Lloyd walked along a path only seeing it by the dim moonlight. A warm Wyoming summer breeze blew through his dark hair.
Why does he hate me so much? he thought. My parents never treated me like that. Suddenly he heard the shuffling of the corn surrounding the path being pushed out of the way. Heavy footsteps stomped through the dirt. Thump, thump thump. Lloyd couldn’t see anything. Thump, thump, thump. As the mysterious person got closer, Lloyd felt his heart start to beat faster. Thump, thump, thump. He couldn’t go anywhere, the town was too far to run and get help. Thump, thump, thump. The man was in front of him, but it wasn’t one man. He saw the silhouette of two men, one tall and one almost his height.
“Now your money is mine boy. Kill him Jyrris.” Lloyd recognized that voice. But then he felt the pain of a knife being driven through his head. Then he felt nothing. Nothing at all.
Two Days Later
Lucas and Liz walked down the path. It was two days since Lloyd disappeared and no one found him yet. Liz had the idea to walk down Lloyd’s favorite spot; the trail.
As they walked down the path, they started to smell something. It smelled like when Liz’s chicken got hit by a car and was left on the road for a couple days. As they walked on the smell got worse. Soon it was so unbearable that they had to stop so Lucas could puke in the cornfield beside them. Liz started to keep going, but then she stopped.
“AAAAAAAH!” screamed Liz. The scream was so piercing that the crows hiding in the fields all flew away in terror.
There on the ground was a dead body, Lloyd’s body.
“What happened to him?” asked Liz. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“It looks like there was something driven through his head,” replied Lucas. “ Let’s go back and tell Detective Marlowe.”
The twins ran back to town wishing they could unsee what they just saw. Their best friend, the only one that could keep them from wanting to beg their parents to move back to New York, had just been found dead. Their quaint little farm in upstate New York was so peaceful. The beautiful falls and warm springs kept them occupied. But here in Wyoming, the summer was so hot they rarely wanted to go outside. The grass fields for the cows were too dry to feed them. Lloyd had always made them think on the bright side of living there. But now he was gone and they had no one to talk to.
They reached the front door of the town of Two Sleep’s detective agency. Detective Marlowe was the legal guardian of Lloyd and when the twins went to tell him, they were nervous about how he would react.
But they were surprised when he didn’t do anything but just sit there. He even had a slight grin in the co
rner of his pale face. Lucas didn’t think something was right.
“Go home and be with your parents. You must be very sad,” said Marlowe. “I’ll get started right away at searching for the culprit.”
“Go home and be with your parents. You must be very sad,” said Marlowe. “I’ll get started right away at searching for the culprit.”
“Shouldn’t you be mourning as well?” asked Lucas. “You were his guardian.”
“He wasn’t from my bloodline. Some people mourn in different ways.”
The twins went home and sat with their parents. It wasn’t long until they decided to just go to bed and sleep. They had a long day and Lucas wanted to think about what Marlowe had said. He’s not from my bloodline. Some people mourn in different ways. Something about that sentence didn’t sit well with him.
In the morning, Lucas ran over to Liz’s room. His mom had woke him up to tell him that Detective Marlowe had found Lloyd’s killer. Lucas asked his mom if he could tell Liz. So here he was.
“Liz! Liz! Wake up!”
“Wh- what?” Why are you getting me up so early?”
“Mom said that Marlowe arrested the killer.”
“Well, that’s good,” Liz said dryly. “Does Marlowe seem to be acting weird about the whole thing? I could have sworn I saw him smile when we told him that Lloyd was dead.”
“I agree. It also seems like it took him a short time to figure it out. I think we should talk to him today. Maybe see if he has any details he can tell us.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
Lucas and Liz walked to the detective’s office. There were some flowers lining the counter in front of the windows. Lucas walked in behind Liz and they saw the detective's briefcase sitting on his desk.
Marlowe walked out of the back room to his desk. When he saw the kids he quickly closed his briefcase and hid it in a large drawer in his desk. Then he sat down like nothing was wrong.
“What can I do for you two?”
“How were you able to find the killer?” asked Liz “I mean, we just found his body yesterday evening.”
“Well uh, the killer left fingerprints everywhere. He was very sloppy with his, uh, killing. Next time we-”
“Next time?” interrupted Lucas, “what do you mean next time?”
“Slip of the tongue. I was just talking to Mrs. Downfaller about the checkers game we had the other day. Next time, we need to play, uh, longer.”
“Oh I see,” said Lucas sarcastically. “What was the name of the killer.”
