Murder in the Mansion.

Prologue: “Isn’t it a sight?” said Ivy Florence to her husband, Leo Oscar.
“I’d be mad not to say yes!” laughed Mr. Oscar. The 65-year-old couple
was watching the fireworks on the century-old mansion’s balcony.

“Well, I’ll say, I’ll be back in a moment,” said Mr.Oscar, popping away.

“Yes, yes go,” said Ms.Florence, absolutely mesmerized by the crackers.

Time passed quickly, and Ms. Florence got out of her trance and went in
search of her husband.

She searched every nook and corner, then finally, panicking, went to the
massive living room to look.

When she went down the stairs, what she saw made her eyeballs jump out
of her face.

Leo Oscar was lying down, blood pouring down his face.

And then Ms.Florence screamed.

* * *

“I can’t believe it!” sobbed Ms.Florence. “One breath, he ‘s alive, and the
other blood’s down his face!”

“Calm down, Ms.Florence, we’ll get down to this, and I know the perfect
person to call,” says Inspector Robert Andrews.
“And who’s that?” Ms.Florence said in between sobs

“Why the mysterious, yet magnificent Ms...Moon,” says Inspector Andrews,

smiling.
* * *

“Do explain why Inspector Andrews called, Jasper?” said Ms.Moon, quite
impatient.

“It’s a mystery for me, Ms.Moon, luckily that’s our job, cracking mysteries!”

Ms.Moon frowned at Jasper; she didn’t like her impertinent assistant

cracking jokes, well, not in a time like this.

Jasper cleared his throat, noticing the cold air between them.

“Gosh, ain’t it- I mean, isn’t it hot in here?” quickly switching the informal
way to the formal one.

“I’m going to get some fresh air, Ms.Moon; care to come?” asked Jasper
hesitantly.

Ms.Moon narrowed her eyes at Jasper. “This is an airplane, boy, not a

train; sit down,” she said coldly.

Jasper reluctantly sat down and watched the clouds.

* * *
“Well, Inspector? Why have you summoned us?” urged Ms.Moon
sarcastically.

“Sorry about the long flight in, Ms. Moon, Jasper.” Inspector Andrews
apologized. “There’s a murder on the loose, Ms.Moon.”
“Well, couldn’t you have started with this before?” said Ms.Moon,
enchanted. “Take me there!”

* * *
They were in Crossheart Mansion, examining the body.

“Killed in the forehead, quite odd, if I may say so,” Ms.Moon said after
she finished examining the dead body.”This murderer was not
prepared; the person was taller than him, interesting..”

“Oh, one more thing, the man’s wife is in the opposite room,” he said,
then he whispered in Ms.Moon’s ears. “Good luck getting a word out
of her; she’s flooding the room!”

Ms.Moon nodded and walked into the room; seeing the woman’s
tears, she raced right back to the living room.

“Maybe sometime later, no time now, one more question, does the
couple have any children?” she said urgently.

“Two daughters, and a son, live at the Hallsworth Mansion. Hopefully,

you’ll be able to get some answers there!”

Ms.Moon agreed and shouted to Jasper, “Come on, Jasper, we’re

going to Hallsworth Mansion!”

* * *

“This is it.” Ms.Moon parked in front of a curvy tree, and looked up at

the massive mansion, and gradually progressed toward it.

Three people were outside: A smiley man, a prim woman, and

another woman sobbing.
“Well, a pleasure meeting you detectives!” the smiley man said. “I am
Muhammad, first son of Leo Oscar,” he beamed.

“I am sorry, hasn’t the news reached you yet?” said Jasper, clearly
perplexed.

“Your father has been murdered, boy!” said Ms.Moon, quite

disconcerted.

“Yes, yes, never mind about that, my sisters shall introduce

themselves,” said Muhammad, nodding at the prim face woman.

She came and surprisingly smiled.

‘ I am Pricilla, first daughter of Leo Oscar. We were delighted to know
that you were coming here.”

“You were?” Jasper mutters.

Ms.Moon steps on Jasper’s foot, “accidentally,” and points toward the

sobbing woman.
“If I may ask, who is she?” asked Ms.Moon, quite sharply.

