Adventures in Funeral Crashing by Milda Harris

He listened as he devoured his
sandwich.
    “Well, now we have proof that Liz was going
to see Troy. He’s there. We have him within the hour of her death,”
Ethan said excitedly.
    “Well, I’m not sure,” I said, sorry to
disappoint him.
    “What?” Ethan asked.
    “Isn’t it hearsay? I mean, Suzie says that
Liz said that and that they texted, but nobody actually saw Liz and
Troy together in that hour. And, her texts are gone. And, I doubt
Troy is going to admit to being with her that night,” I said.
    “Then we have nothing,” Ethan was
disappointed.
    “It’s something, but just not enough. We
didn’t expect Suzie to give us much anyway. Still, maybe we can
find out the names of the other people in Olivia’s sewing class and
talk to them? She did have one the week she died. Maybe someone
other than Suzie remembers something weird,” I knew I was
stretching, but it was worth looking into if something else didn’t
pan out first.
    We sat in silence for a few moments. I knew
Ethan was disappointed that I didn’t think Suzie’s testimony would
be enough to nail Troy for Liz’s murder. Still, we both now knew
that going to the police with anything short of absolutely solid
proof of guilt would be a waste of time.
    “Did you get a chance to read Liz’s diary?”
Ethan asked quietly.
    I had forgotten about that. I nodded, “Yes
and there was no mention of drugs or anything really interesting
until the last few entries.”
    “What was it?” Ethan asked.
    “Well, it’s more for the Troy file for sure,”
I said.
    “What?” Ethan asked again.
    “Okay, Liz said she got an email from a girl
who claimed to also be dating Troy. She never said who the girl
was, though. And, it’s the last journal entry, so I don’t know if
anything happened with her and Troy or her and the other girl after
that. Well, except that Suzie said that Troy and Liz were making
up, so maybe they worked it out,” I said. “Although, if there is
another girl, it actually makes things a little more
complicated.”
    “Or not,” Ethan said. “Maybe Liz and Troy had
another fight about this girl, she threatened to break up with him
for good, and then he decided to kill her. The whole if I can’t
have you, nobody can scenario. It could be his thing. A girl wants
to break it off and he kills her.”
    “Or maybe the other girl has something to do
with it or knows something,” I said, trying to be subjective.
    “Or maybe the other girl is dead too,” Ethan
said.
    I thought for a moment, “What if the other
girl was Vanessa Martin?”
    Ethan looked thoughtful, “You mean the email
she sent Liz? Well, then it brings it back around to Troy being the
killer. It’s definitely something. Now we just need something
concrete to tie it all together.”
    “Yeah, but where do we go from here?” I
wasn’t sure how to proceed.
    “I think tonight will give us some better
leads. As morbid as it is, I’m really looking forward to funeral
crashing with you,” Ethan grinned.
    I smiled back at him. It was definitely going
to be an interesting night. Me and Ethan, the most popular guy in
school, funeral crashing together. I never would have pictured that
in a billion, zillion years and yet, it was really happening. It
was almost like being in an alternate universe really, like on Fringe .
    “Hey, E,” Dave Rickerson said, suddenly
standing at our table with Mike Finnegan.
    I felt myself stare up at them in shock. What
were we going to do? I felt the sudden panic of any geek when
approached by the popular crowd for doing something socially
outside the box. Here it goes, I thought. They were going to say
something to Ethan and then he’d have to ignore me. It was the way
high school worked. Someone popular didn’t hang out with someone
who was unpopular.
    “Hey guys,” Ethan said calmly, like it was no
big deal.
    “So, are you eating with us today?” Mike
said, awkwardly.
    I felt myself hold my breath. There was a
definite strange and