The Case of the Circus Murder

XVII

It was Lola. She looked angry, fierce, and slightly frightened, and at that moment, the look on her face matched with her dark hair made her resemble an older Lavinia.

"We- we found this on the floor." stammered Amelia. "We f-found it in the puddle but we could still read it. We were curious."

"Don't be silly." snapped Lola. "The note is soaked through. And I saw the little Chinese girl holding it."

I went red but I had more important things to think about.

"We know what you did!" exclaimed Daisy. 

"You have no proof!"

"So you were the lady I saw!" Alexander exclaimed suddenly. "In the Swann Hotel. You were arguing with Mr. Pierce."

"Nonsense!" snapped Lola agressively. "You can't prove anything."

"George heard it!" shouted Lavinia. "He can corroborate it, can't you, George?"

"I can." George nodded. "Alexander told me and I did hear shouting at the time he mentioned."

Lola glared at him. "Well, none of you. Nobody will ever listen to you. You are simply six worthless children and a - er - guardian. I could kill one of you and nobody would ever even notice that you were gone.

I stepped back at this level of threat and I saw Alexander do the same.

"Our guardian is actua-" Daisy began, infuriated, but I nudged her urgently to get her to stop.

"You are just silly little detectives playing a silly game." Lola spat. "You could never defeat me."

"We were very scared." said Amelia, her dark eyes wide and full of innocence. "But we managed to find it out."

"I suppose that you are looking for a confession." Lola said coldly. "Yes, I did kill Sean."

"Really?" I heard Lavinia mutter sarcastically.

"I killed Sean." Lola said again. "I had a good reason! Anyway, what are you going to do? Put me in handcuffs?"

"Exactly that." said Inspector Priestley promptly, grabbing Lola's arm. Lola yelped and Inspector Priestley put handcuffs on her.

"You're a policeman!" screamed Lola. "You, a policeman! Stupid, stupid policemen!"

"Of course he's a policeman." said George, shrugging. "What did you expect?"

"Inspector Priestley here isn't stupid." Daisy said.

"Be quiet, English Girl!" yelled Lola as if she wasn't English herself. "Now, I want to know how you figured it out! I demand it!"

"We should get the other suspects!" Daisy exclaimed quickly, and I knew what she was thinking - the denouement.

Once we had Collette, Maxwell, Il Mysterioso, Rustle, and Lola lined up (with Uncle Felix and Inspector Priestley watching), we began to explain the case.

"It started when I entered Mr. Pierce's tent." I explained. "I found his body slumped over the seat with a knife that was covered in blood on the table that he was sat at. The knife had some strange morse code on it."

"We knew that Il Mysterioso was innocent." Alexander added, just before Daisy could manage to jump in. "He was involved in our Orient Express case and was a nice man. So we ruled him out at our second meeting."

"We ruled out Maxwell as well. He was talking to my father about business from a time that Mr. Pierce was still alive to the beginning of the show, giving him an alibi." Amelia said. "He was - is - innocent."

"Collette was ruled out too." Daisy said quickly, getting her turn at last. "The only possible theory was that Collette put any suspicious books away. We checked all of her books, and all of them were good. We were unsure, but we ruled her out."

"We - Amelia - found a diary entry." said George. "Mr. Pierce's diary entry. It claimed that he had come up with an idea for an act that could possibly get Lola killed. We knew who it had to be - and that was proven when Lola came up behind us."

"A fantastic story." said Lola sarcastically.

"Lola, would you care to explain how you killed Mr. Sean Pierce?" asked Inspector Priestley.

"He came into my tent." began Lola. "I had invited him over for tea and had planned to poison the drink, but didn't have time. So I panicked. I let him, we drank and talked. Then, I asked to borrow his knife to open a letter. He agreed, so I went out of the tent and carved morse code into the knife. It read, 'the one to own shall be the one to die'. It was his knife and he would die because of it, so it made sense. I stabbed him, smashed his cup outside his own tent, and dragged his body to Collette's tent."

Collette gasped, astounded. "You moved his body to my tent!"

"And why, exactly, did you wish to frame this murder on Miss Collette?" asked Inspector Priestley, raising an eyebrow as the case unravelled.

"I didn't want to frame it on her." said Lola sulkily. "I couldn't just leave a body in my tent, could I? She has the nearest tent."

"You didn't have to perform in the deadly show." said Uncle Felix quietly. "You could have refused."

"I don't care!" shouted Lola. "He is dead now and that is that!"

"Okay, okay." Inspector Priestley nodded. "I will be taking her away now."

He dragged the shouting Lola away, leaving Daisy, Alexander, George, Lavinia, Amelia, Uncle Felix, Maxwell, the performers and I standing awkwardly together.

"Well, I must be off." Maxwell said stiffly, adjusting his black tie so that it was perfectly straight.

The performers nodded and rushed off after him.

Uncle Felix sighed. "Daisy, you have been involved in yet another case. You too, Hazel. Lavinia and Alexander, I believe this is your second, and George and Amelia, is this your first?"

"Yes." Amelia nodded.

Uncle Felix sighed sadly. "Well, welcome to the family."

We stood silently, and then Uncle Felix unexpectedly spoke. "Well done. You did very well."

"Thank you." we all said in unison, Daisy clearly as shocked as me.

"We should be off then." Uncle Felix said. "Alexander, your grandmother will be getting very worried about you and George, and Amelia, your father will be concerned about you."

"What about us?" asked Daisy, her eyes twinkling happily. "Will no one be worrying about us?"

"No, because your current guardian is standing right in front of you." said Uncle Felix. "We should be back at Fallingford tomorrow."

"No!" wailed Daisy. "I hate Falli- I mean, hooray. Who doesn't love Fallingford?"

Uncle Felix said nothing but gazed at Daisy sympathetically. "Come on." he said at last. "Let's go."

I will wrap up this casebook here, as I only have five or so pages left. I am now at Fallingford, finishing up this case. Daisy is currently reading one of the latest newspapers. Its headline is: MURDER AT THE CIRCUS. SCHOOLGIRLS SOLVE THEIR FIFTH CASE.