The Mystery of Poplar Cove: Chapter Three

Written by Mary More

Chapter Three

Alex and Penny gobbled down their lunch. “Slow down, twins”, said their mother. “You act like you’re going to a fire”. “Okay mom. It’s just that we have to meet Kate and Kenny……..” Penny kicked Alex under the table and frowned at him, warning him not to say too much. Finishing their last bite, the twins went bounding out the door taking the porch stairs two at a time as they headed down towards the river. Their mother yelled, “Hey, wait. You didn’t brush your teeth”, then sighed a heavy sign of resignation as she realized they didn’t hear a word she said. “Those twins!” she exclaimed, smiling and shaking her head as she went back to washing the dishes.

On the outside, the “fort” looked like the rest of the trees and brush close to the bank of the river. Alex and Penny walked around to the river side where there was a well hidden entrance. They looked up and down the banks to make sure nobody was watching before they separated the brush, bent down and crawled into the fort.

Inside there was a large natural clearing where brush had died off leaving an empty space about 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. It was just the right size for the four of them. The boys had discovered the clearing when they were only 6 years old, and had laid claim to it as their hideout. The four of them had spent many hours there, the girls playing house, the boys talking and planning tricks to play on the girls. The girls had made the clearing into a little room, complete with a couple of old crates that doubled as shelves. They had found an old discarded area rug in someone’s trash, and that was on the floor. There were pillow cases filled with dried grass and leaves for them to lean against or sit on. It had all of the comforts of home. Each of the twins had contributed in some way to the things that made up this little private getaway. The boys had found arrow heads, and interesting jars and bottles that sat proudly on the shelves. They had also rigged up a trap that they armed whenever they left the fort. If ever some unwelcomed visitor were to enter their fort, the trap would be tripped, and the intruder would be pelted by the pebbles that filled the pail. So far, nobody had invaded their fort, but they continued to set the trap anyway, just in case.

Kenny and Kate were already there when Alex and Penny came in. They all were so eager to talk about the exciting developments of the mystery they had found themselves smack dab in the middle of.

Kenny pulled out his small notepad so he could make a list, and began to think aloud. “We need to get organized. We need a plan! First of all, let’s take inventory of what clues we already have, and what we need to do next.”

Penny and Kate both presented their finds. Kate opened the tissue carefully revealing the hair she had discovered. “I found this in the shower drain!” “Awesome”, exclaimed the boys. Having been wrapped in tissue, the hair had dried, and they could see that it was red. Penny then opened the envelope to reveal the red hair strands she had recovered. “We found these up in the Cragen’s bedroom on the pillow”, she exclaimed. “Red hair”!! Some stranger was definitely in that house, was lying in that bed and even took a shower. This red hair couldn’t possibly belong to one of the Cragens”. “Good job, girls”, said Kenny as he began to list their findings on a page he had entitled CLUES.

1.Strands of red hair from pillow.

2. Red hair from bathroom drain.

3.Broken kitchen window. (Obvious break-in)

4.Bloody shoe print with “S” pattern on sole

Kenny again asked himself, “Where have I seen the “S” pattern of that bloody shoe print before?” He pondered that........."where?"

Kate reached behind one of the crates and into the brush pulling out a tin fishing tackle box. She opened the lid and put the tissue and envelope containing the hair samples inside. Placing the box back into the hole in the brush, she carefully arranged the twigs, completely obscuring the “safe’s” hiding place. There! The clues were safe.

Kenny reached inside of the backpack he brought back to the fort. He had flashlights for everyone, his digital camera, baggies to put evidence in, candy bars for quick energy, rope just in case, a whistle, just in case, qtips, because they used them on CSI, notebooks and pencils for the others, four bottles of water and a book. The book was entitled “Unsolved Mysteries”. He was reading it and wanted to have it in the fort for reference.

Penny put the water and candy bars into an old cooler they had in the fort. It didn’t have ice in it, but it kept ants out of their supplies of food and drinks. Kate had gathered some wild flowers earlier, and they were in a jelly jar sitting on top of the cooler. “Pretty”, thought Penny. “The boys never even noticed, I bet. Boys!!!” she sighed heavily.

“We need to go back to the Cragen’s,” Kenny told Alex. “I think that the girls should stay here, this time, though.” Simultaneously, the girls yelled, “NO WAY!”. They all laughed. That happened so often. They had decided that twins have an ESP that others don’t have, and that it works back and forth between pairs of twins as well as between the siblings themselves. They were convinced of this, and each time they saw evidence to that fact, they were all the more sure that the four of them could communicate on a level that other “regular” siblings and friends could not. It made them feel special and gave them a special bond as well.

“Okay, okay, you girls can come too. Sheeezzzzzz….a man can’t get away from his sisters for a minute!” Said Alex as he reached over and tugged lightly on Kate’s hair. Kate let out a fake “Ouch” and fowned, though the frown fast became a grin. Alex had called her his sister too. She liked that.

“This is what we’ll do”, said Kenny quietly, in case anyone was listening that shouldn’t be. “We’ll scatter and then meet back in that small clearing outside of the Cragen’s place that we hid in earlier. We’ll go back into the house. I want to recheck under that kitchen window to see if there are any footprints out there. Alex, you and I need to go down into the basement and see what we can find down there. The girls let out a little screech and hugged one another. “Girls, we need you two to stay upstairs, gather some samples of blood from the chair and the footprint, so take some q-tips and baggies. Also, we need you to look around for other clues like mail, or notes. Check desk drawers and that sort of thing. See what you can find that doesn’t appear to belong there.”

“Okay, we all have our jobs set for us,” said Alex quietly. “Ready? One, two, three, SCATTER” he whispered as loudly as he could. The twins took off once again, all in different directions. Kenny, grabbing his backpack, stayed a moment longer to set the trap and then he too was off.

The adrenalin was flowing through Kenny unlike anything he had ever felt before. He couldn’t believe that he had an actual mystery to solve. He’d read mystery novels since he had learned to read. He knew that he was meant to be a detective or a spy, and this adventure was doing a lot to reinforce that desire in him. He was a natural. Totally lost in his thoughts as he rank Kenny didn’t see the raised branch on the ground in front of him. He tripped and fell. Picking himself up, he bent down for his backpack. In doing so, something shiney caught his eye. Brushing the leaves aside, shining in the sunlight was a necklace. It was a large cross that he recognized immediately. It belonged to Mrs. Cragen. She wore it all of the time and was so big, you couldn’t miss it. Even his mother had remarked about it while talking to Mrs. Cragen one day. Mrs. Cragen had said that her grandfather, a silversmith and had made it for her. She treasured it and never took it off. Kenny shivered involuntarily. For a moment he wondered if they hadn’t gotten themselves into something that was bigger than they were. Maybe they should tell their parents. Maybe the police should be called. But then, the latent detective in him took over once more and he knew that this case was his big chance to prove to everyone that he was indeed a detective. He needed his chance to solve this case. He just needed a few more clues. Back to business at hand, he once again took off running in the direction of the meeting place. Maybe this time they would find the missing pieces to the mystery that would make it all come together and make sense of what had happened.