In Today's Case: Camping Trip Murder
A couple weeks later; Conan and Tess sat outside of the corner store. Conan leaned up against the wall as Tess sat down on the sidewalk. Conan looked at Tess.
"Tess." He called. Tess looked up at him.
"Yeah?"
"You know that you never said thank you for me saving you're life." Conan stated. Tess smiled.
"Well, my cell phone really saved my life." Tess stated. Then Rachel and Richard exited the store. Rachel looked at Tess.
"Are you guys ready?" she asked. Tess turned to look at Rachel. She stood up.
"What do you mean?" Tess asked. Conan pushed himself up off the wall.
"Yeah what do you mean?"
"We're going on a camping trip!" Rachel yelled. Tess and Conan looked at each other. The next thing they knew was that they were packing their things and loading them into the car. Richard shut the trunk. Tess looked at him Richard looked at Tess.
"What?" Richard asked. Tess shrugged her shoulders.
"Nothing." Tess stated as she walked over to the car. She opened the door. Richard looked over at her.
"I'm not as dumb as you think I am." Richard stated. Tess looked at Richard. She smiled.
"Really? I think your dumber then a fly..." Tess stated as she smiled. She got into the car. She then looked next to her to see Conan. She shut the door. "What?"
"Do you even want to go on this trip planned by them?" Conan asked. Tess shook her head.
"No I should really be worrying about my case to find Zach."
"Why didn't you tell us before?"
"Because I wasn't suppose to tell anyone. Really I was supposed to come here to get your help as well."
"What?"
"Yes. That's how I knew you when I talked to Rachel on the second day I've been here and the first time I went to school."
"Oh." Rachel and Richard then entered the car. They drove off. They were on the road for 3 hours doing nothing. Tess and Conan stared out their windows as Rachel and Richard sat there quietly. Tess sighed.
"Are we there yet?" Tess asked. Richard looked back at her. he then looked at the road.
"You just asked us that!" Richard yelled.
"I know, I was doing to annoy you." Tess stated. Conan rolled his eyes.
'It's annoying me!' Conan thought. They then pulled up to a huge cabin. They got and unloaded their stuff. They walked into the cabin. Tess, Rachel, and Conan looked around.
"Whoa..." Tess said as she glanced around. The room was like fit for a king.
"Hi I'm..." Richard was then interrupted by a man slamming his hand onto his shoulder when he was standing by the front desk.
"Richard Moore!" He yelled. Richard looked at him to see a man wearing a green sweat shirt. He had blue pants and brown hair. His name was Brock. "I'm Brock I read about you in the paper all the time. Where's you're helper?"
"My... helper?" Richard asked as he glared over at Tess. Tess looked at him. She placed her hands on her head then she started to whistle. Brock looked over at Tess.
"There she is! You're Tess Moore!" He yelled. Tess looked at him as he walked over to her with open arms. Tess backed up.
"Yeah that's me..."
"Give me a hug." He said. He then hugged Tess. Tess rolled her eyes.
'A very touchy guy...' Tess thought
'Thank god he isn't hugging me.' Conan thought. He let go of Tess. He looked over at Rachel.
"And you're Rachel Moore." He stated.
"Dad! Stop that!" a girl yelled. He turned around to see a girl with her arms crossed. She wore a pink shirt with teal writing that said Princess. She wore blue tight jeans. He name was Rika.
"What's the matter Rika?" He asked.
"Just stop!"
"Sir, can I have your name?" The lady at the front desk asked. Richard looked back at her.
"Oh yeah yes." He said. The next thing they knew was that they were in their room. It looked like a hotel. Two beds a night stand in the middle. A bathroom on the left side of the beds. A TV up against the wall. A phone that sat on the desk that was by the window. Richard walked over to the window. He slided it open and looked out. It was a view was the wood tops. Richard smiled.
"WOW! THIS IS A NICE ROOM!!" Richard yelled. Tess placed her bag on the bed.
"Is there a pool?" Tess asked. Richard looked down to see a huge pool.
"Yeah!"
"Bye." Tess said as she dug out her bikini. Richard looked at her.
"Where are you going?" Richard asked.
"Swimming." Tess answered.
"Let's all go!" Rachel yelled. Conan smiled.
