Chapter 8: A Throne of Lies

Paco and Ralph were still at the playground when they noticed the others were coming back. "It's about time!" said Ralph. "That felt way longer than 30 minutes," added Paco. After crossing the street, they waited for everyone to get out of the station wagon.

As everyone got out, Paco asked, "Find anything?" "We found nothing," said Jay. "Nothing!" repeated Dino. "Except one thing," said Tammy, "Some kid who was blue. Couldn't tell what he was, but he just vanished in the backyard." Ralph started to feel uneasy, remembering that he too saw that same kid. "That had to of been a ghost," said Sammy, "Nobody can convince me otherwise." "I wouldn't doubt that," said Duckie, "I heard the Watermans had a bit of a kill count."

Boozoo then saw Tammy holding the Waterman's photo book, as it sat in the car while they searched earlier. "Hey kid," he said, "About that book you're holding. How about I take that to the police station." Tammy turned around to face Boozoo. "You're still on about this book?!" she asked. "For heaven's sake, I'm trying to save you from trauma!" said Boozoo. Duckie came in, "Now you care about us not wanting to get trauma? What about that time you came in with a bulldozer and destroyed part of a playground?! Heck, what about that time you loaded our friend's bike wagon with heavy toy robots that sent him flying down a hill and almost off a bridge?!" "Get over the damn past!" Boozoo snapped.

While Tammy and Duckie continued to fight with Boozoo, the other kids just sat around awkwardly. "So...what did we miss?" asked Jay. "Not much Jay, it was boring," replied Paco. "Starting to think that duck and cat are a little psycho," said Ralph, "That old man has so many points." "Okay Ralph," Jay replied sarcastically. "What? Am I wrong?" asked Ralph. "Eh, sometimes," said Sammy, "But that's not the point. Point is, my sister and her future husband have delt with that old man in the past." "Future husband?" repeated Dino, in a way of asking. "Yep, future husband," said Sammy, as the others looked at her wondering what she ment, "I'm refering to Duckie." They then understood what she ment.

Meanwhile, Duckie and Tammy were still arguing with Boozoo. "I don't know why you insist on us giving you the book," said Tammy, "So what if we see some things we aren't ment to see?" "Because it could be harmful to your younger friends!" Boozoo replied, "But you know what? Go ahead, keep the book. You wanna see blood and scare your friends? Do so. With the Watermans out of prison, this could be our only chance of getting them locked up again and have the police learn new things about them. But I'm done making argument with you two." "Hold on a moment," said Duckie, as he pulled Tammy aside.

"What are you pulling me aside for?" asked Tammy. "Look Tammy," Duckie explained, "I don't like Ebenezer, he's a mean old man. But maybe he's right on this one." "You can't be serious," replied Tammy, then went on in sarcasm, "Give the book to old man Buttzoo. That would be a good idea, now wouldn't it?" "I know, but listen," Duckie continued, "There's already one who's possibly dead, Detective Raglan. Do we really want to see more get caught up in this? Or do we want to the Waterman couple stop before they try and rebuild their legacy again? Boozoo seems real about this, and maybe blew it out of proportion, but he doesn't seem to be lying about it."

Tammy really didn't want to argue with Duckie about this and she really didn't want to give the book to Boozoo. However, it may be for the best to give it to him to avoid any more potential victims. There still wasn't enough proof to indicate that they were part of taking the event's money, but at this point, it didn't matter. Whether they had something to do with it or not was still up in the air. Regardless, Tammy finally made up her mind on what to do.

"You know what?" she said, "Here you go." Tammy handed the book over to Boozoo, which really surprised everyone that she went through with it. Boozoo himself was surprised by this decision too. "Well, thank you," he said, then putting the book in his car as he sat back in it, "With evidence like this, there should be a manhunt on Lorenzo and Rachel once the police see this." He then closed the door and slowly rolled out, but stopped again as he rolled down the window.

"Oh yeah, one more thing," said Boozoo, "You won't be seeing me ever again after this." "You leaving or something?" asked Paco. "After I take this book to the police station, I will take whatever I have left, and be leaving Brighton," Boozoo explained, "There isn't much left for me here in the state of Michigan. So I think moving out of state would be a reasonable option. Anyway, I hope the manhunt is fun while I'm away." He then drove off.

"Okay, so he's going to turn the evidence in and we should see police get some more clues, right?" Ralph assumed. "I hope so," said Tammy, now feeling doubtful about what she had done. "You did the right thing," said Duckie, "We should start seeing progress within days." "And what if we don't?" Tammy asked. "Then we get that book back from Boozoo and read it ourselves," Duckie replied.

