Property of M.Gardiner

A flicker of green caught her eye. No, that couldn't be right. Julie Gardiner whipped around from where she had been hastily combing her hair in front of the mirror and sure enough there she saw a bundle of clean if slightly crinkled twenty dollar bills poking out from the top drawer of her dresser. She gasped, the plastic comb that had previously been in her hand clattered to the floor as she rushed over to see whether her eyes were deceiving her.

Flipping through the stack of cash that had indeed not been a trick of the light Julie found that this neat little pile had at least a thousand dollars worth of twenty dollar bills.

Stunned, she briefly looked around her room and ducked her head into the hallway to see if the person who left her the money had lingered around, but the hallway was quiet and the only movement in her room that could be seen was the cat stretching lazily beneath her windowsill.

Stuffing the cash into the pocket of her school uniform, Julie finished getting ready and journeyed down the stairs. Giving a brief hug to her mother and waving at her unusually tired sister, she grabbed a muesli bar and scurried after the bus. She knew she probably should have told her mother and sister about the money, but the guilt was quickly replaced with a sort of giddy excitement at the possibilities of what she could do with the money. Perhaps if she hid it in her room no one would know.

Later that day Julie had been leisurely flicking through the channels on the television when she came across a newscast that immediately caught her attention.

“Breaking news,” a woman wearing a crisp red suit spoke, ”last night, Henry Matthews, twenty-eight years old was stabbed to death in Portree Avenue, there are currently no suspects in this investigation, but police believe he was a victim of mugging.”

Julie's ears perked up at this, Portree Avenue...that was only two streets over, she swallowed nervously and the rest of the news program faded into her periphery.

The sound of the door opening with a ‘click’ brought her out of her thoughts, her mother was holding a plastic bag containing some groceries and her sister came in after her looking slightly flushed, her uniform from the Kedleston Diner stained and wrinkled from a busy day. A ketchup stain, Julia presumed, dotting the corner of her apron.

As Julie got into bed that night, feeling slightly perturbed, she tucked the money into her pillowcase for safekeeping.

The following week progressed fairly ordinarily, the days blending into each other in routine once again. However this normalcy was interrupted when, the next Saturday as Julie swung her legs lazily over the bed she heard thumping coming from her dresser, a brief panic washed over her and she jumped to her feet, exhaling a breath in relief when she realized it was just her cat, Daisy. She felt slightly silly for reacting so quickly until she saw what her cat was attempting to snatch with its paws. Sticking out of the top drawer, was another stack of money, this time slightly thicker than the last and tied together with a brown string. Immediately running over to pocket the money she anxiously looked around her room before heading downstairs to the kitchen where her sister was mixing a cup of coffee and staring wistfully out the window.

“Mina, good morning! What's for breakfast?” Julie tried to keep her tone as casual as possible, despite her inward panicking. Someone had put that money in her room and she didn’t know who,

“I was thinking we could have-”

Mina's sentence was cut off and Julie looked up to find her eyeing Julie's pyjama pants suspiciously. Looking down again Julie saw the bundle of money poking out of her pocket and she scrambled to push it back down hoping her sister hadn’t seen what she was currently hiding. Mina simply looked at Julie with mild curiosity before tapping her spoon on the edge of her mug and bringing it to her lips for a tentative sip.

The conversation forgotten, Julie quickly made her own breakfast of toast with a light scraping of butter and settled down on the couch, thoughts of who could have gotten into her room tumbled around her head as she munched away idly. The more she thought about the possibilities the more anxious she felt.

Walking down the street on the way to the mall, feeling slightly guilty for wanting to spend the mysteriously appearing money, Julie passed the newsagency and the title of a paper on display instantly caught her attention. Her eyes hungrily scanned the page and she could hear her breathing get heavier as she read the title.

‘STABBING IN GRASMERE ST, WOMAN MURDERED’

That was her street. Someone had been murdered on her street. The words replayed in her head over and over.

Snapping out of her frozen state Julie paid for the newspaper as well as a stick of gum and abandoned her journey to the mall, making her way home at a slightly faster pace than usual.

Once in her room she slipped the money she had received earlier that morning into her pillowcase. Her mother and sister were both out working, her sister at the diner and her mother working at her job as a cab driver.

Clutching Daisy to her chest in an effort to ease her nerves, she sat on her bed, every so often looking around frantically as if expecting someone to jump out at any moment. She knew this was irrational, but the mysterious money and second stabbing in only a week put her on edge. She gritted her teeth and prayed that the money would cease to appear, something she never would have thought she would wish for.

