Foreword: Yay! Last day of school for this year! Anyway, I'm sure many of you have been waiting for this chapter, and I'll be happy to reveal you the disclosure. However, as the chapter title suggests, this is just the first part of a two-part disclosure. This chapter covers the identity of the killer, how Frank figured out the alibi, and the alibi trick itself. The one after this reveals the evidence pointing to the killer and the reason the killer decided to kill Katrina and Jack Rocky. Who is the killer? What is the trick? Is Nancy still alive? Can Frank save her? Many questions will be answered in this chapter but many more will be answered in the next two chapters. I'm sure you'll be astounded when you finally find out the trick which the killer used to travel to and from Jack's house in less than forty-five minutes. In fact, to give you a hint before you begin, the killer could've done so in less than five minutes! How could the murderer do that? Read to find out, and please REVIEW!


13

Disclosure One: Crimson

"Don't you love my new dress?" Katrina Berkeley said to Maria Voorhees, twirling around and showing off her newly-bought dress. "I think it's really lovely!"

Maria smiled. "It sure does," she said. Her auburn hair seemed to glitter in the sunlight, and her teeth reflected her beauty. Even when compared to Katrina, the beauty was far surpassing her friend's.

"How is Brian?" Katrina asked, out of the blue. "Are you two still going steady?"

Maria blushed. "Of course we are. Brian has been nice to me all the time."

Katrina didn't smile. There was a hint of jealousy in her eyes. She stared coldly at Maria. "And when is your next performance?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll perform for my aunt during her birthday party. She's going to turn forty-five, and I've been raised by her since my parents died. I consider her as my mother."

Katrina nodded her head. "So when is her birthday?"

"July sixth."

The older Hardy stepped on the break. He was finally there, at the back entrance of the concert hall building, the place where it all started. Everything started there, including Jack's murder, Katrina's demise, the unfortunate accident. The building had an evil appearance now that the sun was setting down. Everything in the light's path turned bright red, as bright and red as blood. As ominous as blood. The red sunlight had strange effect on the buildings. It made them turn evil. Evil wasn't a word strong enough to say. In fact, no word is strong enough to describe the light. It seemed dangerous, angry, nefarious, crooked… No single word could summarize the feeling, and no word ever would.

The black van was parked there, but the detective knew that there wasn't a soul in it. Even though the tinted windows blocked the young sleuth's view, he knew that the kidnapper had fled, taking the hostage with him or her.

Nancy had been there, and Frank could feel anger burning inside him. His anger was as red as the sun itself. His determination was strong. Looking down at his wrist, Frank checked the time. It was close to seven, a suitable time for the sun to set during summer.

The young detective also noticed that the door was unlocked and open. Stepping inside, he saw a cart at his left. It hadn't been used for a short time.

"Should I call the police?" Frank thought to himself. Then, he shook his head. "No; whatever the culprit wants to do, he'll do it when he hears the sound of the sirens approaching by." He was thinking of the culprit's murdering Nancy. Biting his lips, the sleuth walked noiselessly down the corridor.

The corridors were carpeted, and the color of the carpet was the same as fresh blood. Frank immediately looked into the first room he saw. It was one of the dressing rooms used by the performers. In fact, it was the last one. He looked out and saw five more doors to his right.

All the rooms were empty. The entire building was empty. There wasn't a concert until eight at night, and Frank was an hour early for the show. No, he wasn't there for the show. He was there to save Nancy. But he didn't know where she was. He didn't know if he could find her.

"It's quiet," he murmured. Too quiet. The detective made as little noise as possible and went to the corridor just outside of the concert hall. The lights were on, but he still felt like he was walking in the darkness. The lights were shaped like candles, but they used electricity. As he kept walking down the corridor, the lights flickered.

Then, the lights were turned off.

Darkness.

It never appeared to Frank before that darkness was representing fear. He never felt fear in the darkness. Even when his brother cried as lightening hit the house and all the electricity was turned off. It was a long time ago, perhaps fifteen years. But ever since then Frank hadn't feared darkness. He even went to the bathroom at night without turning the lights of the hallways on. Joe did, when he was still five. He did so and woke up the entire house.

Walking in the darkness, Frank searched the walls for a light switch. He found it. Using it to turn the lights on, the detective knew that someone had deliberately turned the lights off. He didn't know who, but he knew that someone was in the building.

Frank looked at into the concert hall. Nobody was there, and nobody seemed to be in there for a long time. Silence followed as Frank went into the concert hall. The walls were soundproof, and he could hear nothing other than the sound of his shoes. He looked around. Nobody else was in sight.

Still cautious, the teenager went on the stage. Turning around, he saw the ocean of seats facing him.

Beep!

A sudden noise almost made Frank jump. It was the alarm used to caution that the performance—or play—was starting. Almost immediately after Frank turned around, the lights were turned on.

The spotlight was on Frank, and the young detective had to squint to see who was doing all these. He couldn't see a thing; the light was too bright. But as he turned around to face the curtain, it started rising slowly.

The red curtain rose slow and steady. The color of the curtain again reminded him of blood. Everything seemed to be red. For the first time, Frank noticed that almost everything was red in the hall: the covers of the chairs, the carpet, the curtain, the wallpapers…

Then, the door opened, and a familiar figure appeared from behind the door. "Oh, Frank! It's you! What are you doing here? There's no concert here today, you know."

Frank looked at the person for a moment and grinned.

"I knew it," Frank muttered. "You did this, didn't you? You strangled Jack, stabbed Katrina, sent the threatening message to Nancy, made the little craft using fake scythe and stage blood, made the klieg light to fall on me, and kidnapped Nancy."

"What are you talking about, Frank?" the person asked, perplexed. "I didn't do anything! What makes you so sure that I did those things? I didn't even know that Nancy was kidnapped!"

