I gape at Marissa. "No. No, you can't be. You can't!"
She simpers. "But yes, we are siblings. I lived in England until very recently, but then Richard had me move here so we could put our plan into action. You're not very observant, are you? I lived just two streets away from you! I saw you working in the garden at times. I can't believe how much of a fool you are."
I am utterly speechless. Marissa just sits there, with a smug little smile on her face.
"Wait. Wait – you said that he disposed of his wife. Charlotte died of a heart attack! What are you talking about?"
Her smile widens. "Aha, another surprise revelation." She was clearly having a lot of fun. "No, her death was not at all accidental. Richard informed her of his incredible plan, and she disapproved. She thought it was outrageous, and threatened to finally divorce him, because it was an arranged marriage, you know, but Richard was having none of it. It wouldn't do to have someone who knew about the plan and was against it in the house. That night, Richard injected her with poison in her neck, in a very discreet fashion. The next day, he buried her in the yard, without any sort of funeral, wrote her name on a rock for a gravestone, planted it in the ground, and told you she had died of a heart attack. Come on, you were nine and thirteen, you think you would have questioned it?"
I can't say anything. I physically can't. My jaw drops. Marissa cackles.
"Enough said. Now, where are the chains? Basement... right... I'll just nip down there, lock you in the cupboard for safekeeping, while I'm not here?"
I nod, dazed. I did not take in any of what she just said – if I had, I would have been frantic and panicky. But what I had just seen made me much less so.
While Marissa had been revealing some of the most important bits of the case to me, and telling me that Richard Grayson had murdered Charlotte, I had seen something. Someone, to be precise.
Maddie was outside, slowly inching across another big branch of the tree, one that led almost exactly into Marissa's window. Marissa, of course, had not noticed her, or she would have probably wrenched open the window, screamed at Maddie – probably even pushed her off the branch. I shudder at the thought of that. Marissa was staring right at me, and besides, she had her back somewhat to the window.
I make eye-contact with Maddie so she knows I had seen her. She continues to slither up the branch on her stomach like a serpent and stops next to the window. Marissa is still staring at me, flouncing her skirt, and enjoying taunting me.
"I'll have to go fetch the key to the cupboard, won't I? Where did I put it again?" Marissa starts rifling through the mess in her room with one hand, the other still gripping my forearm. She's not paying attention to me anymore.
I look back out the window at Maddie. Suddenly, I am baffled. She has begun to make bizarre hand gestures – first, she points to her neck, and then she points at Marissa.
"Not over here... not over there..." Marissa is still searching frantically for the key.
Maddie continued to make the peculiar hand gestures – she pointed to her neck, and then at Marissa. Neck, Marissa. Neck, Marissa. What was she trying to communicate?
"Well, seeing as I can't find the key to the closet, I'll just have to take you down into the basement with me, I can just chain you up right away, down there. Yes, that's a good plan. It'll be a nice little adventure, won't it? Just like the ridiculous little books I saw lying around when I came to your house? You want to be just like characters in your little fictional stories, don't you? Solve sweet little mysteries, like you're so clever? You'll soon find out that not every story has a happy ending."
Neck, Marissa. Neck, Marissa.
Suddenly, I understand.
I look at Marissa's neck. Sure enough, my suspicions are confirmed.
There was a thin silver chain around her neck, tucked into her black and white striped shirt. Even though I can't see the pendant, I recognize it to be the sapphire necklace.
We had found it.
I look back at Maddie and give her a little nod, one that was too conspicuous for Marissa to notice, to tell her I understand. Then I look at Marissa, my face contorted into an expression of pure anger. It was time to get revenge.
"Actually, Marissa Grayson, that's where you're wrong."
