“Go and pick up after the dog!” my dad insisted after my dog did his “business”.
I grabbed the shovel and ran outside. Doing this in jeans, a button up and white shoes is not the best mix.
“BANG” “BANG!”
“What the hell?” I screamed in shock as I heard something that sounded like a plate hitting the floor and breaking into a million pieces. I dug up even more and saw something that was definitely not my dogs “business”.
“Oh my God!” I yelled as I discovered something that looked like it was used as knife in the 1800’s in a butchery. But what seemed to be a bloody butcher’s knife was not used on an animal. I asked myself a million questions on what to do.My biggest question was should I find out if my house used to be a murder site?
“Dylan, I have to tell you something but DON’T tell anyone, okay?” I demanded to my friend who I believe I can trust and get some of my questions answered.

“What?”

“I was in my backyard picking up my dogs you know, stuff, and I dug a hole too far and found something, and I found a bloody knife”.

“That’s crazy! Where is it?”

“Obviously in my backyard back where I found it! What was I going to do, hold onto a bloody knife?” I emphasized.

“Let’s go back there right now, I want to see it.” He demanded.

We ran into my backyard and dug up a huge ditch, hopefully my dad won’t mind. My family was out and I had all the time to figure out this mystery. I showed him the knife and his jaw stretched out so far, he knew it wasn’t a joke.

“Whaa-Whaa-What are we going to do?” He questioned still in shock.

“I don’t know I want to figure out the mystery though, DON’T TELL ANYONE, we can do this on our own!”

We ran inside and looked up murders in the area, someone could have tried to frame us and put the weapon in my yard. As we were researching I was debating to myself if I should even do this. I mean what 14 year old could ACTUALLY solve a mystery?

“Look! Look at this one.”

I looked at a long written essay about a murder that took place in Connecticut. It did not say what town but when I was reading this, it stated that the person died from 22 stab wounds in their chest. But as I kept reading, it said the murderer was never found. They seemed to believe that he had killed himself.

“Dylan! Do you know what this means?”

“Yeah, that we should leave this alone before we have 22 stab wounds in our chest!” He stated sarcastically.

I ran outside as if I were going to really find more out there. I started to dig up a bigger ditch. I kept digging and digging, until I got to around 2 feet deep into the ground and something appeared. Something that did not look like it belonged in my backyard; it looked like it belonged in a police station for evidence.

“What are you doing…?” Dylan questioned as I was pulling out these coffee stained documents.

After I pulled out all those papers, I pulled out a little journal. It had “What happened to her” written on the front. I flipped open as fast as I could, almost ripping the journal. It seemed to look like a map of my house.

“Since when did you have a basement to your garage? Look there is a door there, I’ve never heard of that,” Dylan questioned.

“I never did…”

I ran over to the back of the garage where the map said I had a door which I’ve never seen before. Where it said it was my dad had a bunch of stuff that blocked everything. I moved everything and saw a 3 ft wooden, old fashioned door with a rusted, orange handle. I had nothing to lose so I kicked the door down.

“BEEP BEEP”

I see my parents getting out of the car. I put everything back so quick and made sure they didn’t know we were back there.

“I will call you tomorrow, you can probably come over,” I insisted.

As I was lying in bed I thought to myself if I am just over reacting and if this can even be real. But as I kept thinking, I knew I wanted to figure this out, what do I have to lose?

“…Alright I’ll see you when you get here,” I told Dylan as I was waiting patiently.

We traveled to the back with the map that I dug up of my house and moved everything blocking the door like lightening. I thought I have nothing to lose; I really want to know what is going on. Could I really figure out the murder?

“Just kick the damn thing down!” Dylan yelled anxiously at me as I was starring at the door as if it were going to fall down by itself.

“BANG”

I ran down these four steps so quick as if I were Sherlock Holmes solving the mystery of the Barone’s household. As I ran down there, it was pitch black and the only thing I could see is a shiny silver chain dangling from the ceiling. I pulled it down and what I saw was unexplainable. Not only did I find a murder weapon yesterday, but in this dungeon I found pictures, notebooks, driver’s license, and so much more unexpected things.

“Dylan! Get down here, you need to see this!” I screamed to Dylan

“Oh my God! Alright this is way too creepy for me, bye!”

“Get back down here.”

