A/N: I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long! I have been really busy…cheerleading practices started, I have finals coming up, and I have been a bit stressed for the past couple of weeks. But now I'm glad that I have time to finally update. Thanks for the reviews!

The Clue in the Album

The main conversation at dinner that night was, of course, never directed away from the first murder. For some reason, contrary to his casualty about being the first to get killed, Ryan had become somewhat quiet throughout the remainder of the day. He may have even been a bit…spooked, Tawny observed.

Tawny looked around the long table at all of the chattering students; so carefree, so relaxed. But Tawny had never been one of those people. She always stood out. At the start of junior high, she had been characterized as just odd. It seemed like she would always be that way—that is, until she set her eyes upon Louis for the first time.

But now she shook that thought out of her head. She knew that she had to keep Miss Pateer under her eye. While the rest of her classmates enjoyed their week, she would be the one doing the real sleuthing, and if she for some reason went down, Louis, Twitty, Allison and Tom would too. No matter what, they all had to keep this under their sleeves.

Tawny began to get a tight feeling in her stomach. She had barely touched her food, but she already felt pretty full. She stared across the table at Louis, who was showering Ryan with all sorts of questions. Unlike his usual wacky self, his face was serious. And if Stevenson House could make Louis do that, there had to be something wrong here.

Tawny's thoughts were interrupted as the swinging door to the kitchen opened and Sophie, the not-so-pleasant cook, came out, carrying a tray of steaming soup. As she set down one of the bowls down in front of Tawny, and the others sitting around her, Tawny began to feel sick. She must have looked a bit pale, because Allison, who sat next to her, put down her spoon and asked, "Do you feel okay, Tawny?"

"I don't know," Tawny replied. "I think I need to lie down."

She stood up slowly and began walking away from the dining room, hoping Miss Pateer wouldn't notice and ask questions. Louis and Twitty hadn't even noticed, they were busy shoving their soup into their mouth, splattering the now-disgusted people around them.

Tawny slowly ascended the staircase and made her way down the hall to her room. The second she opened the door, the nauseous feeling suddenly lifted. Tawny daringly shook her head quickly. Not wanting to go back down to dinner, she looked around the bedroom until her eyes fell upon the dresser, where she had again stored the old photo album.

Now Tawny slowly walked up to the dresser, nearly jumping each time the floor suddenly creaked in the silence of the room. The distant sound of people down at dinner eased her thoughts as she came closer to the door. She pulled open the top drawer of the dresser and dug around its contents until she found the book. Making her way back to her bed, she seated herself and rested the album on her knee. By now she had already looked through it about a dozen times, and each timed she seemed to notice more details hidden inside of it.

Finding nothing out of the ordinary, Tawny casually flipped through the pages, being careful enough not to tear them. After a few minutes she let out a soft sigh. Then, as she was about to close the album, her eyes fell upon something sticking out from under a picture of the front of Stevenson House. She did a double take, before running her fingers across the edge of the photo to make sure there was actually something there.

It was ever so slight, but underneath the top left corner of the picture, there seemed to be the corner of a separate piece of paper. Quickly taking control of her eagerness, Tawny grasped the corner of the object with her fingernails and slowly pulled it out until more of the paper revealed itself. In contrast to the aging photographs, this piece of paper looked quite new. It wasn't yellowed or wrinkled, just folded into a neat rectangle.

Tawny unfolded the paper and flattened it out on the bed before reading:

I think this may be the one. We'll need to do further investigation before putting the plan into action, but for now I'll keep this here and you will need to take it to the safe room the second you can.

The brief but meaningful note made Tawny's brain explode with ideas. Trying to sort through her thoughts, Tawny noted that the writer of the message had different handwriting than she had seen. The letters were slanted to the left, but still readable, and obviously not written a hundred years ago.

Next Tawny thought through her ideas: was the note referring to the photo album? She quickly found the picture the note had originally been under and immediately saw another asterisk next to its label. Maybe it was just something the Stevensons wanted to remember. That has to be what the stars are for.

Tawny had an idea of who may have written the note, but she wasn't exactly sure, and then found herself surprised to find that she was afraid someone was listening. Now on the alert, Tawny dashed back to the dresser and shoved the album back into the drawer. Now there was no way she was returning this album back to the storage room.

Tawny turned away from the dresser after closing it and surveyed the room. She felt the ill feeling creeping back, so she decided to lie down and rest until Allison and everyone came up from dinner. Now she probably had the hunger sickness, but she still didn't want to go back downstairs. No, for now she would rest. It had been a long day.

