An Adventure for Eleanor

by Tai Vogel

As Eleanor walked to work on a particularly sunny Monday morning, she noticed a crowd of people standing in the parking lot. She heard the sirens as police cars and ambulances rushed past her and pulled into the Safeway parking lot. She picked up her pace and rushed into the crowd.

“Please, everyone step back. This is a crime scene, step back,” yelled a police officer.

Eleanor continued to push through the crowd, looking for someone she knew to explain to her what had happened.

“Ma’am, please. You can’t get through here,” said the same policeman, holding his arm out in front of Eleanor.

“I’m an employee, I’ve been working here for twenty years, I’m just looking for my manager,” Eleanor explained quickly. The man released his arm and let the middle aged woman through to the roped off area. Her manager, Steve, stood talking to someone who looked like an investigator. He looked worried and scared.

“Steve, what happened?” asked Eleanor.

“Mike,” he said, pointing to a body bag lying on a stretcher.

“What?” said Eleanor, shocked. “How did that happen? Mike’s dead?”

“Someone found his body in the well this morning and called the police,” said Steve, putting his hand on Eleanor’s shoulder.

Thoughts ran through Eleanor’s mind. Why Mike? He was so young and happy. Everyone loved him at work. And he’d only started working a few months earlier. And he had that big senior project he was working on. Of course it was the well. Everyone always wondered why the well was in front of the store, but nobody knew the real reason.

While Eleanor was trying to put her thoughts together, a girl came bursting through the crowd, mascara running down her tear stained face.

“What is going on? Is it true? Ohmigod, I can’t believe this is happening!” she yelled to no one in particular.

“Miss, miss, please calm down,” said a policeman, trying his best to calm the hysterical girl.

“Calm down? How can I calm down? Mike is dead,” she yelled at the policeman as she collapsed into a chair that had appeared by her side.

Eleanor watched the girl curiously, wondering if she was Mike’s girlfriend or not. He had never mentioned a girlfriend.

“Excuse me sweetheart. I’m Eleanor. I worked with Mike. What’s your name?” Eleanor said in her most motherly voice.

“I’m Stephanie,” the girl said in between her sobs. “I’m Mike’s ex. He broke up with me a year ago.”

“Hey!” came a voice from across the parking lot. A young man came jogging towards the crime scene. “Stephanie! What are you doing here? This is not okay,” he said and turned to Eleanor. “Stephanie’s been stalking Mike ever since they broke up. She’s been sending him threatening letters about what she’ll do if he keeps ignoring her.”

Her head spun with new information, Eleanor turned to the man.

“And who, may I ask, are you?”

“I’m Sebastian, his roommate,” the man responded, his eyes quickly looking over Eleanor. Her graying brown hair was in its usual long braid; her eyes were framed by small wrinkles. She wore her usual Safeway employee uniform, a pair of khakis, white polo, and black vest. Her red nametag read, “Eleanor” in black letters.

“I know you did it, Stephanie,” he said, looking back at her.

“Whoa there. Let’s not start making accusations young man,” said the investigator as he walked up to Sebastian. “We’ll be the ones to do that.”

Eleanor stood there. She wanted to help figure out who did it. She loved watching those British mystery shows on TV with the old women who solved everything. The store had been closed for the day, due to the investigations, so Eleanor decided to have a look around herself.

She walked into the familiar, yet empty store. There were a few police men talking by the registers, but no one else around. She looked to her left and saw the janitor mopping around the meat section. “Why is he here?” she thought to herself as she watched the old man mop. He had been working here as long as, if not longer that Eleanor. He rarely spoke, but got his job done efficiently.

“Eleanor,” Steve said, “the store’s closed for a bit. Don’t worry about anything, we’ll figure out who did it.”

“Well, I’m helping. Whether you like it or not,” she said triumphantly.

“Okay, just stay out of the investigator’s way,” Steve said as he walked towards the door.

Eleanor had no idea where to start. She knew if had to be either Stephanie or Sebastian, but which one? She looked across the store to see Stephanie talking to the investigator. She looked upset and frazzled from the commotion.

Eleanor approached her as the investigator turned away, “Stephanie, sweetie, are you okay?”

“Um, what do you think? The love of my life is dead. I just feel empty, like when you find out your hair appointment is cancelled. You know what I mean?” Stephanie looked over at Eleanor, hoping for the right answer.

