We went looking for Troy, which was rather hard to do. Unfortunately, we found him in the wrong spot. He was next to the toilets, and his hands were covered with cake. ‘Poison’, he whispered, ‘poison’. “Excusme, we need to ask you some questions?” I shyly interrupted.

“No, I’m going to die,” and he followed us. I could see that his personality was overly dramatic. I wrote the interview that Willow had with him down. 

Willow- Troy, calm down. What have you just been eating?

Troy- (stopped at once and looked up) Eating, I was not eating!

Willow- (with a smirk on her face) Then why do you have cake on your hands?

Troy- (starting to sweat, he is nervous) I- I- umm, don’t tell anyone. I found the cake that the woman got poisoned with and wanted to see it. 

Willow- (extremely gleeful) But why did you touch it, you know it could be poisonous?

Troy- Because I wanted to see if it’s actually poison, my senses told me that this mystery maid did it. 

Willow- Thank you, you may go. 

Troy rubbed his eyes, and ran off. 

The interview just now was interesting, I couldn’t tell if he was lying. Maybe he did want to solve this case, or maybe he was just framing someone. He also thinks that the mystery maid did it. We might be right after all. The two boys, Oliver and George, went running up to him asking for food. This was the right time to steal them, but they were only eight. The dad ignored them, still crying. “Boys, I know where you can get food, all you have to do is answer some questions,” I lied, as soon as the father was gone. They happily followed me, and started answering Willow’s questions.

Willow-Ok, Oliver, you first. Why did you run to the cake?

Oliver- Because I wanted to eat it, duuh.

Willow- (rolling her eyes) ok…  So- actually, how tall are you?

Oliver- uuh, idk (he literally said I-D-K, which stands for I don’t know.)

Willow- Hazel, how tall was the maid?

Me- (looking through my sketchbook)  about 1 m and 50cm

Willow- oh, she was short. Now, let me look. (2min later) you can go, boys (gives both of them a mint)

They both run out, smiling. 

As soon as they were out, Willow announced, “They are both ruled out! They are both too short, and if you put them on top of each other, then they're too tall.”

“Ok, we can rule them out. But, Willow, I still don’t see why they would go on top of each other.” Willow laughed, and said it was just a theory. 

May was nowhere to be seen, so we moved to Sophie, my favourite suspect! I wasn’t surprised when I saw her secretly communicating with Maxwell. Willow then realised what I was talking about, and nodded. “Dad, mum’s calling you!” Willow shouted. Once he had left, we went straight to Sophie who seemed to be looking at the sky. This is when the interview started.

Willow- I’m still wondering why you snatched the cake of the boy, it was just cake. 

Sophie- I told you that I read a lot of books.

Willow- How am I meant to know what that means!!!

Sophie- Umm, too much cake is bad for you.

Me- (I bumped in the conversation) I- I have something to say.

Willow- Well, spit it out then.

Me- Sophie, I’m not trying to ruin your secrets, but- 

Sophie- But?

Me- I have noticed you communicating with Maxwell, and I want to know what it’s about.

Sophie- (looking very nervous) Maybe I was- none of your business!

Willow- (her face flushed with jealousy) Of course it’s my business, it’s my father! So you better tell me what you two are talking about!

Sophie- It’s nothing, I’ll kill you if you say another word. 

Me- (jumping in again) We know you're the maid.

Everything was silent once I said this, and Sophie looked at me as if she were about to explode. 

Sophie- You- how dare you! I have nothing to do with this, I wouldn’t dare to wear someone else's clothes. Don’t tell anyone, but I have OCD. Now I’m going to leave, none of you speak to me again.

She left right away, me and Willow looked at each other, shocked. I didn’t know what OCD was, until I searched it up…

‘People with OCD may have obsessions, compulsions, or both. Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that are intrusive, unwanted, and make most people anxious. Common obsessions include: Fear of germs or contamination. Fear of forgetting, losing, or misplacing something.’

This was exactly as it said on my phone, and that explained not wearing other people's clothes. Or was it a lie?

“Do you think she was telling the truth?” Willow asked.

“I don’t know, but we can’t rule her out.” I replied.

“Of course I won’t, I’m not that silly.” Willow said, stepping on my foot.

I was so hungry since Willow forced me not to eat breakfast which made me struggle throughout our investigation. Ignoring Willow’s repeated theory’s, I ran straight to the buffet. Because I was so hungry, I forgot all about our case, almonds and all I thought about was food. 

“Jade, this is a perfect time to interview May. We can just say that her servant wanted her.” Willow muttered.                                                             “But, Willow, I’m hungry. Can’t we just do it later?” I moaned, my eyes half closed.     “No, of course not. Come on, Jade, we can’t waste any time.” She pulled me out of my chair, and my shoes slid across the floor. “Excuse me, Mrs Mittle, I think your servant needs to speak to you. He is waiting next to your tent,” Willow lied.             “Oh, can you show me girls?” May, very innocently, asked. I nodded to Willow, and we both led her. During our walk, Willow interviewed her:

Willow- Who do you think the maid was?

May- Well, I really don’t know. 

Willow- Your family weren’t there, and so were you not there. Where were you all?

May- My husband and my kids went to the toilet, and I- I was staying in our room waiting.

Me- (jumping in, again) We know you're the secret maid!

Willow- Jade, what are you talking about?

May- I was not the maid! You two girls are the most silly girls ever!

Willow- Are you sure, then what were you doing in your room?

