Chapter Eight

Lisa stared at Jason. her face was mixture of shock and surprise.

"Why would someone put fake crime scene photos in the police report?!" she asked shaking her head, "Unless…"

Jason nodded,

"Exactly," he said, "Someone with some clout is trying to cover up what really happened to Lydia Carmichael. Who really killed her!"

"This could get Stevie's uncle off the hook couldn't it?" asked Lisa feeling a little excited

"Not exactly!" sighed Jason, "I'm sorry to rain on your parade, Lisa, but Judges are notoriously skeptical and any good lawyer would argue that a couple of clocks in a years old picture isn't enough to prove what we're saying."

At this Lisa noticeably deflated.

"You're right." She sighed

Just then Jason thought of something. He began rummaging through the box again.

"What are you looking for?" asked Lisa

"I'm looking to see if any tests were done on the blood at the 'Crime scene'." Replied Jason, "It didn't say in the main part of the report, but the papers might have fallen out of the file and into the box somewhere.

Finally, he came up with something he pulled a single sheet of paper out of the bottom of the box.

"According to this a DNA test was done." He said, "and the blood was Lydia Carmichael's"

"Well," said Lisa, "If the crime scene isn't fake maybe someone is trying to confuse the time of death."

"That could be…," started Jason, "Wait!"

"What is it?" asked Lisa

"Look at the doctor's signature." Said Jason, "There are hesitation smudges in the letters of both the first and last names!"

"The signature's a forgery!" said Lisa catching on, "the real Dr. Cline wouldn't have to think about how to sign his own name."

"Right," said Jason, "Which means these results probably aren't worth the paper their written on."

"Why would they fake a DNA test?" said Lisa, "Unless they knew that a real test would have unraveled the case against Matt Lake!"

"That's what I'm thinking too." Nodded Jason, "We need to talk to Matt Lake tomorrow."

Lisa nodded,

"Definitely!"

"Now, Lisa, you'd better head home before your mother misses you and freaks out!" said Jason

Lisa nodded. After giving Jason a hug, she headed out the door. Jason yawned. He was feeling sleepy himself finally. It seemed figuring something out had cured his insomnia. He turned toward the bedroom when suddenly the glass in the sliding door to his balcony shattered. Four men in ski masks burst through the broken door.

Two of them headed for the police report box, and the other two advanced toward Jason.

"You've been poking your nose where it doesn't belong." Growled the biggest one.

He aimed a haymaker at Jason's head, but he didn't count on Jason being a trained fighter himself. Jason ducked under the punch, weaved to the side, and threw a side kick into the guy's knee hard enough to dislocate it. the man screamed pain and dropped to the floor. He was promptly silenced by an elbow to the back of his head.

Jason promptly threw a front kick into the gut of the second attacker and followed the kick by pounding several rapid-fire punches directly into the man's face. He hit the floor dazed. His eyes glazed over.

Jason jumped up not wasting time he had to stop the other two from getting away with the casefile! Just as he moved to go after them. A figure, in a red jacket, came flying in from the balcony, and threw themself crossways into the thug's chests knocking them down. their guns went clattering to the floor along with the case file box.

The figure jumped up and started beating the thugs with the tennis racket in their hand.

The dazed one came out of it and helped his injured comrade up.

"Let's get out of here!" he yelled to the others

"What about the case file?" said one of the others as they dragged themselves toward the balcony railing.

"Forget about it!" the other guy replied, "We be lucky to get out of here with our own hides in one piece!"

The men clambered shakily down their ropes and disappeared into the night.

Jason turned to his helper.

"Lisa if your mother had seen what you just did, she would be freaking out!" he said, "Where did you get a tennis racket anyway?!"

"You're welcome." Said Lisa ignoring the half-hearted scolding, "And to answer your question, when I got outside and saw the ski mask brigade climbing up the side of the building, I grabbed a tennis racket from an open equipment shed near the hotel tennis court down there, and climbed up the drain pipe after them."

"Lisa," said Jason shaking his head, "you're one in a million."

A little while later, the police had come and taken a statement, which Jason and Lisa strongly suspected would get buried just like the Ashley's FOI request had. The hotel had upgraded Jason to the presidential suite as an apology for the trouble, and Jason was just hanging up the phone after convincing his parents that he was alright.

Lisa was back in her bedroom, on the phone with the rest of the Saddle Club and Ashley, in a conference call, filling them in on happened.

"You actually sound happy that you were attacked." Said Carole

"Well, yeah," Replied Lisa, "It means that we're really on to something."

"Yeah," said Stevie, "and we're making somebody nervous."

"For the first time in a long time, I think I'm beginning to get my hopes up," said Ashley

Across town in the Lake Estate, the former home of Matt Lake's late Aunt, Devlin Lake was pacing in the study fuming. He glared furiously at his security guards as they removed their ski masks. One of them was sitting in a chair with a splint wrapped around his leg. The others had an assortment of bruises including a couple of substantial black eyes.

"Bunglers!" Devlin finally exploded, "choke artists! I gave you one lousy job to do and you blew it!"

"That kid fought like a pro!" said the man with the injured knee. "I mean, look what he did to me!"

"Yeah," said one of the others, "And don't even get me started on that psycho with the tennis racket!"

"Do you guys get it!" snapped Devlin, "If those kids keep poking into the Carmichael case, we could wind up in jail instead of dear cousin Matt! Now I have big plans, and I won't have them ruined by a couple of nosy brats!

To Be Continued…Please Review