Chapter two, the plot thickens!
Wilford Wiggins. Leroy was vaguely aware of a voice saying his name but anything other than what he had just heard was irrelevant. Visions of dowsing rods, magic tablets, and square eggs flitted through his mind. Leroy hadn't seen Wilford for years. There had been rumors that his mother had finally been fed up with his behavior and had sent him off to military school. That had been four years ago. Leroy had a terribly sad feeling. He returned home just in time to be murdered.
"Leroy!" This time the voice was loud enough to snap Leroy back to the present. His mother looked a bit panicked but her face flooded with relief as Leroy looked at her. His father looked concerned and Leroy felt a twinge of guilt at having perturbed his father more than he already had been. Leroy opened his mouth to apologize but his father seemed not to care about explanations.
"Is the name familiar?" For a moment Leroy was taken aback. Well duh. He thought at first and then he reminded himself of his father's ignorance of his activities.
"Yes, very." He said irritably not knowing why the fact annoyed him as much as it did. "I stopped him from swindling little kids out of their money more times than I can count." His father looked confused.
"What-"
"Remember that whole detective business I had when I was younger?" He said, speaking as though he was explaining something very simple to a small child. "Yeah, it did really well, not like you ever bothered to ask about it." Leroy was astounded at his own rudeness but it was something that had annoyed him for years. His father flinched as though the stinging remark had come from an actual bee rather than the mouth of his son. "Well?" He asked, not giving his father time to speak. "Got any little clues on that little notepad of yours? Aren't you gonna read them to me and then let me ask a question?"
Cowed, Leroy's father hurriedly pulled his notepad out of his pocket. "Yes, um, he was stabbed several times in the chest and stomach. Each one was a killing blow." Leroy listened intently, shutting his eyes involuntarily. Old habits die hard. He tried to envision the scene.
"Was there anything next to the body, anything that shouldn't have been there?" He asked.
"Yes actually, something very strange." There was the sound of a page turning. It was a familiar sound. Blasted notebook. Leroy thought fleetingly. For once the irritating familiarity, and repetition of the situation began to sink in. "There was a crudely made paper crown lying a little ways off." Leroy's eyes snapped open his brown irises clouding rapidly with memory upon painfully clear memory.
"A paper crown?" He inquired sharply. His father looked up from his notebook, eyes hopeful.
"Yes, a paper crown, does that give you any ideas?" Leroy stood up quickly and rushed to the door, unlocking it before stepping swiftly into the warm summer evening. "Where are you going?" His father called and Leroy heard the scraping of chair legs as his parents stood.
"Sally's. I need her for this." He called out. He climbed into the driver's seat of the car (He had passed his test with flying colors a week before).
"Your soup will get cold." His mother attempted feebly put Leroy had already turned the engine on and her words were lost in the car's low rumble. Face hard and determined Leroy pulled out of the driveway.
Things get going! Next chapter we meet more old friends. (Hint, one of them is a lot more than a 'friend' now).