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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Mystery
- Subject: Mystery
- Published: 12/08/2023
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I suppose that the day was nice outside, at least that’s what Theo told me. Yet, I ignored his pleas begging me to step outside, as I wanted to perfect my latest trick.
“Oh, come on, Katherine!” He whined. “You can’t be cooped up in here all day.” Rolling my eyes, I turned to look at him and with a serious expression said,
“Theo, I am always cooped up in all the tricks I perform. This isn’t unusual for me.” I paused momentarily, “Make sure to get me a slice of cake while you’re out.” Theo groaned, yet he admitted defeat and headed out without me.
It was a seemingly dull day, nobody was coming inside the shop, so I could peacefully practice. Our shop is a little special you see, Theo and I have a magic shop, where you can buy anything a magician needs. We hold the occasional performance outside the shop, to keep the people entertained. I knew Theo would be disappointed because of the lack of people in the shop today, yet I didn’t mind. I found it tedious and tiring having to talk with people (other than Theo) for too long. Today was a Thursday, before the busy days of the weekend, when children filled the shop.
I was trying to unwrap myself from my stunt, which involved tying a string to both my hands and my legs, when I suddenly heard the small chime of the bell go off. I waited momentarily, hoping it was just Theo, yet it didn’t seem that way. Sighing, I wiggled myself out of the strings and headed to the front of the store. A man with a dark coat stood in front of me, his face hooded by a hat, he had a mysterious aura about him.
“Hello…?” I started hesitantly, why on earth was there a “mysterious man” in the shop? “Is there anything that you are looking for today?” With that, the man turned towards me, his raven eyes looking at me.
“Do you have a straightjacket?” the man asked, in a harsh tone. I stared at him. Why would he need a straightjacket? People didn’t ask for that, and well… straight jackets were usually for people who were insane. Carefully, I nodded and headed to a corner in a shop, and looked through some boxes, moving some things. Eventually, I found what he was looking for and handed it to him, he examined it for a couple of moments, checking how tight the locks could go. “Do you have anything that could go tighter? This one isn’t as tight as I need it to be.” Well…this could quickly be an uncomfortable conversation and I didn’t want a customer to yell at me today, I wasn’t good at handling them.
“Sir, I’m afraid that that’s as tight as these things can go, we have to ensure the safety of the person who uses the—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself, miss. I can make the adjustments myself, it will just take longer than I expected.” He cut off. I sighed in relief, thank goodness he didn’t want to argue with me. I led him to the velvet counter, and with the glossy wooden register, he paid for the straightjacket and as soon as he came, he was gone.
Around half an hour later, the bell chimed again, and I saw Theo enter the shop. We are both twins, so, naturally, we resemble each other. We both have hair with an ash-blonde color, with tall thin figures, (unfortunately, Theo is much taller than me.) Our eyes are a blue color, with light green specks in the center of our eyes. My mood instantly lightened when I saw my brother. Finally, I didn’t have to deal with annoying or strange customer requests. I looked behind him to see a figure entering the room. When I could see him clearly, I instantly recognized who he was.
Detective Rochefort, the city’s top detective. Rumor has it that he has never had a case that he can’t solve. He beats all sorts of criminals, and with his help, we can all rest at night. The detective happened to be a good friend of our parents, and when they passed away, he helped us get our lives back in order. He had his classic tan coat behind him, with a beige vest, and ivory dress shirt and pants, a classic detective outfit.
“Good afternoon Katherine!” Detective Rochefort said. I smiled at him and gave him a small wave. “I saw Theo while out on my walk today, so I figured I would join him. How has the store been doing?”
“Business has been booming lately,” Theo started to say. Oh boy, he could talk for hours about this. “Ever since we started doing the performances outside the shop, we have been attracting quite the crowd. The weekends are full of children inside the shop, it’s pretty nice to see.” Before he could continue talking, I stopped him.