"Don't play innocent with me. I already know how you managed to kill Jack but still having a solid alibi here at the concert hall."

"So you mean that I killed Jack from here? How did I get to his house and back in less than forty-five minutes? Usually, it should take an hour. Where did I get the extra fifteen minutes?" the person asked with a surprised expression. "How in the world did I get there? Did I use magic or something?"

Frank paused for a moment. "Before I start about your trick, I should start with the message Katrina left. She played ABEC. But that wasn't indicating Abraham at all! Because I'm not a musician, I accidentally read it using CDEFGAB format. However, I learned something very interesting when I watched The Sound of Music on TV the other night. The character sang not using the alphabet but with do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti. When you are a skilled musician, you don't even need to think for a second before you change from CDE to do-re-mi."

The person was taken aback as Frank said the sentence.

"You didn't know, did you?" Frank asked. "You didn't know that Katrina was alive when you left the room. You let her leave a message stating that you were the killer! If you change the format, it'll be easy to notice for anyone with experience in music that the message wasn't ABEC at all! It was la-ti-mi-do. If you read it out loud, you'll actually hear your own name…"

Frank turned his gaze to the person. "Leticia Meadow, a.k.a. Latty Meadow!" he said, pointing his finger at the woman standing there, who was aghast. "You are the cold-blooded serial killer who murdered Jack and Katrina!"

He then glared at her. "I fell for the false message before and thought that Abraham was using some kind of trick to get himself a perfect alibi during the murder. However, I was wrong. He didn't create his alibi on purpose. He already had a solid one from the beginning!"

Leticia stood there with a dark look. The light pouring onto her from above cast an eerie shadow over her eyes. The cold gaze cast by the woman almost gave Frank a chill. She wasn't like the Leticia he had seen before; she changed completely as if possessed by an evil spirit.

"That's an interesting thing to say," she said, grinning icily. "But you still didn't figure out the trick I used, if I used any at all, to get myself an alibi during the first murder."

Frank grinned. "I've got to give it to you. Your trick is simple yet hard to think of. The police were dumb enough to fall for your little trick, but I'm not. Sure, it can be pretty hard for one person to do everything in a magic show. But what if the magician used an assistant?"

"Hah!" Leticia laughed. "Do you suggest that I used an accomplice?"

"I said an assistant," Frank repeated, "not an accomplice. The assistant you used to complete your alibi trick was Jack himself."

"Oh?"

"You simply called Jack thirty minutes before the performance started. You might've told him that you knew who the blackmailer was and would tell him when he came to the concert."

She was silent. With one hand behind her back, the culprit listened.

"And then you told him that he should wear a coat, a hat, and a pair of sunglasses. That way, he wouldn't be noticed by the so-called fanatic of his. Well, too bad for you, I happen to notice him when he was wearing his disguise. When I was waiting for Bess to buy a snack, I saw a man wearing a coat. Since it is June, I was wondering why the person was wearing such an out-of-season outfit. But I know now; that person was Jack in disguise," Frank pointed his finger at Leticia once again, "and he came here to the concert just to be killed by you!"

The stagehand was still silent.

"You told Jack to buy a ticket and sit somewhere to listen to the performance. Just before the intermission, you told him to go to the bathroom. You killed him there. Then, you dragged Jack to the backstage without being noticed by anyone (since the bathroom was right next to the door leading to the backstage) and put him into a tuba box." He walked calmly to the wooden box labeled "Tuba". "And you used the roller over there next to the exit and brought the tuba box into the trunk of your car. If my guess was correct, your car is a van, huge enough to fit the huge box without arising suspicion.

"After the concert ended, I noticed that you were the first one to leave the premise. Why? That's because you had to go to Jack's house and ransack the place so the police will think the rock singer was killed by a thief."

Leticia still didn't say a word. From looking at her expression, Frank couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"But your luck ran out then, too," Frank continued. "Right after you left, I called Jack's house. He didn't answer the phone, but the answering machine did. So we went to his house, only to find the place in shambles. I saw the telephone receiver flung three feet from the cradle. Since it's an old-fashioned phone, it wasn't wireless, and therefore needed the receiver in its cradle to receive calls. I knew that something was wrong with the room but didn't know what. Now I do; I wouldn't have heard the phone ringing if the receiver was off the cradle. That proved only one thing: someone had ransacked the place only after the concert was over!"

Leticia looked up, and Frank nearly froze. Her face had no emotion and her eyes were as cold and hard as a glacier. Her entire face looked like a mask. The color of her face was completely white because of the light from above. And her face bore no expression.

"What about evidence?" she asked coldly. Her voice was so quiet Frank didn't hear it the first time.

"Huh?"

"Your speculation is imaginative, but you have no proof. What makes you so sure that I killed Jack?"

Frank grinned.

"I have a solid proof, Leticia," Frank said. "And I'll put you in jail once and for all!"

Postscript: Gasp! Was Leticia really the killer? Why did she kill those two people? What is the "evidence" that Frank was talking about? And what happened to Nancy? This chapter's pace picked up speed, but the next one will be even faster. The evidence, the motive, and the thrilling climax will be told. Don't you dare miss it, since a person will make a surprising appearance!

The next chapter will be up: December 25 (That's right: Christmas! The reason I'll update then is because I want to give you the next chapter as a Christmas present! But don't worry; the epilogue will be up on December 30.)

The next story will be up: January 1, 2006 (as my Happy New Year present to you all!)

And there will be a bonus. I sprinkled some clues as to where the next story might take place and who might make an appearance (not from Nancy Drew's side but from the Hardy Boys' stories). I'm sure you'll be surprised to find out, and I wish you a

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hannukah!