Take Your Final Bow

Chapter 8 - Noah Rackwood

Saturday 10th June, 4:00 pm

We climb the many stairs to Emily's attic. She folds down the ladder and she scrambles up it, eager to get the detective meeting started. I ascend the ladder slightly more slowly, and when I reach the stuffy, cramped space I stand up too quickly and bang my head hard on the ceiling.
'Ow!' I yell.
'Are you alright?'
'Your damn ceiling! You should really glue a cushion to that, or something.'
I rub the back of my head and sit down angrily. Emily sits down on Grace's old teddy bag, as usual, and the meeting begins. Emily slides her notebook out from under the bag she is sitting on and pulls a pencil from her pocket.
'Right. What are the facts of the case so far?'
'Um... Mrs McHamish is a druggie, and we know where she gets her stuff from, Isabel and Jack broke up before the play, someone caused the commotion, Jack called someone gay scum.'
'Brief and to-the-point. I like it. Now, what do we know about alibis?'
'Nick was in the commotion, as was Jack, and Kaitlin said she was with Mrs McHamish, who has no recollection of talking to her, though she is unreliable because she was high at the time. Isabel was unaccounted for during the time of the murder and so could have commited the crime, or could be hiding where she really was.'
'Very good.' says Emily, scribbling down her notes at lightning speed. 'Have we forgotten anything?'
'I don't think so.'
'Right. What else do we need? To-do list?'
'We need to catch her red-handed!'
'You're right. Let's go down to Frances Passage tonight.'
At that moment there is a knock on the little trapdoor and Emily's mum's head pops through.
'Hello Emily, Noah. Here are your cheese toasties. Fresh from the oven!'
Two cheese toasties are thrust through the gap and we take them eagerly. The delicious smell wafts to my nose and makes my mouth water. I didn't realise until now how hungry I am! Emily balances her notebook on her knee, cheese toastie poised for eating in one hand, pen in the other, frantically scribbling.
'Shall we write another suspect list?' she says through a mouthful of toastie, spraying with crumbs.
'Yes,' I say, wiping the crumbs off my face, 'I think we should. Or we could update the last one.'
'Nah, I'll just draw up another one.'
'Ok. That's probably easier anyway.'
Emily nods and jots down some more facts to go in the list later on.
'What are we going to do next?' I say.
'We should find out more about Isabel. Well, after we catch Mrs McHamish buying drugs.'
'How are we going to do that inconspicuously?' I ask, confused.
'We will go to the alleyway, and hide behind a bin or something. Then we can take pictures before jumping out and telling them they are under arrest!'
I give her a look.
'It doesn't really work like that, Emily. Two high school kids can't just go and arrest someone. That's what the police are for, and they might think it was us dealing the drugs. Though it wouldn't hurt if we did...'
'Noah!' Emily says sternly, before realising it was a joke and laughing. Her sense of humor is rubbish, it really is. 'Anyway, we don't want to get the police involved. Independence, remember?'
I shrug and reach for a notebook I have hidden under another bag of attic junk. I pull a pencil out of my pocket as well. Emily may enjoy writing, but I prefer to draw. For the next few minutes, we sit in silence. Emily writes out everything we know about the case so far in her book and I sketch her, paying attention to her keen eyes, her brow furrowed in concentration. I enjoy these quiet moments. It lets me arrange my thoughts a bit too, and I also get to draw, which is always a big bonus.
Emily finishes the Plan of Action with a flourish and passes it to me to proof-read.
'Have I missed anything?'
I scan the page.
'No, I think that's everything.'
'Alright then. This detective meeting is officially over, and I have finished my toastie. Do you want to text your dad?'
In about fifteen minutes, my dad arrives. By now we have come down from the attic (swiftly in Emily's case, painfully in mine), and are chatting idly about school in Emily's living room. I wave goodbye to her as my dad knocks on the door and I hop in Dad's car.
Later that evening, I am watching TV with my dad when a text flashes up on my phone. It is from Emily.

Meet me at the end of my drive at 9.15.

I smile to myself and show my dad the text. He agrees, and says I must be home by 10:30. I reply to Emily's text.

Kk will do. Dad says ok, as long as I'm home by half ten.

Suspect List:
Mrs McHamish
She was the props manager for the play and so had the most opportunity to switch the guns, though we have no firm evidence that she did or did not commit the crime because she was high at the time. Her drug dealer works from Ffrances passage, by Wilko

Kaitlin Foster
She is far too nice to murder someone, but if she did she is not showing any signs of guilt or regret, only grief, which leads us to believe it was not her, but she did have an opportunity, and still no alibi, because she said she was with Mrs McHamish but she was high and therefore unreliable.mention bruised arm

Isabel Bright
She had the perfect opportunity to commit the crime, and her motive is that she and Jack had just broken up, but we don't know why yet.

Callum Foster
Still not much on him, except for his opportunity, and he could have accessed a gun from his gang.

Nick Lockhart
He did not have an opportunity to commit the crime, as he was in the commotion, but he could've been an accomplice, causing the commotion as a distraction? He is in a Longcaster gang, but we don't know which one. He could have got a gun from his gang.

To-do list:

- Catch Mrs McHamish in the act of buying drugs from Callum's gang.
- Interview Isabel Bright about her break-up with Jack.
- Find out which gang Nick is in because this could lead to the source of the gun.
- Rule out Kaitlin (hopefully)
- Solve the case!