the_oracle

Oct. 6th, 2008

Double Jeopardy
December 1987

Hot pursuit...

   When twin sisters Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield land internships at the Sweet Valley News, they think they'll be reporting the news-but they end up making headlines when Jessica becomes an eyewitness to murder.

   Then Adam Maitland, a friend of the twins' brother, Steven, is charged with the murder. And Elizabeth has evidence that could convict him!

   Jessica knows Adam is innocent-she saw the murderer-and she sets out to prove it. The problem is, he saw her, too. Can the twins find the killer before he finds them? Or will Jessica and Elizabeth be caught in a deadly case of mistaken identity?

   Find out in Double Jeopardy, the first Sweet Valley High Super Thriller!

Ah, summer. How many times have you visited the Valley so far? I've given up count. However, it's one of the early Super Thrillers, so that means you're one very specific summer. The summer the twins are interns at the SV News.
I'll be upfront with you. I love the Thrillers. I really, truly do. Not so much the later ones, although they do tend to rank above your average SVH book, but I'm a SVHST fan. Oh yes. Bring on the body count, baby. I'm not entirely sure what prompted the Nancy Drew exploits, although maybe it was just one of those natural evolution things. Teen girl series needs to get their Nancy Drew on. I'm okay with that.
So, we need to get a couple of warnings out of the way. If you do not like the twins when they're investigating murder, please do not apply. If you hate Jessica-centric books, this one is not for you. I'd forgotten that Elizabeth's main role in this one was to basically look identical to Jessica. This is the youngest twin's story, so if the idea of that makes your head hurt and the "but there's murder!" helping isn't doing it for you, this is... not for you. There's very little Lila or anyone else to distract you. New characters and Jessica.
If you can handle that glowing recommendation, let's begin.

   You know that big summer job the twins actually mentioned in the regular series every so often? Yeah, as everyone else will tell you, this ain't that gig. Instead, Elizabeth managed to score an internship at the Sweet Valley News, and for whatever reason Ma and Pa Wakefield decided Jessica had to be an intern, too. I... just don't know why. You'd think that somewhere in the nine billion other high schools we're told about anytime SVH needs a new rival school to beat in the great football/basketball game of the week that we'd have someone else who wanted that internship... and would be better qualified for it than Jessica. I dunno, maybe they do just take people in off the street and give them to the features editor. I kinda doubt it, though.
So. Jessica's all atwitter over Seth Miller, a cute youngish reporter who is her only source of eye candy at work. She finds out that he's also a mystery writer and wants desperately to catch his attention so she decides to impress him with her ability to sniff out a real crime story. Only actually finding a crime would be too difficult, so Jessica breaks out the binoculars and spies on the neighbors. She becomes convinces that Mr. Bennet next door is burying something... perhaps a body, perhaps gold. Who knows? But Jess intends to find out.
She's momentarily distracted by the news that her brother's friend [Steven has a friend!] Adam will be moving in with the Wakefields for the summer and sharing Steven's room. Now I'm sure that the Wakefield house is not set up like I always imagined [because the house in my head is not the split level Ranch they're always going on about] but in my head, Steven's room was never big enough for two. So excuse me while I giggle.
Anyway, Jessica decides that Adam would be a perfect summer fling for Elizabeth, who is busy, I dunno, working and writing letters to Jeffrey who is a camp counselor to a bunch of nine year olds in Oregon somewhere. We get a lovely info dump on Adam. What you need to know: Criminal lawyer to be, cute, seriously dating Laurie, despite Laurie's rich grandfather forbidding the two to be together. Ah, true love. Jessica's never met a true love she couldn't at least shake up a little, so she decides that Laurie aside, she'll still find some way to get her twin a little lawyer loving on the side.
But first, she needs to impress Seth. Jessica's love life comes first, you know.

   G'ah. Jessica's first attempt to snag Seth's attention is to casually read over his shoulder while he's working on a little article on a fire down at the Box Tree Cafe. She hints that it might've been arson, and when pressed for details, says that she cannot reveal her source, only that they hinted at foul play. We realize Seth is a moron, or actually very interested in/distracted by Jessica, because the fire was caused by someone putting a dish towel too close to a burner and whoosh! Fire everywhere. Considering Seth was, I dunno, writing the article about the damn fire, you'd think he'd know what had allegedly caused it and how unlikely it was to have been arson. Still, they go to the Box Tree and talk to someone I presume is the owner who laughs when the word arson is mentioned. Unless the towel threw itself on the burner... oh, good times. This scene is actually worth the price of the book alone.

