"Class, when you've finished your journal entries, please hand them . . ."

Tiffany watched Mrs. Chin stare at her sister.

"Megan, are you okay?" Mrs. Chin asked.

Megan swayed in her chair.

This didn't look like one of Meggie's dumb jokes. She was all pale and pressing her hands on her stomach. Tiffany stood. "Meggie, what's wrong?"

Meggie slid off her chair. When she hit the floor, Tiffany and Mrs. Chin scrambled toward her. Kneeling on the journal Meggie had swept to the ground, Tiffany scarcely noticed the words, The scariest thing that hapened on Haloween last night was the party at our house.

***

In the stuffy hospital room, Mom's silver bracelets jangled as she gripped Tiffany's shoulders. "Doctor says Meggie'll be fine, honey. But I need to know if you ate any Halloween candy today."

"No, why?"

Mom turned to Tiffany's step-dad whose bald head had gone shiny. If Meggie was supposed to be fine, how come he and Mom looked so worried? Had Mom lied about Meggie being okay? Tiffany swallowed back the panic.

"Tell her, Avery," Mom said.

Her stepdad's bald head turned pink. "The doctor said Meggie's been poisoned with arsenic."

Tiffany blinked. "What's arsenic?"

"It's a metal," Avery replied. "But it can look like a powder that has no smell or taste, and it can be a liquid too."

"Can you die from it?" Even to Tiffany, her voice sounded small.

Avery loosened his tie. "If your body gets too much too soon, yeah, but Meggie will be fine."

Poor Meggie. Tiffany looked at her sleeping sister, then glanced at the room's three empty beds. Had other kids gotten better and gone home, or had they died?

"Tiffy, did anyone give Meggie candy this morning?" Mom asked.

Why did she have to call her Tiffy? Her name was Tiffany. "I don't think so."

When Tiffany's father charged into the room, she hugged him. "Hi, Dad." His soft plaid shirt reminded her of warm pajamas.

"Hey, sweetheart. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

After he kissed Meggie's forehead, Dad turned to Mom. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know." Mom shook her head. "I checked every piece of candy."

"Great job," Dad muttered. "You sure she'll be okay?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm taking you back to court. Should get joint custody after this screw-up."

"Not if I tell the judge about the fight you and Meggie had on Saturday." Mom crossed her arms. "The whole neighborhood heard her shout that she didn't want to see you again."

"She was just mad 'cause I wouldn't buy her a doll."

"What'd you do, Rick?" Avery remarked. "Slip her tainted candy to teach her a lesson?"

"Shut it, baldy."

"Dad didn't give her anything," Tiffany said. "I was there the whole time." Would they ever stop fighting?

"Ask your witch of a sister if she spiked the candy," Dad said to Avery. "I hear she hates kids."

Tiffany spotted a lady in the doorway, but her parents and Avery were too busy arguing to notice.

The woman winked at Tiffany, then strolled into the room and flashed a gold badge at the adults.

"I'm Detective Miles."

"Rick Virta. I'm the twins' dad, and I wanna know who tried to kill my little girl."

"We haven't determined how Megan ingested the arsenic. It can be found in all sorts of things. Old paint and wallpaper, cigarette smoke, drinking water, meats, pesticides."

"Our house is only three years old, and we don't smoke or use pesticides." Mom held out her hand. "I'm Meggie's mother, Colette, and this is my husband, Avery. Just so you know, Rick smokes."

The detective barely nodded as she opened a notebook. "Had Meggie been feeling ill before today?"

"Meggie's always complaining about her tummy," Mom replied. "She has so many allergies and food sensitivities that I can barely keep them straight."

"She never feels good on Monday," Tiffany added. "And she hates school."

Tiffany bit her lower lip as the detective turned to her. "You must be Meggie's sister."

"Yep. I'm the oldest by fifteen minutes."

"Definitely, the mature one," Mom said. "Top student in her class too. Wants to be a writer. Though with a brain like hers, she should think about medical school."

"My girls tell me that lots of strangers come to their house," Dad said. "I also know they threw a Halloween party last night. Anyone could have slipped her poisoned candy."

"I work out of my home." Avery fiddled with his tie. "My sister Bonnie and I are financial consultants, and we were entertaining a few clients. None of them even know Meggie."

"Those who do love my angel," Mom said. "Meggie's a friendly, outgoing child."

Tiffany snorted, then blushed when she saw the adults' stares.

"When I was ten, my younger brother was a huge pain." The detective strolled closer to Tiffany. "Do you know if anyone at school was angry with Meggie?"

Finally, someone who was willing to listen. "A couple of kids were mad at her for spying on them, then telling the teacher."

"She's just a naturally curious child." Mom flashed Tiffany a frown. "Always gets into my jewelry. Tries my makeup."

