"Alyssa, we just can't," reprimanded Michael.

"We surely can," Linda came to stand beside her friend.

"You girls can't gang up," John peeped out from behind the broken door of the abandoned shack which was their secret base.

Linda's glare made him slink back in.

"Listen, we just can't knock on his door, demanding to do some investigations. We need to find another way," Nathan chimed in.

"That's what I'm telling," began Austin, but was cut off by Alyssa's protest.

"I'm not a fool," she grimaced, "We'll go under the pretense of offering condolences for the death of his spouse."

"First you keep that detective novel down, bookworm. Anyone will suspect you. If you must know that our secret society works under cover. Nobody knows..."

"Hey, everybody knows," Linda interrupted Michael, "We got awards and stuff from the police. The Stunning Six aren't a simple bunch of over excited kids now. We're famous in town."

"Where's Alyssa by the way?"

All eyes turned towards the Ivanov Manor and sure enough Alyssa had just rang the doorbell.
All the five scrambled after her. And stood there putting on their most innocent faces.

"Why did you do it? You know we do voting for every decision," hissed Michael.

"Oh just shut up, the door's opening," Alyssa muttered.

And sure enough, the man of the house opened the door.

His hair was all ruffled, and so were his clothes. Signs of fatigue were clear on his handsome face. It was evident that a storm had blown over his life, leaving him like a broken twig. The way he walked seemed to convey the turmoil in his life. He was completely shattered from within.

Seeing the children he tried to force a smile, "Hey kids, what's up?"

"Umm, we came to offer our heartfelt condolences on your recent bereavement," Linda, the chatty one came forward with the most serious expression on her face.

The man looked at the faces of the bunch of teenagers and then suddenly he started laughing.
The stupefied kids stood rigid, unable to fathom the cause.

Finally the man stopped on seeing their grim expressions.
"You think I don't know what you kids actually came for? You smell a rat in the whole case of death of Mido. You are the Splendid Six. I believe you suspect a case of murder. And to say the truth, I do too. Though I doubt the police will agree. I think you guys need to do some investigations here in my house. Isn't it," he asked.

"We ...umm...actually," Michael started but was cut off by the man.

"No need of explanations. I'll be happy to cooperate. I too want to know the cause of death. Midore was the world to me. I am completely shattered," a flicker of sadness appeared in his eyes.

"What does the postmortem report say?"

That was Alyssa.

"Death due to heart failure. There were multiple blockages in the coronary artery due to a thrombus and it stopped supply to the heart. This lead to myocardial infarction but the question is why did this clot occur all of a sudden? She lead a really healthy and active life with swimming and other exercises and was diet conscious too like all ladies these days," he gave a nod to Linda, who blushed scarlet.

Then he motioned to all who followed him into the tastefully decorated house.

567 words...
TO be continued...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dedicated as usual to Pipigrin
My regular reader...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~