Quitetly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled his body for action. He stealthily took a peek and saw a white van with a red logo on the back door, “Catering Services Inc.,” peering in from the window. Quiggly walked along the sidewalk and peeked through a window that was only a few inches away.
Suddenly, a voice rang out. “I can’t believe you actually did it, Quiggly! I mean, I’ve been talking to you for five minutes about how dumb your ideas were and then you just show up here in the middle of the night! I guess we were wrong about you…I mean, we didn’t want to believe it but look at this,” a young man’s voice said. He turned and walked out of the window and was replaced by a man who was older than the man who had just left. “I knew he was bad news from the moment we met but he just didn’t seem like a murderer. But now I know for sure: this guy is definitely a murderer,” the second man said, “and if he was in the office, then he’s probably our murderer. Let’s get out of here.”
Quiggly opened his backpack and took out his flashlight. He made his way to the door and turned off the overhead lights. Quiggly peeked through the window and saw the man who had said “this is dumb,” leaving the office and walking toward the alley. He decided to follow him. Quiggly tried the door knob, but it was locked. He then decided to check the windows. The top window was wide open. Quiggly reached up and grabbed the sill of the window, and opened it up, carefully shimmying himself into the small opening.
“Oh crap, this is not good,” Quiggly whispered to himself, as he grabbed his flashlight and pointed it upward. He shimmied up onto the ceiling in search of the man who had gone into the alley, and saw him there and also saw a small, black bathtub. Quiggly continued to climb as he shimmied over the man to the bathroom and quickly shined his light on him. The man had his back turned to him and was fumbling with a bathtub. Quiggly quickly put his flashlight down and approached the man’s backside. The man looked back to face him with a surprised look on his face, only to see Quiggly’s sword raised high into the air. The man then screamed loudly and fell over.
“Oh no, this is not good. This man knows about me. He must be the murderer,” Quiggly mumbled to himself. He quickly grabbed the man by the shirt and slid his sword into the man’s heart. As Quiggly pulled out his sword, the man let out a loud sigh, and slowly, but surely began to transform into a pile of ashes. Quiggly did the same for the man who had been in the office. He got down from the ceiling and pulled out a fire extinguisher from the side of the van and sprayed the ashes with it. Once they were finished, Quiggly went back to the restaurant, which was now closed for the night.
He took the small bathtub from the van and placed it into the back of the SUV. Quiggly then went to one of the rear storage units. He opened it up and removed a large black trash bag, but he immediately felt a very cold breeze hit his body. He looked to the right and saw an elderly man standing there, who looked as if he was a ghost. Quiggly walked over to him and asked, “Is this Mr. Hedgepeth’s office? “
“That’s right” The man said, “I’m Mr. Hedgepeth, Mr. Hedgepeth.”
“Are you the murderer, Mr. Hedgepeth?”
“Don’t be silly. I would never hurt an old lady like her.”
“So you didn’t kill her?”
“No, I didn’t kill her, but that was obviously done by you. I’m telling you, Quiggly, I’m innocent, but I have no idea why the police think I did it.”
“Well, they must have gotten their ideas from a white van that is sitting on your driveway. If I’m not mistaken, that’s your van, isn’t it, Mr. Hedgepeth?”
“How did you know that? “
“I wasn’t here very long, but I saw it when I was outside earlier. It’s pretty obvious, though, even to an idiot like me.”
“What am I going to do? Oh, the police will probably come here next. Please go and tell them what you’ve just found out. I’ll wait for you inside the van.”
Quiggly went back out of the storage building and then back onto the sidewalk. He walked past the restaurant with his flashlight outstretched and shining towards the side of the building. He saw a man standing there on the sidewalk and a man in a dark van.
“Well, look who’s here,” the man in the van said. “The detective is here. I guess the stupid police department did come out to see if we were going to tell them anything. What is it, Quiggly? Why do you look so sad?”
“I just saw your boss, Mr. Hedgepeth, standing there talking to the police,” Quiggly replied. “He says he’s innocent, but the police do believe him to be the murderer. Mr. Hedgepeth says you were the one who murdered Ms. Jasper, but I told him you couldn’t have done it because you have no reason to kill anyone. I’m also very sorry for killing the other man who I didn’t know was going to be a murderer, but I am innocent, just as he is. I’m sorry to have to kill you, but I can’t let them take me. Mr. Hedgepeth, if you wouldn’t mind waiting in the van for a bit, I think I can take care of this.”
“That’s all right, Quiggly. I’ll do just as you say. I’m sorry that I made such bad mistakes.”
“It’s not your fault, Mr. Hedgepeth, and I’m sorry for taking you away from everything you hold dear. Now, please, if you will excuse me, I have to take care of this and then I’ll be out of your way. I’ll see you inside the van, won’t I?”
“You’re right. I guess I’m going in there for a little while. I’m sure it will be quite awkward for me until I get this all sorted out, but I’m sure it will be fine. Good luck, Quiggly.”
“Thank you for everything, Mr. Hedgepeth.”
Quiggly went back into the storage building and quietly shut the door behind him. He then pulled out the fire extinguisher and sprayed all over the black bathtub. Quiggly didn’t see or hear anything inside the bathroom. He then moved on over to the open window and slowly slid down the white sheet to the ground. He then stood up and ran to the back of the car with the bathtub and dumped it in the trunk of the car. He then drove away as fast as he could with Mr. Hedgepeth’s van in the next row behind him.
He ended up being able to outrun the car that was chasing him for a long time before it finally stopped. As he turned into his neighborhood, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw his sister with a large crowd of people. He pulled into the driveway and parked in the garage. He got out of the car and walked over to his sister, who was smiling at him.
“Hi, brother, are you back?” he said.
“Yeah, I made it back just fine,” he said.
“How did you get that cut over your eye?” his sister asked.
“Oh, that’s a long story,” he said, “but we can discuss it inside. Let’s get inside.”
“Okay,” she said, and they went inside to the kitchen.
“What have you been doing lately? I’m curious.”
“Hey, sis,” he said, “you’re not going to believe me, but I have seen and done a lot in the past few days. Now I don’t want to be the one to break the news to you, but Mom and Dad are dead. It’s not their fault, because I forced them to leave.”
“What! How can that be? What do you mean you forced them to leave?”
“Oh, and you can expect them back within the next day or so.”
“But I don’t understand what you mean. You don’t have the power to force people to leave forever.”
“Okay, fine. If I can’t explain it to you, I’m sure you can figure it out with time. Just do me one favor, though, and don’t tell anyone I’m back. I
