is that why you're attempting to hide whatever evidence you've already found that's sitting on your coffee table with your body?" She tilted her head once again, and stared dead into his eyes. Marcus's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah. Ya ain't slick."

"Wait, go back to what you were talking about. You said she told you her plans for the day?"

"Yyeah?" She responded confused. "What about it?"

"What exactly did she say."

"Uhm." Madison sat for a second, thinking. "She talked about grabbing a coffee with you, and then getting some new clothes cause were she was going was cold, and then something about a bank, but to be honest I kinda zoned out when she started going into detail."