The Price of Blood

Chapter 19

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen" is a famous line from the Shakespeare play Macbeth, and seems to sum up the day in which we return to school after the sudden shock of Leighton's demise.  The murderers left no DNA, no evidence at all, and of course, I am now not allowed out of the house until the killer are found.  When I told my mother, she almost fainted in shock.            "No, no, no, no and no." she said to all my excuses, "Do you realize that could be your dead body soon?  You are not going anywhere, you're not grounded, its for your own safety, I wish we'd never moved here.  Oh what is your father going to say to this all." etc. etc.  She didn't seem to realize that I needed to discuss the murder with Harriet and Jamie, that there was something up.  So, walking to school today seemed like a little bit of a strange response for my mother to give.  Apparently the murderer will "bomb a schoolbus next" so I was told to walk in order to save my own skin.  The reason why I mention that line from Macbeth is because, though the sun is shining and the sky is blue and there is a gentle breeze (all of which I love), the day is black and looming and it foreshadows the end of the world.

But now, I sit in assembly, staring at a blown up picture of Leighton on the board.  Ellie Cork is crying silently into a tissue, and the Head Boy Rob is patting her gently on the shoulder.  The teachers have faces like stones, however I quickly look out for Mr Greig and discover that he is not there.                                                                                                                                                                      "Good morning everyone," Mr James says, "We are gathered here on a sad day in the history of our school for two reasons.  The first is, of course, the death of one of our pupils.  But the second is, that during a study of the body last night, it was found that the DNA of none other than Mr Greig was found upon her.  This is of course shocking and he has been arrested on suspicion of murder."                                

What?  I glance across the room at Harriet, who is sitting on the other side of the room.  I had to go and see Matron at the start of the day for her to check out my medical condition after the whole fiasco with me getting beaten up, so I couldn't sit with her or Jamie.  Mr Greig?  The boring, dull professor from US History and Government?  He was terrified of Leighton.  Things just don't add up.  The cops said they hadn't found any DNA.  Apparently, cops lie just as well as they screw  everything up. The hall is filled with murmurs as everyone discusses the news that we have just heard.  One thousand whispers go around the hall, all the same, all indignant. None of us actually miss her, she victimized almost every person in the entire school.  Mr Greig just must have been  the first to break.  On a higher note, they've found the killer and I can go out tonight with my old school friend, Aimee.  Aimee and I go back a long way, and she was kind enough to invite Harriet and Jamie to come with me, regarding my punishment through physicality when no-one was with me.  She is coming alone though, apparently.

School goes by almost like a dream, no-one comprehends what has happened, no-one knows what to think.  In Health, we all listen to our teacher, the athletics maniac Coach Mike Crawford (who seems to have never done any exercise in his entire life), talk about different types of sexually transmitted diseases and how to avoid infection.  It was awkward enough, but we all knew that Coach Crawford is going to get divorced from his 23 years wife after having sex with Leighton Carey, an unpleasant truth which emerged on the evening of her death.  In Trig, Mr Atu took us through mind-numbingly boring hard problems, including a whole lot of crap that doesn't mean a lot to any of us.  Home Economics was the only successful lesson, if by successful you mean that our teacher, Miss Reed, just sobbed the entire lesson and put on a film that "reminded her of Leighton"- Wonderwoman.  But, everyone was feeling the loss of her.  Although she was a bitch who hurt and ruined lives, death was a little surprising and wasn't something that we had actually wanted, even though we've been saying it for heaven knows how long.  The bus is fairly quiet as we drive away from the school, no-one speaks or says a word at all.  Even Jake and the others are quiet, their faces somber and stricken.  We have all been affected by this awful occurrence, make no mistake.  It seems alien to us all, that a horrible killing has happened right on our doorstep.