It looked like someone was stalked for their whole life, I mean there were pictures from the time this person was a young girl all the way up to their adult age. I looked through all these scattered documents which had the name Jane Anderson written all over it. I found out so much information.

“Alright we need to know what we are going to do because this is turning so serious!” I yelled to Dylan.

“FRANK! We need to leave this alone, it’s not our business, and we aren’t the one who is dead right? So let’s just leave it alone.”

“This is serious! Dylan we need to figure this out now and either you’re with me or not, I don’t care.” I insisted.

“Alright fine, let’s figure out what the hell this crazy person did.” Dylan agreed.

As we looked through all these crazy papers, pictures, one caught my eye. This woman looked so familiar, not in person but on television. As I thought about it for a few minutes it got to me!

“Dylan, do you remember that lady that was on the news a few years ago that got killed and had an unknown murderer. Well look!”

“Alright I'm getting scarred…”

“Stop being a wimp, c’mon we need to figure this out, keep looking! We need to find enough evidence for the police.”

We kept digging as I heard footsteps coming from behind us.

“Pssssst, Dylan, do you hear that?” I whispered.

“Let’s go we need to hide, go behind that poster of the girl.”

We hide behind this poster of the girl at age twenty-five, and we hear these footsteps getting closer and closer. We hear heavy breathing from what to seem to be a man.

“WHOSE THERE?” I heard as I was dead silent, hiding.

I heard the footsteps go down the stairs. The light appeared on, now I see who it is...It’s my Dad.

“Dad, what are you doing here?” I questioned still shaking from being nervous that it was way worse than my Dad.

“No, the real question is what are you doing down here!”

“I...I..I...” I stuttered.

“What is it down here? He questioned.

“That’s what we are trying to figure out.”

“We?”

“Dylan get out from hiding, it’s just my Dad.”

“Pheeew! Got me nervous there” Dylan exclaimed.

I showed my Dad all the pictures, and all the papers that had Jane Anderson written all over them. He looked at me with a confused but curious look. I thought to myself, maybe he has all the answers and knows what all this is.

“Dad, do you know this woman, and don’t lie to me!” I questioned.

“Frank, let’s get out of here.”

“No! Tell me!”

“I don’t know what this is but I don’t want to know, let’s go!”

“No I want to go to the police and solve this, I’m not going to live here knowing that someone could have been killed here!”

My Dad walks away expecting me to go behind him, but I was determined to find out what this whole mess was. I looked through everything and finally found something that I know could use as evidence. It was the death certificate of Jane Anderson. The best part is that on the death certificate it stated that she died from 22 stab wounds from a machete knife.
“DYLAN! GET OVER HERE!” I screamed at the top of my lungs of excitement.
“WHAT?”
“Look!”
“OH MY GOSH! Alright let’s go to the police station NOW!”
I asked my Dad to take us but he said no, he didn’t want to get involved but I didn’t care because I was determined. When I got to the police station I told them I need to speak with someone right away. When I got into a room with a police officer I threw everything on the table.
“What’s this?” He questioned.
“Something you have been trying to find for a very long time but couldn’t. Well I finally solved the Jane Anderson case!”
“I will be right back.” He said as walking away with all the evidence.
Five minutes went by and I’m waiting and waiting just to find out everything. I thought it was taking forever, but it only has been five minutes.
“Well kids, you guys are definitely good ones!”
“Why, what happened?” I said in excitement.
“You have solved this case! We have been trying to find evidence like this but could never and you finally did! We are so proud of you guys and to award you is a 1,000$ to split because this has been an open case for over three years now! We cannot thank you enough.”
“Wow! Thank you. Alright well it’s getting late and I have a lot of homework that I need to do. Thank you sir!”
“No thank you!” He said as we were shaking hands.
As Dylan and I walked home I didn’t know if I should tell my Dad. I mean he didn’t believe me so why should I?
“Look what we did, we solved a murder crime!” Dylan said with confidence.
“I know! Should we even tell our parents?” I questioned.
“Yeah, so we can brag the 1,000$ in their face!”
“Hey Dad, look what I got?” I sarcastically said.
“What’s that from?”
“Oh the thing you didn’t want to get involved in!”
Dylan and I were proud of ourselves and yes it was sad that the woman died, but we knew we were determined to solve this crime and we had a great time doing it!