So. Strike one.

   Then Jessica turns around and tells Seth that she's got this fantastic lead on this bank robbery that they've been working on. Proving she's a master of fiction, Jessica spins an intricate story involving her neighbor and his burying stuff in the yard into a tale of robbery and... more digging. Anyway, Seth writes all of this down, spins it into an article, and doesn't do a bit of fact checking. Granted, in his defense, he didn't have time between Jessica telling him and Mr. Robb asking for the story. But he didn't tell Robb that it was still in process or that facts needed to be checked. Instead, Robb realized what a crock it was, did some fact checking and realized the whole damn thing was bogus. He calls Seth and Jessica in and chews them both out. Thinking she's being incredibly heroic or something, Jessica accepts all the blame [without pointing out that she made the whole thing up] annnd Seth gets a warning and is told that if there's EVER a next time, he's gone, and besides, Robb had hoped to make a real ~~man~~ journalist out of him, but perhaps the fiction just won't leave his blood. Um, after one book? Anyway, Jessica should be fired, but Robb realizes she'd be getting off too easy that way, so he sends her down to Sondra, who is working on creating a new database of some sort. Horrible hours of typing and squinting await, Jess! All that squinting will give you wrinkles for sure. Sondra's also a hard ass, so Jess won't be having any fun. Robb is a bit of an evil genius. Love him?

   Same day, Jessica's still at work at 10pm. Realizing that she'll never finish what she was told to do, she decides to give up and tackle this shit again tomorrow. She heads out to the parking lot, where it's mostly deserted aside from a couple of cars including the Fiat and Adam's silver VW Bug. On her way to the Fiat, Jessica sees a guy struggling with something wrapped in a green blanket. He zigs when he should have zagged and the blanket shifts enough to reveal one slender arm, enough for Jessica to realize that there's a real [dead] body in the blanket. She freaks the fuck out, tries to scream but can't, hops in the Fiat, and gets the hell out of there. Instead of going to the police or Lila's or something, she goes straight home, worrying that the blonde with the green eyes [not Jeffrey!] and the white Trans Am with the rusted S [not!Jeffrey's car] will have... followed her home. Honey, that's why you go straight to the cops. In her defense, I really do understand that when you're that freaked out, all you want is home. You want your parents [or whomever you love] to comfort you and take care of the problem for you, no matter how much you know that just cannot happen. On this I really do understand.
   However, no one's home. Everyone's at the movies. Jess tries to wait them out, but she flips out over everything from Prince Albert knocking things over to dust particles floating in the wind. She tries calling everyone she knows, sort of, and strikes out everywhere. Seriously, Jessica has like nine thousand boys at her beck and call and not a one does she try. Finally she calls Seth who reads her the riot act. Jessica admits that she fucked up, sort of, but that dude, she's really scared and even if he thinks she's lying, could he please, please, please come over until her parents get home? Hearing how freaked out she sounds, Seth breaks the speed limit and appears at Casa Wakefield within fifteen minutes.
And immediately suggests they revisit the scene of the crime. Jess is all but hyperventilating now, but they go back to the garage and talk to the guard who initially says he never left his post, but then cops to taking a phone call about an hour ago, for maybe ten minutes. Perfect. They look around but find nothing else, although they do wonder why Adam's car is still in the parking garage. Seth takes Jessica home and drops her off, not even bothering to walk her to the door. I also gather he didn't even wait for her to get inside because Jess doesn't have her key and she pounds on the door for someone to let her in. Overly theatrical, yes, but I do understand the panic, so I'll let it slide. Seth, however, is an asshole.
Jess explains all her problems to her family and... they don't believe her. Ned suggests that maybe she'll be less crazy after she sleeps and Jessica wonders if maybe her father's insane since she shall never sleep again... when the phone rings. It's well after midnight, so you know the call won't be good. It isn't. It's Adam. He's in jail...

For Laurie's murder.

