Frenzy

9 - Chloe

   Chloe had seen a shadow creep across the window of the door when she was heading out to get the pencil. She had found a Ziplock and planned to put it in there. The shadow was too tall to be a friend, but about the height of most of the teachers.

Chloe had ducked under the window, so she wouldn't be seen by this mysterious person. In minutes, she heard a bang and was worried. She peeked over the window and saw that a shadow was disappearing behind a corner. Chloe slipped out and removed a pencil from Mrs. Hard-Handle's back. It was disgusting, blood oozed out, creeping Chloe into thinking about the gory facts about wars that happened in the past. She put the pencil in the bag, tucking it away, and wondered where Peony was.

She didn't know what had happened to her, but the bang made her think Peony was in a locker. She didn't want to see her friend if she had died, so she stayed away from them. Chloe scurried back down the hall the opposite way that shadow had gone. She followed the path and reached the walkway between the boys' wing and the girls' wing. Who would have been in there? Chloe walked up to the glass doors separating her from the walkway, she saw boys crowding the halls it was pure mayhem.

Chloe backtracked and tried to think of who would be in the boys' wing. So many people! Every teacher the principal, dead bodies, and more. She wondered why the shadow was lurking halls that almost nobody took- except Chloe and Peony- because they had younger classrooms and really weren't interesting. Chloe didn't want to know what that person was doing, but she had to. If that person was the murderer, she only had three days to figure out how they did it. Unless Peony appeared to help her, Chloe was clueless about what to do next.

Chloe crept back through the halls before running into Lila and Hope. They cornered her. Hope said, "Chloe, where is Peony's book?"

Lila sounded less playful. "What are you doing?"

"Follow me." Chloe was worried about what their reactions would be if she told them in the hall.

The three ran through the hall, Chloe at the lead before they reached the body. Chloe was disgusted again but remembered that in her bag was a Ziplock with one of the pencils in it. Chloe watched as Hope's face turned white and as Lila's eyes grew (which was quite rare because almost nothing intimidated her).

"B-b-body." Hope looked like she was going to faint.

"That isn't all." Chloe showed them Mrs. Hard-Handle's back, and they both had to cover their mouths to hide their screams.

"Murder. Murder's been committed here, hasn't it? There's no trace of suicide." Lila looked creeped, and her normally cross, the stubborn face was itching to know more.

"This is what we have been doing. Before you ask, I have no idea what happened to Peony. A shadowy figure went down the hall and I didn't want to see her if she had died."

"DIED!!!" Hope shrunk. "Peony was my friend."

"Wrong set of words, but this is what you have been picky on. Don't try and find the book in Peony's stuff. First, she mostly carries it on her, or has it hidden in a place I don't know. Second, I have it for the sleepover, so I can take notes. Well, I guess we should write my notes down." Chloe was already pulling the book from her bag and grabbing a pen.

Chloe wrote:

So far, we have barely any clues. Only a picture from Peony's phone and a pencil from the victim's back.

Victim 1: Our victim is Mrs. Hard-Handle teacher at our school. She was murdered on a Friday around the evening in a hall near the boys' wing. Mrs. Hard-Handle was murdered with pencils.

Peony- she is missing currently, and we are worried she is the next victim.

Shadowy Figure- we know that the murderer has passed us and seen us. The figure came from a hall that went straight to the middle walkway dividing the two wings. The murderer must be an adult or a boy because the height wouldn't have matched one of the 6th Grade girls.

"Let's get tape from the nearest classroom," Chloe said walking towards a door. "Also, don't bother grabbing a pencil. I had the gross task of doing that earlier." She shook with disgust.

Lila followed Hope who followed Chloe and then they entered, and Chloe stood by the door watching while Lila and Hope rummaged for tape.

Lila called, "I have a roll. Come over to this desk."

Hope wondered aloud, "How are we going to have all the teachers' fingerprints?"

"That doesn't really matter right now, Hope. We need to find this person's fingerprints on the pencil and then work on getting the teachers' fingerprints." Lila sounded upset and rushing as if she wanted to get the murderer and clues as fast as possible.

Chloe came over and removed the bag with the pencil. She carefully removed it holding it by the end of the pencil -the eraser- before setting it on the table. Lila stretched out a long piece of tape and put it against the pencil before wrapping the other side, and the next until it was completely covered in the tape.

Hope said, "Chloe! The book!"

"WHAT!!! Did we leave it outside!!! That would be really bad if the murderer found out what we were doing!!" Chloe was hyperventilating at the thought.

"NO! I meant get out the book so we can put the fingerprints in it," Hope acted as if screaming 'The book' was helpful and made sense.

Chloe pulled out the book and they carefully laid the pieces of tape into the book and shut it to press the tape into the paper. When they opened the book again the fingerprints were easy to see.

"Mmm... By the way, this looks......I would say that this is an index, thumb, and middle finger markings. So...we just must get three finger markings from two hands of about eight teachers, was it?" Lila was counting out on her fingers what they would do.

Chloe said, "I have a plan on getting fingerprints. We had already written it out a long time ago just in case we had fingerprints. Now, look at the book."

Chloe held the book out for them all to read:

These instructions are only if you need to get every teacher's fingerprints. Which is a bunch of work, but I have a plan for that. Now, by how many you need with most people will need all 10 prints, when you might only need 3 per hand. Now, for the instructions.

1. Reminder- Depending on your age, this might not work.

2. Gather Supplies- you need to get papers, pictures of your suspects(to label your prints), an ink pad, and the prints you are trying to match with. If you are using this notebook for your case, put the prints under your notes, so you know they belong to you. Also, keep any evidence you find - that is the most important thing.

3. Getting the Prints- I have a few plants for this step. First, you can act like you are playing secret agents and need people's fingerprints. This is a good one because teachers seem to find it amusing when you are making a fool of yourself.

4. After the Prints Have Been Taken and You Have You Suspects Prints- now comes the fun part(well hard part) you match the prints you got from suspects with the prints you found on the murder weapon.

5. Make it Evidence- once you have the evidence that one person's fingerprints match the fingerprints on the murder weapon that is evidence.

6. Remember- Peony has a lot of easy tips throughout the book- only if you are solving a murder. Because of suspicions.