The Raven Mystery

Chapter 4: The Frederick's Case

The bell rang and Mr. Froe dismissed the class. Luke was heading out when one of his classmates tapped his shoulders and said "Show him whose boss." Luke just ignored the comment and walked around the halls. He went up the second floor of the school looking for his locker. He took out a piece of paper and a key from his pockets with the words written locker number: 150. He found the area where his locker was. He noticed that there were spaces separating the lockers and that there was no handle or lock found on it. He looked at both sides of the locker and found a small square hole on the left side. Luke took a closer look and found a keyhole in it. He put the key in and heard a click. The locker opened by itself. It had 3 divisions, and a small, locked wooden cabinet on the top. "That's not part of the locker." He said placing his things in the locker.

Luke headed to the cafeteria and found Scott at the food station. Scott saw Luke and called out his name. Luke went to the food station and took a tray. "I heard you defeated Froe." Scott said. "What do you mean by defeated?" Luke said. "Every year, Froe makes a student answer one of his questions. When we answered wrong, he would say I guess not all of you are as blessed with intelligence as me." Scott said. "That's a little rude to say to a student. Wait... What do you mean by we?" Luke asked. Scott chuckled and said, "I was one of his victims. He made me spell numunovolcanosis or something. Stating that it was as simple as walking." Luke paused for a while as they were going to a table. Scott drank some juice when Luke started mumbling some words to himself then he said the word Scott was trying hard to pronounce. Scott spit out his juice and looked at Luke in shock. "How the heck did you even pronounce that word!?" he said. Everyone in the cafeteria looked at them and it grew quiet. Scott stood up, cleared his throat and said, "Nothing to see here folks just keep eating or whatever." Everyone continued eating and talking with each other. "I saw the word in a book I read. It was catchy so I kept on saying it." Luke said. "Are you some kind of child prodigy or something?" Scott said. "No way man. It's just that my dad owns a Library and Raven wasn't that much of a fun place to live so I just read some books." Luke replied. Scott didn't reply and sat down. His eyes were still focused on Luke but instead of looking happy, Scott looked a little gloomy. "Did I say something wrong?" Luke said. "Scott?" Scott took a breath and said to Luke, "You live in Raven?" "Well I used to. I moved here just last month." Luke replied. "That's AWESOME!" Scott said. "What!?." Scott took a deep breath. "I've always wanted to go to Raven Luke!" Scott said. "What do you mean? There's nothing much to see in Raven. It's just an old town." Luke replied. Scott sighed, "I'm not interested on the town itself but the town's history." "The town's history? Okay I'm confused, there's nothing interesting to know about the town." Luke said.

"So you haven't heard?"

"Heard about what?"

"The Frederick's case. It's the most devastating murder in Raven. I can't believe you haven't heard of it."

Luke's eyes widened. "Murder?" Scott nodded. "Yeah it is weird that a citizen wouldn't know about this." Luke replied, "My father never told me anything about Raven. He locked me in the house or in the library the whole time I lived there. I never get to go out. Unless I go to school." Scott had a confused look in his face. "That's weird. Maybe he's just the over protective type." Scott said. "I guess." They were quiet the whole time they ate.

After school, Scott was walking towards the school bus when he heard someone shouting his name. He turned around and saw Luke. "Luke! Where were you after lunch? I couldn't find you anywhere." Scott said. "No time, where did you find the Frederick's case files" Luke replied. "The public library. What's the matter?" Scott asked. Luke composing himself said, "Are you going to the public library now?" "Well... yeah but what is this all about Luke?" Scott said "I'll tell you later, let's get in the bus." Luke and Scott went to the back seat of the bus. Scott tapped Luke in the shoulders. "Luke, what's this about?" "Take a look at this Scott." Luke said giving Scott an old leather bound notebook.

"What does that have to do with the Frederick's case?"

"I think it belonged to one of the Frederick's."

Scott opened the notebook. There was a writing. It wrote Property of James Frederick. "This could be any Frederick Luke." Scott asked. "Look at the last thing James Frederick wrote." Scott turned the pages until he found the last record. It wrote:

June 27, 1977

My mother passed away yesterday morning. For reasons unknown, my father did not tell me the cause of her death. I have to return to Raven tomorrow. A friend of mine asked to come with me. His parents lived there apparently. I'm curious as to why he would come with me now instead of going on our summer vacation. I might not be able to write on this journal again. So I'm leaving it at my locker. Who knows, maybe someday someone might find what I write here as interesting.

J. Frederick

"He's right, I did find it interesting. Where did you find this Luke?" Scott said.

"I'll tell you when we get there." Luke replied.