   Sooooooo, they whisk Jessica to the police station so she can give her statement and to see what can be done about Adam. Nothing. Apparently there hasn't been a murder in SV in 25 years, and especially not one committed against a really, really rich teenager. Um, right... Point being, they're working overtime to get this little asshole sent to jail permanently, even though the case against him is painfully stupid. See, Adam got off work late, went to his car, and found Laurie dead in his car. He flips out, calls the cops, and they find a length of rope wrapped in rags in his glove compartment. Sure, this is well before CSI or even Patricia Cornwell novels, but, um, guys? Adam had to be sedated when they took Laurie's body away. Either he's a full blown nut job [possible!] or... they're accusing him of also being an incredibly stupid nut job.

   Things move fairly quickly after this, and yet also seem to move painfully slowly. Sigh. At first the Wakefields are sure that Adam is innocent, although no one can think of anyone who would hate Laurie or hate Adam enough to murder Laurie and frame him [as Laurie's grandfather would probably not want his granddaughter dead just to fuck with Adam]... and then Elizabeth takes the letter Adam left for her to her father. He claims to be in love with her and to want to avoid having to do anything "drastic" or to avoid hurting Laurie until he "has to." Yeah, only that letter? Was written by Jessica. Jessica comes clean with the police and tells her father, who leaves the decision as to whether to tell Adam/everyone else up to Jess. Yeah. Driven by guilt as well as the need to feel safe again, Jessica decides she and Seth will find out who actually killed Laurie before they strike again.

   In a move of sort of decent parental skills, Ned and Alice have the Fiat locked in the garage and forbid anyone to use it until the murderer is caught. Thing is, they never point out that the biggest reason for this is not because they enjoy keeping their children dependent on them [they don't] but because the Fiat is pretty unforgettable and there aren't a ton running around SV, so if the killer is still in town, it wouldn't take much for them to notice the Fiat and find the twins... or anyone else in the car, for that matter.
So, without that explained, Jess borrows the Fiat after promising she won't, and she immediately... runs into the guy with the white Trans Am. Riiiiiiiiight. Jess does point out that he didn't seem to have seen her at first, so he wasn't just out cruising the streets waiting for the Fiat to appear. Just... really bad luck in a really small town, I guess. Ned takes the keys and hides them. So there!

Meanwhile, Jessica and Seth are pretty sure they've figured out who killed Laurie. Her ex boyfriend, who was mentally unhinged [why is severe depression an excuse for murder? The two books I was reading back to back both used it as a possible excuse for murder. And only this one was written more than twenty years ago. Oh, God, I feel old now....] and whom her grandfather wanted her to marry. He's also blond, green eyed, and Adam thinks maybe he looks a little like the police sketch of the guy Jessica saw. Great!
There's the annual office party for the SVNews [I thought that was an end of the year thing?] annnd Jessica gets dragged to the police station, Ned and Alice are going out partying, and Steve, well, who the hell knows what he's doing, but he left his crappy car. Which shouldn't have been a problem as the twins were supposed to catch a ride with Seth. Seth calls to cancel, although it sounds as if he'll be working while everyone else is partying, so, um, DUDE, take fifteen minutes and pick the girls up. He doesn't. I'm thinking he's busy stalking Dan Weeks [the reporter who's been covering Laurie's murder and of whom Seth is painfully jealous] and just doesn't want to waste any more time on the twins. Whatever. Liz tries Steven's car. It won't start. [Who the hell leaves their kids with a car that's been acting funny, another car recognized by a murderer, and no real backup to get to a job-related function?] Soo she tries a taxi. There are three taxis on duty that night and they're all being used. Very, very busy night in Sweet Valley. She calls Enid. No answer. She doesn't call anyone else. She thinks about taking the bus, but she's fairly certain that walking to the bus stop at night would be foolish, so... she decides to take the highly recognizable car instead.
Jessica gets dropped off at the party after IDing a picture of Tom Winslow, Laurie's ex, and the guy they're fairly certain murdered her. At the party she runs into Seth... and Thomas, a cute but intense blond guy with green eyes. Oh yeah, Tom is short for Thomas and OMG! The killer. But he's flirting with Jessica, so she's fairly certain he hasn't a clue as to who she is. She FINALLY understands that her parents wanted the car out of sight since it was easier to see than a tiny little size six blonde. Annnnnnnd she's panicking because Liz hasn't made it there, yet. Um, oops. She gets a call from Steven who asks where the Fiat is and Jessica realizes her twin has the car, and Thomas keeps trying to leave and if he sees that car, Liz is dead.
Blah, blah, blah, Thomas is too fast for Jessica and makes it out to the garage in time to run into Elizabeth as she's trying to take his parking space. That's right, had she just waited another five minutes, nothing would have happened. Tom wonders how Jessica managed to sneak by him but it doesn't really matter. He finds a lead pipe lying around [Oh no! Look out, Mr. Boddy!] annnnnnnd menaces Elizabeth with it. She actually realizes that her car could probably take out a person, but his car kind of kills that escape plan. She hits the horn, but Tom ain't too happy about that. When the guard hears all this [worst guard ever!] Tom takes him out with the lead pipe. Oh, ouch. Tom gets Liz out of the car and slams her head on the top of the car, and Liz is knocked out. Sadistic though I may be, I like that he just slammed her head into the car, didn't bother with the pipe. Why complicate matters?