It all happens in a matter of seconds, or so it seems. I hastily unlatch the window and Maddie jumps off from the branch, through the window, and her feet slam right into Marissa's hip as she tumbles onto the floor of her room. We all hear a crack as Marissa falls to the ground, crying out. I stand there, surprised, but Maddie is quicker to react and, unblinkingly, snatches the silver chain off from Marissa's neck. Sure enough, it is the sapphire necklace. She stuffs it in her pocket, and I, catching on, dash to the bathroom and take the chest of jewels from under the floorboards. I can hear Marissa's shouts of "You little... UGH!" and "You haven't escaped yet!" issuing from the bedroom as we run down the hall. I hear Marissa chuck her high heels to the side and stumble to her feet. I hear her wobbling down the stairs as fast as she can with a fractured hip. I watch her as Maddie pushes open the door and we take off down the road, Marissa limping behind us, barefoot, cursing.
If you had driven down Rosewood Avenue at 11:42 AM that Monday, you would have seen two teenage girls sprinting down the road, with an insane-looking fashionista bleeding all over her model clothing staggering behind them. You would probably have blinked to check if you were hallucinating, and then realized it was real, and driven off as fast as you could have. Or maybe you would have come out of your car to tend to the lady, or question the fleeing girls. But none of that did occur.
We dash towards our house at top speed, clutching the jewels. Marissa is still hobbling behind us, but far behind – her hip is very injured, thanks to Maddie's good eye and her quick thinking.
As we run, I quickly confide in Maddie all that Marissa had revealed to me.
"Marissa told me many things about the mystery," I begin. Marissa herself is too far behind to hear anything. "Clearly she thought I wouldn't live to tell the tale."
"What? What did she tell you?" Maddie asks eagerly.
"Where to begin?" And I start telling Maddie everything. That Marissa hadn't been there to 'make new friends in the neighborhood'. That she wasn't the real 'mastermind' of the operation.
Maddie gasps when I tell her the latter. "It's not just her?" she asks. "Who is it, then?"
I look over at Maddie as we jog. I observe her flushed cheeks and her lopsided glasses. Then I realize – Maddie had saved my life. If it hadn't been for her, I would have been chained up in the basement by now, and Richard Grayson would have been on a boat to America, to kill me.
Without Maddie, all would be lost.
"You're never going to believe me when I tell you," I warn her.
"Who? Who is it?"
I stare right into her emerald-green eyes.
"Earl Grayson," I say sadly, shaking my head.
"No! I won't believe it! I won't!" Maddie exclaims. "How is that possible?"
I sigh. "Do you remember, last year, when Marissa came for the first time? She said she was there to make new friends in the neighborhood. But really, all she wanted to do was take the jewels out of the secret compartment in our bags that the Earl had hidden them in. He used us to smuggle the jewels to America."
Maddie's eyes are widening at my every word. "Go on," she urges me.
I take a deep breath. It's hard to talk so much when you're running as fast as you can. "Earl Grayson is a guard at Buckingham Palace. He stayed after hours to nick the jewels. Marissa was sure he would have thrown us out of his house before if it wasn't for their plan. They're criminals, both of them. The Earl's wickedness wasn't just out of spite. It was because he was a miscreant, a terrible miscreant, and I wish we could send them both to a prison – no – a penitentiary! For life! That's what they deserve!" I shout the last bit, pumping my fist into the air.
"This is unbelievable. I would never have thought it could be the Earl! It does make sense, though, he's very wicked. That time he didn't let you eat any supper because you had dropped a fork on the floor? And when he used to duct tape our mouths?" Maddie looks pained, having to recall the days when we were both so miserable.
I stare at my feet as we continue to run for our lives. "That's not all."
"Not all? What do you mean?"
"The Earl and Marissa have a special relationship. They're not just partners in crime," I tell her.
"D'you mean... Marissa's secretly dating him and Oscar is just a scam?"
"No. It's more than that," I say woefully. "Marissa and Richard are brother and sister. The Grayson siblings." I look at Maddie, my expression lachrymose. "Her name is Marissa Grayson."
