Free The Skeleton Takes a Bow (A Family Skeleton Mystery) by Leigh Perry

om! We’ve got news!” Madison said. She dropped her backpack onto the floor with a loud thump and ran into the living room with Sid’s bowling bag. As she unzipped it and put Sid’s skull on the coffee table, he added, “Big news! There were police at school this afternoon!”
    “They found the body?” I asked.
    “We don’t know—nobody told us anything,” Madison said indignantly. “All we know is that a police car showed up right after lunch, and the cops were still there when school let out.”
    “I wanted Madison to leave me out somewhere,” Sid groused. “Then when a student turned me in to lost-and-found, I’d have been in a prime location for listening.”
    “And I told him it was a terrible idea!” Madison said. “What if the kid who found you decided to keep you?”
    “But—”
    “Madison’s right, Sid,” I said. “It would have been too risky.”
    “Anyway,” Madison said, “the cops were in Mr. Dahlgren’s office, and lost-and-found is kept in the secretary’s office, so you wouldn’t have heard anything anyway.”
    “They were just in the principal’s office? Didn’t they seal off the auditorium to examine the crime scene?” I asked.
    Madison shook her head. “I heard the jazz band rehearsing in the auditorium, so it definitely wasn’t sealed off.”
    “So what were they doing?”
    “We don’t know. There was nothing about it in the afternoon announcements. But I did see a couple of teachers heading into the office as soon as the afternoon bell rang.”
    “Which ones?”
    “Mr. Chedworth and Ms. Rad. And that’s all we know. I guess we should have stayed at school to see what else we could find out.”
    “No, no, this is fine. The body must have been found and now that the police are on the job, it’s not our problem. There’s no reason to draw their attention to you. We can wait until the story goes public.”
    Sid looked aggravated. “Well, I can’t—I’m dying of curiosity. Or I would be if I weren’t, you know, already dead. Madison, can you take me upstairs so I can get onto my computer? Maybe the news has hit the Web!”
    She hastily obliged and I was right behind them. We were most of the way up when Sid noticed that Byron was behind me.
    “Don’t let that dog into my attic!” he said.
    “Sorry, fellow,” I said, giving him a couple of good pats before closing the attic door with him on the other side.
    Before long Sid had pulled himself together and was tapping enthusiastically away while Madison and I watched from either shoulder. I considered pointing out that Madison sure seemed to be sold on Sid’s story of overheard murder, but I didn’t want to spoil the moment.
    “No body,” Sid said.
    “Just like you,” I couldn’t help saying.
    “Mom!” Madison objected.
    “What? It was funny, wasn’t it, Sid?”
    “Not your best effort, but not your worst.” Tap, tap, tap. “I’m still not finding any mention of any bodies being found in the area.”
    “But the police were at the school!” Madison said.
    I said, “Sid, search for recent mentions of Pennycross High School or the principal: Mr. Dahlgren.”
    “Good idea.” Tap, tap, tap. “And I have a hit for PHS!”
    He pulled up a news story, but it wasn’t about a murder. It wasn’t even a Pennycross listing—it was from the
Medford Transcript
, the paper in Medford, Massachusetts. “‘Medford man missing,’” I read over his shoulder.
    “Gotta give ’em points for alliteration,” Sid said.
    I read the rest of the article. “‘Medford resident Robert Irwin, twenty-nine, has been missing since last week when he failed to pick up Melissa Laplante, his girlfriend, when she flew into Logan Airport Friday evening after a business trip. When Laplante was still unable to reach Irwin by phone the next day, she went to his High Street apartment. Not only was Irwin not there, but accumulated mail led her to believe that he had been gone for several days. She notified the police, and