Who Dunnit Part 3

Who Dunnit? Part 3

L.M Owens

 

12 o’clock chimed, bringing with it another inch of snow. Lily and Matthew were thankful that Katie had photographed the weird marks from yesterday as most snow would have covered any trace of evidence. They told their parents that they were going sledging, which wasn’t exactly a lie as they were likely to do this at some point. Running into their play hut, they spied out of the windows and waited for Katie and Amilia. Eventually, they arrived ten minutes late and with so many layers on, they looked like giant teddy bears. When they saw Lily and Matthew peering out of the window, they scurried up and joined them in the hut. “Sorry we’re late!” said Katie hurriedly, “I told my mum we were going out in the snow and she made sure we wore every piece of winter clothing we owned! “That’s ok,” said Lily, “Now, let’s get down to business. Does anyone have anything to report? Any new leads?

“Yes!” said Amilia breathlessly. “Someone let a cockerel in our house at 4:00am and it crowed all morning, Mum’s sure it was Katie! Remember those funny shapes in the snow surrounding the trip wire? We also found them in our back garden when the cockerel woke us up.  They led up to our backdoor, and that was the only day we forgot to lock it!  In fact, we noticed them everywhere around Crawick! Thankfully, Katie snuck out and took all of these pictures, (she showed them on the phone) because this new layer of snow has almost erased any trace.  Ohh if only there hadn’t been a blooming power cut, then we could have checked the CCTV cameras and it would be clear for everyone to see who was behind all this mischief!” Lily rubbed her arm soothingly. “Don’t worry Amilia, we’ll prove to everyone in Crawick that it wasn’t us. Let’s go down and sledge for a bit to cheer us up.”

They were just about to file out of the play hut when Lily yelped. “Oh my! What the…?” The others followed her shaky finger and their hands leaped to their mouths. Four cans of cider lay in the corner of their hut. “Dad’s cider.” She stared aghast at the crumpled, empty cans. “Should we tell?” said Matthew worriedly. “And be throttled half to death? No thanks!” cried Lily scathingly. “They’ll all think it was us!” Nodding her head and smiling grimly, Katie twitched a blanket from the pile in the corner over the cans. “Just in case any nosey parker comes peeking through the window. We’ll deal with this later. C’mon, may as well sledge for a while.”

The day was full of fun and laughter as the children momentarily forgot their worries as they careered wildly down the hill on their sledges until their hands became numb and their feet ice blocks. On the road home, they chatted animatedly until they noticed a figure walking towards them. As he came closer, he tutted disapprovingly. “You’ll be the four troublemakers then.” He was an old, stooped man with a walking stick grasped in his brown aged spotted hand. “Poor Wilma.” He shook his head. “What do you mean?” asked Katie anxiously. “I thought she was ok!” “Yeah well she was rushed to hospital last night with a suspected hip fracture! But I suppose it was worth it for your little moment of fun?” he glared at them. “But we didn’t…” began Matthew heatedly. But the old man interrupted him. “Don’t think no one saw you the other night. I look out of my window across the river and what do I see? Four kids carrying a cockerel! You’re not fooling anybody.” And with that, he shuffled away glancing back and throwing them contemptuous looks.

The children stared at each other. Matthew gnawed at his stubby nails. Amilia bit her lip so hard it would soon draw blood. Katie shuffled her feet and stared at the ground. Lily, who had been chewing her hair, looked up nervously. “Hello Zach.” Everyone else’s heads snapped up to watch as a second figure approached them. Zach ignored her. Instead, he held up a piece of paper in his hand, shoving it under Amilia’s nose who stepped back in alarm. “That’s the bill. We’ve got to pay the vet £200 for what you’ve done. Ollie had an allergic reaction to that paint!” he scowled, without looking at her. As he turned to leave, he glared at Matthew. “And I’d appreciate it if I could have my bike back. And I swear Matthew, if I get it back in pieces, you’ll be buying me a new one!” The four stared miserably at each other. “You know, I don’t even blame Zach for being angry with us. All the evidence does point to us. And if this had happened to our dog, and my bike, I’d feel exactly the same.” said Matthew.