The best thing they could do is go home for now. With the photo book and Boozoo both gone, they really had nothing left to work with. And with the Watermans clearly relocated, there was nothing they could do until more info was revealed.

Friday

A good couple of days had gone by. Tammy and the others decided to relax a little, and enjoy Spring break through those days. They did their usual activities between then and now, with not much having changed. Today however was going to be a special day and the kids would find themselves back to investigating, but for all the wrong reasons.

Tammy's parents were watching tv and the news was playing. "Last week on a Saturday, fundraiser money went missing and a mess was left behind," said the reporter, "The police of both Brighton and Nash-Lake have been working hard to find out who is responsible for this. Nobody has come with any evidence or suggestions on who it could be, as any leads have been very minimal. We asked both police departments about it and they say even after a near full week, nothing has been found or reported. It's believed this case will remain unsolved soon. This is Shelly Hampton with Channel 67."

Tammy felt her stomach drop. The realization of what she did a couple days ago hit her hard. "It was lie..." Tammy thought to herself, "Boozoo sits on a throne of lies!" It was at this moment Tammy realized that Boozoo had never changed. He was still the lying, mean, and greedy dirtbag he was before. Now he had ahold of the Waterman's photo book for God knows what reasons.

Tammy got on the phone in the kitchen and quickly contacted Duckie. "Pick up! Pick up!" she said, struggling to stay patient. "Hello?" said Duckie's mom. "Hey Duckie's mom," said Tammy, "Is Duckie around?" "Oh, it's been a while since I heard that voice," Duckie's mom said, "He's around, I'll go get him."

In less than a minute, Duckie got on the phone, "Hello, Tammy?" "Duckie," Tammy explained, "Boozoo lied to us!" "What?!" "Yeah, Boozoo lied to all of us! And now he's got the photo book in his hands because we all fell for it!" "This is bad, this is REALLY bad! We need to get Boozoo!" "How can we when he's already gone?! That old man could be anywhere by now Duckie!" "Meet me outside of my house Tammy, we'll come up with something." "Alright, I'll see you there."

In 10 minutes, Tammy arrived outside of Duckie's house. Duckie had been waiting for her arrival. "So Ebenezer wasn't a man of his word, huh?" asked Duckie. "Not at all!" replied Tammy, "I knew giving him that book deep down was a bad idea! He sits on a throne of lies! Always has." "Let's think of something," said Duckie, trying to come up with a plan, "He drives a station wagon, right? Maybe we can track it down if he's still around. After all, you said he sits on a throne of lies, so he might be lying about leaving Brighton too."

The two then heard a car parking down the street. It was a station wagon and by some sort of streak of luck, it was Boozoo stopping on the side of the road to use the pay phone. "No way!" said Tammy. "Now that is luck if I've ever seen it," added Duckie. They then snuck over to listen in on whatever Boozoo was gonna say on the phone. Duckie and Tammy made sure to hide well.

"Hey, Boozoo here," Boozoo said on the phone, "Bad news, our pilot's plane broke down, so that's why he couldn't get down here sooner...Yes, I know...The book is in good hands, you've seen it already...How did I do it? I was able to play it off and convince them to give it to me. You learn a lot of things when you are locked up, and acting is one of them...Well, I'll meet you back at the old abandoned factory. Looks like it might take another day before we can get out of here." The old man then hung up the phone.

Duckie and Tammy looked at each other. "What is he talking about?" whispered Tammy, "He part of an underground organization or something? This doesn't make sense." "I think he's part of a secret society," Duckie whispered back, "But what matters most right now is we get that book back from him as quickly as we possibly can."

It was at this moment that Boozoo had drove away. Duckie and Tammy then came out of their hiding spots. "What abandoned factory was Boozoo refering to?" asked Duckie, "I can't think of any around here." Tammy then thought about and knew one one. "I know an abandoned factory!" she said, "The one on the hillside near that small railroad! It's the only abandoned one in town!" "Wow, you are a genius Tammy!" said Duckie, "It's getting close to dinner time for us. When we are done, we need to contact Jay and her friends. See if you can get Jay's phone number from Sammy." "That shouldn't be a problem," said Tammy.

The two went back to their homes. They knew something big was about to happen and they had a gut feeling the next encounter they would have with Boozoo would be a very confrontational one. Little did they know, things were about to get crazy from this point forward...

To be continued in the next chapter...

(Chapter 8 published 2/2/25)