The Mystery Starts
"We will be right back," Tawny whispered through the door of Eleanor's bedroom. "I promise. Just. . .make it seem like you've been tortured or something."
"Can do!" came Louis's voice from inside.
"Tawny," Allison said suddenly, putting her arm in front of her friend to stop her. "Miss Pateer knows they escaped."
"I know, but hopefully we were convincing enough for her not to think that we know." Tawny stated. "Maybe she'll think they locked themselves in, or better yet, think that whoever told her they were gone, had lied to her."
"That would be a miracle."
The two girls got to the bottom of the narrow staircase and headed down to the parlor. When they got there, the sunlight of the morning shone through the great window above the front door, illuminating everything in the room. The parlor was fairly crowded with kids in costume and talking as their characters. The night before, Twitty and Louis had hidden in Tawny and Allison's room while they formulated their plan. Tawny, Allison, and Tom had to get into costume or else it would seem too suspicious.
Tawny was a young, wealthy Irish girl named Kate McRaver. Allison was a young woman from Mexico named Alejandra Rodriguez. They tried to blend in as their dresses (both from Tawny's house) swished about, like most of the other girls' dresses. There had been no murders reported, and most kids were just socializing, as if they were in the cafeteria at school.
"Now what?" Allison whispered to Tawny as Tom joined them next to the sofa.
"We find Miss Pateer, that's what."
As if on cue, Miss Pateer's high and now annoying voice rang throughout the parlor.
"Children! I hope you are enjoying yourselves! We have a fascinating day planned ahead! Just check the list of activities posted on the wall. And be careful, we have a murderer on the loose."
This caused most of the kids to look at each other uncertainly.
Miss Pateer began rearranging some of the lamps and polished gems that were set upon the piano next to the sofa.
She sure seems attached to this place, Tawny thought.
"So, who's going to do the talking?" she asked.
"You're the actress, you do it!" Allison urged quietly. "You should, you know, what do you call it? Improvise."
"Okay," Tawny replied. "Here goes."
She stepped in front of Allison and Tom as Miss Pateer began to walk away.
"Miss Pateer," Tawny tapped the guide's shoulder before she could go any further. "We have a problem."
"Oh, dear, what would that be?" Miss Pateer seemed to slur in her speech, much less friendly than usual.
"I told you that my two friends were missing, and we heard some. . .uh. . .some calling coming from the room above us. It sounded an awful like them! Knowing...um, Darnell and Clarence, they probably locked themselves in some room while going off to make trouble."
"Hmm." Miss Pateer's eyes narrowed a bit.
"Do you think you could check it out?"
"Well, I suppose so," Miss Pateer said reluctantly.
She turned on her heel and headed to the stairs. "They probably locked themselves in the attic. I knew I should have warned visitors that they could easily lose themselves in this place. Oh, they must have been there all night. . ."
Tawny was the first person behind Miss Pateer. She turned and looked awkwardly at Allison, who was walking behind her. They both shrugged at each other. Tom started shaking a bit, but as it got more noticeable, Allison had to slap his arm in order to get him to stop.
Miss Pateer led the way as they ascended the stairs. When they walked down the hall that led to the attic door, Tawny's heart began beating faster. She, herself started shaking a bit. Miss Pateer opened the attic door and quickly hustled up the narrow staircase. When she arrived at the top, she rapped on the door.
"Boys!" She bellowed. "Are you in there?"
"Uh, yeah Miss Pateer," came Louis's voice.
Tawny figured he was trying to think of something to say.
"Uh, we seem to, um, be kinda stuck in here. . ." Louis's voice trailed off.
"And we've been trying to get out all night!" Twitty added quickly.
"You boys should not have been wandering around. You wouldn't want anything to. . .happen, would you?" Miss Pateer said in a sly tone.
She opened the door, and Tawny could see what a job Louis and Twitty had been working on since she had locked them in.
Louis was clinging to Twitty and Twitty had a surprised/terrified look frozen on his face. They almost looked like the closing pose of a circus act! Even Miss Pateer seemed surprised.
"Well, then, you'd best take care of yourselves," Miss Pateer huffed. She stared daggers at Tawny, as if trying desperately to restrain herself from attacking the girl.
"Now go on," She said with seemingly forced sweetness. "Don't want you to miss the rest of the activities! Go on!"
