"Thanks for the ride Mrs. Flinch", I say while I climb out of the car, as does Ryder.

"No problem girls. It's always nice to stop by Echo Creek", she responds, "tell your mom if she ever needs me to do these little drop offs again, I'm more than happy to"

I smile at her kindness. Ryder and I thought it'd be a good idea if she came to Echo Creek with me this week because of how much stuff's been going on lately. I'm on the verge of losing it so the quicker we solve this mystery, the better

"Alright. See you on Sunday mama", Ryder says

"Will I be picking you guys up?"

"Uh, no. My mom insisted she would. But thank you"

"Anytime dear. Alright now. Greet you family for me", she says sweetly before driving off

Me and Ryder walk into my dad's house and the first thing that hits us is the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls that Ciara and Kiara just pulled out of the oven.

"Oh, you're finally here. I didn't hear you guys drop off", Ciara says and dusts her hands on her pink and white baking apron, "nice to meet you Ryder"

"You too Mrs. Burklin", Ryder hugs Ciara

"You can just call her Ciara", I say to Ryder. The thought of Ciara going by the name, 'Mrs. Burklin', makes me so physically sick, I almost want to vomit.

Formalities continue, Kiara and Ryder make pleasant small talk and we have a cinnamon roll each before I suggest that Ryder and I go to the bedroom.

We put the suspect list on the desk and start discussing our options. It's not an easy job to catch a killer, I'll tell you that much. We go back and fourth trying to make everything add up and yet, it still feels like we're missing something.

Ryder suggest we look through Kylie's diary to see if we can find any clues and the most obvious one is Ash.

"We don't really have anything on Ash except that she's Kylie's secret twin but thing is, does she even know?", I ask

"If Kylie didn't know, I doubt Ash did"

"The last time I went to see her, she did say something about Kylie helping save her reputation", I say, "She didn't get to tell me the full story though"

"Should we go try and talk to her? See what she knows?

"Let's do it"

Before we leave, I pack up Kylie's Diary and almost fall off a piece of loose wood on the floor. I hate wooden floors. Ryder laughs at my almost accident and we start off. Making our way to Ashley Keller's house.

***

A quick knock on Ashley Keller's door was all that was needed for her gorgeously perfect face to pop out in the other side and greet us.

"Hey Ash", I say with my best fake smile

"Kelsie? What a surprise.", she smiles back and opens the door

"Oh uh, this is my best friend Ryder"

"Hi", Ryder greets

"Nice to meet you", Ashley says, "so, what's up? What can I do for y'all?"

"We were hoping to talk to you for a while. About Kylie?", I calmly say

"Yeah sure. But uh, I'm actually on my way to the church, I'm giving a short sermon this Sunday and I have to go over there to receive my guidelines"

"Aw, that sucks", I say

"Maybe we can stop by tomorrow?", Ryder asks

"That would be great actually. I'm totally free tomorrow"

Ryder and I immediately head back to the house to try and continue on with the investigation. When we walk into the room, we unexpectedly find Noah...holding a piece of paper in his hand. What the hell is he doing in here?

"Noah?", I say. Very surprised and a little creeped out actually

He turns around and the paper is still in his hand. It's the suspect list. How did he get that?

"Oh, so this is the famous Noah huh?", Ryder spits

"What the hell are you doing in here? And why do you have that. Where did you get it?", I ask aggressively.

"I think the better question to ask is why you have a suspect list? Suspects for what?", he asks

"That's none of your business! What the hell were you doing snooping in my room?!"

"I came to fix the floor. Ciara asked me to. She fell over and tripped earlier and then Kiara called me. When I came in here, I found this piece of paper just lying idly on the floor", he answers, "now it is your turn to answer the question. What is this suspect list for?"

I look at Ryder and she shrugs.

"It's a game we play sometimes", I lie

"I am many things. But I am not stupid. Please just tell me the truth", he tries

"Well that is the truth", Ryder says

"Whatever it is, I can help. I know a lot about what goes on in this dreadful town. I am sure I can be of service to you two ladies in some way, shape or form"

"Why do you care so much?", I ask

"Because, I let Kylie down. So if this suspect list is for what I think it's for, I need to help you guys with this."

"To ease your guilt?", Ryder teases in a rhetorical sense

"What do you mean by "I let Kylie down"?", I ask

"I watched her get involved with some really bad people and I did not try hard enough to stop her"

"You tell us your story. And we'll tell you ours", I say

"Alright. I sort of kept something from you last time", he starts, "Camp is more than just a place where we hang out sometimes. It's also the headquarters of Mr. M's operation"

Immediately he says that sentence, I recognize that name from Kylie's Diary, instantly.