“Sure, dear, sure. Can I just ask you a few questions?”

“I guess. Everyone else has,” she said reluctantly.

“What was your relationship with Mike like?”

“He broke up with me a year ago, like I told you earlier. He never understood how in love with him I was. He always got really mad when I followed him around, he kept telling me to leave him alone. But I just couldn’t. One day I wrote him a letter, but I didn’t really mean it. I was in a bad mood and he had yelled me earlier that day. It was a few months ago. Sebastian got really upset about it, but I think Mike knew that I wasn’t serious.”

“I think Sebastian did it by the way, if you’re wondering. He’s always been really jealous of Mike. Mike was just so smart and nice, everybody loved him. Sebastian always kind of stayed in his room, but Mike was always so nice to him.” Stephanie paused for a minute. “Anyway, anything else?”

“No, that’s great dearie. Thanks a lot.”

“No problem. And hey, can you call me and let me know when this all gets figured out?” She quickly scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and walked out the sliding doors.

As Eleanor processed the information given to her, she decided that it must have been Sebastian. Stephanie was so sweet, and seemed sincere. She scanned the store looking for Sebastian, planning to get a confession out of him.

She found him, leaning against a conveyor belt on the other side of the store.

“Sebastian, are you okay dearie?” she asked, deciding that she wouldn’t say anything about her suspicions.

“I’m doing okay. Still in shock I guess. I never thought anything like this would happen to me,” he said as he ran his hand through his hair.

“You accused Stephanie pretty quickly earlier. Any reason?” said Eleanor, trying to remain cool.

“Well, you heard what I said. She stalks him. She’s constantly showing up wherever he does. And she wrote that threatening letter too. Mike said it was nothing, but I think she was serious. He’s been really stressed out about all of it lately.”

“Just stressed out about Stephanie?”

“No, not just that, also about his senior project. He hasn’t told me much about it, but he locks himself in his room for hours at a time working on it. It’s weird actually. He’s usually more easy going.”

“Now how did you feel about Mike?”

“What do you mean? We were friends. He’s always been really nice…wait, what did Stephanie tell you? She told you about how she thinks I’m jealous of him didn’t she? I knew it! Jesus Christ! That girl is ridiculous. She thinks I killed him because I was jealous of him. Let me tell you, that I would never do that. Yeah, maybe I was a little jealous of him, but I would never kill someone!” Sebastian was an inch away from Eleanor now. She stood there while he started to back away. Suddenly, she heard yelling from the other side of the store. Both quickly turned, forgetting their emotions.

The investigator was talking on his phone in a very stern voice, “Okay, okay. Thank you for letting us know. Good bye.” He clicked the phone shut.

Curious, Eleanor left Sebastian and went over to the investigator.

“What was that? Did they find something out?” she said eagerly.

“Yes actually. They found a suicide note in his pocket.”

Eleanor was relieved for only a second. “But then how did he get into the well?” she said to the investigator as the thought came to mind.

“I did it.”

Eleanor and the investigator turned around simultaneously. The janitor stood in front of them.

“What?” she asked, without thinking about her manners. “You put him in the well? Why?”

“I didn’t know there was a note,” he said, looking down at his feet. “I found him in the staff room last night. He was sitting in the chair, you know the swively one. I called out his name, trying to tell him I was locking up, but he didn’t move. So I shook him a little, he still didn’t move. I panicked and didn’t know what to do. I was too afraid to call the police, they would think I did it. I thought if they just found him then I wouldn’t be blamed. I was scared, and I put him in the well. It was the only place I could think of. If I left him in the store I knew you guys would think I did it since I’m the last to leave everyday.”

“Well. That’s it done. Case closed. Thank you sir, for telling us.” The investigator left the store while still writing up the report.

Eleanor quickly turned away. Processing the information. She felt relieved, but uneasy. She quickly remembered Stephanie and called her to tell her the news. She girl sobbed more than thought to be humanly possible, but eventually stopped for long enough for Eleanor to say goodbye and hang up.

Eleanor left the store and headed home. The sun was just starting to set and the trees blew in the breeze. It had been a long day, and Eleanor was exhausted. Although she had enjoyed playing detective, she’d leave it up to the old British ladies on TV from now on.