The Case of the Circus Murder

XV

We began to recreate the crime, with Alexander, George, Lavinia, and Amelia stepped to one side, and me outside the tent. Daisy was sitting at the table, two teacups (well, crumpled paper) in front of her.

"Alexander, tell me when a new minute starts." she ordered.

"Okay... now!" said Alexander.

I entered the tent as soon as he said 'now' and sat down opposite Daisy.

"Okay." said Daisy. "Chat chat chat, blah blah blah. We talk about adult stuff like boring adults, come on Hazel, tell me some boring adult things."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Never mind." Daisy rolled her eyes. "I ask if I can borrow your knife to open a letter, you say yes, I take the knife."

She stood up.

"Stand up, and carve morse code into the knife. Look, I'll pretend to do that now so we get an accurate time."

We waited as she drew invisible lines, dots, and slashes into the air. Then, she walked back over and poked me hard in the arm three times.

"You're dead, Hazel." she hissed.

I fell over my seat, feeling dreadfully embarrassed, and then Daisy started to practically hop around the room.

"There, I'm packing everything away that might be important." then, she snapped, "Alexander, that is Collette. Record that."

She grabbed my arms and dragged me off of my chair. I squealed and found that Amelia, Lavinia, George, and Alexander were following us to see the recreation and I felt even more embarrassed.

"Goodness, Hazel, you are heavy." panted Daisy. "Okay, I throw you over the chair and quickly leave. Alexander!"

Alexander scribbled something down and then looked at us. "If Collette murdered Mr. Pierce, then she would have taken four minutes. If anyone else murdered Mr. Pierce, then they would've taken five minutes."

"That's unfair." I claimed. "If anyone else murderer Mr. Pierce in, say, six minutes, it would have had to have been Collette, because the show starts at eleven, which is five minutes after Mr. Pierce's first sighting.

"Hazel!" snapped Daisy. "If you please, cross out number five.

"Oh!" I nodded and took out my casebook.

PLAN OF ACTION

1̶. R̶e̶t̶u̶r̶n̶ t̶o̶ t̶h̶e̶ E̶s̶t̶a̶t̶i̶q̶u̶e̶ C̶i̶r̶c̶u̶s̶

2̶. A̶n̶n̶o̶u̶n̶c̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶ m̶u̶r̶d̶e̶r̶

3. Research Collette's tent

4. Research the ringmaster's tent

5̶. R̶e̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶ c̶r̶i̶m̶e̶

6. Solve the murder!

"I've just had a simply genius idea!" exclaimed Lavinia. 

"Nonsense, Assistant Temple!" exclaimed Daisy. "Only I can have genius ideas. Although Hazel and George are very close, and Amelia is working her way up."

I suddenly felt sorry for Lavinia and Alexander for being left out like that. What Daisy needs to understand is that they can have genius ideas too.

"What's your idea?" I asked Lavinia.

Lavinia simply smirked and approached the telephone.

"Goodness, a telephone!" I exclaimed. "How did I not notice that before?"