At exactly 9:59pm that night, Abigail crept out of the hotel room, dressed in black leggings, an oversized sky blue sweater, and a hot pink crocheted beanie. She carried a duffel bag over her shoulder that contained her ice skates, a notebook, her voice recorder, and other necessities. Sienna had fallen asleep almost immediately after dinner, so Abigail left a note that she was going to go practice.

Abigail took the elevator to the lobby, where she made two steaming cups of hot cocoa. Carefully, she balanced them in her hands, trying not to burn herself in the process. She was so focused she didn’t watch where she was going and-BAM! Smacked into Kaitlyn and Lizzie. Scalding hot chocolate spilled from the cups and splashed in their direction. Lizzie jumped away just in time, but Kaitlyn’s hand got burned. She shrieked, surprised.

“Ohmigosh! I am so, so sorry!” Abigail, horrified, grabbed paper towels and attempted to help, but Kaitlyn snatched them and wiped her hand, leaving an ugly-looking burn. “Watch where you’re going, Annabelle!” She snapped, green eyes blazing.

Abigail was about to correct her but thought better of it. “I really am sorry, ma’am. It was a complete accident!” “Come on, Elizabeth,” Kaitlyn said shortly, snatching her daughter’s hand with her unburned one. “We have better things to do than deal with her clumsiness!” She stalked away, dragging poor Lizzie with her.

Abigail’s face heated under the soft yellow lobby lights. “Nice going, Detective Evans,” she admonished under her breath. She bit her lip and re-made the cocoa.

At the rink, shimmery silver moonlight slanted though the navy sky and reflected off the ice. It was a huge circular rink, with six or seven benches scattered around it. Thankfully, no one else was there but Maddox, waiting, in sleek black skates and a royal blue sweatshirt with stonewashed jeans. His black backpack was on a bench.

“Hey, you copied me, you’re wearing blue too!” He skated over, gliding across the ice easily. Abigail snorted as he reached her and spun to a stop. “Yeah, ‘cause we totally planned that. Anyway, I brought hot cocoa. And almost got killed for it.”

“What?!” Maddox looked confused. Abigail told him about the Kaitlyn encounter while lacing up her pink and white ice skates and putting her bag next to his. Maddox’s breath frosted in the air as he sighed. “Yeah, Kaitlyn’s just grumpy. I can’t figure her out. But what about our murder mystery? Any clues?”

Abigail took a step onto the rink and instincts kicked in. She slowly glided one foot across the ice, then the other, until she was spinning and twirling. “No, not really,” she said, realizing she hadn’t answered his question. She skated back and played the voice recording from the elevator for him. “Sebastian’s giving me sus vibes. And Maria. Maybe they did it together.” She drifted back on to the ice, turning in an elegant double pirouette. “What do you think?”

“Same. Something’s off about them. But then there’s Kaitlyn, Andrew, and…” his face turned red. Abigail frowned. “What?”

Maddox slowly skated over to the bench and sipped his cocoa. “They are starting to think it was my mom.”

Abigail’s jaw dropped, dark blue eyes wide. “What? Real? How could-they even-why-”

“Because she and Harry were good friends.” Maddox interrupted, running his fingers through his messy chocolate curls. “Which literally makes no sense, ‘cause if they were friends, then why would she kill him?!” Maddox’s voice rose.

Then a flash of movement caught his eye. A shady figure stood by the entrance back to the hotel, watching the pair.

Abigail squinted. “Is that Kaitlyn?” Maddox peered at the figure. “Maybe…but something’s not quite right.” The figure saw them looking, spun on their heel, and left.

Abigail shrugged and opened her bag to show him her notebook, but she grabbed it the wrong way and its contents spilled out into the ice.

“Argh, I’m so clumsy!” She got on her hands and knees to retrieve the notebook and her phone. Maddox immediately got down and helped her. “No you’re not!” he said.

