Murder in spring

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing, except blah blah blah...
The next morning, I was the second person to get up. Jill had already awaked, and was going over the list we had made the previous night.

"Hey Jill, what are you doing?" I asked her. She turned around and looked at me.

"I'm just trying to figure out if what Mary had said about Gray last night is true… It could be she's just trying to cover up her own tracks, but… Oh, this detective work is so confusing!" Jill whispered.

"Ha, Jill read my mind!" I thought.

"What do you think about what Mary said, Popuri?" Jill asked.

"Same as you, detective work is confusing." I agreed. Jill got up and went to her washroom. I took this time to get my sleeping bag packed up, and my stuff together so I could go and get changed. Soon Jill came out, and I went into the washroom to change. I came out, and Mary was up.

"Morning Mary." I said. She smiled and waved.

"Hey, do you know where my glasses are?" She asked. I saw them and handed them to her.

"Thanks." She said. I just smiled as a reply. Mary went and got dressed and packed up her things.

"Let's go see the boys and tell them what we know." Jill suggested. Mary and I nodded. Before we left, Jill grabbed the list. We walked out of Jill's house and towards the Inn. As soon as we walked past the blacksmith shop, Gray and Cliff came into view. All of us ran to each other.

"Hey guys, did you figure out anything?" Jill asked.

"Yes actually. We figure that Lillia, Siberia, Barley, May, Kai, Won, Basil, Ellen, Stu, Sasha, Jeff, and Carter couldn't have done it. As for everyone else…" Cliff explained.

"We have all those people, but we also have Popuri, Rick, Ann, Mayor Thomas, and Elli. They all have alibis, except Mayor Thomas, but he's the Mayor for crying out loud!" Mary told them.

"So, what do you think we should do now?" Gray asked.

"I think we should go talk to Harris. He might have the finger prints results back." I suggested. The others agreed. We walked to the house.

"Oh, hello team." Harris said when we walked in.

"Harris, have you finished with the finger prints?" Jill asked.

"Yes, but I can only see the leader of the investigation and one other person."

"I'm the leader, sir. I'll take Mary with me." I said. Harris nodded and told the others to wait outside. Gray closed the door. Harris went to the back room and got the finger prints results. Soon, he was back.

"So Harris, what does it say?" Mary asked. Harris read it for a while.

"Oh my, the finger prints… That can't be right… can it?" Harris said to himself.

"Harris, what is it?" I asked.

"Interesting… we might have it, but first, do you know who can't have done it?" Harris asked us.

"One moment." I said. I opened the door and asked for the list of people. Jill handed it to me. I closed the door again and handed the list to Harris.

"Hmm… Oh my, the person isn't crossed off on the list! Then… we might have it…" Harris said.

"Harris, just spit it out!" Mary said, clearly irritated.

"Oh, ok. The finger prints and the list say it's… Gray." He said, whispering when he said Gray's name. Mary and I looked at each other.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but, we have some evidence that supports that." Mary said.

"Mary, you go and tell him, I will wait here." I said. Harris took Mary to the back room. I pressed my ear against the door. From the other side of the door, I could hear the other's talking.

"Hey, did you hear who it was?" Cliff's voice asked.

"No, Harris must have whispered it." Gray's voice responded.

"Oh, I wanted to know!" Jill's voice said, quite frustrated.

"… I have the feeling someone's listening to our conversation…" Cliff said. I giggled.

"Did you hear that, sounded like it was coming from inside." Jill said. I opened the door.

"Ha, you guys sounded funny! Good one Cliff, you were right on that one!" I laughed. They all glared at me.

"What? I was curious! Besides, I guess you guys aren't supposed to know or something!" I replied the glares. Jill sighed.

"Well, I guess you can't know everything." She said.

"You're right, that's Mary's job!" Gray joked. We laughed.

"Hey, just because I'm smart doesn't mean you get to make fun of me!" An angry Mary said from behind us. Harris waved goodbye to us as we closed the door.

"So Mary, can you tell us who it is?" Cliff asked.

"Uh… I'm sorry, I can't, but I need to talk to Popuri for a sec." Mary said, dragging me away. She pulled me to the library.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I know you won't like this, but… Harris is going to make the arrest this afternoon." Mary whispered. I gasped.

"That's terrible, but, don't you need 2 people to make an arrest?" I asked.

"Yes… That's where the worst part comes in. You see, since we are the only ones that know about who it is… Harris is making us arrest Gray!" Mary whispered, tears forming in her eyes. Everyone knew she had a huge crush on Gray, everyone except Gray. I gasped again. She hugged me, and I hugged her back.

