Chapter 4: The Hand That Feeds
The next day, the girls were out riding. This time, Bailey was staying behind to watch Forensic Files with Will. As they trotted through the trees, they conversed.
"Have there been any updates?" Sarah inquired.
"Yes, there have." replied Chloe. "Just yesterday, me and Zoey were searching our house for any evidence, and we found some letters and a note containing a death threat in Mom and Dad's home office."
"The letters were between Mom and one of her co-workers." Zoey added.
"Hmm, I wonder if that means anything." Nani pondered.
"Well, we turned them into Detective Washington the minute we found them." Chloe confirmed.
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me." piped Molly. "Uncle Andy called earlier and said that the forensics team finished examining those clothes Bailey and Will found."
"Oh, nice." said Zoey. "What did they find?"
"They found some red hair on the inside of the ski mask and on the sweater." Molly explained. "The boots were size nine and a half."
"I have a feeling that this case is gonna bust wide open." commented Nani.
"Yeah, you might be right." agreed Alma.
Just then, Sarah spotted something.
"Stop!" she commanded.
Everyone stopped their horses.
"What is it, Sarah?" Alma inquired.
Sarah jumped off and went over to investigate what she saw. It looked like a boot impression in the dirt, and they just so happened to be in the exact same area where they found Amar's body back in Chapter 1.
"Look, a boot print!" she said. "And it looks like it's been here for a while. You girls stay here, I'm gonna go get Bailey and Will."
And that's exactly what she did, and soon enough, Sarah returned, with Bailey, Will, and a police officer, who made a plaster cast of the boot impression.
"Thank you, girls." the officer smiled. "I don't know how we could've overlooked this."
"No problem, officer." Sarah said.
The officer then left, leaving the kids to themselves.
"That's one more piece added to this puzzle." Bailey announced.
"Yeah, and I can already sense that very soon, we'll have a clear picture of the killer." agreed Alma.
Meanwhile, at the police station, the officer turned the impression over to Detective Washington, who compared it to one of the boots. It was a perfect match.
"Alright, so our killer is a red hair and whose shoe size is nine and a half." proclaimed Detective Washington. "We're close, I can feel it."
At that moment, another officer came into Detective Washington's office with some papers in his hand.
"We finished the background check on Arnold Fox." the officer said.
"Great." praised Detective Washington. "What've we got on him?"
"Well, says here that he has had no prior arrests, but he did get into trouble with the police for shoplifting when he was sixteen." the second officer explained. "But since he was underage, he wasn't formally charged, and instead was given a fine for a hundred bucks and a warning to not do it again."
"Alright." said Detective Washington. "And his current place of work?"
"Receptionist for the Grandiose Vale Hotel, owned by the Whitney family." the second officer reported. "Mrs. Stilton's the housekeeping manager."
"Interesting." commented Detective Washington. "What about his address?"
"43 Andretti Road." answered the second officer.
"Great." said Detective Washington. "Let's get on our way."
With that, Detective Washington left with the second officer, and soon arrived at the house, where he knocked on the door. The door opened and they were greeted by a man in his early forties with light brown hair that was parted to the left, blue eyes, and wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt, navy blue jeans, and black Keds sneakers.
"Afternoon, gentlemen." the man greeted cordially.
"Arnold Fox, I presume?" Detective Washington implored.
"Yeah, that's me." Arnold said. "Would you like to come inside?"
"Yes, we would." Detective Washington answered.
"Good, because I have something you might wanna hear." quipped Arnold.
Detective Washington and the officer shared a look of surprise.
"Is that so?" questioned Detective Washington.
"Yup." Arnold nodded. "We'll talk more inside."
Arnold led the detective and the officer inside the house and instructed them to sit down on the loveseat while he took a seat in an armchair.
"It's about Amar Achaval's murder." Arnold informed. "I know who killed him."
"Alright. Who?" Detective Washington inquired.
Arnold sighed.
"It was Rachel." he admitted. "Rachel Stilton."
Detective Washington and the officer were very surprised indeed at this revelation.
"How do you know this?" the officer questioned.
"I'd like to discuss this at the station, if that's alright." offered Arnold.
"That's fine." Detective Washington agreed.
Soon, Detective Washington, the officer, and Arnold were in an interrogation room at the police station, and Arnold began to tell his tale, which was recorded onto a tape recorder that was placed on the table.
"You see, I must admit that Rachel and I were having an affair." Arnold confessed.
"That explains the love letters." Detective Washington declared. "Go on."
"Well, Amar somehow found out about it and told Rachel that he was going to tell Mr. Stilton about it." Arnold explained. "When he did, she sent him a note threatening him with death if he told Mr. Stilton about it, but he did anyway. Mr. and Mrs. Stilton got into a big argument about it afterwards and he threatened her that he would file for divorce and complete custody of Chloe and Zoey if she didn't break off the affair. She didn't take too kindly to it and agreed to break if off, so we did, and I thought that was that."
"Let me ask you one question; Did you ever have any conflicts with Mr. Stilton?" Detective Washington then asked.
"No, sir. He's been my best friend since we met during his junior year of high school." Arnold replied. "Anyways, just a few months earlier, Rachel called me and said she had an idea. That idea was to carry out her threat on Amar. Since she had a key to the drawer where Mr. Stilton kept his gun, she had easy access to it. She asked me to be the getaway driver. We arranged to pick up Amar and take him to the woods at Horseland. On the night he was killed, I picked Rachel up at the Stilton house. She was wearing a black sweater, sweat pants, and Doc Martens. Once she was in the car, we drove over to Amar's house and picked him up. Once he was in the car, we drove to the woods in Horseland. Amar got out first and walked far away from the car. That's when Rachel put on this ski mask she brought and followed him soon after. About an hour later, she shot him and ran back to the car after covering the body with a tarp she brought and some leaves and twigs on the ground and burying the gun under some rocks, then we fled, and returned later with the stuff she wore in a garbage bag that we dumped in a different area of the forest. That's my story."
Detective Washington nodded after hearing Arnold's testimony, looked at the officer, who also nodded, and stood up.
"Stand up and put your hands behind your back, please." he commanded. "You're under arrest for being an accessory to a murder."
Arnold complied, and he was soon handcuffed and escorted out of the interrogation room while Detective Washington went to his office to make arrangements for a warrant to be issued for the arrest of Rachel Stilton.
End of Chapter 4