The Murder of June Lowe - part 5

"Don't look at me. I had nothing to do with it," I said stiffly. My grasp around Jamie tightened, but she, too, seemed to join the Justin-is-the-killer club, and pulled away from me.

"Justin...do you know anything about her murder? You didn't like her all that much," Mother pointed out.

"Mom, nobody liked Grandmother June. Just go around the city and take a census. I daresay more than eighty percent of the people hated her," I said. What would they do if they knew about my asking Sherry to hire Archibald Caselli to do the dirty deed? Had he even come yet? I thought he was just going to beat her up. I had to call Sherry.

Father clapped his hands. "I'm going to call the police. I just can't understand who would do such a thing to my mother." Astonishment was written all over his face. Tears were budding up in the corner of his eyes. He stormed out of the corridor, leaving us in a daze.

"We have to figure out some suspects who would do this," Miss Longworth said. Her back was stiff, reminding me very much of one of those cigar Indians. I wondered if she'd done it.

Maybe I could pull a Perry Mason here and figure out what had happened. I hated Grandmother, yes, but I don't think she deserved death. Nobody deserved to die, no matter how evil he or she was.

Scrubbing my face with my palm, I asked, "What's going to happen now?"

"We should do as Miss Longworth said." Mother drifted up beside me. "And we should figure out who, exactly, had committed this awful deed."

I slapped my knee. "Mother! Lots of people hate Grandmother! You remember how brutally she'd treated a lot of her servants," I pointed out.

"Miss Longworth," Mother stepped away from me, "I know that you were with June tonight. Did you have anything to do with this? Or can you think of anybody?"

Miss Longwroth shook her head, her lips mashed together. I leaned against the wall, my stomach aching something awful from all the tension. I needed to be alone...desperately. Mother gathered some sort of party by the door of Grandmother's bedroom. I slipped back into my bedroom and called Sherry on my cell phone. Luckily, she picked up.

"Sherry, did you have Caselli kill her?" I hissed into the phone.

"Caselli? Justin, I didn't even call him." Her voice was frantic. My heart was thudding like a drum of doom. Out in the hall, there was commotion. Police. Shouting. Within moments, my door was thrust open and a flashlight was shone on my face.

"Justin Lowe...come out into the hall this moment."

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