>>>>

The thumping sound of feet on the bedroom floor woke Tawny with a jolt. Allison and Twitty stood at the foot of her bed, staring down at her with worried expressions.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Allison asked her.

Tawny nodded, trying to get the sleepy taste out of her mouth. "Yeah, I'm just a little exhausted, that's all."

"Well, we brought you some food from dinner." Allison sat down next to Tawny, holding out a bag of roost beef.

Tawny ate the food gladly, almost forgetting about her discovery. Suddenly, she snapped back to her original thoughts and said, almost shouting, "You won't believe what I found!"

After a few minutes, Tawny had related her findings to Louis, Twitty, Allison and Tom, and shown them the actual note.

"We should keep this just in case," Allison said, reaching out for the paper. "It's evidence."

"Wow, I feel like a detective," Twitty said. "It's like there's this whole police case dilemma and we're the only ones who can solve it!"

"Hey, you guys have to take this seriously!" Tawny suddenly snapped out of her sleepiness as Louis and Twitty exchanged goofy grins. "Do you realize how serious this is? While everyone else is having a handy-dandy time, their own safety could be in danger!"

"Hey, Tawny, did I ever tell you that you take things way to seriously?" Louis cut in. "School, drama, and now a semi-nonexistent criminal case."

"Hey, back off, Louis," Allison said in her quiet voice. "I really don't have a good feeling about this. I strongly believe that there is something fishy here. I mean, look at the note!"

She motioned to the note still clutched Tawny's hand. Tawny returned her attention to the writing and added, "It mentioned a safe room. If this was written as recent as we think, then there must be a 'safe room' somewhere inside this house."

"It must be in this house," Tom put in. "Judging by the dust and general state of the books, they haven't been moved for years."

"You're probably right," Tawny said, folding up the note. "But for now, we need to find our own safe place for it. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands."

"I'll take it," Allison offered, reaching out for the paper. "I know just the place."

"Hey, have you seen Ren lately?" Tawny asked Louis and Twitty.

"Yeah, I think she was helping Sophie in the kitchen after dinner," Twitty replied. "Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? We should tell her everything, don't you think?"

"Are you kidding?" Louis exclaimed. "She would never believe us! Think about it: the prank calling, Beans supposedly being an alien…you do the math."

"She might not believe you," Tawny smiled. "But with me, that's a different story."

>>>>

Ren tried to keep a cheery faced as she helped Sophie wash the dishes from dinner, but the stench of the kitchen was almost overbearing. Her eyes watered and her nose became stuffed up, as if she were peeling raw onions.

"So, Miss Dunlap," she managed to say, nearly desperate to start a conversation that lasted more than ten seconds, "how long have you been working with Miss Pateer?"

"A fair few years," the elderly woman answered gruffly.

When she said no more, Ren pushed forward once again. "So…do you like working in Stevenson house?"

Sophie wiped some sweat off of her forehead with her sleeve as she replied, "Well, this house seems to cast a spell on you after a while, especially when you actually knew the family."

This caught Ren's attention. "You knew the Stevensons?"

Sophie nodded slightly, as if she regretted releasing this information.

"Do you know any of their descendants?" Ren asked curiously.

Sophie didn't answer. She was busy toweling off some porcelain dishes and placing them carefully back into the cabinets.

Ren couldn't think of anything else to say. For about five more minutes she and Sophie worked quietly. The only sound in the room was the loud air conditioner attached to the window. Despite it, the room was still stuffy. Ren had no idea how Sophie could bear working in such a hot place for so long. She thought about asking her, but feared that she would just annoy her, or just get ignored. Besides, it probably wasn't so bad in the winter.

As she continued to dunk the dinner plates and cups in the sink, she thought back to her own original questions; the ones she had never asked anyone since she arrived at Stevenson House the day before last. The house had sent off a strange feeling, as if it were holding a dark secret that needed to be lifted.

No, it's just your imagination, Ren reasoned. Don't let your mind get carried away.

That last thought made Ren smile, thinking of Louis. He had come up with plenty of unbelievable excuses and stories throughout the years. What he might come up with next, she was almost excited to hear.

Well, she didn't have to wait too long, for the door connecting the kitchen and dining room swung open, and Tawny appeared in the threshold.

"Ren, we need to talk to you now."

A/N: So now Ren is getting involved with the whole shebang. How will that end up? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. I'll try to update as soon as I can. I promise. School is getting out for thesummer in only a couple of weeks, and I will have plenty of time then as well.