Maddie opens her mouth to react, but she's interrupted by someone. Marissa, to be exact. We had just about forgotten the limping figure failing to chase us, even though she was the main subject of our conversation.
"OI! ELIZABETH! WHAT D'YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TELL MADELEINE! I ONLY TOLD YOU BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T GOING TO LAST LONGER THAN A WEEK! COME BACK HERE, OR YOU'LL REGRET IT!" Marissa makes a rather rude hand gesture at us, which I obstinately ignore.
"Unfortunately for you, Marissa, we have the advantage here. Madeleine here" – I laughed – "managed to fracture your hip, and we have all the jewels. So sucks to be you – we're out of your grasp now." I grin, pleased with myself.
"You – little – come back – you'll pay – argh..."
Marissa's leg is bleeding rather unpleasantly now. She's panting like mad, clutching her leg, but she pursues. She looks quite scary, a dark red stain quickly spreading all over her skirt.
"We need to run faster," Maddie tells me. I nod. We both take deep breaths and pummel forwards at top speed, dashing towards our house. I don't think I've ever run this fast in my life. When we finally arrive, I fiddle with the spare key and hastily twist it in the lock. Maddie wrenches the door open and dashes inside, but before I follow, I glance at the bleeding miscreant stumbling towards our door in terrible pain, cursing at the top of her lungs. She keels over, panting, and addresses me one last time.
"I will get you, Elizabeth. You can count on that."
I grin. "No, you won't. Goodbye, Marissa Grayson. It was awful knowing you."
And I slam the door shut and lock it behind me, leaving Marissa and her bleeding leg behind.
"One more thing you must know... and you're not going to like it."
"What, because everything else was good news?" Maddie says sarcastically.
I sighed. "Really."
"Go on then, what is it?"
"Richard killed Charlotte. Because she didn't like the sound of the jewel theft." There. The worst was said.
"WHAT?" she screamed.
I put my hands up in protest. "I know! I know, Maddie. I know."
"How?"
"Poison. You know how he buried her and we never saw the body?"
"I can't believe this. I won't." Maddie said quietly.
"Believe it. Because it's true."
We both looked at the ground for a few minutes.
"Right. Where should we hide them?" Maddie asks me. I knew she was referring to the jewels, ending the conversation there.
"The attic," I say. "That would be funny."
And so we hide them in the attic. I carefully slip the sapphire necklace back into the chest along with the other jewels. "Goodbye, jewels. For now."
That afternoon, after Uncle comes home from work to find us innocently sitting on the sofa, Maddie and I are reading as usual. Uncle is reading as well, except he's not reading mystery novels – he's reading a dreadfully dull book entitled Slicing Carrots: The Complicated Art of Chopping Vegetables. I roll my eyes. He appears to be engrossed in this mundane piece of literature – if you could call it literature. I suppose you really can't.
Marissa's words from yesterday, about how I just wanted to be like my book characters, had had an impact on me. I suppose they were true in a way, but they had somewhat put me off reading last night when I was supposed to be sleeping, like I often do. But it didn't matter what Marissa said. We had won.
Uncle looks up from his carrot book. "Girls? I got you tickets to go to the cinema down the road. It begins at precisely three thirty. I don't suppose you've been to the cinema before, have you?"
I sigh. "No, we haven't, the Earl never took us." I distinctly look at Maddie while saying this. We're both thinking the same thing – we had just found out that the Earl is far crueler than we ever could have imagined.
Uncle sighs too. "I should've known. Well, you'll enjoy it. It's basically a huge television that everyone goes to see in a dark room called a theater. They'll be showing the news. You know, the news," he adds, having caught my bewildered look. "What's going on in the world, and things like that? I can't believe you don't know what a simple thing like the news is. Didn't Grayson ever read a newspaper?"
Maddie nods. "Yes, but we've never watched television, let alone a huge public one."
