“You want to go back to the house? Why?” Lilah asked appalled. She was leaning her back against the counter in the kitchen with a mug of coffee in hand. She stared at George from across the room as though he was an alien.
George was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of orange juice. After taking a sip, he shrugged his shoulders. “I was up late last night thinking. There is definitely something we’re missing and I think we should go there and solve this case once and for all.”
Lilah cocked an eyebrow up and remained silent. She took a sip from her coffee and continued to stare at George as though he had lost his mind.
“Are you with me, Lilah?” George asked after the elongated silence.
Lilah shrugged peering into her now empty coffee mug. She walked over to the sink and rinsed out her mug. “I’m just confused, I guess. We’ve been humming and hammering over this case for weeks; we tried to finally piece everything together last night and failed. So, after I went to bed, you stayed up and magically figured everything out?”
George grinned and nodded.
Lilah rolled her eyes. She was sick of this case and hoped that George had indeed figured it all out, but he didn’t have to be cocky about it. Plus, she had a feeling that whatever he figured out was too good to be true.
“I tried to go to bed the same time you did, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the case. I felt as though we got so close last night that I wanted to continue trying to piece everything together.” George explained.
“Sometimes that helps, but sometimes that just makes everything worse, George.” Lilah said. She turned back around from the sink and leaned against the counter again folding her arms across her chest.
“I agree,” George said nodding, “but I feel as though it helped this time.”
“So, what have you got, then?”
“I realized that we talked about every single person in that house trying to figure out if they could have been the culprit or not, but we forgot two people that also live in the house.” George stated.
He paused for which, Lilah assumed, was for dramatic effect. She leaned her neck forward a little trying to coax him to continue without trying to encourage his cliffhanger.
“The two children,” George said quietly.
Lilah narrowed her eyes at George and then she threw her head back and began to laugh. “What are you talking about?” she asked through chuckles. She lifted her head again to look at George with a wide smirk on her face. “You think the two kids had anything to do with a stranger stealing their car and then a strange woman doing something the man and then bringing the car back to the house?”
George leaned back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. He shrugged, still with the smirk across his face. “We’ve tried everything else and suspected everyone else in the house. I don’t think asking the kids a few questions would be a bad idea.”
“But they’re just kids, George. How old are they?” Lilah asked.
“I’m not entirely sure.”
“Well, they’re too young.”
“What makes you say that?”
“They were playing hide-and-seek with the butler. I think they’re pretty young.” Lilah scoffed.
George stood up from his seat and headed for the door. “Well, I’m going to go back to the house and ask to speak to the children about it. You can come with me if you want.”
Lilah opened her mouth to reply, but George had already stepped out into the hallway. She dashed after him and followed him down the hall and through the front door of their house.
“I’m with you, of course. But I still think this is very far-fetched.” She said.
George closed and locked the front door as soon as Lilah stepped down the front steps. He then walked off the front porch and stepped in front of her, Lilah following closely behind.
“It is, but it’s the only explanation I can think of. And trust me, it will all make sense once I explain everything to everyone.” George stated.
“Why can’t you explain it to me right now?” Lilah asked.
They made it to the sidewalk and George looked both ways down the street. As a tazi approached them, George waved his hand in the air and the yellow car pulled over to the side of the road. George opened the back seat door for Lilah, stepping aside to let her in first.
“Tell you now and ruin the big reveal? I wouldn’t dream of it.”
I hope you enjoyed part two of this mystery story! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
