Bailey flipped through the morning newspaper, trying to act nonchalant, when her parents came downstairs.

“Yummy. Who made the pancakes?” Bailey’s dad asked.

“Wasn’t me. I was up half the night trying to figure out how to use that new software for my laptop,” her mom replied in a daze from lack of sleep.

Bailey knew that they would figure out that she wanted something, so she waited for them to ask her. She didn’t want to push their buttons this early in the morning.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Bailey’s brother, Jason, said as he observed the Sunday breakfast “buffet”. “Who is trying to manipulate mom and dad now?”

Bailey glanced up at her brother long enough for him to see her death glare. He quickly looked away and grabbed the plateful of pancakes.

“Hey! I didn’t make those for you, you dummy!” Bailey exclaimed as Jason sat down.

“Sooooo?” he asked quizzically. “What is so interesting in the paper that you’re trying so hard to look interested in?”

“Nothing really. Just the World Series standings.” Bailey replied as quickly as she could. She wasn’t really into baseball, but it was the first thing that came to her mind.

“Major League baseball is over already, Smart One,” Jason countered.

Whatever, Bailey thought. She sat the paper down next to her plate of pancakes and took a sip of her “coffee” as she liked to call it; it was really hot chocolate. Her parents didn’t think she was old enough to drink coffee even though she was fifteen. What if they say I am too young to go to the party on Friday? She asked herself. That would not be okay with her shy friend, Jamie, who would then be stuck with Bailey’s volleyball teammates.

“Convicted murderer, sentenced to life,” Jason read, breaking Bailey away from her thoughts.

“Huh?” Bailey asked.

“James Connor Morrison was convicted of two murders in Albuquerque and one murder here in Albany. The opposing lawyer, Michael Duncan, finally ended the case when he asked the would-be next victim who was severely injured, if the man was in the room. Way to go dad! Oh, wait, there is more. Sources say that Morrison has a twin brother who was reported to be at the scene of the first and third murders but his alibi checked out both times.” Jason looked up at their dad, proudly. “Nice one dad!”

“Yeah I never believed that Morrison’s brother, Don, had a real alibi, but I guess I was wrong. He could have set one up at the last minute before the trial. But, who knows. Let’s hope that’s the end of that family’s crimes,” Mr. Duncan sighed.

“Why didn’t they mention Morrison’s twin brother during the trial or talk to him at the very least?” Bailey asked her dad.

“Probably because he had an alibi. They did talk to him during the first day of the trial a couple months ago,” her father replied.

Bailey thought about the first day of the Morrison murder trial. She remembered a man that looked identical, but not quite, to Morrison answering question after question from her dad. Morrison’s twin brother had a scar the shape of a crescent on his cheek on the right side of his face. Bailey shuddered at the thought of the scar.

“Bailey, do you want to go shopping for your Halloween costume today?” Bailey’s mom, Grace, asked her in between slurps of her coffee.

“Well, actually I was wondering, I mean I really want to…” Bailey saw her mom look at her expectantly, “Okay there’s a party on Friday that I really want to go to. It’s at the Chamberlains. They live on a huge farm, so basically everyone is going to be there.”

“I’m not going.” Jason interjected.

“Shut up. Anyways it starts at 7pm and ends around midnight. I’d be going with Jamie and…” her dad cut her off.

“I’m sorry, but what exactly would you be doing for five hours?”

“They’re having a bonfire and there is going to be music and just fun stuff. I don’t know.”

“I’m okay with it as long as you’re back by 10pm.”

“But, dad!”

“No, that is your curfew. You are lucky I’m letting you go at all.”

“Fine,” Bailey nodded, in case her dad didn’t hear her whisper.

After breakfast Bailey called Jamie to tell her the good news. Jamie was ecstatic. She couldn’t stop talking about what they were going to wear, who was going to be there, and where they were going trick-or-treating, even though they had discussed that about twenty times that week. When Bailey finally hung up she went downstairs to finish her homework for the weekend.

