Lauren was leaning against the wall, her face tight. Tess was moving side to side, and Jenny and fallen asleep on the ground, her head lying on her mums foot. I looked at my watch. It was past nine thirty. Ruth had just left, but I still and 4 suspects on my hands.
Sheckley caught my eye and he motioned me to come over. With one last a glance at my suspects; I began to amble over to my partner.
“Do you want me to copy it?” Sheckley asked, not looking up from his clipboard.
“Copy what?” I asked, confused.
“Knuckle’s phone call.”
I looked around, and noticed for the first time that Knuckle was on his cell phone, talking fast and quietly to someone on the other line.
“Yeah, it could be important.” I answered.
Sheckley pulled some sort of device from his blue uniform pocket. From what I’d heard, he’s a whiz with electronics.
Not bothering to ask what it was, I knew it would just confuse me, I asked how the questioning went instead.
“Well, I didn’t get much out of Tess except the fact that she was working late. But I think we can pretty much cross that Grunther lady off the list. She allowed me to check some of the video cameras in her room. She was there at 7:50 PM.”
“Was Lauren there?”
“No, but remember, she said that she was looking for her phone at 7:50pm”
“The question is, do we believe her?” I wondered thoughtfully.
Before Sheckley could answer however, his device beeped.
“His phone call is done. We can listen to the message now.”
He handed me the device and went over to retrieve the cell phone from Knuckle. Knuckle hesitated before finally giving up the phone. We plugged a wire in to the device, connecting it with the cell phone and we listened carefully.
“Hey, so did the board hear about this yet?” said the unmistakable voice of Bruce.
“No,” said deep voice of the other line, “but they will soon. When are you going to pay me?”
“Soon man, just wait till I get out of here. If this doesn’t get me off the hook, then you’ll get paid in about a month. Go tell Trudy won’t you? She’ll be happy to know that she’ll be getting her share soon.”
There was a soft beep and the copy was done.
My mouth gaped open, and I looked over at Sheckley. His sandy brown hair was damp with sweat, and his soft brown eyes were wide. This was exactly the type of evidence we needed.


I walked quickly over to my suspects, while Sheckley put cuffs over Knuckles wrists. Knuckle looked bewildered and in pain (the cuff were too small for his fat wrists) but I ignored this. We may not have enough evidence to clarify that he is guilty, but we had enough to know he needed to be taken in to the station.
“All right, this mystery is not solved, but Bruce Knuckle here will need to be taken in to the office for further questioning.” I sighed; knowing this would be a long night,
“You are all welcome to go home, but you may need to come in later for more questioning. Good night everyone,”
Tess leaned down to wake up Jenny, while I noticed Lauren stayed where she was, her eyes fixed on Tess and Jenny. Poor kid, I thought to myself.
“Take him to the truck Karen?”
“Yeah sounds good…” I blushed when I realised I didn’t know Sheckleys first name.
He smiled widely, “ Ryan.”
“Oh, right.” I looked away, embarrassed.
Lauren was gone, and I looked across the field to see a figure moving fast. I guess she decided to go home finally.
Tess was holding hands with a sleepy Jenny, strolled to the other side of the field, around the playground, where Jesse still lay. It troubled me thinking that Jenny’s life would be broken for a long, long time.
I moseyed over to our truck, with heavy despair over my shoulders. We had a long night ahead of us.