97. But it wasn’t the end of the book because five days later I saw 5 red cars in a row, which made it a Super Good Day, and I knew that something special was going to happen. Nothing special happened at school, so I knew something special was going to happen after school. And when I got home I went down to the shop at the end of our road to buy some licorice laces and a Milky Bar with my pocket money.
And when I had bought my licorice laces and a Milky Bar I turned round and saw Mrs. Alexander, the old lady from number 39, who was in the shop as well. She wasn’t wearing jeans now. She was wearing a dress like a normal old lady. And she smelled of cooking.
She said, “What happened to you the other day?”
I asked, “Which day?”
And she said, “I came out again and you’d gone. I had to eat all the biscuits myself.”
I said, “I went away.”
And she said, “I gathered that.”
I said, “I thought you might ring the police.”
And she said, “Why on earth would I do that?”
And I said, “Because I was poking my nose into other people’s business and Father said I shouldn’t investigate who killed Wellington. And a policeman gave me a caution and if I get into trouble again it will be a lot worse because of the caution.”
Then the Indian lady behind the counter said to Mrs. Alexander, “Can I help you?” and Mrs.
Alexander said she’d like a pint of milk and a packet of Jaffa cakes and I went out of the shop.
When I was outside the shop I saw that Mrs. Alexander’s dachshund was sitting on the pavement. It was wearing a little coat made out of tartan material, which is Scottish and check. She had tied its lead to the drainpipe next to the door. I like dogs, so I bent down and I said hello to her dog and it licked my hand. Its tongue was rough and wet and it liked the smell on my trousers and started sniffing them.
Then Mrs. Alexander came outside and said, “His name is Ivor.”
I didn’t say anything.
And Mrs. Alexander said, “You’re very shy, aren’t you, Christopher.”
And I said, “I’m not allowed to talk to you.”
And she said, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell the police and I’m not going to tell your father, because there’s nothing wrong with having a chat. Having a chat is just being friendly, isn’t it?”
I said, “I can’t do chatting.”
Then she said, “Do you like computers?”
And I said, “Yes. I like computers. I have a computer at home in my bedroom.”
And she said, “I know. I can see you sitting at your computer in your bedroom sometimes when I look across the street.”
Then she untied Ivor’s lead from the drainpipe.
I wasn’t going to say anything because I didn’t want to get into trouble.
Then I thought that this was a Super Good Day and something special hadn’t happened yet, so it was possible that talking to Mrs. Alexander was the special thing that was going to happen.
And I thought that she might tell me something about Wellington or about Mr. Shears without me asking her, so that wouldn’t be breaking my promise.
So I said, “And I like maths and looking after Toby. And also I like outer space and I like being on my own.”
And she said, “I bet you’re very good at maths, aren’t you?”
And I said, “I am. I’m going to do my A-level maths next month. And I’m going to get an A grade.”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Really? A-level maths?”
I replied, “Yes. I don’t tell lies.”
And she said, “I apologize. I didn’t mean to suggest that you were lying. I just wondered if I heard you correctly. I’m a little deaf sometimes.”
And I said, “I remember. You told me.” And then I said, “I’m the first person to do an A level from my school because it’s a special school.”
And she said, “Well, I am very impressed. And I hope you do get an A.”
And I said, “I will.”
Then she said, “And the other thing I know about you is that your favorite color is not yellow.”
And I said, “No. And it’s not brown either. My favorite color is red. And metal color.”
Then Ivor did a poo and Mrs. Alexander picked it up with her hand inside a little plastic bag and then she turned the plastic bag inside out and tied a knot in the top so that the poo was all sealed up and she didn’t touch the poo with her hands.
And then I did some reasoning. I reasoned that Father had only made me do a promise about five things, which were:
And asking about Mr. Shears wasn’t any of these things.
And if you are a detective you have to Take Risks, and this was aSuper Good Day, which meant it was a good day for Taking Risks, so I said, “Do you know Mr. Shears?”, which was like chatting.
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Not really, no. I mean, I knew him well enough to say hello and talk to a little in the street, but I didn’t know much about him. I think he worked in a bank. The National Westminster. In town.”
And I said, “Father says that he is an evil man. Do you know why he said that? Is Mr. Shears an evil man?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Why are you asking me about Mr. Shears, Christopher?”
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to be investigating Wellington’s murder and that was the reason I was asking about Mr. Shears.
But Mrs. Alexander said, “Is this about Wellington?”
And I nodded because that didn’t count as being a detective.
Mrs. Alexander didn’t say anything. She walked to the little red box on a pole next to the gate to the park and she put Ivor’s poo into the box, which was a brown thing inside a red thing, which made my head feel funny so I didn’t look. Then she walked back to me.