May- None of your business!

Willow- If you don’t say, then we are going to make fake proof that you were the maid!

May- You are horrible. (Willow gave her a death stare) Fine, me and Troy are planning to get divorced. And he told me about you girls interrupting him while he was crying. That was when I told him about my plan, and he said he wanted to poison himself but I obviously stopped him. I’m going now, you have all the information you need to think that I’m not the maid.

It did sound like she was telling the truth, but we couldn’t be sure. “We’re going to check her room,” Willow said. I was opening my mouth to say that it’s rude, but you must know to never go against Willow’s ideas, and that’s a warning. 

Everything was so neat, her clothes were folded on the bed and her bag was packed. “I’ll look in her bag,” I quickly said before Willow did.                                           “Uuuh, fine.” 

I was searching the bag; my hands dug underneath to the bottom- I found something. “Willow, she was telling the truth about getting divorced.” My hands were trembling, and Willow looked over my shoulder.

“We can rule her out,” she excitedly said. Then all of a sudden, something came to my mind. 

“Willow, we only have two suspects left. We know none of the men can be the maid, because we know for sure that the maid was a woman.”                                        “Jade, well done. How could I be so silly, imagine us thinking that Troy was the right suspect.” We both smiled at each other; we were so close to finishing the case. 

Even though looking in people’s rooms is something that I disliked very much, this time I forced Willow to look through Lily’s room. I could see that Willow was shocked, because she said that she was very proud of me. 

Luckily for us, Lily was not in her room so we searched as quickly as we could. I was rather surprised when Willow found a very fundamental piece of evidence. It was like she wanted us to find it. “Jade, I think this is poison.” Willow looked at me as if we found the maid, but then Lily walked in the room. 

“What are you two girls doing in my room? And how dare you try to use my hand cream, it is very expensive.”                                                                     “Your hand cream?” I asked.                                                                                “Why, yes. Get out of here.” She grabbed it from Willow and was about to put it on, until I stopped her.                                                                                   “No, you can’t put it on. It’s poison.” But I was too late, as the poison touched her. Her face had gone pale, she was poisoned. Lily quickly went to wash up, and it looked like she was fast enough for the poison to go away. “How did you know?” she asked.     “Because we smelt it,” Willow replied, shocked. She handed us the poison, and said thank you as we saved her. I quickly put it in the bin, and Willow had already been halfway down the field. 

“Someone framed her,” I told Willow. “Which only means one thing. Sophie is the maid.  “Jade, I don’t feel so good. We can tell the manager tomorrow.” Willow replied. I was worried, did she take the poison? I rapidly brang her to the room, and lay her on the bed. I guess we could leave it for tomorrow, I thought. 

After an hour or so, Willow woke up and said she wanted to go to dinner. Terrified that she might have touched the poison, I led her to the buffet. It looked like the food had cheered her up a bit, but I think she was eating a bit too much. “Are you ok, Willow?” I asked.                          “Sorry, what? Oh yeah, I’m just a bit tired. All this investigating has made me dizzy.” She replied.                                                                    “Did you take the poison?” I questioned.                                                     “Jade, do you really think I’m that silly? No! I have to admit this case is a lot harder than the rest. I know we’ve found the maid, but I think we’re missing something. Come on, let’s go to bed, tomorrow is a big day.” She stood from her chair, and I think she was fully recovered.

I was also tired, but how could we be missing something? I was just about to ask Willow what she meant, but she was already fast asleep. Before I was going to forget everything, I wrote everything down in my case book:

Ava is alive, but we don’t think she is the intended victim. We realised that the maid had to be a woman or girl, so ruled out the men. Then, when we went to Lily’s room, we found poison on her table so we thought she was the murderer. But she put it on, and she got poisoned. Luckily Willow told her it was poison so she quickly went to wash it off. Then we realised that she was being framed, and there was only one suspect left: Sophie Mccloud. She fits in perfectly, and she is very suspicious. 

Suspect list:

Troy Mittle- Ruled out. He is a man so he can’t have been the maid. 

May Mittle- Ruled out. She said that she was not in the room because she was sorting out the papers to get divorced, and we looked in her bag where the divorce sheets were. That explained why Troy was crying. 

Oliver and George Mittle- Ruled out. They are boys. And they are too short, and too tall if they climbed on top of each other.

Lily Mccloud- Rule out. She was framed, because she was about to poison herself with the cake poison. She thought it was hand cream. But who would want to kill her?

Carmen Mccloud- Ruled out. He is a man. 

Miles Mccloud- Ruled out. He is a man.

Sophie Mccloud- Motive- Was not there when the fake maid came. She said that she would kill us if we said another word, and her interview was half lying. Alibi- She is saying that she has OCD so can’t wear other people’s clothes. Is this a lie? Overall, she is the disguised maid.

For some reason, I was not so tired which made me ask myself many questions. Who would want to kill Lily, and why? I knew that Sophie was the right suspect, but Lily was her mother. And if she did want to kill Lily, why? Or did she use her as bait? Who was the intended victim, if Ava wasn’t? 

I had an answer to this: Maxwell. It was so clear, but why Maxwell? I could tell that they both knew each other, and I needed to find out how. The smartest thing to do was to go investigate Sophie’s tent, but that would just be dangerous. “It’s ok, I won’t die. Sophie is not a murderer- oh, wait. She is. I can do this, just pretend I’m Willow,” I thought to myself. I slid my shoes on, and walked out onto the field.