Friday seemed to take forever to get here, Molly thought to herself as she sat down in a chair. She was sitting between Ted and Carol at one of the two tables that were set up in the gym lobby. They were stationed in front of the entrance door into the gym itself. On the table before Molly was a black ink pad and a stack of white cards. She picked up a card from the stack and saw that it was identical to the one her fingerprints were placed on at the club meeting. Molly looked up when she heard footsteps pause in front of her. It was Detective Tracy, dressed in a smart, dark blue suit. The jacket was open and the tie that draped down in front of a dazzling white shirt, was dark blue with thin, diagonal, gold stripes about three inches apart from each other. There were small circles, trimmed in gold to match the lines, neatly spaced between the diagonal lines. She squinted her eyes to try to see what was within the circles. She couldn’t. Miss Marvel stepped beside him in a long, sky blue dress that stopped mid-calf. The sleeves streamed down and flared out a little at her wrist. A multi-blue colored scarf draped from the back of her neck, over her shoulders and down the front, halting at her waist. Her red hair was in her familiar ponytail and she smiled at them. Molly thought the two people standing in front of her were perfectly matched. What an interesting observation, Molly thought to herself.
“Good morning team,” Miss Marvel said as she held her hands in front of her. “You remember Detective Tracy.” He nodded to the group. “He is going to supervise us as we gather fingerprints today for the police.”
“I know you will do fine,” Detective Tracy said. “The big issue will be ink. If you need more, raise your hands. Be sure to have the students write their names on their cards or we won’t know whose fingerprints they are. Mrs. Young will be helping us by gathering the permission slips over there.”
Molly followed the direction he pointed to and saw another table set up at the corner of the lobby and the hall. She saw an empty chair sitting at the table, its back facing them. Mrs. Young hadn’t arrived yet.
“As you know,” Detective Tracy continued. “Your school gave us fourth hour, the lunch hour, to complete the process. They will be coming down that hall and then to you. Any questions?”
No one volunteered any and Detective Tracy walked away from them toward the table near the hall. Miss Marvel stepped toward them, leaned down and said, “Do you have the names of the students we need? Good. We are doing the classrooms from Hall 01 first, then 02, then 03. We don’t know what classroom our people are in so be observant. Be like Holmes.” She stood up and looked at the club members and smiled. She nodded and went to joined Detective Tracy near the table.
Molly reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. She unfolded it carefully and smoothed it out in front of her. On it were ten names she had printed in two columns. These were the names of the people in the Cooking Club and the Letter-people Club who could have touched one of the boxes. The five names of the Letter-people Club are Jim Hairston, Pearl Adams, Mary Linck, Richard Rogers, and Jackie Sander. The five names of the Cooking Club are Melanie Randle, Marissa Carrico, Happy Hamilton, Rebecca Smythe, and Lucy Brown. Molly didn’t know any of them. Well, she probably could recognize Jim and Pearl because they were the ones who reported the theft to Mrs. Rogers.
“What’s that?” Ted asked looking over her left shoulder. Carol turned in her seat and looked over Molly’s right shoulder.
“It’s the ten names,” Molly replied. “Do you guys want to see?”
The bell rang. Molly turned her head toward the hallway as the sounds of lockers slamming and people walking and talking filled the air. Mrs. Young had joined Detective Tracy and Miss Marvel at the table. Mrs. Young laughed and it could be heard above the noise around them.
“You better put that away,” Ted said to her. “We don’t want anyone else know what it is.”
Molly refolded the page and put it back into her pocket. She placed her elbows on the table and folded her hands on it. She looked straight ahead and waited. She was looking at the parking lot filled with teacher cars through the tinted windows that surrounded the lobby. Just beyond it, a garbage truck rumbled by on New Halls Ferry Road. It was a sunny day and the sweetgum trees that lined the school property were bright red and yellow in their mid-autumn colors. They swayed with the breeze that ran across them now and then. The bell rang again. The final sounds of feet scurrying, and doors closing faded. A voice immediately started to speak over the school’s intercom system.
“Good day students,” Mr. Charles addressed the school. “As you know, today we are participating in an outreach program for the D.A.R.E. program sponsored by The Whodunnit Club. We will be gathering your fingerprints that will be used by you or your parents for identification purposes in cases of emergency.”