Anyway, Jess has finally escaped the party that would not end in time to see Tom knock Liz silly. She confronts him, smacks him with a rusty tire iron [the guard brought it as a weapon. No guns for him, I guess] and tries to wake Liz up. You'd think years of cheerleading would make it so that Jess could at least passably drag her twin to the stairs, but no. She wastes the two seconds of time she bought with the assault trying to wake Liz up. Liz is groggy and Jessica realizes she hits like a girl when Tom wakes up and threatens them, though he's obviously confused about why there are two of them. Jesus.
Jess tells Liz to run for the stairs and to get help. She shoves Liz and turns to, I dunno, dazzle Tom with her charm or something, and that doesn't go so well.
   Liz makes it to the stairwell in time to pull the fire alarm and pass out. Yeah, you're a lot of help, Lizzie.
Doesn't matter. Seth, who left Jessica ages ago to call the police, finally appears, with a whole squadron of security guards in time to rescue Jessica. The police arrive shortly thereafter.
Adam goes free, Jessica almost gets her byline on the Laurie murder storyline [ultimately Seth got sole credit, but Jessica's name is all over the article], annnnnd everybody's happy. Or something. Except Adam, who spent the last week or two in jail for a crime he didn't commit, only to be let out and reminded that the love of his life is dead for no good reason, but we're supposed to believe that simply because Laurie's grandfather came to the police station to say, "Guess I misjudged you", Adam has found the will to LIVE.
   Riiiiiiiiiight.
And thus ends this episode of Jessica Plays Nancy Drew.

Trivial Pursuit:

Jessica and Elizabeth are working at The Sweet Valley News as summer interns, basically "gofers and apprentice copywriters in the features department."

Jess was less than thrilled about this until she met Seth Miller.

Seth Miller is 22, hails from Washington D.C, graduated high school at 16, sped through college winning writing awards left, right, and center, got his Masters degree in journalism, specializing in investigative reporting. He's a mystery writer who uses the pen name Lester Ames. He's got curly black hair, and green eyes. He's dreamy!

Lawrence Robb is the head dictator at the paper.

Jess has been to the library twice looking for Seth's book, but it's always checked out.

Our Guest Star of the week is Adam Maitland, originally from South Dakota. He's interning at Wells & Wells, criminal law. Tall, thin, with sandy blond hair, a deep voice, and elegant features. So... vampire from South Dakota. Weird.

Jeffrey is spending the summer as a counselor at a camp for nine year olds. Soccer, because that's one of his few personality traits.

Adam and Steve [first person to get the giggles wins?] met in their Law & Society class.

Laurie Hamilton lives in San Mirando, which is an hour away. Her parents died in a plane crash in the Azores when she was little and she was raised by her wealthy grandfather, Tucker Hamilton. He thinks Adam is beneath Laurie [kink?] and would rather she marry the son of a business partner of his.

Tucker Hamilton is described as an "oil tycoon." Not enough maturity in the world to keep me from snickering at that.

The Western building houses The Sweet Valley News on the fifth floor and Wells & Wells on the 7th floor.

Jessica spies on her neighbors with binoculars. She's especially fond of the Mr. Bennet, next door, and whatever it is he's been digging around for in his garden. Sus-piscious!

Apparently Jess has been reading quite a few spy novels lately.

The twins normally park on the fifth floor of the parking garage near the News Room entrance. How awesome is that? That the parking garage is essentially part of the Western building. None of ours are.

Adam drives a silver VW bug, and parks on the 6th floor the night Laurie is murdered.

Seth is working on a story about the fire at the Box Tree Cafe.

Seth drives a red Toyota Celica.