It sounds rather interesting. "Are you going to come with us? Or are we going alone?" I inquire.
Uncle exhales rather loudly and puts down his dull book. "No, but I wish I could. I have a load of work to do." He runs his fingers through his shaggy hair and sighs once again. Uncle recently revealed to us that he was something called an accountant, which was an incredibly boring job that involved figuring out people's financial problems, or something like that. "But I got you tickets. I thought you might want to see it, but if that's not the case..." He trails off, looking incredibly forlorn.
"No, no, of course we want to go," says Maddie, trying to comfort him. He smiles a bit and turns back to his book. "Well, that's settled then. Dress in some nice clothes, and I'll walk you over there."
"Race you upstairs!" I shout. "Ready – set – GO!" And we take off at top speed, climbing the stairs as fast as we can. Maddie arrives in the bedroom what seems like a millisecond before me.
"I win!" she squeals. We both pounce on the beds, rolling around and laughing like mad. Then I sit up, suddenly serious.
"Maddie, you know what you said about it always being me who advanced in the mystery?"
She sits up too and looks at me. "Yes, I do. Why are you bringing it up?"
"Well, earlier today – that was really clever of you, you know. Noticing the necklace, fracturing her hip... making her bleed like that... without you, I would still be there, as Marissa's helpless victim."
Maddie's staring at me, misty-eyed. "Thank you."
"Maddie, you saved my life. You know that, right?"
She takes my hands in hers and looks right into my gray eyes.
"Really?"
"Yes, Maddie, you did. She was just about to chain me up in the basement and... and make the Earl come and deal with me himself. And... and she said... what did she say again? Oh yes... she said that once the Earl was dealing with me, it would make the conversation between me and her seem like a chat between friends. Which was a heavy comparison – the conversation involved death threats and things like that." I look down at my stripy socks. "I understood your elaborate hand motions about the necklace just in time. Not to mention the fact that you noticed the bowl of boiled sweets in the first place, and you made up that story about the purple coat in an instant..." I look back at her. "You really are a detective, Maddie."
Maddie looks at me for a while in silence, still holding both my hands. I stare back down at my blue socks, blushing. Then, to my surprise, Maddie folds me into an embrace. We sit there hugging for almost two minutes. An unwanted, unexpected tear trickles down my cheek onto Maddie's cashmere top. I hastily wipe it away.
Eventually, we break away, staring into each other's eyes for some reason.
"I'm not really a detective," she tells me, "but you are. You were fabulous. You stayed strong while Marissa was threatening you," (Not really, I add to myself), "you found the chest in the bathroom, you found the jewels in the sweet bowl, you opened the window and absolutely caught Marissa by surprise, and when we were making our escape, you were the one who ran to the bathroom and took the jewels back."
I roll my eyes, blushing, breaking the serious moment.
"First of all, I could barely speak when she had me cornered, and when I did speak, I stuttered like mad. And you're the one who noticed the necklace and grabbed it off of her neck. I seriously could not have done it without you. I didn't do anything to save you, you're the one who saved me."
"Not true," Maddie says. "You distracted Marissa when she found you in the cupboard, so that I could climb back up the tree."
I raise my eyebrows, laughing. "Right," I say, "I definitely saved you in that circumstance."
Maddie is giggling now. We hug again, both laughing, more tears – tears of laughter – running down our faces.
Uncle ruins the moment by shouting upstairs. "Girls? Are you almost ready? We have to leave soon, it's a quarter past three!"
Maddie and I snap out of our reverie and dash to the closet we share, randomly pulling articles of clothing out of it.
"But really, Maddie – you fractured her hip! That's wicked! I mean, it's a serious injury... but she deserved it, the way she had treated us." I yank off my top and pull another one on.
"She really did," Maddie agrees. She laughs again. We dash back downstairs to join Uncle, who really hadn't bothered to dress nicely. He wasn't even wearing his signature tweed jacket.
