Mystery Puzzle, Worked Out by Footer Davis

By Footer Davis

1. Mom started going over to the Abrams farm when Ms. Abrams died, and kept going because she realized something bad was happening there. Cissy and Doc Abrams must have told Mom they were being abused by their grandfather. That’s why she wouldn’t take me with her. I know she would have tried to help them, because Mom went through bad stuff when she was little too.

2. Mom wrote Carl Abrams at the prison down in Pearl and told him Cissy and Doc needed him.

3. Carl Abrams answered her. I read the letters. They’re in Mom’s desk drawer. He said he couldn’t come save his kids until he got out of prison and got a job. He sounded like a nicer guy than I thought he’d be.

4. I know I was at the farm the night the fire happened, because the smoke molecules stayed in my nose, like that coffee experiment we did in class. Mom gave me a bath and put me to bed. She told me I slept through everything, but the stench was too strong to be floating on the wind from half a mile away, and besides, I never open my windows. You know that, and you know why.

5. The night of the fire, old Mr. Abrams hit Doc and knocked him down, and then he kicked him. Cissy shot Mr. Abrams to keep him from killing Doc.

6. Mr. Abrams blew apart right in front of me. I want to quit seeing it in my head. Captain Armstrong was right about not wanting to think about bad stuff like that.

7. Mom tried to make me a counseling appointment. I missed it because I didn’t know about it. She probably did that because I saw somebody get exploded by a shotgun blast, and she thought it would make me sick like her. Maybe it has.

8. Mom probably set the fire to hide what Cissy did. Then something went wrong, and Cissy and Doc accidentally died in the fire. I didn’t see that part.

9. Some woman called to tell Mom she couldn’t do something. She sounded drunk or high. I think it might have been somebody Mom called about Cissy and Doc. I think it might have been their mother, but I have no idea.

10. The barrette Angel found must have been Mom’s. I know it, and I think Dad knows it too, but he doesn’t want to think about it, because it’s proof she was there. I’m not talking to him about it anymore, not after last night. I thought about telling your mom or Ms. Malone or Captain Armstrong or even Stephanie Bridges, but I don’t think they’d believe me. I don’t even know if I want them to believe me.

11. I’m going to go talk to Mom. She has to tell me the rest of what happened. It’s time to know.