Julie was sorely disappointed. Over the next few weeks more stabbings occurred, all within close proximity to her. And everytime she would wake up the morning after the news broke and money would be staring at her from the top drawer of her dresser. It was too consistent to be a coincidence and every time the cash appeared she would stash it away into her pillowcase. Her collection now amounted to twenty-thousand dollars. Her mother had continuously complained about the police's apparent incompetence in finding the killer and kept saying the crimes were giving their neighbourhood a bad name. Julie was inclined to agree.

Julie had been doing her homework at the kitchen table, the birds tweeting happily on a balmy Sunday morning. When she spotted something lying on the floor by the front door. It was a book, black and leatherbound, the pages spread out on the floor as if it had been dropped. Leaving her highlighter forgotten on her textbook Julie stood up and made her way toward the book, observing it curiously. There was nothing on the cover but there was writing on the spine, gold, in a regal looking font which read,

‘Property of M. Gardiner’

The ominous feeling quickly dissipated and Julie giggled girlishly. This must have been Minas diary! She flipped the book over, snapping it shut, and ran up to her room, she would put it back before Mina got home from work. Her mother was outside hanging the laundry up on the line giving Julie plenty of time to divulge her sisters hopefully juicy secrets.

She shut the door and bound across her room and onto her bed, she felt inexplicably happy at being able to do something so normal with the somber mood that had been hanging over them the past few weeks. Some lighthearted snooping would hopefully brighten her mood. She hoped she would find a boy from the diner Mina liked or perhaps some gossip pertaining to her job.

She flipped over the cover skipping past the earliest entries, continuing to turn the pages until she came across an entry dated a few weeks ago, which sent her previously happy mood plummeting.

Dear Diary,

They fired me, I went into work at the diner today and they just told me they couldn’t afford to keep me on, I don’t know what to do. Do I tell Julie and mom? Mom’s barely making enough money as a cab driver and Julies still in school. I can go job hunting tomorrow, maybe that cafe on Portree’s hiring...

Julie looked up from the page confused, perhaps Mina had gotten her job at the diner back since then. She had been coming home with her Kedleston uniform for weeks. She skipped the rest of the page, Mina talking about her new phone she bought at the mall and went to the next entry which was a few days later.

Dear Diary,

I couldn’t find a job. I went to three interviews and they all rejected me! I don’t really have much work experience, I guess that must be why. I didn’t know how I was going to make money until I saw a ladies wallet lying, enticingly, in her handbag. I took it. Until I find another job I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ‘borrow’ some other peoples money in the meantime.

-Mina

Julie was dumbfounded, her sister had stolen. Concerned she started flipping through the pages at an increasing rate, every entry detailed Mina’s increasing habit of stealing and pickpocketing until Julie came across one that made her gasp in horror and swallow down bile that rapidly rose in her throat.

Dear Diary,

I got caught today. I was walking home from the cafe in Portree Avenue and I saw a man that I thought looked like he had a lot of money. When I was reaching discretely inside his satchel he grabbed my arm and started yelling in my face. I was scared he would report me to the police so I grabbed my pocket knife and slashed his throat. I don’t know what to do, I didn’t mean to kill him!

I put the money from his wallet in Julie's room, if they find it in mine I’ll be locked up. I feel terrible for framing her but she’ll only be put in juvie if they come looking, it's our safest option.

-Mina

Julie was shaking now and tears were rolling down her face, the cloudiness barely allowed her to see the page but she read on. The entries getting progressively shorter from then on.

Dear diary,

I think it's easier to steal if they can’t report it. Perhaps I should make this more routine.

-Mina

At once, memories of Mina over the past few weeks resurfaced and Julie marvelled at how she hadn’t noticed her sister's strange behaviour before.

Dear Diary,

A girl gave me her wallet voluntarily today

-Mina

How exhausted and flushed she had looked.

Dear Diary,

This one was walking around with $5,000 in their purse, idiot.

-Mina

The red stain on her uniform.

Dear Diary,

I wonder why Julie hasn’t told me about the money yet.

She must have at least $20,000 by now!

-Mina

This time Julie couldn’t hold it in any longer and she reached for her trash can a second too late before heaving her breakfast up. She felt a wave of betrayal overcome her, her sister, her own sister, had murdered people and was planning on framing her for it.

She heard a crash come from the doorway. She turned and to her horror, saw Mina standing there, her uniform with what Julie now knew was a blood stain on it slightly dishevelled. There was a broken mug on the floor and coffee rapidly staining Julie's carpet. She had clearly caught sight of the diary open and littered with tear stains on Julie's bed because a dangerous glint entered her eyes.

Dread curled through Julies stomach and the only thing she could think to do was scream.