"What about neighbors?" the detective asked. "Have any of them been mad at her lately?"

"That schizophrenic nut, Duane Everson, was furious when Meggie tore a couple of stupid birds from his trees," Mom answered.

The detective stopped writing in her notebook. "Excuse me?"

"Duane loves birds," Tiffany explained. "But cats kept killing the real ones who came to his birdfeeders, so he took the feeders down and made cardboard birds. Duane's good at drawing."

"Oh, my God." Mom's bracelets jangled as she covered her cheeks. "We trick-or-treated at Everson's last night. I saw him give the girls a fistful of candy."

"What did the candy look like?" Detective Miles asked.

"They were balls wrapped in shiny orange paper," Tiffany answered. "Chocolate on the outside, chewy inside. I still have some."

"Nice neighborhood you got there," Dad said.

"And how many people in your trailer park have criminal records, besides you?" Mom asked.

Tiffany sighed.

"I gotta go back to work," Dad said. "Boss only gave me an hour." He stroked Meggie's face, then hugged Tiffany.

"Mr. Virta, may I have your phone and work numbers?" Detective Miles asked.

After Dad gave them and left, the detective turned to Tiffany. "Do you know if Meggie ate any candy on her way to school this morning?"

"She was chewing something, but I don't know what it was."

"Do you think Meggie still has any of Mr. Everson's candies?"

"Don't know, but Aunt Bonnie might have some." Why was everyone staring at her? "It's true," Tiffany insisted. "She took a bunch of candies to get back at Meggie for snooping in her and Avery's office last night."

"My sister's a sweet fiend." Avery tried to smile. "Always keeps a jar of jelly beans in our office which Meggie likes to sneak. Isn't that right, darling?"

Mom swept a strand of hair from her cheek. "Yes, of course."

"If Bonnie took candies from Meggie, obviously she didn't give her any," Avery added.

"Maybe we should see if your sister has any of those candies left," the detective said.

"I'll call her cell right now." He hurried out of the room.

While Mom straightened Meggie's blanket, Detective Miles moved closer to Tiffany.

"Would Meggie eat a piece of candy off the ground?"

"Totally. A candy fell out of her mouth while she was feeding our cat this morning. If Mom hadn't told her to put the candy in the garbage, she would have eaten it."

"Think she did anyway?"

Tiffany stepped closer and whispered, "Meggie always does what she wants. Gets away with it too."

Detective Miles gave her a sympathetic smile. "The younger ones always do."

***

In her bedroom, Tiffany smiled at the first page of her brand new story, "The Mysterious Poisoning of the Butt-head Spy". This would be way better than real life. Real life, Tiffany had discovered, was adults taking kids' candy away and whispering behind closed doors. It was also sisters who lied. Meggie told Mom she hadn't eaten anything on her way to school. Last week, Mom had warned Meggie that if she did any more bad things for the rest of October there'd be no TV, video, or computer games in November.

Tiffany re-read the paragraph she'd just written.

No one could believe that their shy neighbor, Devon, would put arsenic in Halloween candy, but when the police showed up at his house, Devon took off. Now, everyone wondered if Devon was a child killer!

Tiffany had overheard Mom say that Duane had tried to run away because he'd stolen some of the candy he handed out Sunday night. Duane was back home now, keeping his curtains closed.

When the doorbell rang, Tiffany took her story and backpack downstairs just as Avery led Detective Miles into the kitchen. Tiffany entered the room to find Mom, Avery, and Aunt Bonnie whose pudgy face was scrunched in anger.

"Can't talk now, Detective." Bonnie headed for the door. "I have an appointment."

"I've been trying to reach you for two days," the detective replied. "I want to know about the candies you took from Meggie Sunday night."

Tiffany's cheeks flushed. Was Aunt Bonnie a suspect? Her aunt might not like kids much, but she thought it cool that Tiffany wanted to be a writer. Even gave her a Harriet the Spy book last Christmas.

"I took a lot of candies," Bonnie said. "Ate all of them, and I didn't poison Meggie. If you have more questions, talk to my lawyer." She stomped out of the room.

"Tiffy, feed the cat, please," Mom said.

While Tiffany poured food into a bowl on the sundeck, Detective Miles joined her and looked at the backyard. "You girls have an awesome playhouse."

Tiffany glanced at the little building with the slanted roof and shutters around the window. "Avery made it. He likes building stuff. Made this deck too."

"Bet you spend a lot of time there."

"Nah, Meggie took it over. Put all her junk inside."

Mom opened the door. "Tiffy, hurry up. You'll be late for school."

"I can drive her, if you like, Mrs. Harvey. I want to talk to Meggie's teacher anyway."

