Friends Forever Book 1 - The Culprits' Crimes

Chapter 14-Suspected betrayal

Hazel

When everyone was there, Carnelian slipped off for a few moments, soon returning with two year tens. "Hey, these are my siblings and well, I thought they could be of use to the case. The girl is called Ebony, and the boy is called Selwyn, who is the youngest sibling."

"What was the strange rider like; body shape, voice, etcetera...?" Ebony rapidly asked.

"I don't know, I was at dance class," Amy replied.

"I was sleeping through the whole event," Naomi added.

The best eye roller in the history of eye rolling rolled her eyes and chided, "Does anyone know any ACTUALLY USEFUL INFORMATION?"

"Well, I didn't hear the strange rider's voice as they didn't, like, talk or shout or anything. However I suspect that it was a female, as I saw long, silky hair. Maybe later we should look at my stables for clues." Hazel suggested.

"IthinkitwasagirlcalledJasminebutIalsodon'tknowwhoitisandwhyamIevensayinganythinginonebreathIhateusingonebreath" Naomi interrupted speedily.

"Wait, but I thought that you were sleeping..." Amy interjected.

"Well uhhh, maybe I wasn't asleep, maybe I was, but I don't know." Naomi suspiciously said.

"HOW would you not know?" Hazel bursted in, a little too loud. She shrank back.

"I don't know." Naomi shrugged, clearly not affected by Hazel's sudden burst of words.

"To be honest, that isn't any less worrying. In fact, if I'd known better, I'd say that YOU were the criminal," Julia growled, shooting an unpleasant glance at Naomi.

"Well, you, uhm, you, yeah, you can't be talking be-, because you, uhm, IDK," Naomi stuttered, a hint of angry tone inside her voice.

"I think we should just get on." Edaline said softly.

"Honestly, I think that I'm pretty sure of the mysterious rider being a girl. Good thing I arrived in time to catch a glimpse of her after my dance class. Edaline was with me." Amy elucidated, nodding towards Edaline.

"Ok, let's look at it in this way," Julia said out abruptly. "Naomi said she was sleeping, right? Which SEEMS ok to any normal person. Well then, when we were talking about the race and said that we thought it was a female, Naomi said that it was Jasmine rather quickly. And then, when I accused her, she said I couldn't be talking. I was clearly a witness!"

Selywn slightly looked at Naomi. "Honestly, now I half understand the concept, I'm starting to get someone-innocent-did-it vibes."

"Excuse you! I did not, I'd rather sleep than do all of that." Naomi objected.

"Ok," Edaline sighed. "So, even if Naomi did it -" "Which I did NOT!" Naomi put in "-she couldn't have done it alone. So first, let's look at suspects more recent."

"I think Junise did it," Amy acknowledged slowly.

"No," Elsa protested. "She got food poisoning! She's a victim, not a suspect!"

"No, Amy's right. Lots of criminals are the people you would least suspect or at least a victim," Edaline stated.

"Aaaand, she might have done it to seem innocent. I read a mystery book where the criminal committed crimes against children but she was the mother of some victims," Car quickly interjected.

"Which all adds up." Julia pulled out an A2 piece of paper with plans written all over it.

"When did you do this?" Amber gaped in surprise.

"That doesn't matter." Julia indicated 'Junise', scribbled carelessly on the paper. "So, you see, when we found out about the incident, it was set a week before that. Remember the horse stable? I saw Junise riding. She came 6th. I saw her looking at us. I bet you anything the mysterious rider worked with Junise. And she became a victim soon enough. See?"

"That-no-wait what?" Naomi spluttered.

"Ok. We haven't collected enough information to just assume Junise and Naomi did it," Eveleigh commented. Naomi looked at her friend gratefully.

Julia scowled, throwing her hands up impatiently. "That's because she's your best friend! You would do anything for her! You wouldn't admit it even if you knew! I bet if she killed your parents and you knew, you'd say your-your dog did it!"

"So? uh-uhm I mean that's not true," Eveleigh corrected.

"You know, Eveleigh, you make that sound like it's true, even if you weren't," Amy honestly replied.

"I-I-I-I-I didn't!" Eveleigh cried, a little bit too quickly.

"We'll solve this, girls, just stop fighting!" Edaline interjected, and they all trudged back to their classroom when the lunch bell rang.