Louis, Twitty, Allison, Tom and Tawny quickly left Eleanor's room one by one. Tawny, the last person to go before Miss Pateer, could have sworn that she heard Miss Pateer mutter "Sophie!" Maybe it was a miracle. Or maybe her ears were just playing tricks on her.
"Okay, that was weird," Twitty said, running a hand through his hair.
The group had locked themselves in Tawny and Allison's room.
"I have no idea what just happened," Tawny said, recalling Miss Pateer's last words in the attic. "Maybe she knew but she couldn't admit that she had locked them in or something. She's up to something, and can't show signs of it."
"Well, we need to do something," Allison said. "We can't just sit here! We have to call the police."
"But we can't!" Tawny argued. "We have no proof, solid evidence. We have nothing!"
"Are you sure?" Allison asked.
"As sure as I will be right now," Tawny replied, collapsing on her bed.
"Do you think those old photo albums had anything to do with Miss Pateer?" Tom spoke up.
"Like what?" Tawny asked. "Those albums were of the Stevenson family. They're probably just staying here until they're moved somewhere. I mean, this is the Stevenson's actual house. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the original furniture was still here"
With a disgusted look, Louis jumped up from the old-looking armchair he'd been sitting in. "Ugh!"
"Louis, get real," Tawny said seriously, but a giggle escaped her.
"Remember that missing photo album?" Allison asked, back on the subject of the albums. "Maybe Miss Pateer had it. And if so, she must have needed it."
"Or maybe she just wanted to get to know the old Stevenson family. I mean, she's got to have something to work with in order to run this murder mystery." Tawny said.
"Maybe, maybe not," Allison said. "But which one was missing, anyway? Tom?"
"I don't recall," Tom said. "OLOP 13, OLOP 14. . ."
"Hey, I've got a photo album," Twitty cut in.
"You do?" Louis asked. "Where'd ya get it"
"Well, it was kind of my excuse of getting away from that creepy butler," Twitty said.
"Oh, yeah," Louis murmured.
"Where is it?" Tawny asked.
"I think I stashed it in your dresser," Twitty told her. "I didn't want to look at it. It was old and icky."
Tawny sighed and said bossily, "Too bad."
She headed to the dresser and opened a drawer. After rummaging around a bit, she pulled out a big dark book identical to the others from the storage room. She looked at its spine and read, "'Our Life on Pages 14'."
"Oh, well it was 'OLOP 14', then," Tom concluded.
"Where'd you find it?" Tawny asked, opening the book to the first page.
"On a coffee table in the parlor," Twitty replied.
"Why wasn't it with the others?" Allison asked.
"Hey, that's not important now," Louis said, standing next to Tawny. "Let's just look at it."
"Wait, why are we looking at it anyway?" Twitty asked.
Tawny shrugged. "It's interesting, I guess."
She turned a couple of pages into the photo album. The pictures were no different: old, wrinkled, and yellow, with a caption written in neat, careful script underneath.
"Hey, is that Eleanor?" Allison asked, pointing to a picture.
Ever since hearing about baby Eleanor's death, the group had actually been a little anxious to find a picture of her.
Tawny read the caption. "Drake and Gloria Stevenson with their daughter Patty. Well, I guess it's not Eleanor. Must be her cousin or something."
After looking through the rest of book and finding nothing interesting, they turned back to the first page. The first picture was of a man and woman holding hands and pointing to the house behind them. It was the Stevenson House.
"This must be Henry and Clarice," Tawny observed.
Sure enough, the caption read, "Henry and Clarice Stevenson, the proud new owners of this glorious home."
"I guess they put the pictures in no particular order," Tawny said. "This is probably from when they had first built the house. Maybe they're categorized some other way."
"Why does the caption have a star next to it?" Allison asked, pointing to a faded asterisk.
"Dunno," Tawny shrugged. "This picture's caption does too."
The picture was of a Negro woman, sewing. She didn't look too happy as she stared at the camera. But then again, no one seemed to be smiling in any of the pictures.
"Must be a seamstress or something," Louis said, but he sounded a little bored. "Hey, can we look at this later? I'm hungry."
"Fine," Tawny said, snapping the album shut. "We can't stay in here all day anyway. It'll be too suspicious."
"Yeah, we'd better get a move on" Tom said. "We've got activities to do"
Tawny and Louis smiled at each other.
"Shall we?" Louis asked, holding his arm out.
"We shall!" Tawny laughed, linking her arm through his.
"Now it's time for the real murder mystery to start!" Louis exclaimed.
Unless it had already started. . .