November Lake: Teenage Detective (The November Lake Mysteries) Book 1 (13 page)

“
But why?” Wendy asked.

“
Because he didn’t want you to discover the remains of the dead
girl he had buried there a few years ago,” Kale said.

“
All of this has to do with murder?” Wendy gasped.

“
Yes,” I said. “When you described to us how the man had
searched your garden for his dog, you said how he would stop every
few feet and stomp on the ground. You then said that not once did
he call out the dog’s name. Isn’t that odd behaviour for a man who
is so desperate to find his beloved animal? But he wasn’t looking
for a dog at all, he was trying to find the exact spot where he had
buried the body. The grave would have now been covered with grass.
The elaborate disguise and the ruse about the dog were so that
Ethan could get into your garden and search for the grave. He
couldn’t very well do it as himself for fear of raising your
suspicions. And even if he did find it, was he simply going to dig
up the remains of his victim and take them away? No. That’s when I
guess he came up with the idea of killing the dog. He was hoping
that you would let him bury the dog in the garden in your desire
just to be rid of it. But you were horrified by the suggestion and
refused to let Ethan bury the animal in your yard. His plan had
been to swap the remains of the dead girl for the dog. So he had to
change his plan. Ethan pretended that he had a client he had to go
and see, this gave him the chance to slip away and contact the
council and have the grave dug in the cemetery. His plan then was
to take the dead dog and the girl’s remains and bury them both in
the pet cemetery. Who would ever know that the remains of a human
had been buried with the dog? But again, Ethan couldn’t go digging
up an old grave in your garden with you in the house. He had to get
you away. Scare you away. So he came to visit you as the strange
looking man. He wanted to scare you so much that you would run
away. And you did – at Ethan’s suggestion. He knew you were so
scared, that you would agree to his plan of booking yourself into a
motel miles away so he could creep back here in disguise, dig up
the skeletal remains of the dead girl, hide them in the wheelbarrow
beneath the dead dog and the tarpaulin, and take them up to the
cemetery where he would bury his crimes.”

A long
silence fell over the room, then to my surprise, Cole, spoke for
the first time. “How did you know Veronica was buried in the
garden?”

I stared
at him. “For my own personal reasons, I have a keen interest in
mysteries and collecting old newspapers.”

“
Believe me, November has hundreds of them. She’s obsessed…”
Kale said.

“
Thank you, Kale,” I cut over him. I looked back at Cole. “As
I’ve already explained, as Wendy sat and told us her story, it was
clear to me that you were looking for something in her back garden.
The fact that you went to such extraordinary events to find
whatever you were looking for, I guessed whatever it might be was
outside of the law. The name Little Choke isn’t an easy one to
forget. So as I sat and listened to Wendy, I remembered where I had
seen the name of that village before. It was staring right back at
me from the pile of newspapers in my apartment. As a lover of
unsolved crimes and mysteries, how could I ever forget the story of
a young woman who had gone missing a few years ago? Her sudden
disappearance had never been explained. There had been a police
investigation at the time and all her friends and family had been
interviewed by the police. One of those people had been her
boyfriend, who was called…”

“
Ethan Cole,” Wendy whispered as she finished my sentence for
me.

“
You were hoping that after all of this time your crime truly
did lay dead and buried somewhere in the grounds of this derelict
house,” Kale said. “But Wendy moved in. This rattled you, unnerved
you. So you made a point of becoming friends with her. She fell in
love with you and it was then she told you her plans to build an
extension. But you couldn’t risk that happening with the remains of
your crime buried somewhere in the garden. What if Veronica Straw’s
skeleton should be discovered, the investigation into her
disappearance would be reopened? But this time around, the police
wouldn’t be investigating a missing person enquiry, it would be
murder and one they would never close until the killer was caught…
until you were caught.”

“
And if it hadn’t have been for my
obsession
…” I glanced at Kale, then
back at Cole, “…for collecting old newspapers, then you might have
gotten away with your crime.”

A thick
silence fell over the room again. I looked at Wendy and a lone tear
rolled down the length of her pretty but ashen face. “Did you ever
love me, or were your feelings part of your disguise
too?”

“
Does it matter?” Cole looked at her.

“
To me it does,” she said, wiping away that tear and sitting
straight backed in the chair.

“
No, I never loved you,” he said with a smirk.

Wendy
sprang from her chair, hand raised, as if to slap his face. I
snatched hold of her wrist, and slowly brought her arm down. I
pulled her close as she sobbed against me. “You’re better than
that, Wendy. You’re better than him,” I whispered in her
ear.

“
Thank you,” she whispered back. “Thank you for helping
me.”

In the
distance I could hear the faint sound of approaching police
sirens.

“
Sounds like Sergeant Black got your voice message after all,”
Kale said.

The
sirens grew louder and louder. And as several police cars screeched
to a halt outside, I heard Cole say, “Who are you
anyway?”

Looking
over Wendy’s shoulder at Cole sitting handcuffed in the chair, I
smiled and said, “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is
November Lake.”

November Lake: Teenage Detective

Book 2

Now Available!

About the author:

Jamie
Drew is the author of the ‘November Lake: Teenage Detective
Series’. Just like, November Lake, Jamie Drew has been a real
police officer and has solved many crimes and mysteries in real
life.

Jamie
Drew now writes full time and is currently working on further
‘November Lake’ mysteries.

You can contact Jamie Drew by emailing:
[email protected]