Amateurs

Chapter 4 - Two Weeks

~Terry~

Several days later, the atmosphere surrounding the school was noticeably bleak. Students barely talked between classes and teachers were subdued. Terry's friends had been different too. Sienna had lost most of her fiery spark and Cato never really laughed. Amy looked so fragile, like she might break. She blamed herself for what had happened.

Terry was different too. They barely spoke, and when they did, it was only a sentence or so. The only person they had seen that didn't seem affected was the detective.

Roger Judge was not phased by anything around him. Mean and insensitive, he paraded around the school like he owned it, interviewing people who had shown up on the cameras. Amy had been one.

She had been pulled from a class for two hours by Judge. She said he asked questions like "Did you see any students looking suspicious?" and then asked follow ups until she mentioned Stacey Bartez. When Terry heard about this, they told her about the scene Cato had witnessed. Amy was outraged. Everyone who knew Stacey knew that she wouldn't do that. Miller was her mentor, the one who turned her life around.

Meanwhile, Terry and their friends had a plan brewing.

~~~~~

When Terry told her the Idea, Sienna's mood shifted dramatically. It was like Terry had flipped a switch back on. When they had finished, it was like a blazing fire was reigniting in Sienna's eyes.

Cato had a similar reaction. The more Terry explained the Idea, the more alert he became. The rest of the day, he did nothing but smile, and told an astounding number of dad jokes. That's how you knew he was excited.

The three compiled notes on anything that might be useful, and wrote lists of anyone that might help.

Their plan: solve the mystery.

~~~~~

Terry plunked down a stack of notes onto the table. Professor Cumberfield had allowed them to use his classroom for research. He had promised to help as much as he could.

Sienna sighed, and set down her computer. She opened it and scrolled through. "Alright. I made a list of people that might be willing to help. Lots of people have inside information. You just have to know who to trust. First, we should see about Owen Arnold. He's a freshman, but he knows everyone. Plus, he doesn't need payment..."

"Payment?" Cato questioned.

"Yeah, most of these people need something in return. Good strategy, really. We're paying.

"Anyway, we have to try Theo Whitman and Jen Rucker. They run that newspaper, The Devil's Whisper. They'll definitely be able to lead us in the right direction. Only problem is, it won't be for free."

"How do you know all this?" Terry asked. Theo and Jen had pen names, and they were pretty sure you had to be in their inner circle to know who wrote their illegal gossip paper.

She shrugged. "I have my ways. As in, people are too scared of me to refuse to tell me anything."

Cato laughed. "Yeah, you're sort of terrifying," he joked.

Sienna grinned.

Terry cleared their throat to remind their friends that they were there. "Amy made a list of people that were outside the building when it happened. Some people would never really help us, like Jimmy Gordon and his friends, but there are a few that might be what we're looking for.

"There's Selena Batista, Lauren Jonas, Joey Fandon, and Carl Birch. Maybe Helen Woods. Any other ideas? Cato, do you have suspects?"

"Oh yeah. I think that based on the height being just over six feet, maybe six foot three, and Amy saying that they had a slight limp and loafers, it had to be an older teacher, probably male. I'd say top suspects are Professors Penn and Barnes. Especially Penn. I know he's been hiding something. I'm positive."

"Well I think that's all we can do for now. Anything we've said could be wrong, so we'll have to dig pretty deep to figure this out," said Terry.

~~~~~

Later, the trio went outside to check the building. Terry had gotten the camera feed on their laptop and was looking at a shadowy figure entering. The office where the murder took place was sealed off, but Sienna and Cato were checking around outside and in the halls.

"Hey, I found something," Sienna marched up toward Terry through the wet, heavy snow. Her hand was balled in a fist. She reached them and opened her hand. Inside was a small thread.

"I found this on the floor by the doorknob. It matches the color of the gloves in the video. Maybe I could analyze it for any chemical traces."

"Good plan. Did Cato find anything?"

"I don't think so, but- oh hey, Cato!"

"Hi, guys!" Cato trotted up to the two with a grin on his face. "Finally a decent snowfall! This has to be a foot deep!"

"And that's exciting?" Sienna scoffed. Terry privately agreed, but they just laughed a bit.

"There is one thing that's great about this snow..." Sienna grinned evilly.

"I- what?" Cato gulped.

"This."

Splat. Sienna flung a snowball at Cato and dived behind a tree, laughing hysterically. Cato wiped snow off his shoulder. "Oh, it's on."

He picked up some snow and tossed it. It smacked into the back of Sienna's head. She jumped up and threw one back at him, but he dove out of the way and it hit Terry. "Hey!"

They jumped up and made a perfect snowball, hard and round. Their dad had taught them the recipe when they were little. Next thing Cato knew, a ball of hard snow had slammed in his face. They cackled, but stopped abruptly when Sienna's snowball hit them.

It was pandemonium. Snowballs flew from every direction. Terry threw at Cato, but he dodged, and with a thrill of horror, they watched the ball strike none other than Roger Judge.

~~~~~

Judge stared at the kids, bristling with anger. Terry gulped. They were in trouble now.

He clenched his fists. Terry braced for impact. Then the shouting came.

"What were you children thinking?! You could have killed me!"

"With a snowball?" Terry asked, bewildered. Judge glared.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Investigating," Sienna said loudly. They all knew that it was better to tell the truth.

"Oh please. You kids are just amateurs. You think you can solve this? You're no detectives."

Sienna snorted. "We're probably better than you. Remember Stacey Bartez? No evidence at all. You're a fraud."

"Well, if you're so good," Judge was quivering with rage. Oh great, thought Terry. "You solve it. Soon, I'll have the evidence to take her away. You can have some time to fail. Two weeks."