The next week, Nick had asked me to come over. I rang the doorbell and his mom answered. "Hello Maddie!" She said. "Hey Mrs. Dobbs!" I replied.
"Nick is upstairs."
I walked up the stairs, as I neared his bedroom door. There was noise coming from inside the room, it was talking. I quickly swung open the door to find Gino sitting on the floor next to Nick. "You did not just..." I said angrily turning around. Nick grabbed my arm and said "Maddie, please, just listen."
"Not when he's here." I gestured towards Gino.
"He has answers."
I glared at him and sat on the other side of the room. "You have ten minutes."
"Gino, why don't you explain."
Gino took on the conversation.
"I checked the police files. The blood in the dining room was not Josh's, it was Chloe's."
"And?"
"We think someone framed her."
"Possibly, but I still think she did it."
"Why would she though?"
I shrugged.
"We aren't getting anywhere. We might as well just give up."
"Chloe's out of town this weekend."
"Yeah?"
"We can go investigate her house."
"Are you insane? The police will think we did it."
"I can disable the security system."
"Maybe we should." Nick chimed in.
"If we do this, you're taking the blame."
Later that evening, we all met up on Chloe's street. Gino let us into the house. Nick and him immediately went to the dining room, while I searched the kitchen cupboards. I was sure I wouldn't find anything until I came across an old phone. It was Chloe's old phone. She got it replaced a few months ago. The screen was slightly cracked, but it would still work. I was curious, so I turned it on. Everything seemed to be working fine. Her last message was with Paige.
"I don't want to." Paige had said.
"But you have to, or I'll tell everyone." Replied Chloe.
It looked as if Paige was hiding something, which could be true since she came back to school this year not having gone to any parties or even hanging out with anyone. Her hair was cut shorter and she glued herself to Chloe even more so. Anything could've happened.
"I found something." I shouted.
They walked into the kitchen. I handed Gino the phone, still open to the messages. They carefully read it. "Well, you're closest with her, do you know anything about Paige that she would want to keep a secret?" Suggested Gino. "No not really." I said.
"Tell me about her."
"She's usually pretty happy, kind of reserved, at times maybe a bit anxious, I only noticed that in science a little bit, she was my partner and we had to do this experiment where we shocked samples of water in order to compare the bacteria before and after."
"Interesting."
Nick joined the conversation. "I've watched a movie like that, I can't remember the name, but this girl always freaked out when she saw something being shocked because they used shock therapy on her in a mental hospital."
"Do you think...?" I said.
"They often cut people's hair in mental hospitals." Gino added.
"Why would Paige be in a mental hospital?" I asked.
"Because she's crazy." Said Nick laughing.
I elbowed him in the side.
As we exited, Nick stopped me, "We're gonna find him, I promise." He said wrapping his arms around me. "Nick..." I said.
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
"Your Welcome Mads."
He smiled.
