((Warning! Death in this chapter! Also, I'm very curious as to who you guys think the murderer is.
Connor leaned over the candlestick, gently picking the object up with a purple handkerchief he had found stashed in his suit pocket.
"So you just happened to find this secret passage?" Ms. Peacock said skeptically.
"Like I told you, I leaned on the statue and this passage just opened up." Jared told them from behind Connor, who seemed to be protectively standing in front of him. "The killer must have known about this passage and hidden the candlestick in here!"
"How do we know you're not the killer?" Ms. Peacock questioned, raising her eyebrow at Jared.
"If he had done it, wouldn't he have not shown us the passage?" Zoe snorted. From beside Zoe, Jared noticed Evan was giving him a distressed look.
"That's to fool us-" Ms. Peacock began, but Jared simply pushed past Connor and the rest of the group to get to Evan, who was panicking and hyperventilating now.
"We'll be right back." Jared dragged Evan away, exiting the passage through the study and going into one of the bedrooms so they could talk.
"What's wrong?" Jared asked, sitting the boy on the bed as he continued to breathe heavily.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry-" Evan gasped, a hand clinging to Jared's shirt.
"No need to be sorry, Evan." Jared sighed. "C'mon, just tell me what's up."
Evan looked up at him with big watery eyes, "I found something out, and then I realized something."
"Jesus Christ, just spit it out dude!" Jared said, exasperated.
"Sorry, sorry." Evan mumbled, hastily taking his hand back. "So, Ms. Peacock, or well, Alana, that's her real name, she told me-"
"Get to the point." Jared said bluntly, slightly wincing afterwards at his own sharpness.
"Well, uh, she told me her secret, and well, she's killed somebody before." Evan said quietly, fingers fiddling with the blanket on the bed. Jared pauses, inhaling sharply.
"She told you that." Jared whispered, leaning in so close his nose almost touched Evan's.
"Yes." Evan rasped, licking his lips slightly as he leaned in a little closer.
"We have to tell everyone." Jared pulled away, and Evan's face scrunched up. "We know who the murderer is now!"
"Wait-" Evan grabbed Jared's arm. "We don't know that for sure."
"I've heard enough to know that you haven't done it, the same with most of the others." Jared tried to shake Evan off his arm. "It must be her."
"No, Jared-" Evan held on tighter. "What if, what if you don't know everything-"
"What does that mean?" Jared demanded.
"Well, what if Connor isn't as good of a person as you think-"
"He is!" Jared shouted at the boy now. "He is! He's perfect and he loves me for who I am! He doesn't pity me and he treats me like I'm my own person! He's innocent!"
"Do you think that you just happened to end up here!" Evan yelled back. "You think you just showed up at a mansion and Mr. Boddy happened to just have your information! Connor knew about the party from the beginning!"
Jared paused, staring at Evan with bloodshot eyes, "Wait... how could you know his name?"
Evan gaped at him for a minute.
