Sweet Betrayal

Chapter 1

"Talie Marco, I swear to God! You're a genius!" I exclaim as a large smile stretches across my face. 

I watch her draw a big "X" across four pictures of suspects she just eliminated. "I mean, it was pretty obvious it wasn't them." She grins tossing the "X"ed out pictures aside. 

"Well that leaves Samuel Small and Ms. Werth.." I sigh, "I don't know, this is close. I really don't know.." I complain, glueing my eyes to the picture of Ms. Werth. 

"Wait.." I begin, flipping her card over and reading her alibi. 

"What?" Talie asked, scooching closer, peering at the card from over my shoulder. 

"Ms. Werth said she got there at 8:15 PM. And the murder was at 8:25..."  I say staring at the back of the card attentively. 

"go on.." Talie cooes, lightly hitting my back, "But Samuel got there at 8:18 PM... and they said that the murder weapon was a knife..." I furrow my brows and look over at Talie with a small grin, "The victim, August Culan, went into the VIP room at 8:20 which leaves 5 minutes before the murder. But, Samuel said that he got a drink as soon as he got there and kept drinking with friends until he left, that's why he got pulled over for the DUI." I stand up holding Ms. Werth's card,

 "But Ms. Werth said that she went to use the bathroom, saying she left at 8:30, walking out of the club at 8:32! Well, that's not possible. Her alibi doesn't match up with what she said in the second interrogation. See, she added that at 8:18, when Samuel got there; she was getting a drink then she talked to the bartender for 5 minutes before she went to use the bathroom. That doesn't work though. If she went to the bathroom at 8:21 in her second alibi- then what happened to using the bathroom at 8:30 in her first?"

 I pause, turning to face Talie and watching as her expression changed into pure excitement, 

"I'll tell ya! She never went at 8:21! She went into VIP, stabbed and killed August Culan then escaped to the bathroom to cghange her clothes and wash off the blood. But she thinks she's smart, so she leaves her bloody clothes in the purse that was found in the bathroom and took her ID and the knife. Since her purse handle had that rusty metal piece in the middle of it, they couldn't get the fingerprints off!"

I jumped up, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've found our murderer!" I throw Samuels card to the ground as Talie runs up and hugs me, "You did it! Yes! Addison Manners saves the day once again!" She exclaims with a smile.

We collapse on the floor and the carpet scratches against my back. In a fit of giggles, the both of us begin gasping for air, "Oh, god. Finally, I mean, that was probably the longest case yet." I chuckled and looked over at Talie who was lying down on her back, "Tell me about it..."

****

"Okay, I'll see you next week?" I ask, standing at the front door, leaning against it with my legs crossed.
"Yeah-" Talie begins, putting away the rest of the papers into a storage box,
"Alright, see ya loser." She smiles up at me and I roll my eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

I open the front door and yell, "Love ya!" As I turn to walk out, "Love you too!" Talie yells as I close the door behind me.
As I walk down the sidewalk with my backpack weighing me down, I slowly begin to realize just how boring this town is. Talie's all about excitement and adventure yet she lives in the lost boring and unenthusiastic neighborhood I've ever seen.

I hate to say it, but I can't wait to get back to my dorm room.

I approach my small green,  Cube and open the driver's door. I slide in, throw my backpack in the back, and close the door.

As soon as I turn my key, Queen begins to blast on the radio. I smile as I begin pulling out, looking over my shoulder, "Mama... ooooooou-" I sing along to the music and giggle at myself as I begin driving out of the small parking lot.