"I appreciate that." The bells on Mom's earrings tinkled. "I still think that schizoid Everson's behind this. I hear he used to live in an institution."

Tiffany's eyebrows rose. She hadn't known that. Rushing to her backpack, she retrieved her story and began scribbling.

The neighbors were out for Devon's blood. They wanted him to leave the neighborhood and go back to the institution he had come from. Kids threw rocks at his house. When Devon stepped outside to yell at them, a ginormous rock cut his forehead. The neighbors were getting the blood they wanted.

Tiffany heard Detective Miles say, "You built a beautiful deck and playhouse, Mr. Harvey."

"Thanks. Got a great deal on wood."

As the adults approached, Tiffany put her story away.

"We'd like to check your house and Megan's school for contaminants."

"Sure, if you want, but I think Colette's right. Poison's in those candies." Avery ran his hand over his bald head. "I mean, it's too coincidental that Meggie got sick the day after Halloween."

"Let's see where the evidence takes us, shall we?"

***

"I want everyone to work on your journals," Mrs. Chin said.

After the ambulance took Meggie away last week, Mrs. Chin gave Meggie's journal and backpack to Tiffany. Yesterday, she asked Tiffany to bring in any homework Meggie had finished. There wasn't much. Since Tiffany had already written her latest journal entry, she'd decided to see if Meggie had finished last week's assignment. They'd had to write about the scariest thing that happened on Halloween. As Tiffany read Meggie's entry, her mouth fell open. Meggie had written about getting caught in Avery's office. Aunt Bonnie said she'd break my *@&! arm if I told anyone what she'd heard. But journals don't count. And I heard Bonnie tell someone on the phone that she'd get the cocaine for him right away.

***

Tiffany's pen hovered over her short story. She'd had to tell Detective Miles what Meggie had written.

The hunt for Devon's blood might have been a humongous mistake because Detective Marvel had a new suspect. The butt-head spy, Muffin, said that her mean aunt, Brutal Bertha (known as Brutal), had threatened to cut off Muffin's head if she told anyone what she'd overheard Bertha say on the phone. It didn't take long for the detective to learn that Brutal was selling cocaine at her hairdressing salon. Now Brutal had vanished and the entire police force was looking for her.

Tiffany stopped reading. Part of her wished she hadn't told the truth. Mom and Avery were fighting a lot now, and Aunt Bonnie really had disappeared. She heard shouts downstairs. Avery. What now? Tiffany tiptoed out of her bedroom.

"Then use your bloody search warrant!" he yelled. "You won't find anything!"

Tiffany had learned about search warrants on TV. Worry flip-flopped in her stomach. She sat at the top of the staircase and waited.

Seconds later, Avery shouted, "That's not mine!"

"You'd better come with us, Mr. Harvey," Detective Miles said.

Next, her mom's voice. "I'm gonna kill Bonnie!"

Tiffany ran to the phone in Mom's bedroom and dialed her father's number. "Dad, the police are here and they found something in Avery's office, and they're taking him away!"

"Be right there, sweetheart."

Tiffany crept downstairs.

"I wouldn't poison Meggie!" Avery said. "What kind of monster do you think I am?"

"Calm down, Mr. Harvey. I'm not accusing you."

"You just found drugs in my office. How am I supposed to react?"

Tiffany swallowed back her fear. Oh no, she was helping send Avery to jail. When Mom blinked back tears, Tiffany couldn't help doing the same. She shouldn't have told.

"Tiffy," Mom said, "wait in your room, honey."

"But I want to help."

"Actually, Mrs. Harvey, I could use Tiffany's assistance with some computer research on arsenic, if you and she agree."

Mom wiped her eyes and shrugged. "I don't see the point, but whatever."

Detective Miles turned to Tiffany. "My daughter's about your age, and her class uses a couple of good websites to research things. Do you?"

"Sure." Tiffany smiled, grateful for the chance to do something useful.

The detective started to explain why she wanted Tiffany to research arsenic when a loud rap on the door distracted everyone. Tiffany hurried to answer it.

"Hi, Dad."

"Hey." He gave her a quick hug.

"What are you doing here?" Mom asked.

"I called him," Tiffany said. "Thought you'd want to go with Avery to the police station."

Mom checked her fingernails and shifted from foot to foot.

"That's the man you should be arresting!" Avery pointed at Dad. "He's out of control when he's violent. Been busted for assault twice."

Detective Miles' cell phone rang. She stared at Avery while she listened to the caller. "Good. Bring her in." The detective hung up. "We have your sister."

Avery nodded. "Finally, we can sort out this mess."

"She says you're the dealer," the detective replied.

***

"It's all lies and I'm not talking to reporters again!" Tiffany heard Mom slam down the phone.