“Theo, did you bring me a slice of cake?” He nodded and showed me a full box of cake. “Perfect, we can enjoy some cake and tea, would you like some Detective Rochefort?” Before he could answer, I went to the kitchen and got out a cup of tea and some plates, and we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the delicious dessert.
Soon, the sunset approached us and the night came. I went to sleep soundly that night, oblivious and unaware of everything that would happen tomorrow. Soon morning arose, and it was Friday, a busy day at the shop and Theo seemed to be having a bit of a dilemma.
“The rope we use to hang those boxes” Theo pointed to some display boxes hanging through the shop. “It’s getting really weak, I’m afraid the ropes might break soon.” He said with a concerned voice. I examined the boxes and attempted to pull one of them, and with a loud thud, the box fell on the floor.
“Well, we don’t want them to fall on the children’s heads, the least we need is a lawsuit,” I told him sternly. An idea popped into my mind. “You know, we do have some time to go get some rope at the hardware shop…maybe we should go?” Theo nodded, and we swiftly grabbed the keys, put the shop in a temporary close, and headed off to get some rope.
We passed through the parks until we came across a small bridge crossing a small creek. The scent was disgusting, though, not how this place usually smelled. Nausea rolled through me as we approached the bridge.
“Katherine, are you alright?” asked Theo while covering his nose. I weakly nodded and gave him a thumbs up, I just really had to get out of here. “Maybe we should check what’s causing this. It isn’t normal.” I gave him a look of warning, I didn’t want to get into any unwanted trouble, and that’s exactly what he was doing. After some persistence, I was persuaded by him, and we headed towards the bottom of the bridge. The sewage in here was disgusting, and the old cobblestone from the bridge was mossy and was slowly chipping away. And that is where we saw it, an old decaying dead body floating on the water.
As soon as I saw the body, I went behind Theo, and using the wall for support, I threw up. I hated looking at disgusting things, and the smells combined with a decaying body were not something pleasant. “What on Earth is that doing here?” Theo mumbled as I kept my head behind him, grabbing onto his shoulders for some support. I somehow managed to get another peek at it, and I saw gold pieces of metal glittering. Using Theo’s arm as my support, I leaned closer to the body, my blood ran cold. The straightjacket, the one I sold to the “mystery man” yesterday, was on this dead man. I heard some rustling and became alert. At that moment, we saw Rochefort emerge from the side of the bridge, accompanied by five police officers, staring at us. My eyes seemed to widen, and I stared at him.
“Put your hands up in the air, you have the right to remain silent.” Detective Rochefort said in a sharp tone. Theo and I exchanged concerned glances and slowly lifted our hands.
“This isn’t what it looks like, you know we would never do something like this—” I said, trying to explain.
“I said that you had to be quiet,” The detective said with a low voice, then mumbling he said, “I never thought you two would do such a thing.” With that, two police officers grabbed my hands and with a swift move, two silver handcuffs were at my wrists. He led us to a rickety old carriage, shoved us both into it, and we headed off to the police station. My legs kept shaking, anxious about what would happen next, what we had worked so hard for, could it all be destroyed because of something false? With a small voice, I whispered,
“Theo, what will happen now? Rochefort would never send us to prison…right?” Theo simply stayed quiet, numb to my words. I could sense that he was worried about everything that we had worked for. The room felt suffocating and solemn, and I wrapped my arm around my brother, trying to find some peace in this nightmare.
Some time passed, and we got to the station. They put us in a temporary cell, while Theo attempted to demand for answers, yet he received nothing. I paced around the room, pulling at my hair, thinking of all possibilities. Where would we go? What would happen? I didn’t know anything. After a while, a young man with curly hair approached us. He had a clipboard and his badge shone.
“Why are we here?! We’re innocent!” Theo said in desperation.
“You will receive answers, don’t fret. We have a trial scheduled for you tomorrow, Detective Rochefort will be your prosecution. Both of you must defend yourselves” Wait what? Why was Detective Rochefort going against us? I thought. He had been a good friend of our late parents and practically raised us. Something was up, and I had to get to the bottom of this. Soon, the young policeman left, leaving me and Theo in the cell, and we had to come up with a way to win this trial.
