The Boy Who Cried Murder

Chapter 5

Sandra hurriedly packed up her violin, and in her haste banged it against her chair, the strings unleashing an angry tone and startling her. She ignored the look from her conductor and made a mental note to tune it later. The bridge had moved, but at least nothing was permanently damaged. She was just itching to get out of there at last. The moment the conductor dismissed her at a quarter past eleven, she speed-walked out the door, swinging her violin at her side, headed in the direction of Will's house. When she got there, she marched up the front porch steps and rang the nearly broken doorbell, bouncing on her toes as she waited for someone to answer.

The door creaked open. It was Will's mother. "Oh, hello, Sandra, come on in. Will's upstairs in his room, he's been waiting for you." Just as she was finishing her sentence Sandra heard a door bang open and the red-haired boy came bolting down the stairs in two seconds. "Sandra!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Kim was being extra fussy today and made us replay the section until it was perfect. Orchestra practice just finished up a few minutes ago," she explained.

"Well, I'm glad you're here. Why don't we get some snacks and then I can show you what I've been working on!" he said. Sandra nodded enthusiastically.

A minute later, they were sitting cross-legged on Will's bedroom floor, both had their fingers covered in thick cheeto dust and cookie crumbs scattered around. Will dusted off the grime, then pulled a board out of his closet that was covered in cloth.

Sandra sat up straight. "Let's see it!" she said.

Will grinned and pulled the cloth off with a dramatic flourish. Underneath was a 4x5 foot piece of cork board covered in post-it notes, drawings, and locations marked on a map, all connected by red yarn. It looked exactly like something from the detective novels he always yammered on about.

"Alright, so here is all the information we know about the future victim, Leonard Watts. I've listed his date of birth, education record, current residence, and notable life accomplishments, especially the operation known as the Rinehart Project."

Sandra enjoyed seeing Will going into "detective mode," saying everything in that serious voice of his.

"Now what do we know about the Rinehart Project? It's a top secret government sponsored research project, led by Alan Vanover, that started in 1980 and was discontinued 1999 in for unknown reasons."

"I talked with my family, and Mallory thinks it shut down because of dangerous radiation or something," Sandra added, and Will jotted this down before continuing.

"And here I've made a list of all possible suspects, which isn't a lot. There's the mailman, who I don't believe is the culprit, but it's not a good idea to rule anyone out too hastily. The other suspect is the landlady, Ms. Rosenfeld."

"Her?" Sandra exclaimed, shocked. "But she was so nice! She made us tea!"

"Isn't it always the seemingly nice ones who have the darkest secrets?" Will pointed out.

"Says who?"

"Says every Trenchcoat Tucker book ever."

"Why would she kill Mr. Watts? Sure, she has the opportunity, and maybe the means," Sandra considered. "But she has no reason to want him dead!"

"We don't know what their relationship is really like," said Will. "Maybe she thinks he's a drain on her and is tired of taking care of him. Or maybe she's after his government secrets. Or maybe he insulted her tea."

Sandra wasn't convinced, but didn't want to prolong the argument. "What about the person I saw in the alley two nights ago? She had a pistol and seemed pretty suspicious."

Will agreed and added "mystery lady" to the list of suspects, then continued with his explanation of the clue board. "I've also transcribed, to the best of my ability, our conversation using the ouija board. I just wish we could have gotten a definitive answer on who the murderer is, but it just kept saying 'no'."

"I mean, as definitive as a Ouija board can be in the first place..." Sandra remarked.

"Whose ideas was that in the first place?" joked Will. "I have one more theory about this—yes, it's just a theory, but hear me out," Will explained. "Remember what Watts said about the project leader, Vanover, inexplicably living into his sixties? What if the Rinehart Project was working on a cure for his disease, or maybe something that could extend life past its normal bounds?"

Sandra just sat silently for a moment, considering this.

"I mean, it's probably not true, just a speculation, but you have to admit the puzzle pieces line up..." It wasn't often that Sandra saw Will get flustered like this.

"No, I think you might be onto something," she said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean it's completely possible. But right now we have to focus on what we can do to prevent Watts' death." Sandra glanced over the web of clues and red yarn on the corkboard once more. "According to what you sensed through the ouija board, he's supposed to die tonight. And right now it's just past noon. We can try investigating these suspects more, or looking for new ones, but our main goal has to be keeping Mr. Watts safe."

"Good idea. We'll follow him around, get some weapons, and be his own personal bodyguards! No murderer will—"

"No." Sandra cut Will off. "We have to go to the police. We're just a couple of kids, we can't handle this on our own!"

"But last time they didn't believe us," Will said. "They laughed at us."

"We'll make them believe us!" At Will's look of fear, she added, "I know you don't want people to know about your abilities, but this is a human life hanging in the balance!"

"I know. I know this is important, and if it was a matter of keeping my secret I'd tell them. But that's assuming that we could even make them listen. What solid, physical proof do we have? A shadow figure and a crazy guy obsessed with leprechauns."

Sandra hated to admit he was right. She had always put her trust in authority figures, but they were no help here.

"So, then, what can we do?" she said quietly.

"We can follow Mr. Watts and if something happens, then we can call the cops. It's not much, but it's the best plan I can think of."