Priscilla sighs, and Muhammad looks down, getting very interested in

his shoe brand.

“Kate!” yelled Priscilla.

Jasper jumped, quite surprised!

“Kate” slowly comes down to meet Ms.Moon and Jasper, still

sobbing.

“This is Katherine, second daughter of Leo Oscar,” said Muhammad,

still looking at his shoes.
 “And an utter disappointment,” Priscilla mutters under her breath.

“How’s Mother?” asks Katherine.

“She’s a tiny bit wound up, dear; she’ll be better tomorrow,” said
Ms.Moon sweetly.

Jasper was getting too bewildered; he had never heard Ms.Moon

speak like that to anybody!

“Shall we go inside?” asked Priscilla.

Ms.Moon nodded, and they opened the door to the massive mansion.

* * *
A moment later, they were in the hall of the Oscars, Pricilla was serving
tea, and Ms.Moon was asking questions.

“Well, Muhammad, your father left you any money?” asked Ms.Moon
innocently.

‘As a matter of fact, Ms.Moon, he did, 100,000 for each of us,” said
Muhammad sipping his tea.

Jasper spat out his tea.

“Jasper, manners!” proclaimed Ms.Moon, without looking at him.

“I’m sorry, I must have heard you wrong, I heard 100,000, stupid I!”

“I’m strangely afraid that’s right,” said Muhammad.

Jasper slowly sat back.

“Does Mr.Oscar have any close friends?” she asked.

“One, a man called Robertio, lives at Wood Street, awfully terrible if you
ask me.”

Ms.Moon turned toward Katherine now, who was looking at the window.

“Katherine? Did you like your father?” said Ms.Moon

“Like him? I loved him that ever, more than these ungrateful rats ever did!”
Katherine said fiercely.

Ms.Moon nodded and looked toward Priscilla. “You?”

Pricilla shrugged, her eyes not daring to meet Katherine’s. “He was fine.”

“I agree with that,” said Muhammad.

Ms.Moon stands up.”We’ll see ourselves to the door.”

And with that, she walked away.

* * *

On the car ride home, Jasper says, “It’s apparent the murderer is
Muhammad or Priscilla, just look at their love for their father, quite heart-
touching, don’t you think?” he says sarcastically.

“No, no, they wouldn’t have been so frank; I have my doubts on Katherine
though, either she is the killer, or she’s genuinely feeling pathetic,” says
Ms.Moon, taking a sharp left, nearly throwing Jasper out of the window.

“Honestly, if you ask me,” Ms.Moon says, taking no notice that Jasper’s
glasses have dropped down, “ We might need to pay a visit to Mr.Robertio.”
 * * *
“He was a jolly good lad!” Mr.Robertio calls, “My chap and lad!”

“Quite hard to believe he’s dead. . .” says Ms. Robertio, head down.

“Right, I need you to tell me what you were doing on Wednesday. 9,”
says Ms.Moon.

“I am sorry, but do you suspect us?’ says Mr.Robertio, quite offended.

“Protocol,” says Jasper, looking down at his notepad.

“I was at home, watching the final cricket match; England lost, could
have considered that as a sign,” sighed Mr.Robertio.

“By two runs,” Jasper muttered.

“Ms.Moon rolled her eyes and turned to Ms.Robertio.

“You, mam?”

“I was doing laundry; I’m a volunteer, night shift,” she says.

“I see..” said Ms.Moon. . . “No one had anything to do with the

murder. We’ll take our leave!”

“No, no, you must drink some tea!” Ms.Robertio urged.

Ms.Moon and Jasper looked at each other and shrugged; they’d been
here for an hour; what’s a couple more?
 * * *
“The cookies were fabulous!” exclaimed Jasper, barging into the room.
“Sadly, I could only eat a bit.”

Ms.Moon smiled. “Maybe sometime, I’ll make it for you, Jasper.”

Jasper suddenly got serious “No need!” he quickly said.

Ms.Moon frowned. “I’m not so bad at cooking myself!” she remonstrated.

Jasper put his hands to his hip. “Oh, really? Do you want me to remind you
of the bacon story, Ms.Moon?” Jasper smiled.

