Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 14:32:17 -0600
From: Chris Geszvain <gustopher31@hotmail.com>
Subject: Chapter 12B Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club

Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club

Chapter 12B

The investigation

	Daniel wondered what Owen was up to in the middle of the night. Could he be
sleepwalking? If so, he might endanger himself, or more likely, other people
or animals. His first instinct was to follow Owen. He waited until Owen
walked past the creek and the tree where the monkey was sleeping. Then he
got up from his bed.

	The late night air was a little chilly. The monkey sat on a big branch,
with his head resting on the fold of his arm. His eyes were not completely
shut, but Daniel could tell that he was sleeping. His pupils were moving
inside his sockets and his shoulders twitched involuntarily.

	He heard Owen walking in the direction of the dinning hall. Soon Owen was
in the dinning hall. Listening carefully, Daniel could hear that there was
another person in the dinning hall. Daniel presumed that the person was the
chef. He remembered that Owen told him that he went to the dinning hall for
food at night. He was about to turn and go back to the dorm. Then suddenly
he heard the movement of many people. It was strange that he didn't hear any
breathing. He was wondering whether he should warn Owen. Before he could
make a decision, he saw Owen walking out of the door. A cupcake was flying
toward him at a very high speed. His first instinct was to jump aside. It
missed him by just one inch. The cupcake hit the tree behind him with a
solid sound.

	"What are you doing?" Daniel shouted at Owen, "Trying to kill me?"

	"I'm sorry," apologized Owen, "You were in the shadow. I didn't see that it
was you. I'm so sorry."

	"What happened in the dinning hall?" asked Daniel.

	"I went to get some cupcakes," said Owen, "and what are you doing here so
early in the morning?"

	"You haven't answered me yet."

	"They just started making breakfast," said Owen. "I mean chef Wong and the
woodmen." Daniel realized that those movements were from the woodmen-they
didn't breath.

	"They knew you were there, didn't they," he asked.

	"Sure," Owen answered. "Wait a minute. You followed me. You don't trust
me!!!" He raised his voice.

	He walked passed Daniel without waiting for an answer. Daniel tried to
catch up with him, but Owen was so much faster than him.

	"Wait, listen, I was just curious," said Daniel.

	His voice seemed so loud; He was afraid that it was going to wake up
everyone in the dorm. It did wake up the monkey. The monkey, however, tried
to pretend that he was still asleep; but Daniel could tell that he was
listening to their conversation. It made Daniel feel so stupid fighting with
his best friend at four in the morning with a monkey as their audience. When
he entered the dorm room, Owen was already in his bed with the sheet
covering his head. Even the cakes were forgotten.

	Daniel never really thought that his following Owen had anything to do with
not trusting him. It was more out of curiosity and a little bit of concern.
He was afraid that Owen was going to ignore him forever. He was glad to find
that Owen actually talked to him the next morning.

	"I'm really sorry," Daniel said to Owen.

	"It's all right," said Owen. "I guess that I would have done the same thing
if I found that you walked out of the dorm in the middle of the night."

	"So you're not mad?"

	"A little, I think," said Owen. "You don't think I stole the Golden Club,
do you?"

	"No, I would have known by now if you had it," said Daniel with a smile.
"You wouldn't be able to resist using it"


	Daniel started to wonder if he was going to find the right clue. He went to
the library and checked out a lot of detective books. The librarian Miss
Leventis looked at him with a knowing smile.

	"What are you up to?" she asked, "Learning to be a criminal or detective?"

	Daniel was annoyed but tried not to show it.

	"I can tell you a lot of the tricks myself," said Miss Leventis behind the
counter. "Did bit of both when I was younger."

	Daniel could not help but think that with that much of knowledge in her
head, she must have been very good at both; but he really wanted to do it on
his own.

	"Different people have different motives even if the crime is the same,"
said Miss Leventis without paying attention to Daniel's lack of enthusiasm.
"Some people like the excitement. Some people do it for vindication. Some
people try to prove something. For myself, I guess there were bits of
everything. Liked to test if all the things I learned in the books were of
any use..."

	She kept going on. Actually, if it had nothing to do with what Daniel was
doing at the moment, he might think she was interesting to listen to. He
wondered if she was still doing them. Being a librarian certainly was not
very exciting. Maybe that was just her day job.


	Since there was not much physical evidence, Daniel thought that he might
start by finding people with a motive. He had another talk with Jared. He
found him after class. He was in the same class with Michelle. Daniel found
that when they walked out of the classroom, they acted like complete
strangers to each other. Michelle waved at Daniel but didn't come over to
talk to him. When Jared saw him, he quickly walked over.

	"You found anything?" he asked and signaled Daniel to walk with him.

	"No, not a clue-"

	"I told you I wasn't the right choice," said Daniel when he saw the slight
disappointment on Jared's face.

	"Sorry, guess I'm easy to read," said Jared. "But you understand how
important the club is to me, don't you? You're my only hope." He looked
sweet and helpless all of a sudden.

	Daniel couldn't help thinking that it was how he manipulated his parents to
get what he wanted.

	"You don't have to flatter me," he said. "I gave you my word and I'll stick
to it-do you know if there are people who hate you or are jealous of you?"
he asked.

	"I guess a lot of people are jealous of me," said Jared, unaffected by
Daniel's bluntness. "I never really think about it-"

	"I might have hurt a few people, unintentionally," he said after a few
seconds. "I'm not sure."

	Daniel was glad to hear that there was some sincerity in his voice.

	"You don't hate me or anything, do you?" asked Jared.

	Daniel wasn't sure if he was joking or not. "No," he said.

	"Then there's one less person. I used to think that Michelle hated me. We
fought over the same things all the time."

	"Did you have a fight with her?" Daniel asked, although that was a question
he didn't like to ask. He didn't want proof that Michelle could be the
suspect, or anyone for that matter.

	"Yeah," said Jared, "but it has nothing to do with the Golden Club. She has
never been really interested in weapons."


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