Only a month after Mallory's return, Adventure Bay is faced with a bigger problem. On her fourteenth birthday, Everest's birthday cake is injected with a lethal dose of Pentobarbital, and she is killed. But the thing is, is that the only ones at the...
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The death penalty. Chase was sentenced to death. On the first day of court. Now I had two weeks to prove him innocent or I would never see him again.
Everyone was celebrating when the news broke out when Chase was arrested, but now that he had been sentenced to death, no one said a word to each other. I was sorta glad that they were finally taking this seriously, even the killer, who was still one of the four remaining, not including me. Whoever did this was just going to let Chase take the fall. I had a bad feeling they wouldn't stop until all of us were dead.
"Alright pups," Ryder hung his head. "Let's go home."
I slept in Chase's pup house again. It smelled like him, and it was comforting, like he was still here with me. I stared up at Officer Bear on the wall. It made me smile a little. I remembered how he was so protective of it, yet he still insisted he was too mature for it. I sighed. Maybe he wouldn't mind. I grabbed it, and held it tight. "I won't let you go,"I whispered to it like I was talking to Chase. "I promise."
I awoke to a sharp knocking on Chase's pup house door. I slid it open reluctantly, and I saw Marshall. Whenever I see his, I think of what happened, and how I could have prevented all this. But I couldn't shut myself away from him because he was my only hope. The only one willing to help me fix my mistake.
"Rise and shine, sleepy head. We've got a mystery to solve." He announced. "That's a bold statement, seeing as we have no evidence and nowhere to start." I rolled my eyes. "Not a morning person, I see. Well, you're gonna have to-why are you holding Officer Bear?" Shit. "Umm, I was uhh, dusting him!" I pretended to scrape off some dust that didn't exist. Marshall tried to cross his arms, but it didn't really work out. "Whatever you say." He rolled his eyes at me. I realized my excuse was bullshit and he saw right through me, making me really uncomfortable. I guess I know how Chase felt when he made terrible excuses when he was crushing on me.
How do I get past him? I thought as I wolfed down my first meal in fourth-eight hours. Marshall and I needed to plug the flash drive into Ryder's computer so we could see what Chase had figured out. But the problem was, we couldn't really sneak upstairs until he was really out of the way, because we would look pretty suspicious. With every minute that passed, my curiosity grew. He said it was a head start. Of course he knew. Chase would always be the first to figure out stuff like that. Maybe it was about the car crash. I think that was when the cake was poisoned. I tried to remember who cut the cake, but the picture was blurry. The memory was fading. All I know is that it was either Jake or Ryder, and that was something that had to be looked into.
I heard the elevator doors open, and Jake limped out. "You sure you're ready to go home?" Ryder asked. "I'm sure." Jake responded, a little annoyed. This was it. If Ryder went with Jake, we could sneak upstairs. "I'll drive you back." Ryder insisted. I look over quickly at Marshall and our eyes met. He nodded.
As soon as Ryder and Jake left for the mountain, Marshall rused back to Chase's pup house to grab the flash drive. He came back within seconds. "Let's go."
We didn't really know if there was a computer so this was a flawed plan. I was internally crossing my non-existent fingers. If there wasn't a computer in Ryder's room, it was back to ground zero.
The elevator doors slid open on the top floor, but the doors were blocked by Zuma. "What are you guys doing up here?" He asked. "Solving a mystery." I spat. I did not plan on talking to anyone celebrating the downfall of Chase. "Well don't go looking too far," A small grin appeared on Zuma's face. "You might be afraid of what you'll find." He walked right by us and into the elevator. "What the fuck?" I muttered as soon as the elevator doors were closed. I didn't let that distract me though, I was on a mission. The most important mission of my life.
I barged into Ryder's room, and scanned the area. Nothing in plain sight. I swung open the closet doors. Nothing. I checked in the drawer of his bedside table.. There it was. An HP laptop. "Here!" I called to Marshall. I lifted the screen and pushed the flash drive into the hole in the computer. Nothing happened. The computer screen only displayed the time (8:46 AM) and had a picture of us in adventure city. "Click the keypad," Marshall said. "Or at least that's what I think it's called." I clicked what he had pointed at, and a bar that said "password." popped up. "What would Ryder's password be?" I asked, asif Marshall would know. "Chase is his favorite, try 'Chase'." I frowned. I knew it was the truth, but I wanted to believe that Ryder didn't pick favorites. I typed 'Chase' into the password bar, and it unlocked. Damn.
Something popped up on the screen as soon as I unlocked the computer. Although I had no idea what it meant.
"It's Morse code." Marshall muttered, in awe. "How the fuck would you know that?" I almost yelled. "Relax, I know what you're thinking, but I promise I didn't have anything to do with this. I'm on your side." I wasn't sure what to believe anymore. "Come on, let's get out of here."
But we didn't get far. As we were leaving, I spotted another message on the big screen.
You won't get away with this. You better stop snooping or you'll be the next ones to turn up ded.
I was scared, until I realized he spelled "Dead" wrong. Who does this guy think he is? I thought back to the message I saw on the computer. "We need a way to decide the message." I said, firmly, as if that was going to make Marshall figure it out faster. "I know," he jumped in excitement. "I know who can help us."
"Why should I help you?" Harold Humdinger looked over us, his arms crossed. We had met on the beach, and he seemed angry that his daily routine had been interrupted by us. "I'll pay you five hundred dollars." I said flatly. "You strike a good bargain. May I have a look at the message?" I handed him the flash drive. He plugged it into his laptop. "Oh, it's just Morse code. That's easy." I had had enough of this kid. "What does it say?!" I demanded. "Nuh-Uh," He waved his bony little finger at me. "First, money." I grunted, and handed him the cash I had stolen from Ryder. "Now, WHAT DOES IT SAY!" He ran his hands along the cash I had just given him.