"Who's Mr. M", I ask, even though I'm sure he was going to tell me regardless

"He is some anonymous criminal here in Echo Creek. No one has ever seen him before, people that work for him say you only ever hear his voice when he calls you on different unknown numbers", Noah continues, "He has a lot of kids that work for him. He gets them to work for him as a way of collecting debt."

"What kind of debt?", Ryder asks

"He knows all things. And he uses that by doing 'favors' for people. But the thing is that there is no set price for a favor. Once you ask for a favor from him, you practically owe him your life. He owns you"

"What does that have to do with my sister?"

"Last summer, she asked for a favor. I begged her not too and we fought about it all the time but eventually she just said she can do as she pleases and she ended up asking the favor", Noah explained, "I've always felt like I could have done more and when I heard about what happened to her, in my gut, I knew it had something to do with Mr. M"

"What favor did she ask?", Ryder asks

"That's one of the terms. No one should know about the favor except you and Mr.M"

This entire situation is so sketchy. What if Noah's gut was right? What if Kylie's murderer is Mr. M? But then again, that still leaves a lot of other questions unanswered. For whatever reason, it feels like the more information I get about Kylie, the harder it is to find out who actually killed her.

After some time, Ryder and I explain to Noah everything that's been going on. We figured, if the three of us put our heads together, solving this mystery might be a-bit less aggregating. Plus, when Ryder and I are investigating in Yellow Oak, Noah can be investigating on Echo Creek. That's going to save us a lot of time.

When Noah leaves, Kiara and I continue sharing ideas until we eventually fall asleep and it's the next morning.

Noah asked if he could join us when we went to see Ashley and of course, we allowed it, we thought, why not? But as weird as it was, when we arrived, we were told that Ashley wasn't home. Where was she? Her parents didn't know but they were guessing she'd be back on Sunday cause there's no way she would miss the church service

So once again, that was a dead end on Ashley Keller.

***

Before the day has even started for everyone else, Ryder and I are already in the kitchen, fully dressed and ready to go talk to Ashley. She probably will be all over the place today because she's speaking in church so, it's in our best interest to find her now and get as much information as possible.

Outside it is as black as night, only by the clock can you tell the difference between the time to sleep and the time to wake up.

By the time we get into Noah's truck and make our way there, it's dawn and the burnt orange sky is a sight not to be reckoned with.

When we get to the Keller household, I'm hesitant to open the door. Mainly because it's so early but nonetheless, if me waking them will helps solve my sister's death, that's exactly what I'll do.

Once the door opens, Mr. Keller stands beside the door frame and you can hear the sound of a sobbing woman inside the house. What's going on?

"Good Morning Mr. Keller", I stutter

"What do you kids want? I told you I don't know anything about Kylie!", he spits

"No! That's not why we're here. We came to speak to Ashley. On Friday She told us to meet her here"

"She hasn't been home since Friday and no one has seen her." He goes silent for a moment. "Ashley's gone missing"

***

All through the ride home, all I can think is that there's no way this can be a coincidence. Right? I keep on trying to see the signs that I missed when speaking to Ashley, maybe she run away? But no, she seemed just fine. Maybe she was kidnapped? By Kylie's murderer? As some sick way of telling me that whoever they may be, they know what I'm up to and it needs to stop? There's far too many theories and no single good answer.

The sound of sirens tears me away from my thoughts as we ease into the driveway.

The blue and red lights are little more than smudgy illuminations in the slanting rain. But beneath their glow is the white bodywork of a police car.

"What are the police doing here?", my mom asks while she stops the engine. Unfortunately, neither me nor Ryder has an answer for her.

It's never good news when a police officer comes to your door at almost 1am in the morning. The last time I saw this many police cars was when they came in to interrogate me an my mom after Kylie died.

We sat in the backseat and watched my mom get out the drivers seat and one of the officers approached her. When the officer comes he has all the usual height but without the bulk. He has the face of a father, one who understands pain.

Within seconds, my mom's hands are behind her back and her body is pressed onto the front of the car.

"Hey! What's going on?!", I yell as I get out of the car

"Stop it!", Ryder yells

Two of the other police officers stand infringement of us and block us from going closer to my mom.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning.", the police officer says

"I didn't do anything!", I hear my mom fight

"Ma'am, you are under arrest for the suspected murder of Kylie Burklin", is what I hear the police officer say and all the blood in my veins stands still.

What the hell is going on?

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