Sitting at Avery's computer, Tiffany's gaze traveled to Mom and Meggie's picture on the front page of the local newspaper. The picture was taken two days ago, before Avery's arrest. Avery was home now, but napping 'cause he hadn't slept much in jail last night.

Tiffany returned to her computer screen. Better start the research for Detective Miles. She wasn't sure why she'd been asked to look up everything arsenic was used for, but the detective said she'd understand once she started reading about it. Fifteen minutes later, Tiffany had her answer.

"Avery poisoned Meggie," Tiffany mumbled. "It was his fault."

***

Detective Marvel had uncovered the truth. Brutal Bertha killed her enemies at a Halloween party by giving them candies and pop spiked with arsenic. Since Brutal didn't want these guys dying in her office and messing up the place, she asked them to help her with the fireworks she'd set up in the backyard. No one knew that Muffin wanted even more treats than she'd already gotten from trick-or-treating. She'd snuck into Brutal's office and took what was left of the poisoned candies. By the time Brutal's enemies were collapsing on the lawn, Muffin was doing the same in Brutal's office. Muffin's Mom was right all along. Sugar, no matter what kind, is bad for ya.

Tiffany leaned back against the couch, satisfied. The story would need more blood, some talking and maybe a chase scene, but at least she had her first draft on paper. Her attention drifted to the flower bouquets and toy bears Meggie had brought home from the hospital. Detective Miles would be here any minute to tell Mom and Avery about their research. When Mom found out what Avery had done, she'd get mad. At least Aunt Bonnie had finally confessed that Avery hadn't known about her drug dealing business.

The doorbell rang. Tiffany soon heard Mom and Detective Miles talking. Ten minutes later, the detective was telling Mom and Avery that Meggie had gotten arsenic from their sundeck and playhouse.

"I don't understand," Mom said. "Meggie doesn't eat wood, for pity sake, and why would arsenic be in it?"

Miles turned to Tiffany. "Would you like to explain? After all, your research matches my findings. You helped solve the case, young lady."

Tiffany beamed. "Wood used to be treated with a chemical called chromated . . . chromated . . ."

"Copper arsenate," Detective Miles said.

"Yeah, and it was made to keep fungus and bugs from ruining the wood," Tiffany added. "But the chemical oozed to the top a lot, so anyone who touched the wood got arsenic on their hands. If someone put their fingers in their mouth or ate something they'd found on the wood, like a really sticky candy," she gave her mother a long look, "they could have gotten sick, especially if they'd done stuff like that over and over again. Anyhow, they stopped that kind of wood about three years ago, I think."

"We sampled your deck and playhouse. I called in some favors, put a rush on the tests, and the lab found high quantities of arsenic in the wood," Miles said. "Yesterday, Meggie admitted to eating the candy she'd dropped on the deck, though she didn't want you to know, Mrs. Harvey. The arsenic she ingested put her system over the edge."

Tiffany grinned. Finally, the truth.

"Wouldn't Meggie have noticed the taste or something?" Mom asked.

"She'd absorbed tiny amounts over time but, as the doctors probably told you, arsenic builds up in the body," the detective answered. "I gather Meggie practically lives in her playhouse on weekends. She'd been feeling especially lousy on Monday mornings, right?"

Mom nodded. "Tiffy doesn't use the playhouse much. Is that why she didn't get sick?"

"I don't eat stuff off the floor either," Tiffany replied. "Meggie brings food into the playhouse all the time."

"You also mentioned that Meggie has allergies and food sensitivities," the detective said. "Her system might not be as strong as Tiffany's. Still, you might want to have Tiffany tested."

"I've already made an appointment," Mom replied.

Tiffany shoulders sagged. Tests meant needles, and she hated needles.

Detective Miles turned to Avery. "I talked to the retailer you bought the wood from. The product was actually taken off the market four years ago, but I guess some merchants decided to make a few bucks."

Mom smacked Avery's arm. "You and your bloody deals. How could you be so stupid?"

"You didn't know either!" He rubbed the sore spot. "All this over a bunch of old wood and some candy."

And about adults who accuse others without knowing the facts, Tiffany thought. Talk about scary.

The End

Debra Purdy Kong has published more than fifty short stories in various genres for magazines and anthologies in North America, Europe and New Zealand. Some of these publications include Lynx Eye, Crimestalker Case Book, Orchard Press Mysteries, Futures Mystery Magazine, The Vancovuer Sun newspaper, and a local parenting magazine. The most well known publication her work has appeared in would be Chicken Soup for the Bride's Soul. She has also published two adult mysteries, Taxed to Death and Fatal Encryption featuring amateur sleuth tax auditor Alex Bellamy. She lives in Canada's pacific northwest with her family and is a member of Crime Writers of Canada. More about her can be found at www.debrapurdykong.com.

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