"Yeah, that sounds like fun." Conan stated. They all got into their bathing suits and headed downstairs to the pool. When they got there Richard and Rachel got in quickly. Tess walked over to the 3 deep end and stuck her feet in. Conan got into the pool and stood next to her.
"Wow... this is so much fun." Tess stated. Conan nodded his head.
"I agree."
"I was being sarcastic." Tess stated. Conan looked at Tess.
"I know, and you're bad at it." Conan told her. Tess growled. She then placed her hand on Conan's head and dunked him into the pool.
"Hey." Tess looked up to see Rika.
"Hi."
"I'm sorry for my dad hugging you... he's a huge fan of you guys." She stated. Tess waved her hand at her.
"It's okay." Tess stated. She lifted her hand off of Conan's head. He came up gasping for air.
"You must be Tess Moore." Tess looked behind her to see a woman wearing a purple bathing suit. She had short brown hair with red sun glasses on her head. Tess raised her eyebrow at the lady.
"Hi... I think."
"I'm Kathie, Rika's mom." She said.
"Oh hi."
"TACKLE!!!!" A little boy came out of nowhere and tackled Tess into the pool. She came up flipping her hair over her face. She picked up the little boy from the bottom of the pool. She glared at him.
"Rye!" A man yelled. Tess looked over to her right to see a man wearing green trunks took the little boy. "I'm so sorry about my son. I'm Andrew." Tess smiled.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Tess." Rachel came walking over.
"Tess come on let's have a race." Rachel stated. Tess looked at Rachel. She smiled.
"You're going to loose."
"Sure." Rachel and Tess got ready to race as everyone cleared out of the pool. They pushed off the wall when Richard yelled go. Tess and Rachel swam to the end of the pool. Tess touched.
"I told you I would win." Tess stated. Everyone was in the pool splashing each other. Except for Conan. He stayed at one side of the pool.
'Something doesn't seem right... it's just to prefect.' Conan told himself. Then he was pulled underneath the water by his feet. Conan came back up to see Tess laughing. He growled. He then jumped on her knocking her into the water.
After their fun in the pool; they decided to sit around a camp fire. Tess and Conan sat on the ground as everyone else sat in small chairs that were low to the ground. Then Brock stood up. He pointed back to the cabin.
"I'm going to get some drinks anyone want one?" Brock asked. They all shook their heads. Brock shrugged and walked toward the cabin. Rika stood up. Tess watched her walk away.
"Hey Rika!" Tess called. Rika turned around. "Where are you going?" She asked. Rika turned back around without an answer. Tess raised her eyebrow. She looked over at Conan. The light from the fire shined onto his face. They both shrugged their shoulders. After a while of Rika and Brock being gone... there was then a scream. Tess and Conan shot up from the ground. They ran toward the Cabin's door opening it to see Brock pointing at his dead daughter. Tess and Conan looked at each other. They looked at the body of Rika. She had blood pouring out of her chest. A whole in the side of her head. She laid in her own puddle of blood. Tess stared at Rika. She bent down to look at the body. Then Rika's mother ran up behind Tess. When she saw her daughter she broke out in tears.
"NO! RIKA!!!" she yelled. She buried her face in her hands. She then fell to her knees. Tess looked at Katie. She placed her hand on her back.
"I'm sorry." Tess stated. Tess looked at Brock. Richard pointed at him as he came out of nowhere.
"YOU'RE THE KILLER!!!!" Richard yelled. Brock placed his hand on his chest.
"Do you think that I would kill my own daughter?!"
"It's possible." Richard stated. Tess stood up as she slammed her head into Richard's chin. Richard fell backward.
"Well Brock, you were the only one in this Cabin." Tess stated. Conan looked at the body then he looked up at Tess. Tess looked down at him.
"COME ON!!!!" Richard yelled as he grabbed onto his arm. Richard pulled Brock off the ground. He dragged him outside as everyone followed. Tess stood in the door way when she looked back at Conan. She turned around.
"What's wrong Jimmy?" Tess asked. Conan turned around.
"Don't you think it's funny?" Conan asked. Tess looked at Conan.
"Find what funny?" she asked. Conan looked at the body.
"If Brock killed Rika then he would have to have been standing in front of the door for her to facing this way. But we found Brock on the other side of Rika. So if he really did kill her then she would be facing more toward the door instead of away from it." Conan stated. Tess nodded her head.
"Yeah but Jimmy, Brock was the only one in the house." Tess stated. Conan nodded his head.
