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“Let me see that.” Bryan practically tore the silver bauble from Josh’s hand, and in the process the change was scattered onto the ground. Josh bent down to pick it up while Bryan examined the earring. He turned it over and over in his hands, touching the elaborate wings and the diamond tipped antennas.

“What is it?” Josh asked. His heart was beginning to pound faster, though he wasn’t sure why.

“Lily never got her ears pierced, so this earring couldn’t have been hers.” Bryan’s face flushed with a combination of excitement and fear. “Do you know what that means? This earring must belong to the killer!”

“
Try not to get too excited about this,” Josh cautioned Bryan. “We can’t be sure where that earring came from.”

Despite Josh’s warnings, Bryan’s enthusiasm wouldn’t be curbed. As he paced up and down the living room, filled with renewed vigor, Josh knew he hadn’t really heard him at all. Bryan was clinging to the small earring with a passion that bordered on desperation. While he rambled on about the potential of their first clue, Josh’s mind wandered.

He looked around the room, and noted with mild distaste that it wasn’t much bigger than his master bathroom. The flowered couch and organdy loveseat was a mismatched pair, and the shaded brown rug had cigarette burns all over it. The coffee table was minus one leg, and stacks of magazines had fallen haphazardly across the floor. Yet, even amongst the debris there were still remnants of Lily. Her windbreaker was hanging off the arm of a chair in the dining room. There were girly teen magazines among the pile scattered on the floor, and there were a few bottles of nail polish sitting by the staircase. Josh had the feeling that before Lily had died, things weren’t quite as messy.

“I don’t know why you’re not more excited,” Bryan complained. Josh wrinkled his nose in distaste as Bryan lit a cigarette he pulled from a pack in his pocket, and sat down beside him on the musty couch. It was bad enough outside, but Josh hated when people smoked in closed quarters. “It must belong to the killer. Who else could it belong to? It definitely isn’t Lily’s.”

Josh wasn’t nearly as convinced. “Maybe one of Lily’s friends lost it. Maybe it’s your mom’s. There are a million scenarios that make more sense than just assuming it had to come off the killer.”

Bryan tossed the earring down onto the broken table in disgust. When it started to slip down toward the floor, Josh caught it in his hand. He studied it closely. It was a butterfly. He ran his fingers along the intricate wings. He had seen it somewhere before. He was sure of it. As a photographer, he was used to noting small details others might miss. The face that the earring belonged to sat just on the edge of his memory, but no matter how hard he grasped at it, it was just out of reach. He didn’t mention the familiarity to Bryan. He had enough false hope at it was.

“All right,” Bryan agreed. He blew a stream of smoke out of his nose. “I won’t expect anything. But I’m going to ask all of Lily’s friends if they lost an earring like this. I’ll even check with my mom, if I can get her out of her drunken stupor long enough. If it doesn’t belong to any of them, I think it’s safe to say we found our first clue. In the meantime, I think we should make a list of suspects and go over everything that happened in the last week.”

Bryan set his half-smoked cigarette in a nearby ashtray and took out a wire-rimmed notebook from his backpack. There were some hastily scribbled history notes on the first few pages. He flipped through them until he reached an empty page, and started to jot down names.

1) Nadine Morris

2) Jasmine Preston

3) Elena Huber

4) Rosa McBride

“Rosa is not a suspect!” Josh exclaimed when he saw her name appear on the list. “She didn’t even know Lily!”

“We discussed this before,” Bryan replied calmly. “We can’t let our personal feelings get in the way. Rosa was angry when she found out about the other girls, wasn’t she?” Josh huffed and crossed his arms instead of answering, but Bryan wouldn’t let it go. “Well, wasn’t she?”

Josh had to agree, however reluctantly. “Yeah, she was a little angry. Who wouldn’t be? But weird things started to happen before she knew about the other girls. So doesn’t that exclude her?”

