Diamonds In The Attic

Chapter Eight

I sat beside him and talked with him.

"I really miss her, grandpa. She was my best friend. I loved her." I told him. He looked at the ceiling and spoke.

"Friends come in all shapes and sizes. Souls only last for a lifetime. But friendships last an eternity." He said. I smiled after he said that. After I truly let the words sink into my core.

"Yeah...friends last forever." I said as tears fell but I wiped them away. "Can you do something for me?" I looked my grandpa in the eyes when I asked him. He answered me immediately.

"What?" He asked.

"Can you say 'Screw Rusty' for me?" I asked him.

"Screw Rusty." He said. I smiled.

"Yeah, screw him." I said.

"Siblings always get into fights and tussles." Grandpa said. "He'll come around." I looked at him and corrected him.

"Grandpa, Jake is my sibling. Rusty was a boyfriend who beat me up at a park." I told him.

"Oh." Grandpa said. "At a park....with everyone there? Odd." I nodded solemnly.

"Yes, how odd." I said and looked down and picked up a book that I had brought in from my room. A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. "Do you still like books, grandpa?" He nodded. "Ok, can I read this one to you?"

He looked over and saw the words on the book. I'm not sure if he could read the words or if he was just familiar with their shape. But I could tell he knew what the words said. The look in his eyes was magical. He smiled. I smiled and opened up the book and began to read it. He fell asleep after the first twenty pages.

~

At school, I was at my locker getting something for class when I noticed Rusty was coming my way. He stopped next to me and started to talk but I cut him off immediately.

"Get away from me, I want nothing to do with you." I told him sternly.

"I just want to apologize." Rusty said. "So-

"So what, Rusty? So you can get your reputation back? So you can get back on your throne in the football team? We're through." I told him. I was walking down the hallway, I had already shut my locker, and he decided to follow me, still trying to make peace with me.

"Please, just hear me out!" He yelled at me as he smacked his hand at the wall meer inches from my face. Just then, someone swooped in and held him up against the wall. Patrick Thomaston.

"You don't even try it, Rusty. You stay away from her or else I'll make problems for you. And it won't be just the football team you're not a part of. Do you understand me?" Patrick said sternly.

Rusty looked him in the eyes. I guess Rusty couldn't tell if Patrick was serious or not but he seemed to get the memo and agreed. Patrick moved away from Rusty and Rusty walked away angrily and sour. Patrick walked over to me to see if I was ok.

"Hey, are you alright?" Patrick asked. I nodded.

"I'm fine...thanks Patrick." I thanked him. He smiled.

"Sure." Patrick said. He looked around and saw the entire school seemed to be watching us. The school was pretty boring so any ounce of entertainment was greatly appreciated, much to our chagrin.

"Alright there's nothing to see so piss off!" Patrick yelled at the entire school watching us. Everyone went back to what they were doing before and we continued on with our day.

~

I was in the bedroom, reading more of Charles Dickens to my grandpa, when my mom walked in and told me there were some police officers at the front door wanting to speak to me. I got up and went to the door to see them.

There were two cops, both of them weren't scrawny but one of them was a little less bigger than the other. One of them had a moustache and the other had a freshly shaved face. The freshly shaven officer spoke to me.

"Hello, Ms. Mudgett. I am Officer Rick Emerson. You were a witness to a murder committed by a person by the name of Harold Ashfield. We would like you to come down to the station and see if you could recognize him in a line up." He said. I nodded and they took me to the police station.

We walked into the building and entered a room where in front of us was a large window. Behind the window was the line up room. The officer in the moustache radioed in for the suspects to walk into the room.

"Now they can't see me, right?" I asked the officers. Officer Emerson responded to me.

"Correct, we can see them but they can't see us." He said. I watched as the suspects walked into the room and to their respective place. They each held a sign with a number attached to them. There was at least five suspects. The moustache officer turned to me and spoke.

"Alright, do any of them look familiar?" He asked me. I took a good gander at each individual suspect and they didn't look familiar. I shook my head.

"No, they don't look familiar. Could you get them to....I don't know...speak or something. Could we hear them through the glass?" I asked the officers. Emerson nodded.

"Yeah. We can hear them but they can't hear us unless we turn the button on to speak to them. We can see them but they can't see us." He responded. "What would you like them to say?"

I travelled back to the time when Nicole got shot and tried to remember a particular phrase I remembered the killer saying. Finally, I remembered a quote; a horrendous one.

"After all, it is my birthday." I said. Moustache pushed the button and asked each suspect to say what I told them. Finally, after a few moments of hearing them speak...I heard the voice. It was exactly as I remembered it.

"That one...that one right there." I said. Emerson and Moustache looked at the one I noticed and then looked at me.

"Got him." Moustache said in a successful manner. A proud moment in his voice. Emerson turned to me and spoke.

"Now are you sure that was the one?" He asked me. I nodded.

"As sure as I'll ever be." I said. Emerson nodded. He then turned to Moustache and spoke.

"Randall, I'm going to drive Ms. Mudgett home. You got the rest?" He asked. Moustache, who I now knew as Randall nodded.

"Sure." He replied and with that, me and Emerson left. We got in the cop car and he drove me back to my house and I got out and thanked him for the ride. He looked at me and smiled.

"Ms. Mudgett, you take care, alright?" He told me. I nodded and told him I would. And with that, I made my way to the door. My mom opened it and looked at me and the cop car driving off. She looked suspicious.

"What was that all about?" She asked me. I looked back and smiled.

"Bringing justice to Nicole's name." I said and I went inside. Grandpa was fast asleep.