The Secret Behind Mr.Lancaster

It was the first day of spring, on Saturday, I was lying in bed and I looked through my open window to see bright red and blue sirens flashing at the entrance of my neighborhood. I watched the ambulance and different patrol vehicles drive up to my neighbors’ dark, empty house.

My name is Tarah Walker, I grew up as an only child with my mother. My father left us at an incredibly young age. I was always the quiet, weird kid in school until I chose to move far away and live alone when I was 16. I wanted to be in a small neighborhood where nothing really happens. I worked as a lifeguard at a local pool. As I was walking back from the pool, I passed this dark run-down home and there was an old man sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch. The old man gave me a glare, then slight wave in return I gave him a head-nod, this gave me the creeps, so I started running back to my house. I entered my home as my dog comes to greet me. I went to bed and fell asleep.

I woke up to the sound of knocking at my door. I got up annoyed, it was the old man. I opened the door, “Hello?”

“Oh, hello there,” the old man said inviting himself in. “I brought you cookies!” He said with a kind smile as he offered me the plate of cookies.

I gave a smile “thank you that’s very kind”.

The old man held out his hand, “The names Owen Lancaster.”

“Tarah Walker,” I said as I shook his hand. He peered around my house then back outside,

“I should leave now,” he said frightened. I looked at him confused then turned around to see if he saw something in my house.

“Is everything alright?” I turned to the old man, but he was gone.

I had always been a little bit paranoid, so I did not eat the cookies. I shut my door and walked back into my room. I picked up a book and cracked open my window to get some fresh air. I continued the book. I heard a scream. I dropped the book and looked out the window to see what I could see. Everything seemed alright, except Mr. Lancaster’s door was wide open.

I did not think anything of it nor did I bother going out to see if everything was alright. I fell asleep again and woke up to the sound of blue and red sirens flashing at the entrance of my neighborhood, then looked out one of my windows to see an ambulance and different patrol vehicles approaching Mr. Lancaster’s house. Something was up. I got dressed and ran over to the old man’s house. I stood at the edge of the driveway and I could see the medics wheeling out a body bag on the gurney and into the ambulance. I asked one of the officers what happened and the officers informed me that I was a suspect because I was the last one that saw Mr. Lancaster. They told me that Mr. Lancaster was poisoned.

“He was found dead with a glass cup on the table.” I was in disbelief. I thought to myself, that could have been the scream. No. he was poisoned. At least that what the detectives said. I did not say anything. They let me look around Owen’s house, I walked off by myself and found a small black book. I carefully picked it up and looked through a few pages. It had a map that led around the town and a few random pictures. An investigator walked in. “Hey, Tarah.” I turned around with the book behind my back. “We will be at your house tomorrow to ask you some questions.” the investigator said with a suspicious look.

“Sure! Do what you need, I’m not hiding anything!” As if that did not sound suspicious, I thought to myself sarcastically.

“Okay If you say so,” He said with a smile as he started walking away “remember we are going to be at your place tomorrow”.

“Okay, well see you tomorrow,” I said running out of the old house with the black book in my hands. I walked back to my house to read through the book. It said, “If you are reading this it means you can win my $700,000 from my will. My eyes widened as I kept reading. “I have made a map to lead you to the prize. If you want the money to discover who murdered me and find the will and Good luck!” signed - Owen W Lancaster. I thought of this as a challenge as I smirked. I followed the map thinking it would be a good way to get money. I started following the map with the book in my hands.

I saw a little white letter taped to a café door. I quickly took it, on the small white sheet of paper read the name Owen W. Lancaster, I was confused; did the old man know he was going to die? I took the piece of paper and unfolded it. It said “Congratulations! You have found the first clue - two more left- Goodluck”! There was a picture of a house. It was Mr. Lancaster’s house! I grabbed the white note and put it inside the black notebook and ran to the old man’s house. There were still detectives at the house. I took a turn to my house and ran to the backyard so I would not get caught. I opened the window and jumped through. When I fell, I rolled my ankle, and I got up limping. I looked around to see if anyone heard me. I saw another white note, but it was on top of the ceiling. With my hurt ankle, I jumped quietly onto the bed. Since I was short, I had to jump. I jumped on one foot and slightly pulled the white letter, it fell, but so did I. I made a loud crash as I fell and hurried to crawl under Owens's bed. The investigators heard me fall and came running in. They looked around then left. I bet they just thought something fell I said to myself. I peeked my head back up over the bed, grabbed the letter off the old bed, and jumped out of the window. I opened the letter and read what it said. “Woah! I am impressed you managed to get past the investigators. One more clue left”. What, how did he know? I looked at the picture it was a dog. A dog? At that very moment, I heard a bark. I slapped my forehead with my hand. Okay, then I said to myself with a groan. I started running towards the sound of barking. I looked over at the dog and it was huge! I gulped. I thought Well, what's life without risk as I started climbing up the fence but each time the dog barked, I fell back down. I finally got up to the top of the fence. My foot was still aching. I remember thinking that this dog is going to devour me if I jump down. With sweat running down my face I took a breath in then a breath out. “One, Two…. Three!” I said as I jumped down. I landed on my knees. I hurried and got up and looked around for a white note. Then I saw it, It was tied around the big dog’s collar.

“It’s okay boy, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said while walking closer to the dog with my hand out. The dog gave me a head-tilt. I got down on my scarped knees and started petting the dog. As I was doing this I looked over and there was a chair against the gate. I snatched the letter from the dog’s collar ran over to the chair with the dog chasing me and jumped onto the chair and over the gate. I landed on my feet! I unfolded the white note and it said, WAKE UP!

My eyes opened it was just a dream. No, that cannot be! I sat up looking at my window and then I heard the red and blue sirens drive up to the old man’s house with a little white note that read “don’t take the black book.”