She sucked in a big breath and said, “Perhaps it would be best not to talk about these things, Christopher.”
And I asked, “Why not?”
And she said, “Because.” Then she stopped and decided to start saying a different sentence.
“Because maybe your father is right and you shouldn’t go around asking questions about this.”
And I asked, “Why?”
And she said, “Because obviously he is going to find it quite upsetting.”
And I said, “Why is he going to find it upsetting?”
Then she sucked in another big breath and said, “Because… because I think you know why your father doesn’t like Mr. Shears very much.”
Then I asked, “Did Mr. Shears kill Mother?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Kill her?”
And I said, “Yes. Did he kill Mother?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “No. No. Of course he didn’t kill your mother.”
And I said, “But did he give her stress so that she died of a heart attack?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about, Christopher.”
And I said, “Or did he hurt her so that she had to go into hospital?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Did she have to go into hospital?”
And I said, “Yes. And it wasn’t very serious at first, but she had a heart attack when she was in hospital.”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Oh my goodness.”
I said, “And she died.”
And Mrs. Alexander said “Oh my goodness” again, and then she said, “Oh, Christopher, I am so, so sorry. I never realized.”
Then I asked her, “Why did you say ‘I think you know why your father doesn’t like Mr.
Shears very much’?”
Mrs. Alexander put her hand over her mouth and said, “Oh dear, dear, dear.” But she didn’t answer my question.
So I asked her the same question again, because in a murder mystery novel when someone doesn’t want to answer a question it is because they are trying to keep a secret or trying to stop someone getting into trouble, which means that the answers to those questions are the most important answers of all, and that is why the detective has to put that person under pressure.
But Mrs. Alexander still didn’t answer. Instead she asked me a question. She said, “So you don’t know?”
And I said, “Don’t know what?”
She replied, “Christopher, look, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.” Then she said,
“Perhaps we should take a little walk in the park together. This is not the place to be talking about this kind of thing.”
I was nervous. I didn’t know Mrs. Alexander. I knew that she was an old lady and that she liked dogs. But she was a stranger. And I never go into the park on my own because it is dangerous and people inject drugs behind the public toilets in the corner. I wanted to go home and go up to my room and feed Toby and practice some maths.
But I was excited, too. Because I thought she might tell me a secret. And the secret might be about who killed Wellington. Or about Mr. Shears. And if she did that I might have more evidence against him, or be able to Exclude Him from My Investigations.
So because it was a Super Good Day I decided to walk into the park with Mrs. Alexander, even though it scared me.
When we were inside the park Mrs. Alexander stopped walking and said, “I am going to say something to you and you must promise not to tell your father that I told you this.”
I asked, “Why?”
And she said, “I shouldn’t have said what I said. And if I don’t explain, you’ll carry on wondering what I meant. And you might ask your father. And I don’t want you to do that because I don’t want you to upset him. So I’m going to explain why I said what I said. But before I do that you have to promise not to tell anyone I said this to you.”
I asked, “Why?”
And she said, “Christopher, please, just trust me.”
And I said, “I promise.” Because if Mrs. Alexander told me who killed Wellington, or she told me that Mr. Shears had really killed Mother, I could still go to the police and tell them because you are allowed to break a promise if someone has committed a crime and you know about it.
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Your mother, before she died, was very good friends with Mr.
Shears.”
And I said, “I know.”
And she said, “No, Christopher. I’m not sure that you do. I mean that they were very good friends. Very, very good friends.”
I thought about this for a while and said, “Do you mean that they were doing sex?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Yes, Christopher. That is what I mean.”
Then she didn’t say anything for about 30 seconds. Then she said, “I’m sorry, Christopher. I really didn’t mean to say anything that was going to upset you. But I wanted to explain why I said what I said. You see, I thought you knew. That’s why your father thinks that Mr. Shears is an evil man. And that will be why he doesn’t want you going around talking to people about Mr. Shears, because that will bring back bad memories.”
And I said, “Was that why Mr. Shears left Mrs. Shears, because he was doing sex with someone else when he was married to Mrs. Shears?”
And Mrs. Alexander said, “Yes, I expect so.”
Then she said, “I’m sorry, Christopher. I really am.”
And I said, “I think I should go now.”
And she said, “Are you OK, Christopher?”
And I said, “I’m scared of being in the park with you because you’re a stranger.”
And she said, “I’m not a stranger, Christopher, I’m a friend.”
And I said, “I’m going to go home now.”
And she said, “If you want to talk about this you can come and see me anytime you want. You only have to knock on my door.”
And I said, “OK.”
And she said, “Christopher?”
And I said, “What?”
And she said, “You won’t tell your father about this conversation, will you?”
And I said, “No. I promised.”
And she said, “You go on home. And remember what I said. Anytime.”
Then I went home.
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