“The bridge reeked of something disgusting, it wasn’t normal. Something was off about that place.” I began, “Now what I am confused about is the detective. Why would he turn against us? Is this because of his duties, or does he have a hate for us?”
“We need to get to the bottom of both of those things, Katherine, I have a plan,” Theo said in an urgent voice. I leaned closer, I knew that this meant whispering. “It’s simple, since you are a master of escapes, you need to leave this place in the dead of night. Head to the bridge, and try to find anything that can help us. If you can’t then run away from the city.”
“What?! Are you suggesting that I leave you here?” I said nearly screaming. I couldn’t abandon my brother, he was the only person in my family I had left. Theo rolled his eyes, somehow finding this humoring.
“Of course not, I would find a way to catch up with you. Do we have a plan?” He asked, placing his hand out while smirking. I nodded and shook his hand.
The dead of the night arrived, and the pale moonlight shone from a small window in our cell. In my corset, I found a small embedded hidden pocket and found my trusty picklock. I approached the door of my cell, and after a couple of tries, I opened the cell. I looked at Theo for one last time and headed off to the bridge. Not only that, but I was light on my feet, which meant that I was quick to arrive at the bridge, one which had caused way too many problems. Some smell from earlier still lingered, and using my sharp nose, I followed the scent to arrive at the bottom of the bridge. Yet instead of stopping, I continued until I found a manhole. The scent was especially strong here. Stepping around to make sure there weren’t any traps, I took a deep breath and opened the cover. I found some stairs by the side of the wall and carefully headed down.
The place reeked of sewage, and it was dark inside. Echoes of water dripping could be heard throughout the entire place. On my tiptoes, I continued until I arrived at what seemed to be the main room. There were a ton of plans and a map of the whole city with marked locations. I began to investigate, trying to find something that could be of use. This was connected to my case. Some loud footsteps seemed to approach my location, and I quickly scrambled to hide inside a box. I searched through my hidden pocket and found a small knife, and made a hole so that I could hear what happened outside the box.
“Our plans are going smoothly, those twins are arrested now. Soon they will both find themselves with life sentences. I will make sure that they both end in separate prisons across the country” Said the man in a hearty tone. Wait, I recognize the voice, I thought. I tried to rack my brain for answers. The mystery man! I knew he was suspicious yet why would he go so far to harm us? Who was he?
“Their parents should have never made my life so miserable.” He sighed and grabbed a pipe for smoking. He inhaled a few times, and heavy smoke escaped his mouth. “Then they wouldn’t have to have been killed.” My eyes widened, and I dropped the knife I was holding. This man…killed my parents? I thought. No, surely they did not die because of an accident, right? “What was that noise?” The man asked in a gruff voice.
“Probably a rat, sir,” said the man who was next to him. “Come on, let’s get some sleep, tomorrow will be a festive day, and we need energy.” Both of the men headed out of the main room. My heart began to run quickly, this could prove our innocence, yet at what cost? Our parents live? I wanted to cry, scream, and throw a chair at somebody, yet I couldn’t do it now. I grabbed some papers on the table, hoping to find some evidence, and headed out of the lair, I had to tell Theo everything.
Theo was shocked by the news, yet this gave him a new desire. We had to win this for ourselves and our parents. That morning, we arrived at the courtroom, and we tried to look polished. Theo had a suit on, his signature magician’s hat with a long navy coat behind him. I wore a dress with a pink and blue ruffle skirt, which poofed the skirt up. The dress had a black sleeve (kind of like a dress shirt) look with a puffy blue, black, and purple part near my shoulders. I had my signature corset showing at the front of my dress. It was time for our trial to begin.
“Well, I will start,” commanded Detective Rochefort. “Foremost, the body that was found in the water had a straightjacket, sourced from your magic shop. How would you explain that?” It was my turn to speak now.
