Isaac White
Block 4
The Disappearance of Suzy and Marty
Sie came flying down the hallway, tears streaming down her cheeks and sobs escaping from her throat. Students at their lockers gave her odd looks as they got out their homework to catch the busses, or prepare to walk home in the warm, May sunshine.
"ZEKE! ZEKE!" Sie screamed as she reached Zeke's locker, nearly bowling him over when she arrived. She had to tell him what happened!
Zeke's brown eyes looked confused and concerned, and he ran a hand through his unkept brown hair as he often did. He was only about a hand's breadth taller than Sie, who was about five feet six inches tall. Zeke noticed that Sie's mascara was running down her face in her tears, which were streaming from her hazel eyes. Her shoulder-length brown hair was all out of place and sticking up at odd angles from running down the hallway.
"Zeke…" She panted. "It's Marty…and Suzy…they're gone!"
"Gone?" said Zeke, skeptically. "Sie, we only see Mark and Suzy in band, and that's second block. Today is Tuesday. Tuesday means odd blocks remember? We wouldn't have seen them all day anyway." As he said this, though, he couldn't help but feel apprehension building. He didn't even like to think about his Suzy being missing.
"No…" stammered Sie in between sobs, "I…went in to…see…Marty after school… You know how they… like to hang out in the band room… AND HE WAS GONE! SUZY WAS TOO!" Why couldn't he just believe her? This was serious!
Zeke didn't like the sound of that at all. Suzy and Marty were always together in the band room after school. The fact that they weren't was very unnerving.
"Well, maybe they went home with somebody?" Zeke offered, not believing his own words. Suzy and Marty always went home with Zeke and Sie.
Zeke and Sie searched the band room, even tearing apart the locker room and the flag room. There was no sign of them. They called friends, hoping one of them gave Suzy and Mark a ride home, but had no luck. Now, they had a search party congregated in the band room.
"We searched all over for them," Zeke announced. "We found almost nothing."
"Only this," Sie said, holding up a soggy, ripped piece of paper. "It's addressed to me and Zeke," she continued. "It's clearly a ransom note. It's demanding three hundred dollars in the band room by next Tuesday, after school."
"Who would demand the exchange in such a public place?" inquired one woman.
Zeke shrugged. "We don't know. All we have to go on is what's at the top of the ransom note." He pointed to the top, where the note had been ripped and frayed. "It looks like the remains of a logo. Can anyone tell what it means?" Nobody could.
"We're wasting time!" Sie said frantically. "We have to get started now. Zeke and I can't afford to pay the ransom. We've already called the police. Quickly, let's get searching!"
The search, however, did not go well. Zeke and Sie had several heated arguments with the police about where they should be looking. The police kept searching in the woods, and the two couldn't convince them that they should be searching in musical warehouses.
By the deadline in the note, they had had no luck. Suzy and Marty were nowhere to be found. Zeke and Sie sat forlornly in the band room, a bag full of fake money with them. It was a sting operation. The police, hiding in the locker and percussion rooms, would arrest the man when he came for the exchange.
"Marty and I made such beautiful music together!" Sie sobbed, burying her face in Zeke's shoulder. A tear ran down Zeke's face. They looked up as a man walked in the doorway, carrying a saxophone in one hand and a clarinet in the other.
"Suzy!" Zeke yelled.
"Marty!" Sie exclaimed simultaneously.
"Zeke and Sie I'm assuming?" The man said. "Do you have your money? It's due today." The man was old and balding. He seemed too grandfatherly to be a kidnapper.
"FREEZE!" The police yelled, bursting out of their hiding places. They placed the man in handcuffs. "Sir, you are under arrest for abduction…"
"Abduction!" cried the man, incredulously. "I'm just returning these students their instruments! Mrs. McRae sent them in for repair!"
Zeke and Sie had been clutching the instruments, sighing with relief. Zeke set his saxophone down, realizing something. "You're the guy from Mastellar Music!"
"Um… yeah," Said the man, sardonically.
"What in the world's going on here!" said Mrs. McRae, the band director, who had just walked in.
"Did you send Marty and Suzy in for repair?" Sie asked her.
McRae nodded. "Suzy had problems with her octave system and Marty could never stay in tune."
"But what about this ransom note?" asked Zeke.
"You mean bill?" said the Mastellar man. "It fell in a mud puddle when I picked up your instruments."
The police chief narrowed his eyes. "Suzy and Marty are instruments!" He growled menacingly.
"Um…yeah," said Zeke. "Didn't we ever mention that?"
"No," said the chief. "You two have some explaining to do."
"Maybe a little," Sie giggled sheepishly.