"That is true but what if Brock didn't kill her." Conan stated.
"Are you saying she might have killed herself as in suicide?" Tess asked. Conan nodded his head. "But if she did commit suicide then why here and right now?" Tess asked. Conan shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know, that's what I want to find out." Conan stated. Tess looked around.
"Well if she did kill herself then the murder weapon must be around here somewhere." Tess stated as she got on her hands and knees to look around. Conan joined her. Conan then lifted up the corpse with a cloth he had in his pocket. He then found a huge knife she was lying on. Tess looked at Conan. "Did you find something Jimmy?" Tess asked. Conan looked at Tess. He nodded his head. Conan showed her the knife.
"I found the murder weapon." Conan stated. He stood up and walked over to Tess. Tess pushed herself up onto her knees. Conan held the knife so she could look at it. Tess looked at the knife.
"It's big enough." Tess stated. Conan walked over to the body. He pretended to stick the knife in her chest but the knife was to small. Tess crawled over. "Maybe she stabbed herself then turned the knife around in circles." Tess stated. Conan looked at her as she showed him what she meant.
"But she would have been dead before she even got to turn the knife." Conan stated. Tess shook her head.
"No really." Tess stated. She then pointed to the hole. "She could have stabbed herself in the right side where it gave her enough time to turn the knife in circles to make it big enough to kill her." Tess added as she showed him again. Conan nodded his head.
"Yeah. Also Brock could have stabbed her in the chest and when she was dead he turned it in circles. Then he could've lifted her up and placed the knife underneath her to make it look like a suicide." Conan stated as he showed Tess. Tess nodded her head.
"Yeah that is true too." Tess said. Conan looked at Rika's face to see her lipstick was smudged.
"Tess look." Conan pointed. Tess looked at her face. "If she did commit suicide why would she smudge her own lipstick?" Conan asked. Tess crawled over to her face.
"You're right." Tess stated. She lifted up her hands to find no markings of lipstick on her hands. "There's no lipstick on her hands so..." Tess looked up to look at Conan. They both nodded their heads. Tess and Conan stood up. Conan placed the knife down onto the ground next to Rika's body as he left his hand cloth there as well. Conan placed his hands into his pockets. They walked outside.
"HOW COULD YOU BROCK?!" Katie yelled. Brock looked at Katie.
"I DID KILL HER!!!" Brock yelled.
"There is chance that she could have committed suicide." Tess stated. Everyone looked at Tess. Rachel stood up.
"But why would Rika commit suicide?" Rachel asked. Katie nodded her head as she stood up.
"My daughter was very happy!" Katie yelled.
"I never said she wasn't. But, she could have stabbed herself in the right side of her chest turning the knife in circles till it reached her heart killing her in an instant. Conan found the murder weapon which is a huge knife. That was found underneath her. that could have happened." Tess stated. Richard stood up.
"Why did you let that brat help you?!" Richard yelled. Tess looked at Richard.
"Because I did!" Tess yelled. Tess looked down at Conan. Conan nodded his head.
"Everyone come with us." Conan waved as he walked over to the body.
"Watch." Tess stated, Conan picked up the knife. "Brock could be the murderer too. He could have stabbed her right in the middle of her chest turning the knife in circles. Once she was dead and lying on the ground he picked her body up placing the knife underneath her making it look like a suicide. But, the one thing he didn't plan on was a struggle. Probably while she was struggling he smudged her lipstick with his right hand." Tess stated. Brock's eyes widened. Tess pulled out her gun. She pointed it at Brock. "Show us you're right hand." Tess stated. Brock flipped over his right hand showing the lipstick on his thumb. Katie then smacked Brock.
"WHY?!"
"Because... she was mean and a brat to me. Everyday she threatened me. So I decided to do something about it..."
"SO YOU MURDERED HER?!" Katie yelled. Tess nodded her head.
"That's what everyone does mostly when they deal with something like that." Tess stated as she lowered her gun. "Everyone doesn't know what they have done till they've done it."
"I... I wish I could take it back..." Brock stated as he fell onto his knees. "But I can't..."
Next Time on Case Closed: "Ready?" Tess decides to do what she came here for. Conan decides to help her. When they get to close of finding where he is... are they in trouble? They better hope not... find out.
Next Time: Finding Zach
Next Conan's Hint: Pin