Adventures in Funeral Crashing by Milda Harris

else to go. A lot of her
new friends have their own places,” Ethan shrugged.
    “I really wonder what Vanessa wanted to talk
to Liz about,” A thought popped into my mind. “Can we email her? I
mean, not from Liz’s account because that might creep her out, but
maybe from yours?”
    “And just ask her what she needed to talk to
Liz about?” Ethan sounded doubtful.
    “Yeah, I mean, if she knows something, maybe
she’ll tell you. Play up the grieving brother,” I offered. “It
can’t hurt. Worst thing, she’ll say is no.”
    “What about Troy?” Ethan said, clicking back
to Troy’s message.
    “I don’t think we should email him…yet.” I
stared at Troy’s message for a moment. “Actually, I have an idea.
Can I?”
    I reached for the computer and Ethan handed
it to me. He sat up and looked over my shoulder as I went to
Facebook’s friend finder. I typed in the name – Olivia Reynolds.
Her name popped up immediately and I clicked on her profile. I was
looking for the mutual friends list and there it was - two friends
in common, Troy Matthews and oddly enough, Suzie Whitsett, the girl
my chemistry lab partner, Kyle Jones had a crush on.
    “Okay, interesting. So, Liz and Olivia both
knew Troy Matthews and Suzie Whitsett,” I started.
    “Wait are you thinking… Check out Melissa
Kent,” Ethan was unknowingly, holding a death grip on the
comforter. “Troy has to know her too.”
    “Okay, okay, I’m checking her too, but do you
know how Liz knows Suzie Whitsett? She’s in our grade at school,” I
said, while typing in Melissa’s name.
    “The quiet girl? I think they volunteered at
the animal shelter together or something. Liz took me to an animal
adoption at the park once and introduced me to Suzie. I only
remember because I had seen her in school, but had never actually
heard her speak before,” Ethan said, staring at the computer
screen.
    “You know, you can be really arrogant,” I
said, without thinking, as the results popped up.
    Ethan turned away from the screen to look at
me, “What?”
    “Suzie’s a really nice girl and really smart.
She’s just shy. You need to learn to get to know people before you
judge their entire personalities,” I don’t know what was wrong with
me. I was telling off the most popular guy in school for not taking
the time to figure out that the quiet girl is just shy.
    “Like you?” he asked, watching me.
    I ignored the question and turned to look
back at the screen and Melissa Kent and Liz O’Reilly’s common
friends. I felt Ethan look at me for a moment more before he turned
to look at them too.
    There it was, only one friend in common –
Troy Matthews, Facebook friend to all three of the alleged murder
victims. Coincidence? I think not. Although, one would think he’d
delete them from his friend’s list after he murdered them, but I
guess not.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7: Finger-Pointing
    It took me awhile
to calm Ethan down. Although, it was an excellent lead, just
because Troy knew all of the dead girls, didn’t mean he had killed
them.
    “We can’t just go to the police and accuse
Troy,” I reasoned with Ethan. “They’re not going to believe us.
Haven’t you seen like every horror movie? Nobody believes
teenagers.”
    Ethan looked at me with frustration and
pointed at the computer, “But it’s right there! He knew all of
them! What more evidence do we need?”
    “A motive?” I volunteered.
    Ethan shook his head, “Let the cops figure
out a motive.”
    “Look, I admit it’s suspicious, but there has
to be more,” I argued.
    Ethan shook his head, but I could see that he
was at the very least, calming down. “I’m still going to the
police. They have to know about this. All we need to do is get them
to change their minds. We don’t actually have to solve the
case.”
    “I know, but I still think we need more,” I
said.
    “But this is huge,” Ethan replied. “He knew
all of them. The cops have to know.”
    We had been arguing