Bryan shook his head. “Not really. She could have found out sooner than you thought.  And isn’t she some kind of science genius? She would know better than any of the other suspects how to mix a rat poison cocktail.”

“It’s not that difficult to get rat poison,” Josh argued. “Anyone could have done it, whether they were a scientist or not.”

“Maybe we need to look at the time line,” Bryan suggested. “When did you first get sick?”

Josh thought about it, and then wished he hadn’t. Just the memory of the awful weekend was enough to kill the little appetite he had. “Thursday afternoon,” Josh recalled. “I figured someone must have gotten into my locker where I kept my medicine. That would rule out Jazz since she doesn’t go to school with us.”

“She could have easily slipped into the school if she wanted to. No, we can’t eliminate her just for that reason. But let’s move on. Did anyone know about all four girls before you decided to jump ship and break up with them all?”

“Well, Andrea knew from the beginning, but. . . .”  Josh stopped in mid-sentence when a new name appeared on the notebook.

5) Andrea Carpenter

Josh couldn’t contain his frustration. “Andrea? Are you crazy? That’s even worse than Rosa! She’s been my best friend since before we could walk. Why would she want to hurt me? What would her motive be?”

Bryan shrugged. “You tell me. All I know is that she had the inside information which gives her the means, and she’s always attached to your hip, which gives her opportunity. Until this is over, we can’t trust anyone but each other.”

“Any why should I trust you?” Josh demanded. “You could have gotten into my locker at wrestling practice and slipped me that rat poison. After all, you were alone in the locker room after our fight, and I know you trashed my Mustang!”

“What are you talking about?” Bryan looked honestly dumbfounded. “I never touched your car.”

“It had to be you!” Josh argued. The look of honest surprise on Bryan’s face left him not quite as convinced as he had been only five seconds earlier.

“I didn’t trash your car!” Bryan was losing his patience as well. “And I certainly didn’t poison you. Are you going to accuse me of killing Lily next? The only good thing I had in my screwed-up life?”

“No, of course not.” Josh softened his voice. “I’m sorry I accused you. But someone slit my tires the same day we got into that fight. I was sure it was you.”

Bryan was thoughtful for a minute. “Are you good friends with Kevin and Jim?”

Josh narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like the direction the conversation was going. “Yeah, we’ve been friends since grade school. Why?”

“I overheard them talking about you on Friday when you missed practice.” Bryan told him. His forgotten cigarette was sitting untouched in the ashtray beside him, slowly burning down to the filter. “They didn’t seem very happy with you.”

“What do you mean?”

Josh recalled the look he had seen on Kevin’s face when he caught him with Elena. It was resentment, pure and simple. Just because he was a little jealous, certainly didn’t mean he was capable of murder. Josh didn’t mention it to Bryan. The grieving brother didn’t need any more reasons to jump to conclusions.

“They said they were sick of your attitude,” Bryan went on. “That you didn’t deserve to be captain of the team, and they were tired of always being stuck on the sidelines. It was really Kevin doing most of the talking. Jim mostly nodded a lot and said he put up with you for Andrea’s sake. Anyway, I think they said enough to earn a spot on the suspect list. And I think Kevin’s name should be way up on top.”

The three of them had been friends for so long. At least, Josh thought they were friends. Lately, it seemed like everyone hated him. Was he that much of a conceited jerk? He knew there were times when he had been less than modest. And he had certainly made more than his share of mistakes, especially where girls were concerned. But he wasn’t that bad.

Josh was quiet for a minute. No matter what they said in anger, he couldn’t believe that Jim and Kevin were angry enough to kill someone just to get back at him for a swelled ego. Bryan didn’t share Josh’s opinion, and so two more names were jotted down on the ever-growing list of suspects.

6) Kevin Basara

7) Jim Vasser

“For God’s sake! Jim and Kevin are not suspects. They’re my friends!”

“They’re your friends?” Bryan huffed. “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”

“They were just pissed off that day because I skipped practice. When they found out I was sick, they apologized. Really, dude, they were just blowing off some steam. You’re blowing things way out of proportion.”

