‘She’d killed us,’ cried Lucas, looking down as his translucent body. ‘She went and killed us!’
‘Yes, that’s what’s happening today,’ said Clara, looking at the list of prompts for the Topsy-Turvy Challenge. ‘It was an accident in chapter six, see?’
‘No I will not see,’ said Lucas. ‘I don’t care why she’s done it, we’re still dead.’ He looked upward and yelled, ‘My name is on the cover, you know!’
‘Yes dear, and we’re supposed to see who would take over,’ said Clara in an annoyingly reasonable voice. ‘So shut up and let’s find out, all right?’
‘And we’re at our own funerals,’ grumble Lucas. ‘That’s just unkind.’
‘Hush,’ whispered Clara. ‘We’ll miss it.’
The funeral concluded and the crowd dispersed. Lucas and Clara followed their mothers, who were joined by a red-eyed Tommy.
‘It’s so unfair,’ he said, a tearful wobble in his voice. ‘The beer cart just rolled the hill and straight into them. They didn’t stand a chance.’
‘There, there, dearie,’ said Mrs Rathbone, patting his arm. ‘It was an accident. We’ll all miss them, but you mustn’t dwell on it. They wouldn’t want that.’
‘No,’ said Mrs Jenkins, blowing her nose noisily on a cotton hankie. ‘And it’s not like they were murdered.’
‘But I can’t understand it,’ said Tommy. ‘I walked past the cart minutes before and it was tied to a lamppost with a thick rope.’
The mothers shared a look.
‘Really?’ said Mrs Jenkins, frowning.
Tommy nodded. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if… but no.’ He shook his head. ‘They’ve done reckless things before, but nothing that’d get them murdered.’
‘They had been looking into that murder at Castlebury Manor,’ mused Mrs Rathbone. ‘It’s possible…’
‘But how can we find out?’ asked Mrs Jenkins. ‘We can’t snoop around a place like that, Hettie.’
As one, they turned to Tommy.
‘Tommy, dear,’ said Hettie Rathbone, linking her arm through his. ‘You’re a reporter, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ said Tommy suspiciously. ‘Why?’
It made perfect sense, once they’d explained it to him. And he owed Lucas and Clara so much—they’d been his first real friends, after all, and jolly good ones at that.
Finding their killer and bringing them to justice was the least he could do.
But then again, avenging their deaths would be even better...
Uh-oh, there could be trouble ahead.
Better keep Lucas and Clara alive, I guess!
They'll be very pleased to hear that, I'm sure.
Although, given what's happening on Wednesday, I can't imagine Lucas being too chuffed about that, either...
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