Giggleswick: The Amadán Map

Chapter Twelve: The Amadán Map

Chapter Twelve: The Amadán Map 

The next morning, Elliot bent down to grab a copy of the Daily Giggle from the Bisbys’ front lawn, already knowing what he would find sprawled across the front page. Just as he’d suspected, there was a large photo of Boots sitting on her sofa with a scowl on her face, and beneath it was an article by Ellebasi Nostaw with the headline “TRIXIE TROLLOP, MUGGED!” 

When Eliza caught up with him to walk to school, she edged in close so they could read it together. 

Offices of Tranquility secretary, Trixie Trollop, age 37, was found unconscious and bleeding profusely from a head wound outside her Amity Drive home late yesterday afternoon. Her friends and neighbors are fearing the worst as Trixie fights for her life. “There was blood all over the pavement,” said Tanya Pepper, who arrived on the scene sometime after the incident. “She looked so limp and lifeless, we thought she was dead.” And, indeed, Trixie’s condition is so critical that reporters have been denied interviews indefinitely. 

As Trixie lay unresponsive in her bedroom, the neighborhood has been left to wonder what danger met with the woman so close to home. Detective Hugh Dunnits, a veteran member of the Giggleswick crime task force, was immediately called to the scene. “The victim was found a few yards from her domicile, lying on the pavement and surrounded by what appeared to be gift boxes from a day of Christmas shopping. She’d made some very wise choices, including an expensive American made wrist-watch and several Luciano Lombardi originals,” he told the Daily Giggle in an exclusive interview.  

We later spoke with an eyewitness, whose words come together to tell the story of a violent mugging. “I saw a figure in black holding Trixie by the neck. Then they threw her to the ground and made off with her purse,” said Melanie Webber of Number 7, Amity Drive, known affectionately by her neighbors as “Boots”. Mrs. Webber described the figure as anywhere from 5’5 inches to 6’5 inches in height and weighing between 130 and 230 pounds. If you have any information regarding the mugging of Trixie Trollop or have seen a perpetrator fitting this description, please contact Ellebasi Nostaw at the Daily Giggle immediately. 

“Oh brother,” said Elliot and folded up the paper. 

“Wonder why Boots didn’t tell them that bit about thinking the mugger was after something more important than money,” Eliza thought aloud. 

“Probably didn’t think Nostaw and Dunnits could handle such important information,” he said, not necessarily joking.

They walked to school, zipping their jackets a bit higher around their necks than usual. Christmas was on the way, and there were colored lights strung from trees and lampposts, and wreaths hung from every front door. Mrs. Bisby had been most excited to decorate their new house for the holidays, and she’d been fashioning Christmas ornaments out of old fogg-fizz can tabs for the past week. It just so happened that they looked exactly like angels when a paperclip halo was attached, or at least that’s what she’d said ... Elliot wasn’t so convinced.

The school day passed uneventfully, short of Marigold accidentally squirting lemon juice in Eliza’s eye at lunch. She’d apologized but looked much more amused than she did anything resembling remorse, and of course, Eliza had made sure to blame everything on Elliot.  

“If you hadn’t started inviting her to sit with us, this would have never happened,” she’d seethed while holding a napkin to her watering eye. 

Eliza gave Elliot the cold shoulder for the remainder of their afternoon classes, not passing a single note, but by the time they were making their way toward the theater for musical rehearsal, she seemed much friendlier.