“Well, detective, three days ago a suspicious man came to our shop demanding to buy a straightjacket. He muttered some things about it not being tight enough. Yet, I wasn’t aware that this man would kill somebody with it.” I took a deep breath. “Also, how exactly did you know that we would be under the bridge with that body at that moment?”
Well… I… uhh,” Detective Rochefort was at a loss for words. It was our turn to go.
“After all, there was some weird smell on the bridge, which came from a strange manhole. Katherine did some investigations and she caught this.” Theo said. He pulled a small device out of his coat, and the words that the mystery man said began to echo through the coat. So, he had attached that to me. Chaos began to form inside, especially at the mention of our parents. The judge called for order and Theo continued, “You wouldn’t have anything to do with this detective…right? It may be me, or that voice sounds a lot like you.” Everybody began to whisper in agreement, I looked at Rochefort with piercing eyes, and in desperation, he screamed out!
“You can’t think it’s me, right?!” He started. People began to chant, hoping he would confess. “It’s not my fault their parents cut contact with me after I couldn’t pay them back! I lost my financial support, they deserve to be dead. I’m glad I killed them! Their children deserve to be in prison as well, that’s why I frame them” My jaw went low, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. He murdered my parents, what on Earth?! Not to mention, he was the mystery man. Tears began to formulate in our eyes, how could he betray us like that?! I grabbed Theo’s hand and stormed out of the courtroom, not wanting to see this man ever again. We shared a look of agreement and left.
The judge ordered that he be arrested for his crimes, and the next thing we knew we were the talk of the town. Heroes, for suppressing a man who everybody believed to be good. Theo and I accepted this, after all, it brought a great reputation for us. On a rare non-busy day, I sat down with Theo and said
“Maybe getting framed for murder wasn’t such a bad thing, I don’t think I have ever been able to enjoy such fine cakes.” He laughed and we both relaxed in our newfound happiness.
Murder, Magic and Secrets(Valeria)
I suppose that the day was nice outside, at least that’s what Theo told me. Yet, I ignored his pleas begging me to step outside, as I wanted to perfect my latest trick.
“Oh, come on, Katherine!” He whined. “You can’t be cooped up in here all day.” Rolling my eyes, I turned to look at him and with a serious expression said,
“Theo, I am always cooped up in all the tricks I perform. This isn’t unusual for me.” I paused momentarily, “Make sure to get me a slice of cake while you’re out.” Theo groaned, yet he admitted defeat and headed out without me.
It was a seemingly dull day, nobody was coming inside the shop, so I could peacefully practice. Our shop is a little special you see, Theo and I have a magic shop, where you can buy anything a magician needs. We hold the occasional performance outside the shop, to keep the people entertained. I knew Theo would be disappointed because of the lack of people in the shop today, yet I didn’t mind. I found it tedious and tiring having to talk with people (other than Theo) for too long. Today was a Thursday, before the busy days of the weekend, when children filled the shop.
I was trying to unwrap myself from my stunt, which involved tying a string to both my hands and my legs, when I suddenly heard the small chime of the bell go off. I waited momentarily, hoping it was just Theo, yet it didn’t seem that way. Sighing, I wiggled myself out of the strings and headed to the front of the store. A man with a dark coat stood in front of me, his face hooded by a hat, he had a mysterious aura about him.
“Hello…?” I started hesitantly, why on earth was there a “mysterious man” in the shop? “Is there anything that you are looking for today?” With that, the man turned towards me, his raven eyes looking at me.
“Do you have a straightjacket?” the man asked, in a harsh tone. I stared at him. Why would he need a straightjacket? People didn’t ask for that, and well… straight jackets were usually for people who were insane. Carefully, I nodded and headed to a corner in a shop, and looked through some boxes, moving some things. Eventually, I found what he was looking for and handed it to him, he examined it for a couple of moments, checking how tight the locks could go. “Do you have anything that could go tighter? This one isn’t as tight as I need it to be.” Well…this could quickly be an uncomfortable conversation and I didn’t want a customer to yell at me today, I wasn’t good at handling them.
