In This Town

8. Investigate

Authors note:

Hi everyone!

With school nearing its end, things have gotten stressful and I've struggled to complete chapters as often as I hope to. I'm doing my best to make quality chapters and I'm going to work hard to pick up the excitement in the book. :)

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The day following her unnerving conversation with Bo, Imogen was on on edge. She crept around the schools hallways on her second day, paranoid of everyone that looked at her for too long. Her actions were calculated, hesitant. Alarming thoughts rang like a school bell in the back of her mind that Bo Adams' killer could be anywhere, hidden meticulously behind a mask painted with the expressions of innocence. Imogen didn't know these people, or any of the hobbies they preferred to take up behind closed doors.

Even more than that, Grayson was missing from school, causing Imogen's thoughts to run wild. Was he sick? Did he sleep in? Or maybe he knew something? Perhaps someone killed him because he knew too much, or worse, he could be the one doing the killing.

There were too many things to worry about, and Imogen hadn't even given Bo a definite answer on whether or not she'd help find her murderer.

"What does the autopsy report say?" Imogen had asked Bo after having some time to mull over her thoughts. They had been sitting with each other for quite some time after Bo surprised Imogen in her room, mostly in silence but also in an attempt to get as much information into Imogen's brain without making her pass out.

"Says I shot myself in the head," Bo closed her eyes, reaching her fingers up into her tangle of dark hair to press a spot in the side of her head. "No trace of drugs or alcohol in my system, no evidence of foul play. Just a metal bullet and a cold, stiff girl that didn't get the help she needed before it was too late." Bo looked defeated.

"So... If you don't remember what happened, how do you know for sure that you didn't...-" Imogen trailed off long enough for her to be interrupted.

"Shoot myself? Because, Imogen, I didn't forget my entire life. I know that I was a happy girl, and it would have taken far more than the two weeks my brain can't remember to drive me to do such a permanent, consequential thing."

So, where would she start? Imogen didn't know most of the people in Bo's life. She had no idea what Bo was like when she was alive. The only person she had talked to thus far was Grayson.

Wait... Grayson.

Imogen's heart began to thump just a little bit harder in her chest as she recollected the conversation she'd had with him yesterday.

"Bo was murdered."

Murdered.

How did he know that, when any and all of the information he'd ever had access to was the autopsy report made known to the public?

It was just her luck, Imogen thought to herself grimly, that her first and only friend in the town could potentially be a murderer.

"I'm sorry I left you to fend for yourself today," a voice said from behind Imogen as she made her way to the cafeteria. Imogen jumped, gasping as she turned around to see who had snuck up on her.

"Grayson," she said in a breath, her hand reaching up to her chest in a failed attempt to steady her racing heart. "You scared me."

Grayson only grinned at her in return, moving from his spot behind Imogen to match her step as they walked together. "I had some things to do this morning, and I felt bad that I'd be leaving the new girl on only her second day."

Imogen forced a smile, trying to repress the nagging curiosity regarding whatever it was he had to do in the morning.

"So, that's all I am to you? The new girl that you pity?" Imogen teased, knocking his shoulder playfully.

What if I just pushed him too hard and he thinks I was attacking him? Great, Im, now he's going to kill you.

Grayson laughed. "Of course not! I just know what it's like to be the new kid. Only, I wasn't as lucky as you were to have made a friend on the very first day when I switched schools."

They entered the cafeteria, and Imogen waited a moment to see if Grayson would part ways with her to sit with his friends.

"Why are you just standing here?" Grayson inquired, nudging her shoulder lightly after an awkward minute.

"Aren't you going to sit with your friends?"

Grayson stared at her blankly for a moment, blinked a few times before saying, "you are my friend. Besides, they can handle a few days without me."

Imogen smiled, thoughts floating around in her head as she sat down at an empty section of a cafeteria table. She needed to say something, needed to find out whatever she could about Bo's life without making her real intentions obvious.

"So," Imogen trailed off, biting on the inside of her cheek. She knew she'd have to bite the bullet and just say what she wanted to say if she wanted to get anywhere in the conversation. "I have a question for you. It's about yesterday."

Grayson visibly tensed up, his posture straightening slightly and his hands falling into his lap. He stared at his food with a sudden distaste.

Is that the behaviour of someone who misses their friend? Or, perhaps, someone who is guilty?

"I know this is a touchy subject, but I just wanted to hear about Bo a little bit. Well, if you're okay with talking about it," Imogen said carefully, delicately picking which words would be leaving her mouth next.

"Why?" Grayson asked. His tone wasn't angry, nor was it sad. It was simply empty; void of emotion.

"I found out yesterday, from my parents, that the house I'm living in was Bo's family's old house," she trailed off, twiddling her fingers nervously. "I'm curious about what she was like when she was alive; the girl that I never got to meet."

"Oh. Oh, okay." Imogen studied the boy in front of her before opening her mouth again to speak. His expression had gone totally blank, like he had reached into his brain and flicked the switch off on his emotions.

If Imogen said anything wrong, she ran the risk of Grayson finding out about what her and Bo were doing. Or worse, she was putting her life on the line.

"I just wanted to know, how did she die?"

"She committed suicide," he said quietly, swallowing the lump in his throat uncomfortably.

Imogen became immediately nervous. "I thought- but yesterday?"

Grayson looked at Imogen uneasily, as if unaware that just yesterday he had blurted out in a panicked manner that his friend was murdered as opposed to killing herself

"Yesterday," Imogen said warily, "you said... Bo was murdered."

"Oh." Silence. Then, "it's a long story."

Imogen got the hint that Grayson didn't want to delve into any more details, and she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt - she kept in mind how heavily a loss could weigh on a person, could make them act in ways they normally wouldn't act. Yet, the thought still had her stomach twisting into thoughts, a painful reminder that maybe it was more than that.