Pattern

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty Two

// Prudence //

"M-E-L," I muttered. "Melons? Melissa?

"Mel B?" Avery suggested jokingly, probably trying to lighten the mood but I glared at him and his grin dropped.

"Okay," I continued. "We have three girls, murders occurring on a Tuesday, the bodies popping up two to four days later, in different alleyways, all pale-ish with brown hair and blue eyes, all good students, all tortured to death.. Ms. Lawless is somehow connected too.."

"That's it!" Avery said. "It's Melinda! The killer is spelling Melinda!"

I blinked. "Pardon?"

"The letter was addressed to Melinda Lawless. It's all about her," He explained.

"You genius!" I half-shouted. "Tomorrow, we'll confront her.. And stop it before another girl goes missing. Because if you're right, and he's spelling her first name, there's four more victims.."

As close as we were to figuring something out, a time limit hung over us, reminding me that if we got nowhere with Ms. Lawless, we'd just have to wait until another girl disappeared.

Avery walked me home, and we never got around to doing any self-defence, but I don't think my dad noticed. He was just glad that when I returned, Avery wasn't with me. "Since when are you friendly with Avery Watts?" He asked, as we sat down to dinner, a rare time when he had cooked.

I shrugged. "Well, we were friends when we were kids.. I guessed it just kinda happened, you know, that we started talking again.."

He wasn't getting any more of an explanation than that, and I think he knew it, so my dad didn't press on.

--

I waited until after class before going up to her, as she was quickly stuffing copies into her plastic bag. Ms. Lawless looked up at me, with a smile that didn't her eyes - her blue eyes. And, I noted, clearly brown hair. "Do you need something, Prudence?"

"You're connected to the murders, aren't you?" The words shot right out of my mouth.

She looked taken aback. I regretted not bringing Avery.

"N-no, of course not, what do you mean? Maybe every girl who has been killed was a student of mine, but that doesn't mean I'm connected!" She protested, suddenly not teacher-like at all. She seemed more like a child insisting she hadn't done anything bad.

"You have similar features to each of them," I said, softly. "And they were your best students. And whoever is doing this is carving your name into their skin. And.." Something dawned on me. "Do you know what Hanna's clothes were changed to? A shirt and pencil skirt. That's the exact same thing you wore on the first day."

I realised how creepy I sounded seconds too late, but she was horrified. "I'm not!" Ms. Lawless insisted. "I have no idea, I'm just trying to start out fresh here.." 

Why, though, was she trying to start out fresh? Was she running from something in her past? My mind was on overdrive, thinking of all the possibilites. But then my English teacher stood up, anger forming in her expression. "I can't believe you are questioning me, Prudence, I demand you leave immediately! Go to your next class before you're so late that you'll interrupt it!"

There's something terrifying about authority shouting at you, so I left immediately, half-sprinting out of the classroom. Madi looked at me oddly as I arrived late to Geography, but didn't ask until lunch, where I explained what exactly was going on. She pouted. "So you're going mystery solving with Avery instead of me? I need excitement in my life too, you know."