Mr. Donaldson, presumably the owner or at least manager of the Box Tree, says it was an omelet fire caused by someone's towel getting too close to the burner. Yeah, that's arson, Jess.

Lila has a Watch Man. Y'know a TV, but watch sized. Oh, Lila.

Seth's mother has just had surgery and he's got another mystery novel due. Is this why he's so frazzled he can't tell the difference between reality and Jessica's warped version?

Seth is supposed to be working on a story about the postal strike, but instead switches to Jessica's twisted tale of her neighbor, a bank robbery, and a pair of binoculars. Thing is, Seth never bothers to check a single fact or even warn Mr. Robb that he hasn't had time to do anything more than essentially collect a statement.

After that switcharoo, Seth is on probation and Jessica is sent to help Sondra in setting up a database for the paper. This is especially cruel because Sondra ain't warm and cuddly and computers are EVIL. Who knew?

Sondra Albert is in her early 30's.

Jessica's still at work at 10pm the day she's transfered to the database section.

Laurie's killer is driving a white Trans Am with a rusted S on the rear right side.

Seth lives 15 minutes away from the Wakefields, as that's how long it takes for him to get to Jessica once he finally believes this time she's seriously freaked out about something.

Laurie was wrapped in a green blanket and all Jessica saw of her was an arm.

Adam found Laurie at 11:30.

Laurie had been strangled and they found the rope used to do so in Adam's glove compartment.

Jack Wilson is the SVPD sergeant assigned to the case. He does an awful lot of chatting with people for a cop...*

Adam calls the Wakefields after midnight and by 1am they're at the police station so Jessica can give her statement.

George DeLuca is the 6pm-2am guard on the fifth floor of the parking garage. He says, originally, that he never left his post. Except he did, for a phone call that lasted long enough for a body to be dumped in someone else's car [did Adam leave his car unlocked? Did Laurie have a set of keys?] other important evidence to be planted, and one clone to be scared out of her damn mind. Good job, George. So much for your Christmas bonus.

Adam's bail is set at half a million dollars. No one can afford this. Why? His parents are FARMERS. And the Wakefields only bail out drunk drivers. Duh.

Laurie was set to receive her trust fund when she turned 18, which was two weeks away. Therefor the motive for Adam? Money.

Adam was in debt to the tune of a few thousand dollars. Why in the world the police think killing Laurie before she received her money would be a good idea, I don't know.

As you might've picked up from Adam's introduction to Laurie, they weren't just dating, they were engaged.

Adam borrowed money from an Aunt who decided she needed the five grand back immediately. Who the hell loans a grand or five to a college kid and then expects them to pay it back immediately? Especially if it's for school?

There have been no murders in Sweet Valley for 25 years.

Thomas "Tom" Winslow, a college junior described as a "big man on campus" with blond hair, green eyes, and severe depression. He's only 5'9".

Los Vistas is ten miles away from Sweet Valley.

Dan Weeks gets to cover Laurie's murder in the paper. Seth is jealous beyond all words.

The Sweet Valley News has it's annual office party in the summer.

Beth Simmons from TSVN is awfully interested in what the twins will be wearing to the office party.

Ned and Alice go to a thing at the Cabot's, leaving the Fiat's keys in an enameled box on Ned's desk in the study. They also leave Steven's broke ass VW bug for the twins to use, knowing the damn thing has been having trouble lately. Technically that should have still left Alice's or Ned's car, now that I think about it...

Millionaire's Son Confesses to Hamilton Murder! - Headline after Jess/Seth catch Thomas, after he beats the crap out of Liz. Seth gets the byline even though Jess negotiated for a shared byline.

You could have sent in $2.50 and the coupon from the back of the book and gotten your own Super Sleuth Miniature Camera! On a keychain! So awesome?

* This is not to say that cops cannot be chatty. They can. But discussing details of the case like he seems to be doing? What would the people at L&O say? Or any of the nine billion other law shows?

Quotable:

Dear Liz,
Please don't think I'm a terrible coward to write you instead of bringing this up in person. I guess I am a coward. If I weren't, I would have broken up with Laurie the minute I met you.
Liz, it's true. I'm in love with you. I know I haven't shown it, and the truth is, I won't be able to show it to you. Not yet. Not until I figure out what to do about Laurie. She's so vulnerable-I don't want to hurt her until I have to. So please be patient with me if I treat you like just another friend while I'm trying to get it all sorted out. You know you're not just another friend to me. I love you. I can't live without you. You're all I really want in this whole world, and if I can't figure out something soon, I may have to do something drastic.
Love,
Adam

Oh, Jessica!

