Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club
Chapter 12B
The investigation
Daniel wondered what Owen was up to in the middle of the night. Could he be sleepwalking? If so, he might endanger himself, or more likely, other people or animals. His first instinct was to follow Owen. He waited until Owen walked past the creek and the tree where the monkey was sleeping. Then he got up from his bed.
The late night air was a little chilly. The monkey sat on a big branch, with his head resting on the fold of his arm. His eyes were not completely shut, but Daniel could tell that he was sleeping. His pupils were moving inside his sockets and his shoulders twitched involuntarily.
He heard Owen walking in the direction of the dinning hall. Soon Owen was in the dinning hall. Listening carefully, Daniel could hear that there was another person in the dinning hall. Daniel presumed that the person was the chef. He remembered that Owen told him that he went to the dinning hall for food at night. He was about to turn and go back to the dorm. Then suddenly he heard the movement of many people. It was strange that he didn't hear any breathing. He was wondering whether he should warn Owen. Before he could make a decision, he saw Owen walking out of the door. A cupcake was flying toward him at a very high speed. His first instinct was to jump aside. It missed him by just one inch. The cupcake hit the tree behind him with a solid sound.
"What are you doing?" Daniel shouted at Owen, "Trying to kill me?"
"I'm sorry," apologized Owen, "You were in the shadow. I didn't see that it was you. I'm so sorry."
"What happened in the dinning hall?" asked Daniel.
"I went to get some cupcakes," said Owen, "and what are you doing here so early in the morning?"
"You haven't answered me yet."
"They just started making breakfast," said Owen. "I mean chef Wong and the woodmen." Daniel realized that those movements were from the woodmen-they didn't breath.
"They knew you were there, didn't they," he asked.
"Sure," Owen answered. "Wait a minute. You followed me. You don't trust me!!!" He raised his voice.
He walked passed Daniel without waiting for an answer. Daniel tried to catch up with him, but Owen was so much faster than him.
"Wait, listen, I was just curious," said Daniel.
His voice seemed so loud; He was afraid that it was going to wake up everyone in the dorm. It did wake up the monkey. The monkey, however, tried to pretend that he was still asleep; but Daniel could tell that he was listening to their conversation. It made Daniel feel so stupid fighting with his best friend at four in the morning with a monkey as their audience. When he entered the dorm room, Owen was already in his bed with the sheet covering his head. Even the cakes were forgotten.
Daniel never really thought that his following Owen had anything to do with not trusting him. It was more out of curiosity and a little bit of concern. He was afraid that Owen was going to ignore him forever. He was glad to find that Owen actually talked to him the next morning.
"I'm really sorry," Daniel said to Owen.
"It's all right," said Owen. "I guess that I would have done the same thing if I found that you walked out of the dorm in the middle of the night."
"So you're not mad?"
"A little, I think," said Owen. "You don't think I stole the Golden Club, do you?"
"No, I would have known by now if you had it," said Daniel with a smile. "You wouldn't be able to resist using it"
Daniel started to wonder if he was going to find the right clue. He went to the library and checked out a lot of detective books. The librarian Miss Leventis looked at him with a knowing smile.
"What are you up to?" she asked, "Learning to be a criminal or detective?"
Daniel was annoyed but tried not to show it.
"I can tell you a lot of the tricks myself," said Miss Leventis behind the counter. "Did bit of both when I was younger."
Daniel could not help but think that with that much of knowledge in her head, she must have been very good at both; but he really wanted to do it on his own.
"Different people have different motives even if the crime is the same," said Miss Leventis without paying attention to Daniel's lack of enthusiasm. "Some people like the excitement. Some people do it for vindication. Some people try to prove something. For myself, I guess there were bits of everything. Liked to test if all the things I learned in the books were of any use..."
She kept going on. Actually, if it had nothing to do with what Daniel was doing at the moment, he might think she was interesting to listen to. He wondered if she was still doing them. Being a librarian certainly was not very exciting. Maybe that was just her day job.
Since there was not much physical evidence, Daniel thought that he might start by finding people with a motive. He had another talk with Jared. He found him after class. He was in the same class with Michelle. Daniel found that when they walked out of the classroom, they acted like complete strangers to each other. Michelle waved at Daniel but didn't come over to talk to him. When Jared saw him, he quickly walked over.
"You found anything?" he asked and signaled Daniel to walk with him.
"No, not a clue-"
"I told you I wasn't the right choice," said Daniel when he saw the slight disappointment on Jared's face.
"Sorry, guess I'm easy to read," said Jared. "But you understand how important the club is to me, don't you? You're my only hope." He looked sweet and helpless all of a sudden.
Daniel couldn't help thinking that it was how he manipulated his parents to get what he wanted.
"You don't have to flatter me," he said. "I gave you my word and I'll stick to it-do you know if there are people who hate you or are jealous of you?" he asked.
"I guess a lot of people are jealous of me," said Jared, unaffected by Daniel's bluntness. "I never really think about it-"
"I might have hurt a few people, unintentionally," he said after a few seconds. "I'm not sure."
Daniel was glad to hear that there was some sincerity in his voice.
"You don't hate me or anything, do you?" asked Jared.
Daniel wasn't sure if he was joking or not. "No," he said.
"Then there's one less person. I used to think that Michelle hated me. We fought over the same things all the time."
"Did you have a fight with her?" Daniel asked, although that was a question he didn't like to ask. He didn't want proof that Michelle could be the suspect, or anyone for that matter.
"Yeah," said Jared, "but it has nothing to do with the Golden Club. She has never been really interested in weapons."
The book is available at www.bn.com and www.amazon.com Search by the title. Author's blog: 360.yahoo.com/gcgustopher