They all nodded and ran up the hill. As they reached the play hut, Matthew remembered that Dad had borrowed their seats for his own hut so they hurried towards Dad’s shed to retrieve them.  The shed door was conveniently open. Even before the contents inside came into their line of vision, the children knew that something wasn’t right. The air was thick with a deep feeling of foreboding that made them instantly wary. Matthew, who was the first to the door, gave a low moan when he saw what was sitting in the shed. A mangled piece of blue metal, two flat tyres and a squashed bell lay in a heap on the floor. Zach’s bike. Above it stood dad, arms crossed, eyes blazing. “Explain.” he said through a lipless mouth. And the children launched into speech. After a quarter of an hour of coherent explanation, Dad was forced to accept that the foursome was indeed innocent. “So, you think someone might be stealing the garments off your snowmen as a disguise, to frame you?” Dad asked, his brow furrowed. They all agreed with bated breath. “Well,” began Dad. “If you want to find out who’s stealing your stuff and causing all this trouble, you could set up my wildlife camera and catch the thief in action.” Dad glanced out of his shed window at the descending darkness. “It’s getting late, you should probably go home now. I’ll set up the camera.” They all trooped outside and Katie and Amilia waved as they reached the driveway, before trotting down the hill. “I wonder who we’ll catch!” said Matthew excitedly. As the siblings walked inside, Dad fixed the camera to a tree opposite the snowmen, covered it in leaves and pressed record.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Katie and Amilia hammered on Lily and Matthew’s door. Matthew opened it quickly, bouncing on the balls of his feet and grinning from ear to ear. “Have you got the footage?” asked Katie, frantically unravelling a scarf from around her neck. Lily appeared in the doorway, holding up the wildlife camera and smiling. “Come on, we can watch it in my room.” she said. The children trooped upstairs and sat on Lily’s bed, staring at the camera expectantly. Lily propped it up on a stack of pillows and with trembling fingers, pressed play.

A figure stirred in the shadows and began to make its way forward. It’s arms were so thin and spindly they looked as though they could be blown away with a single gust of wind. Who was it? It’s body was as round as a plum. It’s bright orange nose was at least five inches long and it’s feet were curved and rectangular. Three more figures joined the first. They looked identical.  The first rascal skipped off towards the washing line and began to pull it down. Two more ran at the bird feeders and stole the fat balls from within- starting a game of tennis with rackets that had been left on the ground. Suddenly, the last of the intruders pointed straight at the camera, pulled a chunk of their own flesh from their stomach, and hurled it at the lens – covering it in white, wet splodges.

They all sat staring at the blank screen. Their faces resembled those who had been recently hit over the head with clubs. Finally, Amilia broke the silence. “The snowmen!” She stared at them all, her face a mask of shock. “How will we prove it? No one will believe us!” “Your dad does. I think I might have an idea…” said Katie thoughtfully. “Does he use Facebook?” “Yes.” the siblings replied.

After writing a careful and thorough explanation of the strange happenings in Crawick, Lily and Matthew’s dad uploaded their comments along with the video footage, to “The Town of Sanquhar” Facebook page, asking everyone to share and spread the news and evidence of their innocence in a bit to restore their tattered reputations. Hopefully this does the trick, said Amilia, crossing her fingers.

“What about the snowmen though?” asked Matthew. “It’s time to put an end to their skulduggery!” replied Lily firmly. They marched outside; heads held high. But when they reached the garden, all that was left were four hats and scarves and four carrot noses amidst diminishing blobs of snow. Seeing as they could no longer have the confrontation that they wished for, they enjoyed the last of the bodies with a snowball fight. “Take that, you abominable snowmen!” as the remainder of their bodies were scattered all over the garden.

When they arrived back inside, news and messages of support from Facebook were already flooding in. Dad was in the process of fixing Zach’s bike and Zach couldn’t stop apologising for ever suspecting them. The five of them set about tidying up the street and best of all, Wilma was returning that afternoon from hospital, fit as a fiddle. “Well done kids, you could be detectives some day!” said Dad, clapping them on the back. The four friends grinned and took a bow.

THE END