“His name was--” Marlowe paused. His face seemed to get a little paler than it usually is. “You kids seem to be very interested in my work? Why do you care so much?”
“Lloyd was our best friend.” said Liz “And we want to know why someone would kill him.”
“I don’t think that should matter to you. The investigation is complete and the killer has been arrested. Just leave well enough alone.”
The twins started to walk out of the office. Then Lucas stopped. He couldn’t stand it and he needed answers. “Marlowe, why don’t you tell the truth before the truth tells it for you.”
With that, the twins walked back to their house leaving Marlowe behind.
As he watched the twins walk away, Marlowe started to feel his hands getting sweaty. The kids knew something. Those bratty 17-year-olds thought Marlowe, they’re going to ruin the whole plan.
CRASH!
Marlowe heard the sound of all his boxes of papers falling over in the side room. “Jyrris,” he said to himself. Then he walked into the room and locked it behind him.
“What is wrong with you! Do you want the neighbors to hear you?”
“Marlowe, Marlowe, Marlowe. Just wait until the end of the week. You will ‘take me to the city prison,’ and the boy's money will be ours. All we have to do is wait for the lawyers to finish the paperwork and the boy's money will be ours!”
“Well Jyrris,” Marlowe retorted “It’s not that simple anymore.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, Lucas’ friends are onto something. I think they know I had something to do with the murder.”
“But nothing can be traced back to you. The boy is dead so he can’t say anything and you didn’t touch anything so no one is going to find your prints. Don’t get so worried or else someone is going to figure something out. Now, get back to your office and continue with your daily routine.”
“Marlowe is up to something.” said Lucas as he walked up the stairs to his room. “I think he was hiding something in his briefcase”
“He thinks he is deluding us from the truth of what happened, but he is dead wrong, I don’t trust him.”
“We need to get that briefcase and we are doing it tonight.”
That night, after everyone in town was asleep, the twins left for the detective agency.
“What are the odds that he actually left the briefcase in his office?” questioned Liz.
“The same odds that I know that he is a careless and felonious person that doesn't know how to murder someone and keep themselves from being caught.”
The twins grabbed the spare key hidden under the ceramic goat beside the door. They crept in and closed the door behind them. The room was dark and eerie. Moonlight seeped through the vertical blinds making the impression of prison bars on the dark blue carpet.
“In the top right desk drawer, I saw him put it there when we came in,” said Liz.
The twins slowly walked over to the desk trying not to make the floorboards creak. Lucas tried to open the drawer, but it didn’t open. Then they noticed the lock on the front of the drawer.
“We need to find that key,” Lucas said. “But quietly.”
They looked everywhere. Under the desk, in the unlocked desk drawers, under the pencil holders, under the , and on the bulletin board behind them. But they couldn’t find it anywhere.
Then Liz saw the card on the desk. It was a sympathy card from Mrs. Downfaller. The front of the card read “Sorry for your loss. Mourn the way you need to.”
“What if the key has something to do with that card?” she whispered, “Remember when he said some people mourn in different ways. And when he had his “slip of the tongue” he mentioned Mrs. Downfaller.”
Liz picked up the card and sure enough, there was the key taped to the back of it. They unlocked the drawer and opened the briefcase. Inside they found the case file, bills, and a document in an old looking envelope. They opened the envelope and found something strange.
Inside the envelope was a small piece of cardstock that said “Last Will and Testament” in fancy letters on the top. Underneath the header it said “Julia and John Appernathy.”
“Liz, do you know what this is? It’s Lloyd’s parent’s will!”
The twins read on and as they read they were more and more intrigued. They found something that they never knew before. Lloyd’s parents had money, lots of money.
“It says here that whoever is the guardian of Lucas gets the money if something were to happen to him so the parents knew that their money would be in good hands.”
“Well, I don’t think good hands is the way do describe Marlowe,” Liz said ignorantly.
There was a creak of a door opening. Liz and Lucas quickly slid the paper into the envelope and Liz stuck it in her pocket. They snuck back to the back room as Marlowe walked in the front door.
As the twins waited behind some filing cabinets, they couldn’t help but feel as though they weren’t the only ones in the room.
“Lucas,” whispered “I don’t think we’re-” Then Lucas heard the sound of muffled screams.
Just then, a hand wrapped around his mouth covering his face.
“You two are NOT going to ruin this!” said a scruffy voice.
Lucas heard something that sounded like bones cracking.
Then Lucas felt nothing. Nothing at all.
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