A mystery murder

Thrirteen

Her writing hand must have a mind of its own.

Mr Miller was talking but Lou was not really listening. There was a war going on inside her head. Should she ask Jason about Ryan's comments or was that a risk to the investigation? Was it rude to ask questions about a murdered student?

Mr Miller announced that it was lunch time and he called out 'read chapter 3 before our next lecture.'

"You coming?" Liam said whilst standing up and swinging his rucksack on to his back.

"Um, yeah I will come find you in a minute" she said.

"I need to ask Mr Miller something first."

"You need to ask Mr Miller something eh?" Jason had over heard.

"I hope you haven't started thinking about the coursework already"

"No, well, yes I have" Lou said.

"But that's not what I wanted to ask you about."

Lou waited until they were the only two left in the classroom.

"What is it?" Jason glanced down at his watch.

"You have 15 of my minutes before I start to panic about the lunch queue."

"Yeah, sorry" Lou said.

"Um . . ."

"Everything okay?" Jason said whilst sitting back on his desk with his legs crossed.

"You worrying about internship applications? We can go over your personal statement sometime."

"No its not that" Lou took a breath.

"I . . . Interviewed you before you said you didn't have anything to do with Ryan in the last two years of university."

"Yeah correct" he blinked.

"He didn't attend any of her lectures."

"Ok but" the courage trickled down her back.

"One of Ryan's friends said that Ryan referred to you as an arsehole sometimes in the weeks before he went missing."

"Oh" Jason said whilst rubbing his brown hair back from his face. He then looked at her and sighed.

"Well I was hoping this wouldn't come up. I don't see what good it can do to dwell on it now. But I can see you are being very thorough with your assignment."

Lou nodded.

Jason shuffled.

"I don't feel comfortable about it, saying unpleasant things about a student who tragically lost their life" he then glanced up at the open classroom door and scooted over to shut it.

"Um I didn't have much to do with Ryan at university but I knew of her, of course, as Robyn's dad. And . . . It was in that capacity through Robyn and I learnt some things about Ryan Brooks."

"Yes?"

"No easy way of saying it but . . . He was a bully. He was bullying another guy in their lecture group but I can't remember his name. There was some sort of incident, a video online that Ryan had posted."

Lou was both surprised but then not at all. Yet another path opening up in the maze of Ryan Brook's life.

"I knew enough to understand that Ryan would be in trouble with both the university and the police for what he'd done" Jason continued.

"And I . . . I thought it was a shame because it was the first week back after spring break and his exams were coming up. These exams would determine his future" he sighed.

"What should I have done, when I found out, was to tell the principle about the incident but the university has a no bullying policy and I knew Ryan might have been kicked out immediately. No exams, no degree and I well I just couldn't do it. Even though he was a bully I couldn't live with myself knowing I'd played a part in ruining a students future."

"So what did you do?"

"I looked up his dads contact details and I called him on the first day of the spring breaks holidays."

"You mean Monday of the week Ryan was murdered?"

Jason nodded.

"Yes I guess it was. I phoned Arian Brooks and told him everything I'd learnt and said that he needed to have a very serious word with his son about bullying and the consequences. I suggested restricting his online access. I said I was trusting him to sort this out otherwise I would have no choice but to inform the university and have Ryan kicked out."

"And what did he say?"

"Well, he was thankful that I was giving his son a second chance he possibly didn't deserve and he promised he would sort it out and talk to him. I'm guessing now that when Mr Brooks spoke to Ryan he mentioned that I was the source of information. So, if I was the target of some choice words from Ryan that week, I'm not really surprised, I must say. Disappointed is all."

Lou took a deep breath.

"What's that for?"

"I'm just glad you weren't lying for a worse reason."

"I think you have been watching too many crime documentaries Lou. Why not read some biographies instead?" He smiled gently.

"They can just be disturbing as fiction" Lou paused.

"You'd never told anyone before, had you . . . About Ryan's bullying?"

"Of course not. It seemed pointless after everything that happened. What if I told the university and Ryan was kicked out for a few weeks? Would it have changed the outcome? Would the conditions that led Luke to killing him not have been in place? Would they both still be alive?"

"That's a rabbit hole you shouldn't go down" Lou said.

"And you definitely do not remember the guy that he bullied?"

"No sorry" he said.

"Robyn would remember, you could ask her about it. Not sure what he has to do with the use of the criminal investigations though."

He looked at her with a scolding look.

"Well I am still deciding on my final title" she smiled.

"Ok, well don't go falling down your own rabbit hole." He wagged his finger.

"I'm running away from you because I really need a tuna melt" he smiled and dashed into the corridor.

Lou felt a lot lighter but just as Jason had dashed out the door she realised she now has another real lead to follow. One less name on her list and it was a good trade to make. But the lead was taking her back to Robyn again and louise would have to look her in the eyes like she didn't think there wasn't something dark behind them.