"Shall we go, then?" Uncle says, smiling at us.
"Yes, let's."
We go out the door and get in the car. Uncle drives us the short distance to the cinema, called Eisenhower Cinemas, presumably after the current president of the United States, President Eisenhower (I wish a woman could be president for once. Josie says there's never been one, which is ridiculous). It is a big red building with people filing in and out of it. We get out of the car. Maddie and I stare at the building in wonder.
"Well, have fun!" Uncle says. "I'll be back to pick you up at about half past five. It's three twenty-eight now, it's just about to begin. Hurry along!" He turns back to the car and speeds away, leaving us with our tickets in front of Eisenhower Cinemas.
"Should... should we just go inside, then?" Maddie asks me.
"S'pose we should." We get in line to go into the cinema. When we get to the front of the line, a grumpy woman greets us. She reminds me vaguely of Seth, the waiter at Root Beer Fizzle.
"Welcome to Eisenhower Cinemas. May I see your tickets please?" Maddie holds out our tickets. "Thank you," the woman says. She tore the tickets in half and dropped one half in a little bin. Then she gave the other halves back to us. "Down the hall and to the right, please."
We went down the hall and to the right. There was a long hall that led into a dark room with sloping seats. A huge screen was in front of the sloping array of seats. People were sitting in the seats, looking at the screen expectantly. The screen was currently off, but I was sure it would be turned on soon.
Maddie leads the way into the row of seats. People stand up as we walk in front of them and take our seats in the middle of the theater.
"It'll start any minute," Maddie says.
And sure enough, it did. It was amazing. The screen fuzzed for a moment, and then it looked like an image of real life, but it couldn't've been there, in front of us, because Queen Elizabeth was on the screen, and Queen Elizabeth was in England, not Long Island, New York. It looked exactly like real life, except there weren't any colors. It was all in black and white.
"Wow!" I said. "This is amazing! I never thought television would be like this."
"Me neither," said Maddie.
"Uncle said that it was going to be the news," I said. "Maybe something is going on in England that they're going to tell us about."
I was right. Suddenly, a voice started talking. It came from the huge television. And it was talking about something very, very familiar.
"Jewels meant for Queen Elizabeth's coronation, to take place on June 2nd, have been stolen. They were going to be a gift from her sister, Princess Margaret Rose. The jewels were in a red chest, and Princess Margaret says there was a note from Prince Phillip inside of it. Among the jewels were amethyst bracelets, peridot rings, garnets, emeralds, and a particularly expensive sapphire necklace."
Maddie and I gasp. First of all, June 2nd was my thirteenth birthday, and apparently, it was to be the same day as the coronation.
Second of all – America knew about the jewel theft. Marissa had been wrong. America would eventually find out, and now, they had. And there was the probability that policemen would come to search houses. Would they search our house? Would Uncle be accused? Would we be allowed to explain?
The image on the screen had changed to show the chest of jewels with all the jewels that were currently in our attic. The sapphire necklace was there, in black and white like everything else.
"Elizabeth, we should go. We need to go to the police and tell them that we know where the jewels are, how they came to be in America, give them names, and tell them all the information we have. We can probably show them the jewels later."
"But..." I protested, "I want to watch the television! Isn't it amazing? And didn't we say that we were going to solve the mystery ourselves?"
"Yes... it is amazing... but this is urgent. We have to prove we've solved the mystery, and catch Marissa off guard. And we have a chance to get revenge on Richard Grayson." She smiles maliciously.
"Oh... all right then. I suppose it will be rather satisfying."
Maddie clasps my hand and leads me out of the auditorium, to the annoyance of many people, for we were rather blocking the view. I was sad to have to cut our cinema experience short, but we desperately needed to get the mystery out of the way.
The surly woman at the front desk asks – well, shouts, more like – us where we're headed. We simply dash out without saying anything, to her utter irritation.
"Where d'you think you're going?" she yells. "The show isn't over yet!"