"Seth might be the next Alfred Hitchcock-he'll makes tons and tons of money and be really famous, and he'll write me into all of his books and movies." She gave her twin an affectionate pat. "Don't worry, Liz. We'll let you work on our scripts or something." - Seriously, Jessica's dream world is fantastic. p9

Jessica held her head in her hands. Great! This was even worse than she had expected. If Adam felt sorry for this pathetic creature, there was no telling how difficult it might be to lure him away.
-snip-
Jessica narrowed her eyes at him as she nibbled without appetite on a carrot stick. Adam was beginning to strike her as a little crazy. Why should a billionaire grandfather make him look ready to cry? She had a depressing feeling that he might be the wrong candidate for a fling for her twin. -22/23

Seth drove a red Toyota Celica, Jessica's instantaneous vote for Car of the Year. - 36

"I know exactly what I'm promising. I always do, Seth." - Dirty! p 50

"Jessica," Elizabeth shrieked. "Do you mean you wrote that letter and left it under my pillow?"
"I didn't say that." Jessica jumped to her feet and looked longingly at the door. "Liz, can't we talk about this later?"
"I can't believe you!" Elizabeth cried, her face reddening with anger. "That is the lowest, most contemptible, vilest-" Her voice broke off as she stared at her twin.
"Most loathsome," Steven contributed helpfully. - This is why I'd want another sibling. To be helpful in times such as these. p201

I like the Thrillers more than I gather I should admit, given how many people mock them for being so ridiculously over the top. To that I say, um? Kinda the point. I can accept the thrillers being out there far more so than when the normal books in the series bring in their third rockstar to miraculously move to the Valley, or all those models/former models hanging out without anyone ever saying a word about it.
Anyway. It's rare that you get such a Jessica centric book [or at least it has been up to this point in the series] where Liz exists pretty much as the wa-wa voice off-screen until the end when she acts just as idiotically as Jessica normally does.
It used to kill me when I'd try and put the books in some sort of chronological order because the thrillers took place over the same summer, usually meant to be back-to-back, and yet things that would happen in the intervening books would crop up and my brain, she would go 'splodey.
This isn't my favorite of the bunch, but it has it's moments of joy and it's moments of "...no."

And to make up for the super long interval between ramblings, let's examine the covers a little more closely, shall we?

Why, oh why, are the twins frightened of two very different things? Liz is looking past Jessica at some unseen danger and Jessica has noticed she finally has an audience. Can't you just see it?
Liz, look! People! Awaiting my every move! My time has finally come.
Uh, Jess? There's a ca-
Not now, Liz! How do I look?
-splat-

Only better because I'd have sleep the next time I tried this. Ah, good times. This is one of those ones that somehow everyone else managed to improve on, I think.

Anyone else care to join me in the slightly irrational love?

Double Jeopardy
December 1987

Jessica and Elizabeth are working at The Sweet Valley News as summer interns, basically "gofers and apprentice copywriters in the features department."

Jess was less than thrilled about this until she met Seth Miller.

Seth Miller is 22, hails from Washington D.C, graduated high school at 16, sped through college winning writing awards left, right, and center, got his Masters degree in journalism, specializing in investigative reporting. He's a mystery writer who uses the pen name Lester Ames. He's got curly black hair, and green eyes. He's dreamy!

Lawrence Robb is the head dictator at the paper.

Jess has been to the library twice looking for Seth's book, but it's always checked out.

Our Guest Star of the week is Adam Maitland, originally from South Dakota. He's interning at Wells & Wells, criminal law. Tall, thin, with sandy blond hair, a deep voice, and elegant features. So... vampire from South Dakota. Weird.

Jeffrey is spending the summer as a counselor at a camp for nine year olds. Soccer, because that's one of his few personality traits.

Adam and Steve [first person to get the giggles wins?] met in their Law & Society class.

Laurie Hamilton lives in San Mirando, which is an hour away. Her parents died in a plane crash in the Azores when she was little and she was raised by her wealthy grandfather, Tucker Hamilton. He thinks Adam is beneath Laurie [kink?] and would rather she marry the son of a business partner of his.