His eyes fell on the other book she had brought, the Hardy Boys and the Secret of the Old Mill. Maddox grinned and grabbed the book, flipping through the pages. “I love the Hardy Boys!”

Abigail smiled, her stomach doing that fluttery thing again. Stop it, she told herself. I’m trying to solve a mystery, not get distracted by a boy. Even though he may be really cute. “Yeah, that one’s my favorite!” she replied, standing and brushing herself off. “How many do you have?”

They talked long into the night, skating, teasing, and chatting about whatever was on their minds. Abigail was glad to have made a friend so quickly.

An hour and a half later, she checked her phone, which was light blue and covered in winter-themed stickers. “Oh my lanta, it’s almost midnight! I should get back,” she said reluctantly, not wanting to go back to her lonely room yet. They began to untie their skates.

Maddox frowned. “Yeah, we should, you know, be responsible teenagers, get some sleep, big day tomorrow…”

“Yeah…” Abigail played with a blue snowflake sticker on her phone case. “Same time tomorrow night?”

That brought a smile to his face. “Obviously. Also, do you want my number…just in case?” She nodded and handed him her phone. He punched in his number and handed it back to her. She typed a quick hey, it’s abbi and heard a text tone in his pocket. “There. See you tomorrow.” “See ya!” He waved.

They parted ways and Abigail made it back to her room just as it hit 12:00am on the dot. Her mom still fast asleep, Abigail changed into pj’s and was just settling into bed when her phone vibrated. She clicked into it and there was one text that made her smile.

Had a gr8 time 2nite. C u 2morrow. 😄~ Maddox

It will give you inspiration.

And besides you know your best inspo comes at later sooooooo..yeah.

Before Abigail could remark the last time Callie had seen her was when she was seven, Callie said, “Abbi, here’s my son, Maddox. Maddox, this is Sienna’s girl.”

Maddox was a couple inches taller than Abigail, with short, light brown curls and dark golden brown eyes. He stuck out a hand and flashed a smile, enhancing light freckles against tanned skin. “Abbi, is it?” he asked. Abigail shook his hand. “Abigail, actually.” Maddox laughed. “I see Mom’s already nicknamed you. Come on, you can sit across from me.” He had a pleasant Canadian accent that curved his vowels.

Abigail took her seat as the guests slowly began to arrive. She recognized Sebastian and Kaitlyn from the elevator, along with a little girl who couldn’t have been over 10 years old. She looked identically like Kaitlyn. The girl took the seat next to Abigail and whispered shyly that she was Lizzie, Kaitlyn’s daughter. After them, a few more people filed in that Abigail took a silent mental picture of: a tall, lanky man with cropped blonde hair and a beautiful woman with dark features who appeared to be Sebastian’s wife.

“Dr. Andrew Langley and Mrs. Maria Moretti,” Maddox whispered in Abigail’s ear after they had ordered food and the adults were in a deep conversation about hockey and figure skating.

Abigail tilted her head. “Hmm. You heard about the murder, right?” Maddox nodded, shifting in his seat to look at her. His dark green long-sleeved shirt brought out the flecks of emerald in his eyes. “Yeah. Just think about it. The murderer could be sitting at this very table.” Abigail swirled her fork in pasta. “Or murderess.” She glanced inconspicuously at the girls around the table.

“Mom told me not to get involved,” Maddox whispered. “But I can’t help it. I want to solve this!”

Abigail smiled. “My mom said the same thing. I can’t stand this either. I’ll probably end up solving it by mistake.”

Maddox fell silent as Sebastian mentioned the murder. Abigail took a careful note of everyone’s reactions: Callie looked nervous, Kaitlyn looked annoyed (as usual), Andrew looked fidgety, and Maria looked nonchalant, which bothered Abigail for some reason. Maddox leaned toward her and whispered, “There’s an outdoor ice skating rink out past the hotel’s pool. Meet me there at 10 tonight and we’ll go over everything we know. Bring hot chocolate.”

