Asking for help
With the recent boil outbreak in town, Oliver’s boss had let him work from home and Stephanie called in sick. She hadn’t really come down with the festering illness, but it seemed a timely excuse for her continuing investigation.
She couldn’t explain why the thoughts of the murder had overcome her; after all, she never knew Mr. Evans. Her only explanation was that the packages and evidence had shaken her, and perhaps that this puzzle made her feel important for once in her life.
The only issue was that she was stuck.
She had a few pieces of evidence, though none were incriminating. She had hunches; however that isn’t something you can take to the police. She had Aydar on her side, but the two of them could only do so much. Maybe it was time for her to ask others for help, time for her to reach out instead of waiting for opportunities to come to her.
What she really needed was Dorothy’s camera. With the lack of evidence at the police station, she needed something tangible, something she could prove was connected to the murder. If Dorothy had taken the photos of her, she had to be involved with the packages. Maybe those links would lead her closer to the truth.
But how could she get Dorothy’s camera? It was almost always slung around the girl’s neck. Stephanie would have to take it overnight, when Dorothy was asleep. From Aydar’s and her observations, Dorothy turned out her bedroom lights around 11 each evening and woke up around 7. That gave them 8 hours. But could the two of them do it alone? Stephanie thought not. Plus, how would she explain her overnight rendezvous to Oliver? Especially when he’d already noticed her and Aydar’s budding friendship, if you could call it that.
There was only one solution. Oliver had to know. Oliver had to help.
She couldn’t explain why the thoughts of the murder had overcome her; after all, she never knew Mr. Evans. Her only explanation was that the packages and evidence had shaken her, and perhaps that this puzzle made her feel important for once in her life.
The only issue was that she was stuck.
She had a few pieces of evidence, though none were incriminating. She had hunches; however that isn’t something you can take to the police. She had Aydar on her side, but the two of them could only do so much. Maybe it was time for her to ask others for help, time for her to reach out instead of waiting for opportunities to come to her.
What she really needed was Dorothy’s camera. With the lack of evidence at the police station, she needed something tangible, something she could prove was connected to the murder. If Dorothy had taken the photos of her, she had to be involved with the packages. Maybe those links would lead her closer to the truth.
But how could she get Dorothy’s camera? It was almost always slung around the girl’s neck. Stephanie would have to take it overnight, when Dorothy was asleep. From Aydar’s and her observations, Dorothy turned out her bedroom lights around 11 each evening and woke up around 7. That gave them 8 hours. But could the two of them do it alone? Stephanie thought not. Plus, how would she explain her overnight rendezvous to Oliver? Especially when he’d already noticed her and Aydar’s budding friendship, if you could call it that.
There was only one solution. Oliver had to know. Oliver had to help.
“Oliver?” she called.
You are in my latest blog post:
ReplyDeleteBea sat in the mailroom, she had so far received five pamphlets from the man and woman hanging around the lobby of the Foxberry. Maybe she should start keeping a tally. The excessive amounts of pamphlets didn't seem odd on it's own, people who were giving out pamphlets were going to give out a lot of them, the odd thing was that they all had the same point on a list of actions circled..
5. Life forms - Realize that life isn’t limited to humans. Care for an animal, plant, or insect.
She supposed Ackeridge counted, but what "boils" would she be getting rid of? the only thing she could think of that was festering was Mr. Evans' murder investigation.
'Hah,' she thought, 'Maybe Ackeridge will solve the murder, save us all the trouble.' Then she was shaken from her thoughts as the mailroom door slammed open.
Stephanie Greene strode in.
"Hey, Stephanie. I've got some more of your mail in the back let me grab it for you before you take everything back upstairs." Bea got part of the way out of her chair before Stephanie Interrupted her.
"I'm not here for my mail. I want to know what you think you're doing meeting with Dorothy Rose all the time lately."
"Excuse me?"
"We're all trying to solve this murder and you're fraternizing with our number one suspect?"
"No of course we're trying to solve the murder, I brought up the idea that Dorothy might have something to do with it when Ack-, I found some more mentions of Roses in Mr. Evans' letters. But I haven't talked to Dorothy more than a polite hello when she gets her mail."
"Not at all?"
"Not at all." Bea was baffled, for lack of a better word. Why would anyone think she had been meeting with Dorothy? Unless Dorothy was going somewhere that looked like she could be meeting Bea while Bea wasn't actually there.
"Oh no." Bea got all the way out of her chair now.
"Oh no what?" Stephanie asked.
"You thought I was meeting her in here, right?"
"Yeah."
"She could have been stealing mail I was holding from Evans' pile. His whole case got stolen from the police station."
"Oh no."
Bea and Stephanie burst through the door into the back room, and opened the drawer where Bea had been keeping Evans' mail.
It was empty.