“Sir, I’m afraid that that’s as tight as these things can go, we have to ensure the safety of the person who uses the—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself, miss. I can make the adjustments myself, it will just take longer than I expected.” He cut off. I sighed in relief, thank goodness he didn’t want to argue with me. I led him to the velvet counter, and with the glossy wooden register, he paid for the straightjacket and as soon as he came, he was gone.
Around half an hour later, the bell chimed again, and I saw Theo enter the shop. We are both twins, so, naturally, we resemble each other. We both have hair with an ash-blonde color, with tall thin figures, (unfortunately, Theo is much taller than me.) Our eyes are a blue color, with light green specks in the center of our eyes. My mood instantly lightened when I saw my brother. Finally, I didn’t have to deal with annoying or strange customer requests. I looked behind him to see a figure entering the room. When I could see him clearly, I instantly recognized who he was.
Detective Rochefort, the city’s top detective. Rumor has it that he has never had a case that he can’t solve. He beats all sorts of criminals, and with his help, we can all rest at night. The detective happened to be a good friend of our parents, and when they passed away, he helped us get our lives back in order. He had his classic tan coat behind him, with a beige vest, and ivory dress shirt and pants, a classic detective outfit.
“Good afternoon Katherine!” Detective Rochefort said. I smiled at him and gave him a small wave. “I saw Theo while out on my walk today, so I figured I would join him. How has the store been doing?”
“Business has been booming lately,” Theo started to say. Oh boy, he could talk for hours about this. “Ever since we started doing the performances outside the shop, we have been attracting quite the crowd. The weekends are full of children inside the shop, it’s pretty nice to see.” Before he could continue talking, I stopped him.
“Theo, did you bring me a slice of cake?” He nodded and showed me a full box of cake. “Perfect, we can enjoy some cake and tea, would you like some Detective Rochefort?” Before he could answer, I went to the kitchen and got out a cup of tea and some plates, and we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the delicious dessert.
Soon, the sunset approached us and the night came. I went to sleep soundly that night, oblivious and unaware of everything that would happen tomorrow. Soon morning arose, and it was Friday, a busy day at the shop and Theo seemed to be having a bit of a dilemma.
“The rope we use to hang those boxes” Theo pointed to some display boxes hanging through the shop. “It’s getting really weak, I’m afraid the ropes might break soon.” He said with a concerned voice. I examined the boxes and attempted to pull one of them, and with a loud thud, the box fell on the floor.
“Well, we don’t want them to fall on the children’s heads, the least we need is a lawsuit,” I told him sternly. An idea popped into my mind. “You know, we do have some time to go get some rope at the hardware shop…maybe we should go?” Theo nodded, and we swiftly grabbed the keys, put the shop in a temporary close, and headed off to get some rope.
We passed through the parks until we came across a small bridge crossing a small creek. The scent was disgusting, though, not how this place usually smelled. Nausea rolled through me as we approached the bridge.
“Katherine, are you alright?” asked Theo while covering his nose. I weakly nodded and gave him a thumbs up, I just really had to get out of here. “Maybe we should check what’s causing this. It isn’t normal.” I gave him a look of warning, I didn’t want to get into any unwanted trouble, and that’s exactly what he was doing. After some persistence, I was persuaded by him, and we headed towards the bottom of the bridge. The sewage in here was disgusting, and the old cobblestone from the bridge was mossy and was slowly chipping away. And that is where we saw it, an old decaying dead body floating on the water.
As soon as I saw the body, I went behind Theo, and using the wall for support, I threw up. I hated looking at disgusting things, and the smells combined with a decaying body were not something pleasant. “What on Earth is that doing here?” Theo mumbled as I kept my head behind him, grabbing onto his shoulders for some support. I somehow managed to get another peek at it, and I saw gold pieces of metal glittering. Using Theo’s arm as my support, I leaned closer to the body, my blood ran cold. The straightjacket, the one I sold to the “mystery man” yesterday, was on this dead man. I heard some rustling and became alert. At that moment, we saw Rochefort emerge from the side of the bridge, accompanied by five police officers, staring at us. My eyes seemed to widen, and I stared at him.
