Read Online Adventures in Funeral Crashing by Milda Harris - Free Book Online

and Olivia too.”
    “But the police don’t. They’re the ones that
count,” Ethan let out an exasperated sigh, “What are we supposed to
do?”
    “I don’t know!” I shouted. Yes, I shouted at
Ethan Ripley, the most popular guy at school. “But we can’t just
give up. I think we have the start of something.”
    “I’m tired,” Ethan sounded defeated. “I want
to give up. I just have to accept the facts like my family and the
police want me to. I just want it to be over. I mean, she’s dead.
There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
    My cell phone broke off my annoyed retort. We
couldn’t give up. It was Anne from the Palos Video Store, “What’s
up?”
    I listened. Oh shit. I completely forgot
about my shift at the store. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,
Anne. I totally spaced. I am so sorry.”
    Ethan was staring at me, as I hung up. “I
need to get my car. I forgot about my shift at the video
store.”
    Ethan nodded and started the car. He looked
completely drained, “No problem. We’ll be back at my house in
five.”
    Ethan pulled away from the Palos Police
Department and I felt him pulling away from me at the same
time.
    “But Ethan, what about Liz?” I asked.
    He shook his head, “Forget about this whole
thing. I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”
    I ignored his self-defeatist attitude, “Maybe
we should investigate her death ourselves.”
    “Like we could make any difference,” Ethan’s
voice sounded dull.
    I remember how he felt. There was a period
after my mom died that I felt the same way. Dull. Nothing mattered,
at least not really. Ethan wasn’t right in this case, though. Liz
had been murdered! I was completely sure of it!
    I wasn’t going to let him get away with
blowing Liz’s murder off, “But don’t you want to know that your
sister wasn’t a druggie? Even if we can’t convince the police,
don’t you want to know?”
    Ethan sighed, “I just can’t think about this
right now. I’m so tired.”
    He couldn’t give up! I told myself to calm
down. Ethan was under a lot of stress. He could sleep on it.
Besides, I had to go to work and there was nothing more we could do
tonight, “Maybe you just need to get some rest. We can talk more
about it tomorrow.”
    Ethan snuck a glance at me with a resolved
look, as he continued driving, “I’m done looking into it. We don’t
need to talk about it tomorrow.”
    That was a total blow off if I could say so
myself. Ethan was basically telling me that he’d used me for what
he needed me for and he didn’t need me anymore. And, maybe I was
ignoring the fact that he was obviously depressed and for good
reason, but I couldn’t help it, I felt suddenly really angry,
“Well, you’re welcome. I’m so glad I spent the last two days doing
research for you into your sister’s death. Now that I’m convinced
that she was murdered, I am so glad you are convinced that she
simply overdosed. Fine, leave me with the guilt of knowing that
there’s going to be a next victim. Fine, Ethan, fine.”
    And, we proceeded to drive back to my car and
his house in silence, as we both pondered my statement, each angry
with the other.
    Thus, I spent Saturday night worried about
getting fired from my part time video store job over a popular
asshole, who I had spent a perfectly good free weekend day trying
to help. I was over an hour late to work and worse than that, Ethan
and I hadn’t spoken a word since my rant. Even when we parted ways,
he hadn’t said so much as a thank you. So much for the hope that he
might say “hi!” to me in the halls when we returned to school on
Monday.
    Anne was cool, though, about my job. It was
the first time ever, that I had been really, really late. Although,
she did warn me that I should make sure it never happened again. It
wouldn’t. I mean, it’s not like Ethan was going to be distracting
me from my responsibilities again or anything.
    Anne left after chewing me out. Even though
she was really nice