A. Renee Art

The next day, Sunday, the group met for breakfast, not really knowing what to do next, besides heading for the playground to look for a tree stump with a 24-year-old present that might not even be there anymore. They seemed closer to the truth, yet further away at the same time. Given Steve Moss’s notes, however, they knew they were on the right path.

“We still haven’t been into Bernard’s house,” Merc said.

“Steve eliminated him as a red herring,” Lydia said.

“But we haven’t, technically. I mean, even Scott had him as a suspect and marked him as ‘creepy’.”

Janet went over Steve’s notes again. “Steve said he received a key from that unknown contact with ‘B.H.’ on it.”

“This key,” Maddie asked, holding up the item in question.

When asked where she got it, Maddie explained that while everyone was asleep last night, she had gone out to Steve’s car and used the key she found near the well outside of Scott’s cabin and opened the glove compartment of his car, producing the key to Bernard Hopkins’s house and a final note from Moss that was torn from his notebook.

“I’m hot. He knows I’m onto him. Key is in the sewer.”

The note was immediately torn after the word ‘sewer’.

“Was it really him after all,” Merc asked.

“Only one way to know,” Janet said. “The girls can come with me. Can you two boys find a way into the sewers? There’s a map and key back at Scott’s place.”

“No problem. If Scott could go through them, so can we.”

“Don’t think the walkie-talkies will reach though,” Connor said.

“That’s why God made it so humans could invent cell phones,” Caylix said.

“Alright,” Janet said, taking Bernard’s house key. “Let’s go. You boys be careful.”

Bernard Hopkins’s house was nice, for a butler. Some furniture and boxes had been left behind. A few empty pill bottles were found in the downstairs bathroom on the sink and in the cabinet. Another room on the same floor yielded an unanticipated find.

“Bernard kept a stock of weapons,” Lydia gasped. Janet and the other girls hurried into the room. Inside they found knife cases in front of a window.

“One of the knives is missing from its case,” Caylix noted. “Scott was stabbed by someone, remember?”

Janet remembered and said, “Someone with a connection to Vivian. There’s a gun case, but Vivian wasn’t shot. She was hacked to death with—”

“An axe,” Maddie pointed up to an axe case at the opposite wall. Converging on it, they noticed that it had been broken into. Shards of glass were strewn about the floor.

“So that’s it,” Caylix said. “It was Bernard. He did kill Vivian!”

“Looks that way to me,” Lydia agreed solemnly. “Unfortunately.”

“No, wait,” Janet said. “This is Bernard’s house. He wouldn’t break into his own cabinet.”

“Oh right. He wouldn’t.”

“In addition to that, if Steve was here and saw the same thing while being led to believe Bernard was the killer, then…Wait. Bernard left Painscreek in ’96 with Charles and Trisha, then Steve arrived in ’97 to investigate. He entered Bernard’s house and saw that this cabinet was broken into. But Steve later believed he was led astray and that Bernard was a red herring. I think the real killer entered this place and broke into Bernard’s axe case and took one of the axes to lead Steve off the trail!”

“The killer was here,” Caylix said with alarm. Suddenly the sewer sounded safer.

“But they’re gone now,” Janet quickly assured her. “Everyone’s…gone, Caylix. Let’s go upstairs.”

Lydia winced and remembered the missing vase of flowers from the cemetery when Janet said that everyone was gone.

They left the room for the second floor. On the way, Lydia spotted a book with Vivian’s face on it on a nearby table, a memoir she had written.

There were two rooms upstairs, so Janet and Lydia entered Bernard’s office using the key Merc found in the locker room at the mansion. Maddie and Caylix checked his bedroom.

They found a journal in his nightstand and more empty pill bottles. The journal described the daily effects of the migraine medication he was taking and a few other thoughts. Sometimes he would ask for days off due to his migraines and other times he would not take his medicine.

What began as migraine medication journal, however, soon turned into something else. There were a few subtle love confessions toward Vivian, even fantasies involving her. He eventually thought she was having an affair and expressed jealousy that she didn’t choose him to have the affair with.

He was wrong, of course. The current investigators knew that she was seeing that man because of the new art exhibit she was putting together, per her diary, but he never found that out.

Bernard worried about her a lot given her troubles with her family and Scott asking around about Sofia and wished he could comfort her and make her happy. He kept an eye on Scott, per Vivian’s request, saying he would do anything for her.

Later, he wrote of Vivian’s death and his shocked reaction to the news.

Bernard said he brought some of Vivian’s things back to his place after the maids found them while cleaning. Charles let him take care of them. He suspected Scott of killing Vivian. His migraines got worse and eventually, he stopped taking his medicine.

The entries ended with information for the combination to Bernard’s locked top desk drawer. It was marked “day of dad’s death”, the day of the mining disaster: 3273.

In another drawer Maddie looked through, she found a picture of Vivian with a big red X across her face and the word “Bitch!” on the back.

In one of the desk drawers in his office, they found a bunch of unsent love letters to Vivian. Lydia asked if they were planted, but reading some of them, Janet thought they appeared serious enough to be real.

Caylix and Maddie entered the office.

With the information from Bernard’s medication journal, Janet opened the locked desk. Inside was a newspaper heralding Vivian’s death with a long-wilted rose on top of it and a key labeled “V.R.” There was another newspaper headline explaining that Scott Brooks was no longer considered a suspect weeks after being questioned. Scrawled across his photo was a giant X in black marker and the words “HE MUST PAY!”

“What’s that,” Maddie asked, pointing to some floorboards underneath where Caylix was standing. When she looked closer, she jumped away.

“Blood,” she exclaimed.

“What,” Janet said. Getting a closer look, she confirmed that it was indeed bloodstains. “Lydia, give me the hammer.”

“My art teacher was right,” Lydia said, handing it to her. “She said that a young woman must always keep a hammer around.”

“You have a good teacher, Liddie.” Janet ripped up the nails and removed the board revealing a bloodied serrated knife. The knife looked like the ones in the case downstairs. Everyone gasped and Janet quickly snapped a photo.

“I have a plastic bag and gloves.”

“No. Let’s leave it for the police, to keep the chain of evidence pure.”

“Right. So that’s it then. Bernard tried to kill Scott!”

Janet placed the board back and a book on top of it.

Caylix’s cell phone rang. “Moshi moshi? Connor…So you two are at the hospital…That’s good! Well, we’ve eliminated Bernard as a suspect. Hai, ja ne.”

“Well,” Janet asked as Caylix hung up.

“Connor and Merc didn’t find any keys, but they found another way back into the hospital and got the power back on, so we can get into Dr. Johnson’s office.”

“Awesome!”

“They said they also found something else, though they didn’t say what.”