Landon sat on the front steps of his house. Caution tape was hung everywhere and investigators swarmed the scene. Sitting next to Landon was his nine-year-old sister, Sadie. Landon hoped that she didn’t understand. He hoped that she didn’t realize that the lifeless bodies of their parents lied just behind the front door on the floor of the kitchen. He didn’t want Sadie to know that her mother and father rested in a pool of their own blood that had collected on the linoleum floor.

Landon stood up. He knew he had to be there for Sadie, who didn’t say much after she heard the news from Landon, who had found his parents. Just a few days shy of his thirteenth birthday, Landon told himself that he was now the head of the house or at least until his Aunt Naomi arrived from New Jersey to take them away.

Aunt Naomi was Landon and Sadie’s only aunt. Almost a decade younger than her sister, Aunt Naomi was only twenty-six. She loved to party, gamble, and drink. She especially loved the single life. However, she also adored her niece and nephew. Aunt Naomi thoroughly enjoyed visiting them at their small town house in Connecticut.

Landon wanted to take action. He desperately wanted to know who was responsible for the death of his beloved parents. He wanted them to suffer. Landon had overheard someone say that they had been stabbed. He had also heard one of the investigators say that two policemen were searching for the murder weapon.

A small sports car drove down the road, well over the speed limit. It screeched to a halt as it approached the house. The front door flew open and out rushed Aunt Naomi. She ran across the lawn to the house and immediately embraced her deceased sister’s children.

Sadie sat casually on the front steps of the house. Landon moved his dark-rimmed glasses up onto the bridge of his nose and pushed his curly, blonde hair out of his eyes. He noticed that Aunt Naomi’s lip quivered, as she battled back tears, wanting to be strong for the kids. Her puffy, red eyes indicated that she had been crying during her trip to Connecticut.

An investigator made his way over to inform Aunt Naomi of what she had already heard on the phone earlier in the day—someone had brutally murdered her brother-in-law and sister.
“We are trying to come up with a list of possible suspects,” said the investigator, “but no one is coming to mind. Do you know if your sister or her husband had any recent feuds with anyone? Perhaps a neighbor or a coworker?”
“I don’t believe so,” responded Aunt Naomi, “however, I’m not really sure. I live a few hours away, so I don’t know many of their friends or acquaintances here.”
The investigator sighed. “Alright. Well, we’ll have to have you come down to the station later for some more questioning.”

Aunt Naomi nodded her head understandingly. She thanked the investigator and had the kids climb into the back of her car. Aunt Naomi drove them to the only babysitter she knew in the area—her mother.

When they arrived at the house, Aunt Naomi told her mother that she needed to go down to the police station. Aunt Naomi and her mother had both heard the news earlier in the morning, so her mother already knew the situation.
***

Landon noticed that tears continued to fall out of Grandmother’s eyes as she prepared dinner, but that she tried to keep it discrete. During dinner, there wasn’t much of a conversation. Grandmother tried talking to Landon about football and to Sadie about ballet. Neither child said much.

At around 9:30, Landon decided to go to bed. He wasn’t exactly tired. He just didn’t want to have to be awake anymore, picturing the horrifying sight he had seen on the floor of his kitchen just twelve hours earlier.

Throughout the night, Landon tossed and turned. When he awoke on Saturday morning, it was only 5:40. However, Sadie was already awake. Landon went into Grandmother’s kitchen and made breakfast for his younger sister. He felt nauseous and didn’t want to eat.

Grandmother came down the stairs about two hours after her grandchildren. She informed them that Aunt Naomi would be back by lunchtime.

Landon attempted to distract himself for the next few hours. He played with Grandmother’s Maltese, Tara. He also watched some cartoons. Landon’s mind kept wandering to the images of his parents’ dead bodies. But, he tried to shake those thoughts out of his head.

At quarter of twelve, Aunt Naomi’s car pulled back into the driveway. She entered the house and sat down at the kitchen table with Grandmother, just to tell her that there was no new news.

Grandmother made everyone sandwiches and lemonade. Then, she turned on the radio. No one really wanted to listen to it, but it filled the empty silence from the lack of dialogue.

After lunch, Aunt Naomi brought the kids back to their house. The bodies had been cleaned up, but no one felt like spending much time there. She had the kids pack a bag, so that they could stay at their grandmother’s house for the next few days. It was June and school only had five days left. After that, they would move to New Jersey with Aunt Naomi.
***

Throughout the weekend, the investigators found nothing. They began to rule out suspect after suspect. Landon felt hopeless. He just wanted them to discover who committed the awful crime.

On Monday morning, Landon went to his middle school, where he was in seventh grade. Sadie went back to school, as well. She was in third grade. They took separate buses in the morning that brought them to their two schools.

When Sadie got onto the bus, she unzipped her backpack to make sure that her lunch and homework was there. Then, she opened up her large pencil case, and was satisfied that the knife she had used just a few days earlier was still in its place.