MURDER IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH BY VIV DREWA AND KAREN VAUGHAN

SIGHTINGS!

Chief Rogers sat behind his desk wondering what this Halloween was going to be like. He was glad Devil's Night was fairly quiet, except for a few teens who would sneak out after curfew and TP some homes. Usually the teachers they didn't like or who gave them bad grades.

Last year one of the patrols caught four teen boys in the process of T.P.-ing the high school principal's home. They were brought in and put in the jail for the night.

"Now you boys behave and you'll be out in the morning, otherwise, you'll stay here until Sunday," Chief Rogers told them. "I'm going to call your parents and let them know where you are."

As the chief walked to his office one of the boys, Ricky Corrillo, yelled out, "You better let us out right now!"

"You keep it down, Ricky," the chief yelled back but Ricky kept on. The chief walked back to the cells shaking his head. "I told you if you don't behave all four of you will be in here until Sunday."

Ricky fumed and was about to say something but Paul Freede pulled him back. "Shut up Ricky, I wanna go home tomorrow morning."

Paul was a good boy, really, but somehow got tangled up with Ricky. Eric Sullivan and Sam Meisner weren't what you'd call good boys, but they were a far cry from Ricky. They both turned on Ricky and gave him dirty looks. Ricky finally calmed down and the chief headed back to his office.

Those boys were something else the chief thought and wondered if they were going to get into trouble again this year. They were all juniors in the local high school but still at that age to get into mischief.

Cypress Valley was a small town of maybe 5,000 people so it was cozy for the chief. In his 30 plus years, there hadn't been any murders, rapes, few robberies and jaywalking. He shook his head at the jaywalking and Mrs. Whitherspoon, who always called in that she saw one. He suspected she must be 100 years old but was spry as a hen. And now with cell phones, she could call from anywhere, right when it happened. He couldn't help smiling to himself at the thought.

Just as he was going to start some paperwork Matilda Sizemore rushed in and went right past the two deputies to the chief's office. Chief Rogers didn't even have to look up to know it was her. She always had that spicy scent about her.

"Chief, they're at it again, only this year it's worse," she said frantically.

"What happened Matilda?"

"They didn't just steal my pumpkins they broke a bunch of 'em too!"

He looked at her and saw how upset she was. After all her pumpkin were a favorite with people because of their unusual size. "Did you see anyone this time?"

"No, just some weird lights. By the time I went outside they was gone," she said and sat heavily in the chair across from his desk. She was a pretty woman with long brown hair and big brown eyes, and he wondered why she never married. He didn't like that the town would talk about her being a descendent of the Sizemore witches.

The Sizemore witches' tale goes back to the 1800's. It was told that they kidnapped babies and planted them in their pumpkin patch to help their pumpkins grow so big. Since no babies were missing from the town the it was said they traveled to other towns to get them. They also attributed this to Matilda but investigations into the allegations proved she had no children planted in her pumpkin patch. The town folk still thought she did.

"Weird lights huh? Maybe it was from fog lights on the tops of trucks. You know the ones they use for hunting at night?"

"No this was different Chief! It was from a ship. Like a UFO or something like it," Matilda insisted she was correct.