“Put your hands up in the air, you have the right to remain silent.” Detective Rochefort said in a sharp tone. Theo and I exchanged concerned glances and slowly lifted our hands.
“This isn’t what it looks like, you know we would never do something like this—” I said, trying to explain.
“I said that you had to be quiet,” The detective said with a low voice, then mumbling he said, “I never thought you two would do such a thing.” With that, two police officers grabbed my hands and with a swift move, two silver handcuffs were at my wrists. He led us to a rickety old carriage, shoved us both into it, and we headed off to the police station. My legs kept shaking, anxious about what would happen next, what we had worked so hard for, could it all be destroyed because of something false? With a small voice, I whispered,
“Theo, what will happen now? Rochefort would never send us to prison…right?” Theo simply stayed quiet, numb to my words. I could sense that he was worried about everything that we had worked for. The room felt suffocating and solemn, and I wrapped my arm around my brother, trying to find some peace in this nightmare.
Some time passed, and we got to the station. They put us in a temporary cell, while Theo attempted to demand for answers, yet he received nothing. I paced around the room, pulling at my hair, thinking of all possibilities. Where would we go? What would happen? I didn’t know anything. After a while, a young man with curly hair approached us. He had a clipboard and his badge shone.
“Why are we here?! We’re innocent!” Theo said in desperation.
“You will receive answers, don’t fret. We have a trial scheduled for you tomorrow, Detective Rochefort will be your prosecution. Both of you must defend yourselves” Wait what? Why was Detective Rochefort going against us? I thought. He had been a good friend of our late parents and practically raised us. Something was up, and I had to get to the bottom of this. Soon, the young policeman left, leaving me and Theo in the cell, and we had to come up with a way to win this trial.
“The bridge reeked of something disgusting, it wasn’t normal. Something was off about that place.” I began, “Now what I am confused about is the detective. Why would he turn against us? Is this because of his duties, or does he have a hate for us?”
“We need to get to the bottom of both of those things, Katherine, I have a plan,” Theo said in an urgent voice. I leaned closer, I knew that this meant whispering. “It’s simple, since you are a master of escapes, you need to leave this place in the dead of night. Head to the bridge, and try to find anything that can help us. If you can’t then run away from the city.”
“What?! Are you suggesting that I leave you here?” I said nearly screaming. I couldn’t abandon my brother, he was the only person in my family I had left. Theo rolled his eyes, somehow finding this humoring.
“Of course not, I would find a way to catch up with you. Do we have a plan?” He asked, placing his hand out while smirking. I nodded and shook his hand.
The dead of the night arrived, and the pale moonlight shone from a small window in our cell. In my corset, I found a small embedded hidden pocket and found my trusty picklock. I approached the door of my cell, and after a couple of tries, I opened the cell. I looked at Theo for one last time and headed off to the bridge. Not only that, but I was light on my feet, which meant that I was quick to arrive at the bridge, one which had caused way too many problems. Some smell from earlier still lingered, and using my sharp nose, I followed the scent to arrive at the bottom of the bridge. Yet instead of stopping, I continued until I found a manhole. The scent was especially strong here. Stepping around to make sure there weren’t any traps, I took a deep breath and opened the cover. I found some stairs by the side of the wall and carefully headed down.
The place reeked of sewage, and it was dark inside. Echoes of water dripping could be heard throughout the entire place. On my tiptoes, I continued until I arrived at what seemed to be the main room. There were a ton of plans and a map of the whole city with marked locations. I began to investigate, trying to find something that could be of use. This was connected to my case. Some loud footsteps seemed to approach my location, and I quickly scrambled to hide inside a box. I searched through my hidden pocket and found a small knife, and made a hole so that I could hear what happened outside the box.