Bryan gave him a dirty look and crossed his arms. “You know something, Josh. You’re just as bad as the cops. You might believe Lily was murdered, but you don’t want to believe it was anyone you know. Well, just think about that for a minute, would you? It has to be someone you know. Someone you know well. Someone who’s either possessive of you or jealous of what you have. Maybe it’s a little of both. The seven people on this list fit into that category. You have to accept that.”

“Maybe I have to accept it, but I don’t have to like it.” Josh kicked the chair next to him before gathering up his things. “You know what?  I’ve had enough of this for one day. I’m outta here.”

Josh hardly gave Bryan a chance to say goodbye before grabbing his backpack and charging out of the living room. He slammed the door behind him, which made him feel a little better, but he was still aggravated. He jogged back to his house, partially in an effort to burn off steam, but mostly because he wanted to get home before his mother called to check on him. 

It was a warm October afternoon and Josh was covered in sweat when he finally reached his house. He wiped his forehead on his sleeve, and grabbed the mail on the way inside. He wasn’t surprised when he found another message, though just the sight of it filled him with dread. The note could only mean one thing. Something terrible had happened. Josh ran into the house and ripped open the letter with trembling hands.

“Josh played his Jazz both night and day

He should have known it was wrong to play.

Now someone should hit him over the head.

Doesn’t Josh know that Jazz is dead?”

After the verse, in bold red print, was one final line. A line that was even more disturbing than the twisted limerick.

“TWO DOWN, THREE TO GO.”

        “Oh my God,” Josh whispered. “Jasmine!”

“Jazz, it’s me. Jo—”

Click.

The line went dead before Josh even finished the sentence. It was the fourth time she had hung up on him, but Josh had no intention of giving up until he got her to listen. He impatiently dialed her cell number again. He was sure Jasmine was going to let the call go to voicemail, but on the third ring she picked up.

“What the hell do you want, Josh?” Jasmine demanded.

“Jazz, listen! I have to talk to you!” Josh pleaded. “It’s really important.” And you’re life might depend on it. As much as he wanted to say it aloud, he didn’t.

Jasmine heaved a sigh of exasperation. “I have nothing to say to you.”

“I only need a few minutes.”

“No,” Jasmine interrupted. “I’ve wasted more than enough time on you. Besides, I have exactly ten minutes to get to work. I don’t have time to talk to you, even if I did want to.”

The line was disconnected again. Josh was so frustrated that he tossed his cell phone across the kitchen. The battery fell out as it crashed against the cabinets. He didn’t bother stopping to pick it up before pulling his father’s extra set of keys from the drawer beside the sink. He couldn’t just sit around and wait for Jasmine’s obituary to show up in the paper. He had to get her to listen to him.

Josh grabbed his red and white letter jacket from the nearby chair and ran out to his father’s Mercedes. He jumped into the car, tore out of the driveway, and was on the road in seconds flat. He knew where Jasmine worked. It was a punk store in the mall called The Rock.  Whether she liked it or not, Jasmine was going to talk to him. He only hoped that his parents wouldn’t call while he was out, otherwise he might be the one who didn’t live to see the morning.

About ten minutes later, Josh pulled his car into the parking lot of the mall. He didn’t waste a minute before hopping out of the front seat and jogging toward the main entrance. It led into one of the large department stores, and Josh had to push his way through a maze of perfume testers and racks of clothes before finding the entrance to the fountain-lined strip of smaller stores inside the mall. He was about half way to The Rock when he ran smack into Kevin.

“Dude, what’s up?” Kevin gave Josh a friendly slap on the shoulder. “What are you doing here? I thought you were grounded.”

“I am, so I can’t really talk,” Josh told him, distracted. “I have something I have to do. I’ll catch you tomorrow, okay?”

“Whatever.” Kevin sounded more than a little annoyed at the brush off, but Josh didn’t have time to stroke his ego.