Ms.Moon had accidentally put the stove on fire while cooking bacon;
Jasper put it out and had to eat burned bacon for breakfast.

“Other than that?” Ms.Moon asks.

Jasper starts counting on his fingers. “The cake, the fudge, the hot
chocolate-”

“Okay, okay, one last time?” pleads Ms.Moon childishly.

Jasper thinks long and hard; he finally opens the drawers and pulls out the
fire extinguisher. “Just as long as no one uses this, we have a lot of
experience with this,” he mutters.

Ms.Moon nods and gets to work. She opens a cookbook and starts
reading.

* * *

“Ah!!” A scream from the living room startles Ms.Moon.

 Ms.Moon rushes into the living room and jumps.
Jasper had fainted.

* * *

Ms.Moon is in the tallest room of the mansion, pacing. “Arggh!” she

screams.
Her pacing gets quicker, then it stops; she looks toward the full moon.

And then something clicked.

* * *

“Thank you for meeting me so late in the night.” Ms.Moon says.

“Or morning. . “ Muhammed grumbles.

The family is gathered in Leo Oscar’s Mansion, very sleepy indeed.

“I have found the murderer,” says Ms. Moon, smiling.

Suddenly everyone is straight; their sleepy face has turned into serious
ones.

“In this night, I’ve made many stops, many that make the proof. .” says
Ms.Moon

She walks over to Katherine, and says “I am so sorry, dear, so sorry.”

Katherine’s eyes go wide “But it wasn’t me!” she proclaimed.

“I know, but I do know one thing, the assistant killer was, in fact” She turns
toward Ms. Florence. “You”
Ms.Florence steps up, and her eyes go in every direction, and then she
laughs.
Katherine lunged toward her mother, her hands balled into fists.
Muhammad and Priscilla hold her back, “You one eye, ruthless monster!”
she yells.

“Oh, come one, no jewelry, no dress, just plain! Didn’t buy one thing for me,
the man! Always hanging out at that bar of his!” Ms.Florence shouts

“Now, now, now, Ms. Katherine, do sit, for I will reveal the mastermind
behind this whole plan,” she said.

Katherine grabs a seat and sits down with a huff.

Ms.Moon’s gaze transfers over to the family Roberto’s. Her gaze is locked
on to Mr. Robertio. Instead, she says, “Ms.Robertio, stand.”

* * *
The families gasp!

“Now, I’ll tell my proof before you say anything. Earlier this night, I asked
the laundromat if they hired anyone called Colinni Roberto. I know your first
name,” she said.

Ms. Robertio’s gaze is on the full moon.

“Now,” Ms.Moon continues, “They said no, I wanted to be sure, so I went

into Roberto’s house.”

“You snuck into our house!?” exclaimed Mr.Robertio.

“Surprisingly,” Ms.Moon continues, taking no notice, “I found a pair of huge

high heels in the dustbin, a little bit of blood in the back of them wasn’t it?”
“When we came to your house, you poisoned Jasper with the cookies,
luckily I didn’t eat it, or else we’d both be in the emergen y,y chamber right
now,

So with this evidence, you killed Leo Oscar in the forehead accident ly,
because this was your first murder, wasn’t it? Ms.Ivy saw tat, talked to you,
and both became partners in crime. Am I correct?” Ms.Moon finishes off.

“I did it because I needed to, the late rent, fees, it all added up, so I did it,”
Ms.Robertio says tears coming to her eyes.

Ms.Moon sighed and called out, “Inspector Andrews!”

A figure emerged out of the shadows, Inspector Andrews, hiding beneath

all.
Alright, ladies, up and off.” he shouted. Ms. Florence is still cacking as she
goes in the cuffs.

Then there’s a creaking, and then there’s Jasper!

* * *

“Jasper, do sit down! Gosh, are you all right?”

“Yes, Yes, quite so,” caring most scarcely about his health. “Did you
get the murderer?” he asks.

“Why I did, Jasper!” smiles Ms.Moon.

Jasper quickly sits down and makes himself comfortable, “You must
tell me everything about it!” he urges.

“Why I will boy, I will. . . “ Ms.Moon laughs and sits down.

THE END