The Shadow

Investigating

That afternoon i sat on my bed skimming through the diary. The first page of the diary read: This diary belongs to- Dakota Swan, age-4. If she had not written 'age-4' i would not have guessed that she was a kid. The handwriting was pretty good for a 4-year old and so were the other contents of the diary. All it had were sketches and all of them pretty mature for a 4-year old to have drawn. The sketches were all beautiful and buoyant until i reached the middle page which made me gulp and my eyes protrude. That page onwards the sketches were an immature version of the paintings in the basement. The last sketch in that diary was unfamiliar to me and it showed the possible killer, holding a knife. The face of the killer wasn't clear enough since it was just a mere sketch, even though by a very talented 4 year old.

Next I went through the album. There were photos of whom i guessed to be the previous owners of this house. It was a family of four, just like ours. A mother, a father, a boy who looked like he was in his late teens and a little girl whom i guessed to be little Dakota Swan. The age difference between Dakota and the boy was abnormally large for them to be siblings, so i figured that he must have been her young uncle. The only question that remained was that in what way was the dead girl involved with them and the the answer to that question did not take long enough to come up. The last photo in that album showed all four of them along with the victim standing in front of this house. She was standing behind Dakota, and from her clothes i could tell that she must have been her nanny or a maid.

My next mission was to track down Dakota. I sprang out of my bed and made for Leo's room. He was lying in the bed with his headphones on and eyes closed. i couldn't tell if he was sleeping so i did not bother to disturb him. i grabbed his laptop to google this Dakota Swan. Thanks to my brother he had a password for his laptop. I smacked his shoulders and yelled at him to wake him up, but all in vain. Then the brat inside me revealed itself, and i took his i-pod and changed the sweet beethoven song he was listening to, to a loud song by my favourite rock band. That seemed to do the work since a punch landed on my back right away. "Can't you wake someone up like a normal person" he yelled. I replied laughing, "I tried, you wouldn't wake up.. anyway what's your password?" "I'm not gonna tell you.." saying this he typed the password himself. "whatever.." I said and got working.

Soon as I typed the name results came up. It turned out that she was a pretty famous artist and she was just in college. Apparently, she went to the same college that my brother went to. That made everything a whole lot easier. I kept the laptop aside and fluttered my eyes with a puppy dog face in front of him. He looked at me dubiously and said, "I'm not gonna do it." 

I said innocently, "I haven't even asked you anything yet."
"I know that look.... Its only for when you need me to do something.."
"Just listen to what i have to say first," I pleaded.
"I'm positive that its gonna be something that i'm never gonna want to do.. so just drop it.."
He was just about to leave, when i said, "Do you happen to know a Dakota Swan in your college?" "yes... why?"
"well she and her family used to live here before us, almost ten ago... The paintings in the basement....."
"she made them didn't she?"
"Yes... I found her diary from when she was 4... " I told him the whole thing that i had found out and even the thing that had happened that night by the lake. "Leo, i need you to ask her...." "Impossible..." he interrupted "She's like the most popular girl on campus what makes you think she's gonna want to stop to talk to me?" 

"Ow that's the problem.. You're shy to talk to a girl.." I stated.

"well that's one way of saying it..." He said.

"Come on why wouldn't she talk to you... there's nothing wrong with you, apart from the obvious that only i can see... " I said.

He squinted his eyes and said,"I can't talk to her and it's final.."

"fine then i'll talk," I suggested.

"what?? no.."

"you don't have to tell her that i'm your sister.. i'll go with you to college tomorrow it starts before my school anyway i can easily, talk to her and still make it to school in time,"I reasoned.

"Fine..." he grimaced.

"really??"

"yes"

"yes yes yes.... you're the best.." i danced out of his room.