Tears. Non stop tears. Five days had gone by since Fiona's body was discovered outside J's pub. An autopsy had already been done. Alcohol and other substances were found in her system, although the police only disclosed that to her family. Of course, everyone knew about the bloody mess that was her stomach. Drugs or no drugs, cocaine or cannabis didn't tear anyone's belly open. As soon as it became aware that Fiona was murdered, her mother had hired a local lawyer.
"Thomas, nice to meet you," The stocky brunette reached across the bar to shake hands with the bar's owner.
"Joseph," He nodded in response, pulling his hand back afterwards to go back to cleaning an empty pint glass, "I've seen you in here before, you're local,"
"Raised and schooled here," Thomas smirked before downing the last drop of his Jæger shot.
"You're doing well to be a lawyer at your age. What are you? Twenty seven? Twenty eight?"
"I'm twenty five, excuse you," He spluttered a laugh, obviously not actually offended. Joseph laughed with him but wondered to himself why he assumed he was closer to thirty than twenty. Thomas looked tired. His face was probably a lively peach but it was greying. Joseph shrugged it off. Maybe a career in law just took its toll on all who pursued it, "You seem like a top bloke, Joseph. So, I'll be honest with you. I've gotten a pretty big case. The homicide of that poor seventeen year old,"
"Fiona," Joseph felt his body stiffen, "Yeah, I'm not surprised,"
"She died here, mate. You're on the list of suspects," Then he coughed and laughed, "But don't worry, half the fucking town is," He got up and went to the men's room, leaving Joseph alone in his bar with the few patrons that were still there at eleven on a Wednesday night.
•~~×~~•
"I can't concentrate," Ariel rubbed her eyes tiredly, "We shouldn't even be in school,"
"Yeah, I wasn't friends with her or anything but she's still dead," Her classmate, Femme, said, a black pen dangling uselessly between her fingers, "Like somebody killed her,"
"It could've been anyone," Ariel reached up to tuck her golden locks behind both ears simultaneously.
"For any reason," Femme hummed, pressing her pen against her rosy lips.
"Are you saying she deserved it?" Ariel looked at her, not expecting her to say that.
"No, I'm just saying she was a bitch," Femme shrugged, tightening her high ponytail and leaning into her desk lazily by her elbows, "No one deserves to get murdered obviously. But who knows who Fiona pissed off?"
•~~×~~•
Carol and Brianna cried as they drank their frappés. Their best friend had been violently killed in their seemingly uneventful town. No amount of whipped cream and chocolate sauce could mend that, but it was worth a try.
"I suppose we'll have to find someone else now," Britney sniffed.
"What?" Cori's blue eyes looked up at her, still shimmering with tears.
"There's only two of us now," Britney raised a hand to wipe the running mascara away from under her eyes, "It's always been the three of us, we'll need to fill the space,"
Cori said nothing, she only raised the green straw to her lips again to drink. She wanted to ignore what Britney had said but it wasn't exactly ignorable.
"Elliott!" The bell above the door chimed as a tall young man walked in, striding towards the raven haired coffee-boy behind the counter.
"Oh my god, it's Spike," Britney whispered loudly, trying to quickly fix her hair, a slight blush staining her face. Cori sighed, not even the littlest bit interested.
"Hey Spike," Elliott looked up from the counter to greet his flatmate, "Coffee?"
"No man, pre-drinking at ours at seven," It wasn't an invitation, it was fact.
"We're going out tonight?" Elliott wasn't totally opposed to the idea but it wasn't the first thing on his mind.
"Yeah, the whole dead girl thing has me super depressed," Spike rolled his eyes, like it was nothing, "We need a night on the town, yeah?" He was basically out the door already, not giving Elliott the chance to reply. He was going either way.
•~~×~~•
The funeral was the next day. It was a rainy Friday. School had been cancelled, thankfully. It had been incredibly unsettling over those couple of days in classes, knowing but not talking about it. It was a dark day. Black clothes. Black umbrellas. Black clouds. Nothing was more upsetting than the picture of Fiona on top of her coffin. She was so pretty and far too young to die that way, or in any way. The entire town showed up. Everyone was so angry about Fiona's murder they were only a few pitchforks short of becoming an angry mob. John was near the back of the church with Cleo. An odd coincidence that they would be seeing each other again. But it wasn't a coincidence, really. Everyone in the town was at the funeral. Everyone. They weren't even friends, they had only talked on the night Fiona died. It was all a bit weird.
"Someone's late," Cleo whispered, looking out the main doors at the sound of a car pulling up in the rain. Sure enough, a gleaming black Bentley pulled up on the stones. An older gentleman getting out the back seat. He was distinguished looking, in a tweed jacket and very nice shoes. He had a beard, its grey colour matching his hair. John gasped when he seen him walk in, trying to hold back a childish grin at the sight of him.
"Do you know who that is?" He muttered to Cleo. She nodded furiously as if to say Of course I do, you bloody fool. Their eyes followed him as he walked in to stand at the very back of the church, not even sitting down. They noticed his head turning in their direction and they quickly diverted their attention back to the funeral service. They waited for it to end, all the hymns and prayers. Cori laughed inwardly to herself. She knew that if anyone actually knew Fiona, they would know that she couldn't give a toss about religion of any kind. She worshipped her phone and that was that. Once it was all over, everyone headed to the front row to give their condolences to her mother and sister. John and Cleo decided to wait out the long queue and go talk to the older man at the back.
"This is so cool, he's like my hero," Cleo smiled slightly, trying not to get too excited at a funeral, "Not only are his crime novels the best in existence but he's the only successful person to come from this town,"
"He looks great too, he's not even seventy yet," John nodded.
"You read up on his Wikipedia page then?"
"I wrote his Wikipedia page," He winked at her. She laughed, knowing that it wasn't meant as a joke.
Once they found him, there was already a few people around him, shaking his hand. John recognized Joseph beside him.
"Ian, I'm so sorry for your loss," His words stopped John from taking another step closer.
"No way," He said slowly.
"What is it?" Cleo looked up at him confused.
"Well I knew he wasn't around but this really is the next level," He shook his head, realization flooding his senses.
"What?"
"He's Fiona's dad."