“Our plans are going smoothly, those twins are arrested now. Soon they will both find themselves with life sentences. I will make sure that they both end in separate prisons across the country” Said the man in a hearty tone. Wait, I recognize the voice, I thought. I tried to rack my brain for answers. The mystery man! I knew he was suspicious yet why would he go so far to harm us? Who was he?
“Their parents should have never made my life so miserable.” He sighed and grabbed a pipe for smoking. He inhaled a few times, and heavy smoke escaped his mouth. “Then they wouldn’t have to have been killed.” My eyes widened, and I dropped the knife I was holding. This man…killed my parents? I thought. No, surely they did not die because of an accident, right? “What was that noise?” The man asked in a gruff voice.
“Probably a rat, sir,” said the man who was next to him. “Come on, let’s get some sleep, tomorrow will be a festive day, and we need energy.” Both of the men headed out of the main room. My heart began to run quickly, this could prove our innocence, yet at what cost? Our parents live? I wanted to cry, scream, and throw a chair at somebody, yet I couldn’t do it now. I grabbed some papers on the table, hoping to find some evidence, and headed out of the lair, I had to tell Theo everything.
Theo was shocked by the news, yet this gave him a new desire. We had to win this for ourselves and our parents. That morning, we arrived at the courtroom, and we tried to look polished. Theo had a suit on, his signature magician’s hat with a long navy coat behind him. I wore a dress with a pink and blue ruffle skirt, which poofed the skirt up. The dress had a black sleeve (kind of like a dress shirt) look with a puffy blue, black, and purple part near my shoulders. I had my signature corset showing at the front of my dress. It was time for our trial to begin.
“Well, I will start,” commanded Detective Rochefort. “Foremost, the body that was found in the water had a straightjacket, sourced from your magic shop. How would you explain that?” It was my turn to speak now.
“Well, detective, three days ago a suspicious man came to our shop demanding to buy a straightjacket. He muttered some things about it not being tight enough. Yet, I wasn’t aware that this man would kill somebody with it.” I took a deep breath. “Also, how exactly did you know that we would be under the bridge with that body at that moment?”
Well… I… uhh,” Detective Rochefort was at a loss for words. It was our turn to go.
“After all, there was some weird smell on the bridge, which came from a strange manhole. Katherine did some investigations and she caught this.” Theo said. He pulled a small device out of his coat, and the words that the mystery man said began to echo through the coat. So, he had attached that to me. Chaos began to form inside, especially at the mention of our parents. The judge called for order and Theo continued, “You wouldn’t have anything to do with this detective…right? It may be me, or that voice sounds a lot like you.” Everybody began to whisper in agreement, I looked at Rochefort with piercing eyes, and in desperation, he screamed out!
“You can’t think it’s me, right?!” He started. People began to chant, hoping he would confess. “It’s not my fault their parents cut contact with me after I couldn’t pay them back! I lost my financial support, they deserve to be dead. I’m glad I killed them! Their children deserve to be in prison as well, that’s why I frame them” My jaw went low, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. He murdered my parents, what on Earth?! Not to mention, he was the mystery man. Tears began to formulate in our eyes, how could he betray us like that?! I grabbed Theo’s hand and stormed out of the courtroom, not wanting to see this man ever again. We shared a look of agreement and left.
The judge ordered that he be arrested for his crimes, and the next thing we knew we were the talk of the town. Heroes, for suppressing a man who everybody believed to be good. Theo and I accepted this, after all, it brought a great reputation for us. On a rare non-busy day, I sat down with Theo and said
“Maybe getting framed for murder wasn’t such a bad thing, I don’t think I have ever been able to enjoy such fine cakes.” He laughed and we both relaxed in our newfound happiness.
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Shelly Garrod
12/09/2023Very interesting story Valeria. Well written. Flowed nicely. Enjoyed it.
Blessings Shelly
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