Tucker Hamilton is described as an "oil tycoon." Not enough maturity in the world to keep me from snickering at that.

The Western building houses The Sweet Valley News on the fifth floor and Wells & Wells on the 7th floor.

Jessica spies on her neighbors with binoculars. She's especially fond of the Mr. Bennet, next door, and whatever it is he's been digging around for in his garden. Sus-piscious!

Apparently Jess has been reading quite a few spy novels lately.

The twins normally park on the fifth floor of the parking garage near the News Room entrance. How awesome is that? That the parking garage is essentially part of the Western building. None of ours are.

Adam drives a silver VW bug, and parks on the 6th floor the night Laurie is murdered.

Seth is working on a story about the fire at the Box Tree Cafe.

Seth drives a red Toyota Celica.

Mr. Donaldson, presumably the owner or at least manager of the Box Tree, says it was an omelet fire caused by someone's towel getting too close to the burner. Yeah, that's arson, Jess.

Lila has a Watch Man. Y'know a TV, but watch sized. Oh, Lila.

Seth's mother has just had surgery and he's got another mystery novel due. Is this why he's so frazzled he can't tell the difference between reality and Jessica's warped version?

Seth is supposed to be working on a story about the postal strike, but instead switches to Jessica's twisted tale of her neighbor, a bank robbery, and a pair of binoculars. Thing is, Seth never bothers to check a single fact or even warn Mr. Robb that he hasn't had time to do anything more than essentially collect a statement.

After that switcharoo, Seth is on probation and Jessica is sent to help Sondra in setting up a database for the paper. This is especially cruel because Sondra ain't warm and cuddly and computers are EVIL. Who knew?

Sondra Albert is in her early 30's.

Jessica's still at work at 10pm the day she's transfered to the database section.

Laurie's killer is driving a white Trans Am with a rusted S on the rear right side.

Seth lives 15 minutes away from the Wakefields, as that's how long it takes for him to get to Jessica once he finally believes this time she's seriously freaked out about something.

Laurie was wrapped in a green blanket and all Jessica saw of her was an arm.

Adam found Laurie at 11:30.

Laurie had been strangled and they found the rope used to do so in Adam's glove compartment.

Jack Wilson is the SVPD sergeant assigned to the case. He does an awful lot of chatting with people for a cop...*

Adam calls the Wakefields after midnight and by 1am they're at the police station so Jessica can give her statement.

George DeLuca is the 6pm-2am guard on the fifth floor of the parking garage. He says, originally, that he never left his post. Except he did, for a phone call that lasted long enough for a body to be dumped in someone else's car [did Adam leave his car unlocked? Did Laurie have a set of keys?] other important evidence to be planted, and one clone to be scared out of her damn mind. Good job, George. So much for your Christmas bonus.

Adam's bail is set at half a million dollars. No one can afford this. Why? His parents are FARMERS. And the Wakefields only bail out drunk drivers. Duh.

Laurie was set to receive her trust fund when she turned 18, which was two weeks away. Therefor the motive for Adam? Money.

Adam was in debt to the tune of a few thousand dollars. Why in the world the police think killing Laurie before she received her money would be a good idea, I don't know.

As you might've picked up from Adam's introduction to Laurie, they weren't just dating, they were engaged.

Adam borrowed money from an Aunt who decided she needed the five grand back immediately. Who the hell loans a grand or five to a college kid and then expects them to pay it back immediately? Especially if it's for school?

There have been no murders in Sweet Valley for 25 years.

Thomas "Tom" Winslow, a college junior described as a "big man on campus" with blond hair, green eyes, and severe depression. He's only 5'9".

Los Vistas is ten miles away from Sweet Valley.

Dan Weeks gets to cover Laurie's murder in the paper. Seth is jealous beyond all words.

The Sweet Valley News has it's annual office party in the summer.

Beth Simmons from TSVN is awfully interested in what the twins will be wearing to the office party.

Ned and Alice go to a thing at the Cabot's, leaving the Fiat's keys in an enameled box on Ned's desk in the study. They also leave Steven's broke ass VW bug for the twins to use, knowing the damn thing has been having trouble lately. Technically that should have still left Alice's or Ned's car, now that I think about it...

Millionaire's Son Confesses to Hamilton Murder! - Headline after Jess/Seth catch Thomas, after he beats the crap out of Liz. Seth gets the byline even though Jess negotiated for a shared byline.