||Hello Neighbour: A Better Timeline||

||Chapter 21: An Investigation||

"I'm just saying Enzo, I saw Norman walking to the school!"
Nicky turned to Trinity,"Why is important that Norman went to school, I still haven't met him or seen him around?", Trinity nods,"Yeah, he's a bit of a workaholic.", Aaron turned back, "Much like my dad, but kind of worse; And that's saying something.", Trinity nods, Lucy continued as Enzo pushed her,"See; Norman doesn't just run the Banner, Report or make puzzles for the paper: He's also an investigator!", Nicky lit up at that,"Really??", Maritza nods,"Yeah! The best, in my opinion, he works really hard the field and everyone loves him, hence why you can kind of tell when something is happening if Norman is called to the scene.", Enzo eyed his sister,"However, due to reasons; We're not going to go poking around for answers and just let the adults handle it.", Maritza folded her arms and huffed,"You're no fun.", Ivan shook his head,"Don't worry, I'm sure he's just helping with the Boiler thing.","We're here!", sure enough, it was a huge factory surrounded by a large fence, overgrown grass and huge sign that caught his eye.
It was of a Golden Apple, but the sign had become dull, rotten and decaying away.
"Woah."
"Yeah; Aaron?"
Aaron pulled out his tools and got to work.

=

"So the door was locked from the inside?"
Keith nods, showing the door damage,"Yep; See here, door was blown open and the lock broke.", Norman nods, noting that as Ike took a picture of the scene of the crime.
"Shit man. . ."
"Yeah. . ."
Leslie came in,"We took a lot at the CCTV, or what remains of it; No teacher left their classrooms or students, if they did they didn't go in the room, Nicky and Delory's story matches.", Ike looked up,"So, someone had to have snuck in, tied up the Headmistress, messed with the Boiler and somehow didn't get caught on the feed?", Keith nods,"Somehow; Unless this killer found a way to disable the cameras for a short time or knows a magic trick to teleport.", Norman nods,"And Valeria?", "Dead at the scene; Mouth was taped shut, wrists, torso and ankles: We think the killer wanted her to fight for her freedom, she got her wrists free but it was too late from what we can tell.", Norman nods, Leslie cleared his throat; The room still smelt of fire, wood. . . And rotten flesh.
"Could you think of anyone that would have a reason to kill Valeria? Motivation, what to gain out of her death and had the best opportunity and resources to do this?"
Leslie and Keith looked at one another, Leslie looked down as Ketih turned to them,"Not yet; We're still trying to see if there's something on the CCTV we missed and get a full analysis of the body.", Norman nods, writing that down as Ike slightly leans him on to look at what he's writing,"So, how long do you think the school should be closed for? Not just for the repairs or getting a new boiler.", Norman nods, tapping his pen,"We should go around the school, check for anyway the killer could have gotten in.", Ike nods,"I'll check the boiler room and take pictures.", so they're heading there next!
"Hold up."
They stopped in the hall, Keith pointed his pen at Ike,"1; Tell your siblings to get off my back and others, Otto's getting close to blowing their heads off.", Ike sighed,"Sorry, I can't control them.", Ketih nods, he understood but still, he then pointed to Norman,"2: There is one thing I wanted to bring to your attention.", Ketih reached into his bag and pulled up a bag of evidence.
"Feathers?"
"Crow or Raven Feathers, not sure yet as I've yet to ask Otto: But we found a lot of burnt feathers around the crime scene and these? Found stuffed in her mouth once we removed the tape."
. . .
Ike and Norman glanced at one another: Now that was weird.
And they lived in Raven Brooks.

=

Returning to Norman's place, Norman offered Ike, Quentin and Beatrix dinner.
"Can you two, like; Not go and piss of people with guns?"
"Oi, we're investigating!"
"Not like we haven't pissed off Otto before."
Norman shook his head,"You guys okay with Curry?", Ike gave a thumbs up,"Perfect!", "Thanks Norman, next dinner; We'll cook for you.", Norman nods, it was a long day and he needed something to eat and take his mind off the week for a bit.