by Marilyn Lindblad

Created on: January 27, 2008

Suspects:
Anna, Mr. Robertson, Justin Randall, and Terry Shaw.

MYSTERY AT ROSEMONT HIGH

Bright and early on the first day of school after the winter break, Mrs. Parker, the Rosemont High School secretary, unlocked the door to the school office. What she saw inside made her stomach lurch.

In Rosemont Royal Blue, against the stark white office walls, someone had painted "Death to Rosemont" on the walls in large, drippy block letters.

Mrs. Parker sighed. The entire office would have to be repainted. "Who would do something like this," she wondered out loud, "and why?"

The vandal's timing was awful. With all the recent tax cuts, school maintenance budgets had been slashed to the bare bones. Last month Mickey, the custodian's assistant, had been laid off. Mr. Robertson, the school custodian, had had three full-time assistants just five years ago. Now he was expected to do all the work himself. Mrs. Parker dreaded having to tell him that the office had to be repainted. He'd made quite a scene in the Principal's office when he'd found out he was losing Mickey.

Oh well. Mrs. Parker had just finished inspecting the rest of the office for damage - and found none - when Anna, a junior at Rosemont, walked in the door.

Anna had been caught fighting on school grounds, and she'd been assigned to help Mrs. Parker with the school bulletin for the rest of the year as punishment. Lately, the school had been assigning students chores instead of letting them sit in detention. Anna's detention was controversial, because her cousin, Mr. Ramirez, taught History at Rosemont, and he supported the school's choice of punishment for Anna.

Anna smirked when she saw the graffiti on the walls, until she caught Mrs. Parker glaring at her.

"Whoever did this will be punished," she told Anna. Handing the girl the morning bulletin, she added, "Make sixty copies, please, collated and stapled, and bring them back before first period starts."

"At least they got the color right," Anna said as she left, gesturing toward the painted scrawls. The graffiti matched the school colors: Rosemont Royal Blue and white.

Alone again, Mrs. Parker began thinking about who had had access to the school during the winter break. She started making a list. She wrote her own name, and the Principal's, and Mr. Robertson's; then she drew a big "X" through the list. There were dozens of people who had access to the office. The whole school was on a master key system to save money. Every key opened every door in the school.

Then she

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>