Abigail smiled and agreed. Maybe something good had come out of the murder after all.

“Are you going to stand there gawking the whole time, or should we go inside?” The teasing voice of Abigail’s mother, Sienna, jolted her out of her thoughts. Abigail turned to her mom, laughing. “Ok, you got me. Let’s go.” They rolled the luggages toward the check-in desk, and as her mother booked a room, Abigail let her thoughts wander again.

Abigail and Sienna had driven up to Diamond Court for the annual Minnesota State Fair, in which Sienna’s best friend, Callie Finch, would be competing in the figure-skating tournament. Abigail adored figure skating and did it competitively in their hometown of Jade City, about 2 hours away from the big event. The two-day show also promised hockey, Abigail’s favorite ice sport, so she was thrilled to attend. Sienna and Callie met on their respective honeymoons and stayed in touch over the years, although Abigail had never met Callie’s 15-year-old son, Maddox. She wondered what he would be like.

Sienna and Abigail traveled up the glass elevators that had a full scope of the lobby. In the elevator, a tall man with jet-black hair stood to the side with a grumpy-looking redheaded woman. Abigail smiled at them but they were in a heated conversation.

“A murder in this hotel, Sebastian?” The redhead whispered angrily, although the Evanses could hear her perfectly. Sienna’s eyes widened but she didn’t interrupt. Abigail stayed quiet also but listened intently while fiddling with her voice recorder toy. Of course she had to have one. Solving mysteries and acting as a detective was only her favorite pastime after figure skating, playing Clue, and watching Mission Impossible.

The man–Sebastian–nodded, shifting the sleek black and gold suitcase he was holding to his other hand. “Yes, Kaitlyn, the room is still under inspection and the murderer not yet located. The victim was Harrison Thornewood, nonetheless! The very owner of the fair murdered the day before the whole thing.” Sebastian’s dark eyes turned a shade colder, which Abigail hadn’t thought possible. Something was off about him, but she couldn’t think of what.

Kaitlyn’s annoyed, green-eyed stare looked far away as she glanced into the distance. “Then what to be of the fair? Who’s taking over?”

“Clifton Thornewood, Harry’s son.” Sebastian replied. He opened his mouth to say more, but the elevator chimed and he nodded politely to Kaitlyn. “I’ll see you at dinner.” She just nodded back, biting her lip. After several more quiet, uncomfortable seconds, Kaitlyn left the elevator on her floor. Abigail silently clicked off her recorder and fingered the light pink hem of her Anne Wilson Rebel sweatshirt. Abbi loved the light red horse rearing on the front of it.

Sienna and Abigail found their room on the seventh floor and Sienna used the purple and orange key card to unlock the door. Sienna closed the door gently after them and Abigail couldn’t hold it in anymore. “WHAT?! A murder here? The owner of the fair? Did you know about this?”

Sienna sat on the edge of her bed and massaged her temples, obviously agitated. “No, I had absolutely no idea. I’ll text Callie and see what she knows, but meanwhile let’s unpack. And Abbi, stay out of trouble. With a murderer lurking around, there’s no saying what could happen next.”

The two settled into a thoughtful silence and began to unpack. Abigail hummed That’s So True by Gracie Abrams as she lined up the three books she had brought: Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and, her personal favorite, the Hardy Boys. Saying Abigail enjoyed reading old mysteries was an understatement.

Sienna’s mid-length auburn hair swished as she reached to grab her blinking phone. “Callie said that a bunch of her friends are meeting downstairs for dinner and to discuss the murder later and to meet her there.” “Ooh, let’s go!” Abigail replied, standing and brushing her dark red hair over her shoulder. “I have the perfect dinner outfit.” She picked up a dark blue knee-length dress with a thin belt and spaghetti straps paired with cute white sandals.

And, no matter what, Abigail thought, wrapping a curling iron around a section of her red hair, I’m solving this mystery.

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