Toothpaste Kisses

Chapter 5

~~Edited 23/08/2013~~

CHAPTER 5

“Have a look at these,” Officer Jones slid the photos across the round polished table an hour later. I had wasted the time by going for a walk around the building with my headphones blaring. When I rounded the corner of the hall I found Mr Johnson talking with Spawn. At my approach, she said her gracious goodbyes and then sauntered past, clipping my shoulder with her own and sending me a smirk. I was quickly ushered into Mr Johnson’s office to see the bobby once the hall was deserted.

The first photo that came to a stop in front of me was taken in the hallway and was of the whole room. Angel’s nice clean white walls were now an ashen grey, the white carpet – her choice because her daddy bought the room – was also the same charred mess with one spot being midnight black where the fire started, probably. Her stuff was mostly ruined, her side being the worst hit in the fire. On my side the fresh lime green walls that I loved now looked like a sick mucus-y green, my sheets were charred and my fairy lights were coated in soot as well. On my side table my clock was a gloopy mess.

A sickly sweet feeling cloaked me as I looked at the photos. My sheets were ruined and my alarm clock just didn’t exist anymore, but Nick could make me another clock – he and Mikey knew how – and my laptop and Benjy were hiding in the unreached area.

“This – this’ll sound dumb but did you, by any chance, find my teddy and a laptop under the bed?” I smiled, hopefully I was right and they hadn’t been touched by the flames; otherwise… “I know it’s nothing to do with your investigation but I need to–”

He grinned, showing off his naturally white teeth. “We found you teddy, Honey, don’t stress out. And your laptop is all good.” A smile spread across my face and I wanted to hug this guy to death right now. “We also salvaged a mass of Christmas lights for you.” My fairy lights.

“Thank you.”

He gave a quick nod, dropping the conversation and turning back into serious-cop-mode. “Could you tell me where you’ve been in the last twelve hours?” He dropped the rest of the photo’s in front of me; one of the wall hidden from the camera’s view in the first photo, one of my corner of the room, one of Angel’s, multiple shots of the dark circle in the centre of the room and the last of the bathroom.

“Uh, yeah, sure, when do you want me to start from, like, last night?”

“Yes, that’d be good. Where were you last night?” He leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on the table, either side of his jotter pad and pen. “What about from seven o’clock onwards.”

“Uh, well I was in the dance studio with my dance partner from after school ‘til about seven, we walked home together going to Chico’s – that’s a café – uh… we then went to my dorm together because he didn’t want to go back to his dorm and I had homework. At about eight Angel came in to find me and Ben – Ben Johnson – play fighting on the floor.” So that wasn’t what she actually saw, but I wasn’t going to talk about the compromising position she found us in. “She started to bitch so I left with Ben and we went to the ice cream parlour across the road from my dorm. Ben made me go back to my dorm about twenty past nine. Me and Angel got into a fight, she spat in my face so I went to punch her back. My dance teacher – the boys’ mentor – stopped me and took me to the boys’ dorm to get washed and calm down. I left there at about one in the morning…”

“And what happened this morning?” he asked with no emotion.

“Well, I got up at five, showered and got out before Angel was up.” I sighed, trying to think what happened after that. “I then went to the café down the road with Ben and I ended up getting coffee all down me,” I showed him the coffee stains that I found later that morning, “when this boy spilt coffee on me. Then Ben dragged to school. I had maths, history and then I was in art when I got called down. I went straight to Mr Johnson’s and there you go.” I leaned back in my seat rocking on the back legs.