Pattern

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

// Avery //

It is hard to explain, but hearing Prudence telling me she is going to solve a murder is pretty unsettling. Prudence is small, and thin, and close to harmless, but she's also determined. Once, she found a kitten up the top of a big tree, and climbed the whole way up and came back down with the kitten. She was ten, and scraped her knee so hard it bled for five minutes straight, and she was more worried about the kitten.

She is a determined person, but also very reckless, and there is nothing unusual about her getting herself into trouble for the sake of a stupid, dangerous goal.

On Monday morning, she smirks at me in the halls, like she knows something I don't. In fact, she knows a lot of things I don't, but this time, it seems important. I hear her best friend lecturing her on studying and why she really shouldn't bother, and Prudence just nods.

It annoys me, and I've no idea why.

In History, Crystal Evans leans across to my table and tells me that there's a party in hers on Friday night, and I'm invited. I just look at her. Crystal is semi- popular, but she's still not going to invite Avery Watts to her party out of kindness. I considered going, but I know it's some kind of prank. It is unusual, nonetheless. Nobody would prank me either - they're all too scared. According to them, I burnt my own house down with my mother inside, and put their favourite jock in hospital (which I did, but with good reason). Gareth Owens spent two weeks recovering in St John's Ward, where I visited him with a card saying 'I'm Sorry', forced by my father and school, who were somehow persuaded into letting me return for senior year.

I broke all his ribs.

As well as that, I am the biggest suspect in Hanna Arkins' murder. According to the town, anyway. Because I, not-so-innocent Avery Daniel Watts, supposedly followed her home, knocked her out before she could reach her door, beat her up and then killed her. Nobody included a motive in this story, of course, but I didn't need a motive when I murdered my mother. 

Hanna's best friend, Alice, gives me a look of complete and utter disgust when she passes me, and yet her eyes fill with tears. Hanna's mouth was cut up, so it looked like she was permanently smiling, like the joker out of Batman. Her whole body was cut, just small deep scars, and I wouldn't have believed it at first but Prudence confirmed it. She managed to get hold of and read the autopsy report. I'm slowly becoming more talkative when it comes to her, because I'm just as desperate for information as she is. The more I discover, the more terrible I feel for Hanna, and the more annoyed I get at everyone for believing it is me.

And so, when a wide-eyed girl gossiper stops at my locker and asks "Did you really kill her? Like, why? And why aren't you in jail?", I slam it shut and she jumps. "I didn't fucking kill her, you idiot." She scatters off, probably to tell her friends that I most definitely did kidnap and murder Hanna, and I wasn't the slightest bit sorry. And I'm getting more angry by the minute, as the people walk by, with their whispers and staring. 

Prudence eventually appears, and walks straight up to me. I'm tired, and she's small, so I have to turn my head downwards to see her. The mere fact I've to do this annoys me. "You're too small," I mutter, and her eyes flicker with annoyance. "No, you're too tall. I'm halfway to five feet five inches, which is perfectly normal for a girl my age. You're freaking six foot something." She sighed. "Anyway, I didn't try to find you because of your height."

"Aww, how disappointing. Why then?"

"I don't believe you killed her. By her, I mean Hanna, obviously." Her clear blue eyes met my brown ones. 

"Well, you're the first. You might want to tell the rest of the school. Maybe the whole town while you're at it."

"Avery," She sighed. "Not everyone thinks you did it. And I don't think you could have. There were traces of chloroform on her, supposedly used to knock her out. Now, I know you better than most, and I know that you've never liked Science, and I doubt you even know what chloroform is."

"So, I'm not smart to enough to kill her, is that it?" 

"Yes, basically. The killer managed to hold her for two days, then deposited her in a different location once she was dead. Also, some details that weren't known - her clothes were changed, from jeans and a top from Macy's to a shirt and a pencil skirt. There was a letter carved into her arm - an 'M'. They haven't matched any prints or anything, but I'm fairly sure they've got your DNA on the database if they do check, and they'll find out it wasn't you. You don't go out much, and there's no way you could have kept her at home without your dad noticing. Also, you're weird, but you're not creepy enough to change her clothes and you're not as smooth a criminal to do this. And, I'll be nice for once - you're not this ruthless." Her eyes darkened, and she looked down. "Okay, so that's all I have so far."

I was surprised, but I felt a strong sense of gratitude - rare for me, but not nonexistant. Prudence knew I was innocent. She still knew me, even if we hadn't talked in years, and she was even helping me. I swallowed. "Thanks.. Really, thank you." It was somewhat irritating thanking her, yet I also wanted to buy her lots of chocolate to show how grateful I was.

"No problem," She replied, coolly, but her eyes softened somewhat. I noticed these things on Prudence - she was an open book most of the time. She looked up again, urgent. "But, I got to warn you. This looks like the work of someone who will strike again. Hanna was clean-cut - I looked her up, she's the youngest child of a family of four, her brother's away in college, her boyfriend is a senior too and they've been together five months, and according to her friends, it was going great."

I stared at her. "Are you an aspiring detective?"

She grinned, a proper smile. It was almost teasing. "I've been studying Criminology in my spare time for a while, and girls love to talk. It was more of a chat than an interrogation .. at least they think so. But there are other questions too. Like, what does the M mean? Why were her clothes changed? Why was Hanna killed, or was it just random?" Prudence was deep in this - she needed to figure it out, I could see it in her eyes.

"I'm worried he'll strike again, seriously, Avery." She sighed. "Anyway, I've to go dye my hair back to brown. Good luck today." She walked away, and I was left to wonder why she was so determined to figure it out.

But I understood it a bit - I wanted to know the answers too. And there was a part of me that was worried, very worried, that Prudence was going to get herself into big trouble if she tried to solve it alone. 

So, fighting my more intelligent thoughts, I followed her.