||Hello Neighbour: A Better Timeline||

||Chapter 28: Back To Normal||

"Ike."
"Don't tell me."
"Yeah. . ."

"I'm Otto; Taxidermist."
Jay shook his hand,"Hello, nice to meet you.", he nods, adjusting his hat and gun that was slung over his shoulder,"Don't worry, safety is on.", Miguel nods, feeling a bit more relaxed knowing that.
Ike then came in, followed by Norman.
"What did they do?"
Otto then held up a photo, handed it to Ike and. . . Ike faceplammed.
"Your siblings, Ike and Beatrix, broke into my house, threw a Garden Gnome at my head which barely missed and then proceeded to take one of my projects."
Miguel turned to Jay,"You'd be surprised how often this happens when they're in town.", Jay was a little worried about that.
Ike shook his head,"Sorry, I'll talk to him and get them to pay for the Gnome and give your project back.", Otto nods, he then turned to Jay and Miguel,"Don't worry: They won't bother your family, they're reporters and they bother Keith and I more, and maybe the Mayor. . .?", Norman made a face, as did Ike,"Sure as hell hope not.", Otto nods,"Sorry to bother ya with it Ike, I know it's not your responsibility to control your siblings.", Ike nods, Otto leaned to the side and had a very not so impressed expression,"I see you two back there.", Otto did the motion of having his eyes on them, excused himself and he left The Banner.

Ike folded his arms,"Would it kill you two to not piss off a man with a shotgun?", Ike took Quentin's bag and checked it for the taxidermy animal.
"He's suspicious, Ike!"
"You say that about everyone!"
Miguel shook his head,"It hasn't been a month since they came. . .", Jay was a little worried but, this seemed normal.
"Don't worry about them."
Norman closed the door, which muffled the argument the three of them were having,"Keith and Otto have it under control; They just don't know when to draw the line.", Jay nods, feeling reassured a bit.

=

"Hey Nicky?"
Lucy pointed to his lunch,"Why don't you ever eat your food? Aren't you hungry?", some of them turned their heads to him, his lunch was always wrapped in plastic but he never ate it but was fine with eating school lunches in front of them.
"Uhm. . . Well. . ."
Nicky sighed, picking the plastic off his lunch as he felt like he didn't wanna explain to them why he never ate his packed lunch.
"Ooh."
"Smells really strong."
Nicky nods,"Yeah. . . Some food needs to be wrapped in plastic, for transport reasons, but also to keep the food fresh and this food. . . Tends to smell. Like, a lot.", Mya shrugged, obviously confused,"But don't all foods smell?", Trinity turned to her,"Yes, but some give off stronger smells, I remember when my family went to Spain for 2 weeks, we went to this restaurant and the Garlic Bread gave off a much stronger smell than store-bought garlic.", Aaron looked at the food,"Can I try it?", Nicky shrugged, he saw no issue and so he handed him a fork,"Sure, you can but. . .", Aaron took the fork from Nicky, Mya leaned forward,"Context: Me and Aaron are banned from the kitchen.", Nicky remembered Aaron mentioning that when it was practical and had cook pasta.
Lucy leaned forward,"Well?", Aaron nods, taking another bite before handing it back to Nicky,"It's really good; Who made it?","My dad.", Aaron smiled,"It's really good.", Nicky nods.
"Wait, can I try it?"
"Sure, Lucy."

=

Mr Wilson stood back.
Keith, Ike, Norman  and Leslie stared at the whole in the wall.
"There was a catacomb entrance in the school?"
Norman took a flashlight and stepped in.
Leslie looked at the floor,"The scratches obviously come from the locker, someone's been using it for years and potentially still, if this is how our killer got in the school.", Norman held the wall,"I'm going down, it's a bit steep.", "Be careful!", Norman cautiously walked down, and was met with the catacombs; Left or Right.
Ike followed in, Leslie too.
"Shit. . ."
"Think of which way went?"
Norman looked at the lanterns that were lit, some of them were electrical but some of them weren't.
"I dunno; This is basically worse than a Hedge Maze."
"Ike."
Norman tapped the lantern,"This one isn't electrical.", Ike came over, peered into the small opening and sure enough there was a candle.
"Looks like it was recently lit."
"Yeah, doesn't look like wax has began to melt."
Now the question is which way did they go, will they come back.
. . .

~

"Thing is, not sure what to do."
Wilson waved his hand at the entrance.
"I want to cement this entrance, but at the same time they could come back and give you evidence."
Keith nods.
That was the problem; And risks teachers and students, last thing Wilson wanted was to put kids at risk, especially with how young they all are.
"Well, CCTV Footage is being processed and we'll come back, for now let's cover it back up so the culprit thinks we haven't found it."
So Keith pushed the locker back in front of the hole.

~

Back at the station, an officer called Keith over to the computer.
"Anything."
"Maybe."
He skipped the footage back, pausing as The Mayor's Son and Nicholas came onto the hall,"Here the two boys enter, not far from the office here and while were walking at this time, look at the camera here.", the camera that faced the boiler room.
Slowly it down, the boiler room door opened for under 2 seconds before shutting.
"Someone peered out?"
"Either looking out for anyone coming or to see if the gas was leaking."
Zooming in on the open door, they found their killer was wearing blacks gloves.
"Obviously no finger prints."
"No, and no way to identify."
Least they know something.