But we run out, right down the road, to the nearest police station. It was a squat, blue building with the word "POLICE" painted in yellow on the door. Maddie and I rushed inside.
A plump policeman was sitting behind the desk, scowling.
"Excuse me?" Maddie says timidly. "Erm... we know the whereabouts of the missing jewels from Buckingham Palace."
"You do, do you?" he says, smiling to himself. Suddenly I am aware that he probably gets this every day. A pit burrows into my stomach. Would he believe us?
"Would you mind telling me exactly what the contents of the box of jewels is?" the policeman goes on.
"Just about," I pipe up. "There's a sapphire necklace, many peridot bracelets, some diamond rings... emeralds... garnets... rubies... I think there was a large amethyst ring..."
"All right," the policeman interrupts. "You could have got that from any newspaper, it's all over the news. Where exactly are these jewels?"
"They're in our attic," Maddie says.
"In your attic. Of course. Do you have any proof of this? Do you know whether these are the right jewels?"
"Yes! We do. First of all, we just saw the news, and they look identical. Second of all, there's a note in the box of jewels addressed to Margaret Rose with Prince Phillip's signature on it," Maddie tells the policeman very fast.
"Mm-hmm. So... why are they in your attic? Did you steal them?" He chuckles. Now I am convinced he doesn't believe us. We had to convince him, then. I exchange a glance with Maddie. She seems to be thinking the same thing as I am. We nod at each other.
"No, of course we didn't, or else why would we be here?" she says.
"So tell me why they are in your attic."
Maddie and I both start talking at the same time, cutting in at random moments.
"– came to our house..."
"– I went in the attic..."
"– Root Beer Fizzle..."
"– father's cabinet..."
"– sapphire necklace was missing..."
"– the silver key..."
"– my sister was kidnapped..."
"– went to their house for a picnic..."
"– they were our friends..."
"– big eyes..."
"– off school..."
"– Marissa Grayson..."
"– searched her bedroom..."
"– they were in a huge sweet bowl..."
"Hang on! HANG ON! I'm sure it took you ages to rehearse this cock-and-bull story, but I'm going to have to stop you there. Please get out of this establishment. The police department does not have the time for teenage shenanigans."
"But..." Maddie protests.
"It's not made up!" I cut in.
"We didn't invent this!" Maddie adds.
"It's completely real! It actually happened!" I cry.
"Right, right..." the policeman said, rolling his eyes. "Would you, now, please leave this building? I would rather not have to escort you out. "
"Please, sir, this isn't a story! We're telling the truth!"
"Leave it to the trained professionals, young ladies."
"All right! When you find out we were right all along..." I threaten.
"And I can assure you that we won't. This is the third time I'm telling you to leave, and if I have to make it four, there will be consequences. You are forbidden to enter this institution to tell us about this story again until you have the jewels with you."
"ALL RIGHT!" Maddie shouts, raising her voice considerably. "WE'LL LEAVE, THEN!" And she takes me by the hand, dragging me out of the police department.
"That was completely pointless," I say to Maddie, as we stand outside the cinema once more, waiting for Uncle to come get us. "If only we'd actually had the jewels, then he would definitely have believed us."
"He might not have," Maddie contradicts. "He might have just come up with another way for it to not be real."
"S'pose that's true," I agree, sighing. What were we to do now?
At five thirty, Uncle drives up in his car. "Get in, girls!" He calls out the window. We walk to the car and get in, in silence.
"So, how was it?" Uncle inquires.
It takes me a moment to comprehend that he was referring to the cinema.
"It was good," I say. "The picture was amazing."
Maddie nods. "Yes, I enjoyed it too." And we left it at that.
"Wonderful. I can take you again if you would like. Maybe this weekend? That is, if you want to."
I agree, not really paying attention. The policeman had not believed our story. What would happen to the jewels now?
Maddie and I go to bed that evening very discouraged.
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