Sticks And Stones

Chapter 6: Beth II

"What do they want us for?" I ask Ethan and Jordan, walking along with them and the rest of our group

"I dunno, they just pulled us out of class and told us to come with them." Ethan tells me

"We want you because we need to ask you a few questions about Katherine Brown." The Irish detective says without turning around, leading us to the empty staff room and sitting us down

The police officer stands at 2 metres tall and nearly blocks out the entire door when he stands in front of it. The detective and our year advisor, Mrs Kershaw, sit us down. The 5 of us look at each other with confused glances.

"I'm Detective Connor Sullivan and this is Constable Shane Harrison -" He gives us a slight wave "- Now, you're not in trouble, we just need to ask a few questions about your friend's..." He trails off, but I finish the sentence for him

"Murder?"

"Yes. Now, we need to know, did Katherine have any people she didn't get along with or didn't get along with her that you know of?" Detective Sullivan asks us

We look at each other, shaking our heads.

"No, not that we can think of." Ethan says

"No one that looked at her with dislike or anything like that?"

Ethan opens his mouth, but Kyla speaks first "Well..."

The 5 of us look at her in confusion.

"There was a girl, Jessica Riggs, who she seemed to avoid as best she could." She says and the detective writes something down on a notepad, Brandon looking at her with a boiling rage behind his blank facial expression

I don't remember the two of them ever having a problem with each other, but they did seem somewhat fake around each other.

"Was she at the party that Katherine was last seen at?" 

"Yeah, it was at her house, it was her 18th."

"Was Jessica violent in any way at any time?"

"Well...no, but she seems capable. She's really tall and used to train in weaponry."

"We saw someone who could be a suspect halfway down Banksia Avenue." Brandon blurts out and we all look at him in anger, the detective shifts his attention to him

"You think this could be Jessica?"

"No, no, it was a man."

"You think he's a suspect, why?" The detective asks and Brandon seems cornered, not knowing what to say

"Well, we're not certain, but he had this...mask on or something, it covered all of his head and made his eyes and teeth glow with this huge smile. We were driving along the street and we-uh-we nearly hit him by accident and he didn't even flinch, he kept smiling and waving at the car and then when I drove back, about 6 or 7 minutes later, he hadn't moved and he kept waving and smiling at us," Ethan clears up "This is just speculation and it could be nothing, but if we could go to the area and see if we can find some fingerprints or something, hand them into you guys and you could ask around?"

"You are absolutely not to leave your houses after dark with a person of his or this killer's nature on the loose, especially to the place where you think you saw him, this should have been established earlier. there will be a curfew of 9:00 pm by tonight." The detective orders

"We don't have to go out after dark, we can go right after school or somethi-" Ethan starts, but Detective Sullivan cuts him off

"No. You are to go straight home after school. The police force can handle it just fine. they're trained for things like this, you are not." He tells us sternly and Ethan knows he should back down