Free Dead Funny by Tanya Landman

see it could have happened like that.” Graham was nodding like a toy dog on a car shelf. “But if that was the case, what was her motive?”
    I chewed my lip. There had to be something! I remembered Sylvia’s face on the night she’d died – that slick of lipstick, the dress, the radiant smile… And then I spoke aloud as an idea came to me. “Not some
thing
… Some
one
.” She’d done it for someone. And her reward was to be killed by the very person she’d tried to please.
“Who benefits?”
I said slowly. “We asked that right at the beginning. There’s only one answer to that. There always has been!” I balled my hands into fists and pressed them to my eyes in sudden fury. “How could I have been so
stupid
?”
    Graham tried to catch up. “You mean it’s not the puppeteer?”
    “Oh, the murderer’s a puppeteer all right. But it’s not the Punch and Judy man,” I snarled angrily. This killer didn’t work with wooden dolls, but with real life human marionettes. “He’s been treating everybody – including us – as if we’re puppets. He’s put us on a stage and got us dancing just the way he wants. He’s been pulling our strings all along.” I gritted my teeth when I saw how completely I’d been taken in: I’d played my part perfectly; I’d done exactly what he wanted. Well, not any more.
    “I don’t understand,” said Graham. “Who…?”
    “Toby,” I growled.
    Graham’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “But he’s so nice,” he protested.
    “No he’s not. He’s a very good actor. Don’t you see? He’s going to get the whole estate. He must have been planning this for years.”
    Graham paled. “So what do we do? Tell Lieutenant Weinburger?”
    “No. It took enough time to persuade him it was the Punch and Judy man in the first place. It’ll take too long to convince him it’s Toby. We’ve got to get to Orangeblossom Boulevard right now.”
    “Why?”
    “Because if we don’t another murder will be committed!”

over the wall
    I didn’t like leaving Mum walking around Baby Sugarcandy’s grounds with a murderer, believe me, but I didn’t have much choice. If Toby knew that I’d worked out what he’d been up to we’d all be done for. Plus I knew from experience that once Mum started talking about gardens she’d be at it all morning. If we were lucky she’d keep Toby fully occupied while Graham and I:
    a) found Len Radstock;
    b) warned him he was in danger; and
    c) persuaded Lieutenant Weinburger that Len Radstock had been framed.
    But first we had to escape from the grounds. The police cordon around Baby Sugarcandy’s estate was there to stop the murderer from getting
in
. I reckoned they wouldn’t be looking quite so hard for two kids getting
out
.
    I could see the two cops on the gate were still talking. We crept along the boundary looking for an exit route. The wall was high, but if we could find a tree that was close enough we could use it to climb up and over. Just over the brow of the hill, out of sight of the cops, we found it – a slender, sloping pine with a branch that reached out across the wall. I started to scale the tree, arms and legs wrapped tightly around the trunk as if it were a thick rope. Once I reached the branch I clasped it and swung myself along, hand over hand, until I was dangling on the far side of the wall. The ground was about three metres below. It was a long drop, but I curled into a ball on impact and rolled sideways to soften the blow. I was dirty, but uninjured. Graham dropped down after me, white-faced and shaking, but doing his level best to keep up. The road to Baby’s estate crossed the hill in zigzags but we went straight down, slipping and sliding over scree and stones, weaving between trees and bushes, until we reached the bottom. As soon as we were on level ground I began to run, my feet pounding hard on the dry earth, Graham staggering along a few paces behind.
    I’m a good runner – I’ve won medals for it at