The Key of Murder

Today is May 22, 2017, the first day of summer vacation. My friends and I are excited to start exploring the neighborhood this summer. Oh sorry, my name is Amelia and I love mysteries. People tell me I have an active imagination for mysteries. In Jasper, Indiana there isn’t much exploring, I mean I lived there for my whole life. There is never a real-life mystery in my town ever. Until today.

I was running to my neighbor Rachel’s house to make sure she was okay because last night I heard a strange sound coming in that direction. I knocked on her pretty pink door which contrasted with her purple house covered with pink flowers. There was no answer at the door so I panicked and thought she might be in trouble. Lucky for me she gave me a key when I took care of her house. When I walked in I saw her lying there motionless. I checked her pulse, but while doing that I saw a wound like someone stabbed her hard.

I called the police and told them everything, but then I saw her diary with a key and a message that said, “ You know what to do.” Why does Rachel have a key and what is it for or who is it for? If it is for someone what is it for and what do they know? After the police talked to me, I ran to talk to my friends Emma and Olivia in our treehouse. “ I think we should try to figure out what happened to Rachel, what the note means, and what the key opens,” I said.

“ Wouldn’t that be, I don’t know, dangerous and conflicting with the police. You know we can get arrested for that,” retorted Emma.

“ Well, yes, but they won’t suspect three teenagers would be concerned enough to solve a murder.”

“ Amelia that is even worse I mean we could get killed!” cried Olivia.

“ Come on we will be careful and our dream can come true. Remember solving a mystery in real life.”

“ Fine,” Olivia and Emma said in unison.

“Great! What do you think this key is for? I mean it could be for unlocking something or somewhere like a building.”

“ Well, it could be something in her house if someone was blackmailing her or it could be something the person she was giving it to owned,” suggested Emma.

“ The police opened the house to neighbors or at least to me and my mother because we were her only friends in the neighborhood. Let’s check it out.”

We ran down the street to Rachel’s house. Then I pulled out the diary and key that I kept from the house. While looking at the diary, “ What if we check whose diary it is because maybe the blackmailer used their own diary or we could look through the diary for clues,” I said to myself. I looked in the diary and it was Rachel’s diary, but the last entry was only a week ago. “ Guys come look at this. This is her last diary entry and it seems we were right she was being blackmailed so this note and the key could be for her,” I announced.

“Look at what it says!” shouted Emma.

“Today you know who told me if I didn’t do what he said he would tell my boss what I did years ago,” I read, “ I am scared he will come after me, but I am staying strong for all my friends. You know who said he will send me a key with more instructions on what it unlocks later. He told me he knew everything I have done and I don’t know what half of them are. He threatened me with any truth he can get about me.”

“ What do you think it means Amelia and do you have any idea who was doing this to her I mean you knew her best. I mean you did spend time with her.”

“Well, she did tell me about her ex-husband.”

“Whoa, why do you think it was him couldn’t it be anyone else.”

“Well, the diary said that it was a guy and she only talked about her ex-husband and her ex-boyfriend from high school who never forgave her for breaking up with him.”

“You’re saying those are the only two men in Rachel’s life that can be blackmailing her,” wondered Olivia.

“Yeah, those are the only men I can think that would blackmail her.”

We ran back to my house to figure out everything we learned. I opened the diary and realized something. “ Rachel wrote one diary entry every week and it looked like she started to be blackmailed last month. That is a month after I started helping her with cleaning and watching her house,” I told my friends.

“You were in the house when she was being blackmailed,” pleaded Emma

“Yes maybe, but she told me never to come back to the house a few weeks earlier than this diary entry from last week”

“Did she tell you why?”

“No, she just told me to be careful and don’t worry about her.”

“Didn’t that seem strange to you?” asked Olivia.

“Yeah, it did seem a little strange.”

I looked through the diary again but then saw something caught my eye. “ Emma! Olivia! Rachel’s ex-husband has been at her house in the last month. Her ex-boyfriend has been at her house too in the last month. Is it possible that they are working together?” I asked.

“I guess it is possible. I mean if they both didn’t like her and they met up then yes,” agreed Emma.

“They don’t know each other. Whoever is blackmailing her is probably the killer. Maybe she didn’t do something for them so he went to her house and tried to make her do it with a threat, but things got out of hand.”

“Yeah, that could be it. Does she have a security system in or outside of her house?”

“Yes, and I know how to get to it.”

I went to her computer and did what she had done for Rachel when she worked for her. “Rachel wanted me to check the security system every so often when she was away,” I explained. Then I found the footage from last month, yesterday, and last week. When we watched it we were surprised to see Rachel and her ex-husband talking normally and not fighting. All of a sudden he pushed her and started yelling at her to do something for him or he would tell her boss about something.

I went a few weeks later when she got the note and key. We saw the same car that her ex-husband (we found out his name is James) drives from the outside camera. The inside camera we saw that he left something there picked up a pen and wrote something. “Scratch out the ex-boyfriend. I think James did it. Wait maybe there is footage of last night of him killing her so we can show the police,” I suggested.

“ Would he be dumb enough to not turn off the security cameras,” Emma declared.

“Well, Rachel put them in after he left, so she would feel safe in her house. I don’t think he knows about them or where they are. Lucky for us there is a camera pointed right where he murdered her.”

I clicked on the footage that said yesterday’s date then fast forward to night time when I heard the noise. The video started playing. James’s car comes up and he goes inside the house. When we switched cameras we saw Rachel answer the door and say, “What do you want? I will do what you ask when I get the chance, but right now isn’t a good time.”

“You have to do it or your boss will know what happened our last summer together,” James threatened.

“Ok, but just give me more time to do it.”

“No you have to do it tomorrow or your boss will know”

“ No, I won’t do it. Now leave my house”

Then Rachel tried to show him the door when he pulled out a knife and stabbed her. All we saw after that was Rachel on the ground and James speeding away in his car. “ We have evidence that he killed her, we have to go to the police,” I insisted. I asked my mom if she could take us to the police station, and I had to explain everything to her about what we have been doing today.

When we got to the police station we asked to talk to the detective on Rachel’s case. We went into her office and told her all we knew. “We also watched the security footage that shows him committing the murder,” I explained. After we watched it, we searched for James until we found him back at Rachel’s house looking for something. The police arrested him for the murder of Rachel.

“Look what we did guys. We just solved a murder and put that man in jail!” I exclaimed.

“ I have to admit that it was a little fun to solve something,” Olivia admitted.

“ I agree with Olivia solving that mystery was awesome,” Emma agreed.

“We should go home. See you tomorrow,” I replied.

After today, I can’t wait until I have another mystery to solve with my friends.