"I tried to tell him that we couldn't do such a thing, but he ignored me!" Mary said, tears now streaming down her face.

"Do you know if Harris will be there?" I asked. Mary shook her head.

"He said he wanted us to do it alone." She responded.

"Let's go back to the others." I said. Mary nodded. She dried her eyes, and we walked back. I looked at her, and I noticed she was staring at Gray. Mary suddenly burst into tears and ran to the library, slamming the door shut behind her.

"What's wrong with her?" Gray asked, quite concerned.

"Oh, it's just her emotions catching up to her, right Poprui?" Jill said. I couldn't help it either. I burst into tears and dashed towards my house.

"Wait, Popuri!" Jill screamed as I round the corner by the church. I ran all the way home, and I don't think I even looked back. I ran into my house, dashed up the stairs, into my room and sat down on my bed, tears running down my cheek.

I guess I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember was Harris and Mary standing over me. Mary's eyes were bloodshot, so I guess she must have been crying.

"Popuri, we are going to make the arrest now." Mary told me. I sat up and nodded.

"Harris, just come with us, please." I begged. Harris shook his head. I glared at him.

"You know what? I don't even think he did it! Why would he? He got over her, so it can't be him." I said, very, very angry.

"Yes, but the finger prints clearly read that it was Gray!" Harris told me.

"Well…" I said, trying to find the right words to say. I wanted to defend Gray. He couldn't have murdered Karen… He just couldn't have.

"Popuri, you're going to do this either way. Besides, if I'm wrong and it isn't him, it may actually help us out to find the real murderer." Harris said. I looked at the hard wood floors beneath me. The tears were coming back, I could feel them. I knew I had to do it, so I stood up and nodded.

"Let's… Let's go." I finally said. We walked down the stairs and outside. We all saw Gray enter the blacksmith. We walked to the front of the store.

"I'll wait outside. Here are some hand cuffs." He said, handing me the cuffs. I began to feel sick to the stomach as I walked towards the door of the blacksmith.

"Oh Mary, I don't think I can do this." I said.

"Don't worry Popuri, be strong." Mary told me. I nodded and pushed open the door. I noticed that Siberia wasn't there. Gray turned to look at us.

"Oh, hey girls, are we starting investigating again?" Gray asked. Then I saw him look down at what was in my hands.

"Uh… Popuri, why do you have hand cuffs?" Gray asked. I looked down.

"I'm sorry Gray… All of the evidence points to you." I said walking up to him. Then I guess that's when it clicked in his mind that Mary and I were about to arrest him.

"Whoa, I didn't do it ok!" Gray said as I put the hand cuffs on him.

"I'm sorry Gray! We have to! We are under orders by Harris!" Mary told him. Gray didn't speak to us the whole walk back to the Mayors house. We walked in and went to the back room. The back room of the Mayors house was kind of like a jail. It had cement blocks as the walls and flooring, with bars on the door and window. Harris took off the hand cuffs and put him into the cell. I told Mary to go inform Cliff, and I would go and inform Jill. I walked to her house.

"Hey Popuri, what's up?" Jill asked, noticing I was really shaken up.

"Jill… The person who the finger prints pointed to was Gray… Harris just made Mary and I arrest him, and he's already in the cell." I whispered. Jill gasped and hugged me.

"Oh Popuri… It couldn't have been him, it just couldn't!" Jill told me.

"I know…" Was all I said.

"Now, I have a plan! I will go and investigate the body some more, and you go and talk to Ann and Doug, but we can't tell anyone about this." Jill told me. I nodded.

"So Ann, who do you think it could be?" I asked once I got to the Inn. I took a sip of my grape juice.

"Not me, but I don't know why, but Anna seems to be acting really strange." Ann informed me.

"Uh, her daughter is working on a murder case. I think I'd be worried to Ann."

"Right, good point." Suddenly the phone rang.

"I got it!" Ann yelled, picking up the phone.

"Hello? It's for you Popuri, I think its Jill, and she sounds desperate." Ann told me.

"Hello, Jill? It's Popuri." I told her.

"Popuri, guess what? I know who the real murder is! I over heard a conversation and it isn't Gray. The real murder is…" Jill began, when inside the phone, gunshots rang out, and the line went dead. I slammed the phone down.

"Hey, what happened?" Ann asked.

"Ann, quick, get Cliff and Mary. I think Jill was just murdered."