“If people really knew why, they would not be happy,” Ted whispered into Molly’s ear.
“We will be asking all the rooms in Hall 01 to come to Gym Hall…” Mr. Charles droned on.
“Gym Hall,” Ted continued in Molly’s ear. “Who came up with these names?”
“Shhh,” Molly looked at him with a grin on her face. “Focus, Teddy,”
“Teddy?” Ted gawked at her.
“Teddy,” Carol chimed in, leaning her head in front of Molly. “I like it.”
The thundering of feet could be heard from the hall. Miss Marvel and Detective Tracy stood at the edge of the table waiting as the students lined up to hand Mrs. Young their parent permission forms. The students were directed from the table toward the fingerprinting tables. A slight girl, a curly blond, wearing jeans and a bright yellow sweatshirt started toward Molly. Molly sat up straight and opened the ink pad. She placed the pen in front of the stack cards and pulled one card off of the pile and placed it in front of the pad. She looked up just as the girl stopped in front of her.
“Hello,” Molly greeted her. “My name is Molly. What is your name?”
“Happy,” the girl replied. “Happy Hamilton.”
Molly couldn’t believe what she heard. This is one of the girls on the list. Her very first fingerprint.
“Hi, Happy. I like your name. First, print your name on the line at the bottom of this card. Thanks. Notice, the two rows of boxes. We are going to put your prints of your left hand in these boxes then we’ll flip the cards and place your right prints on this row. See?”
“Yes, I get it,” Happy responded to the instructions.
“When I did mine, I rolled my fingers one at a time on the ink pad and then rolled them on the card. Let’s start with your thumb, it’s the hardest.”
The gym door behind them opened and a box of tissues was placed in front of each of the fingerprint stations.
Happy looked up puzzled as Molly turned around toward a man in a forest green coverall.
“For their fingers,” he explained, “When they finish up. She told me to do it.” He pointed to Miss Marvel. The man was the janitor. He turned and went back through the gym doors.
Molly helped Happy finish placing her prints on the card. She pulled a tissue from the box and handed it to Happy. “You might want to go to the restroom and wash them, too. Nice to meet you.”
Molly pulled the card from the front of the table and placed it in front of her. A boy stepped in front of her and she began the process again.
After the last student left the lobby followed by Mrs. Young down the Gym Hall, Detective Tracy whispered something to Miss Marvel, who giggled and then nodded her head. He turned, waved to the club, and went out the front door to the parking lot.
Miss Marvel walked over and stood in front of them.
“Okay,” Miss Marvel took a deep breath. “Good job everyone. I am immensely proud of you. It took a little longer than we thought it would, but it is done. Now, let’s collect the cards. First, the suspects and then the rest of them.”
Miss Marvel walked to Teddy and he handed her one card. Molly did the same. Carol handed her three cards. Harold was next with two then Bev handed her another. Finally, Jason handed her two more cards.
“I count ten cards,” Jason said to Miss Marvel who was counting them in her hands.
“Me, too,” Miss Marvel said. “Who has the list? Bev?’
“Not me. Molly has it.”
Molly was already smoothing it out on the table.
“Okay. I will read the names and you check them off.”
Molly placed a checkmark beside each name as Miss Marvel read them. When they finished, there was a silence that settled around them. A feeling of fear and anticipation crept up and down Molly’s back.
“We have all the prints. The Rogers and Miss Heinz prints are locked in my desk with all of ours. Where are we with the photos, Molly?” Miss Marvel asked her from where she stood in front of Jason.
“I am picking them up from the Fotomat today,” Molly answered her.
“Okay, we will start looking at them Monday,” Miss Marvel said. “Go to lunch. Your teachers already know that you will be joining fifth hour late. I will gather the remaining cards myself. See you later.”
Molly pushed her chair back, rose to her feet and followed Teddy around the table. The members of the Whodunnit Club walked down the hall in silence to the cafeteria. As they walked inside, six identical lunch trays were waiting for them on a table in the middle of the room. They walked to the table and sat down. Molly looked around at the group and they looked back at her.
“What’s next?” Harold asked.
To be continued…
My First Stories 