The rest of the week went by slowly for Bailey. She got up in the morning, went to school, went to volleyball practice, and then went home. When Friday finally came around she was buried up to her head in homework, but, she didn’t let her parents find out, or else she would be a no-show at the party. While she and Jamie were getting ready to go, Max, the yearbook photographer, called her.

“Are you going tonight?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course. Make sure you bring your camera. Since I’m the first freshman editor, I need the yearbook to be the best Ridley’s seen in years.“ Bailey knew that she would do her best to make the yearbook amazing. She hoped to be able to keep up with her homework while she did all of her extracurricular activities.

“Sure, sure. I understand. I won’t let you down “boss”.” Max ended the conversation with that and Bailey knew he wouldn’t.

At 7:10pm the two girls arrived at the party “fashionably late” as Jamie called it. It was packed. To Bailey, it looked like the whole high school was there. All of a sudden, there was a loud bang that left everyone’s ears ringing. Everyone looked around to see who had made it. Driving through the yard was a big blue pick-up truck with speakers on the bed. After the truck came to a stop the driver hopped out and started moving the speakers so that they were spread out around the huge yard. Bailey saw her brother Jason plug one of the speakers into his turntable and started the music.

It was around 8pm when the party was in full swing. Bailey was so happy that her parents had let her go tonight. She didn’t even notice that Jamie had disappeared about twenty minutes ago.

“Hey Bailey!” Max called out to her just as she was sitting on one of the logs around the bonfire.

“Oh hey! Have you gotten some good shots?” she asked him when he sat down next to her.

“Yes, actually, I have. Here check ‘em out,” he handed her the camera.

Bailey looked through the pictures that Max had taken in the last two hours. These are great! I am so glad that… Bailey’s thought was cut off when she saw the picture of an older guy; who was strangely out of place; in the shadows of one of the pictures. He looked familiar, but Bailey couldn’t figure out how she knew him. She just shrugged and kept looking through the pictures.

“Nice job, Max!” Bailey exclaimed. Max blushed.

“Well, I think I am going to go get some food from inside. You want?” He asked as he got up to leave.


“No thanks, I’m good.”

Bailey got up to go request a song that was her and Jamie’s favorite. But, first she wanted to find Jamie. So she started asking around but nobody knew where Jamie had gone. Ugh, where is she? Bailey thought. She was starting to get worried. Bailey realized that the last time she had seen Jamie it was two and a half hours ago. She headed inside to ask Max, but when she got there he wasn’t at the snack table where she expected him to be.

“Hey, umm Charlie? Have you seen Jamie or Max?” Bailey asked the Chamberlain’s oldest daughter, urgently.

“Max was here about ten minutes ago. I thought he went outside, but maybe I’m wrong. Sorry, Bailey.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll find them,” Bailey faked a smile so Charlie wouldn’t see her disappointment.

As ten o’clock grew nearer, Bailey became very nervous. She had asked Jason right before he left for the night, but all he knew was that he would be back at ten to pick her and Jamie up. Genius. That did a lot of good. Bailey didn’t expect him to know anyways.

Suddenly it hit her. She knew who the man in the shadow was. Don Morrison, the murderer’s twin brother! She didn’t realize it before because she didn’t look at the side of his face directly. It had the crescent shaped scar on it. Jamie was right. A couple of weeks after the trial was over, Bailey thought someone was following her in an old puce van. Jamie had confirmed it, but Bailey never did anything about it.

Wow, Bailey. Who’s the genius now? What if he kidnapped Jamie and Max? But, what would he want with them? She couldn’t figure out why he would do that. Maybe he knew Max got him in a picture. Jamie didn’t do anything though. Bailey could feel sweat dripping down her face in the freezing cold temperature. She stopped and looked way out, into the field. There was a barn. Bailey raced toward it. Nobody saw her go, and she knew that if something happened to her it wouldn’t be found out for a while. But, Bailey would do anything to save her friends. It was worth the risk.



To be continued……