My Spy 3: Murder Mayhem

Next Step

When we arrive at Ryan's house, he leads me into his kitchen where he dumps a messenger bag on the breakfast bar. I settle onto a barstool and he looks to me.

"What I am about to show you has to stay between us, Sawyer. No telling LulaBelle or Annabeth or anyone. Okay?"

I nod to him and he opens the flap of the bag. I watch as he pulls several files out and he stacks them neatly on top of the bar.

"I went through Poppy's laptop today," he says. "And I started looking for your guest lists, which I did find by the way."

My eyes widen with glee as he hands me a folder and I reply, "Yay! You're a lifesaver, Ryan."

I start going through the papers and he continues, "Yeah well, I started looking into other Historical Society files she had saved on there and I saw one that had accounting info on it."

He slides me another folder but he keeps his hand on top of it, preventing me from opening it. I look to him as he says, "I think you're right about Arthur being suspicious. I think Poppy thought so too and started investigating his accounting abilities."

He finally lifts his hand and I open the flap to the folder. There are probably fifty spreadsheets in the folder and they are all labeled by events and deposits. I notice all of Poppy's notes on the spreadsheet are in bright red ink so it's easy to follow along to her thought process. It looks like her spreadsheets go back at least four years and according to her red notes, there have been discrepancies in accounting dating further back than that. I look to Ryan and say, "If this is right, Arthur may have been skimming off the top of the Historical Society funds since Poppy took over the club."

Ryan nods I agreement.

"If these spreadsheets are true and accurate then yeah, I think that's what she was investigating."

"It makes sense," I say with a nod as my finger skims the spreadsheet. "Arthur told me my party planning budget was only $3,000 but according to Betty Samuels, the fundraiser raised enough to have a $5,000 budget. That, and he said there wasn't a dollar to spare because every penny had been spent. But according to Mrs. Hemming, there should have been around a $2,000 cushion because she donated all the money to cover the gardens."

Ryan's eyes narrow as he says, "You haven't been looking into this on your own have you, Miss Marple?"

I sit silently for a moment. I cringe as I say, "Would you believe me if I said I just kind of stumbled upon it?"

"Sawyer, I asked you not to play detective," he says sternly. He closes the lid to the folder and in protest, I reply, "All I did was try and get the donor lists. The whole budget stuff was just a part of that. I'm sorry. I didn't realize getting these lists was going to open a door to bigger problems."

He frowns.

"Well from now on, stay out of it. I'm only confiding this to you so you know to stay away from Arthur. No more asking anyone questions. I'm afraid if Arthur did have something to do with Poppy's death and he thinks you're putting things together, you might be at risk."

"It's his fault that I had to go on a mad hunt for those lists. If he would have just turned over his copy to me in the first place, then I wouldn't have had to make so many phone calls."

"Why didn't Arthur want to give you his donor lists? Why do you think he said he didn't have them?" Ryan asks and I shrug.

"I don't know. Maybe it proves how much was raised at the fundraiser and maybe his real numbers are higher than the rest of the society thinks was raised? That way he can pocket money and no one is the wiser."