Tamsin sat with her arms folded and her eyes fixed on Thomas. He knew what she had been up to so there wasn't much point in lying to him. That was her logic anyway.
"So.. tell me why you started this?" He asked.
"I was bored," She shrugged.
"And that's it?"
"You asked," She shrugged again. She was bored at that moment if she was to be truthful. The interview had barely started and she was already done.
"So how did you cone to find your dealers?" Thomas continued.
"About six or seven months ago, I was on a night out in LOUD, in the bathrooms. I brought some of it with me and started to take some, y'know, to lighten up the night a bit," She smirked, "These two teenagers were there at the time, gawking at me, so I asked if they wanted some,"
"Naturally," Thomas rolled his eyes.
"You're someone who thought they were a coke addict, you have no right to judge," She laughed, "Anyway, from then we just got talking and they started selling the MDMA for me," She leaned back in her chair, "So for a while it was all going very smoothly and everyone was happy with the extra cash we were all making,"
"Not that you need it,"
"A bit extra never did anyone any harm," She sighed at his tedious sarcasm.
"Will you give up the manufacturer you bought the drugs from?" He asked.
"Sure," She said without much enthusiasm, "I mean, my dealers are dead so the game is over. I'm done,"
"And all this was just out of boredom," He shook his head, "I swear, this generation is totally fucked,"
"I can't say I don't agree," She gave a slight smile.
"Did Fiona or Britney say anything odd before they agreed to sell for you?" He leaned across the table, "It might help us understand what happened to them,"
"...I don't really know, it was quite a while ago," She tapped her thumb against the metal table, "They mentioned a friend of theirs. Like she was out with them but like still dancing while they were in the bathroom,"
"What did they say?"
"They said 'it's best if she isn't a part of this', that 'she still believes in the Axeman'. That's all I remember," Tamsin said.
"Cori...," Thomas remembered what Britney had said before she died, ".. Tamsin, do you know anything about a pair of latex gloves?"
"No, why?"
"They found Lexi's body wearing them" Thomas flicked through some documents on the table, "The gloves were totally covered in Fiona's dried blood, probably used by the murderer to retrieve the bullet from Fiona's stomach,"
"Should you be telling me this?" Tamsin gave him a funny look.
"Not at all, once you give the name of your drug-maker, you have to go,"
•~~×~~•
"So the gloves are back," Femme sighed, looking at the others. But it was just herself, Francis and Annabelle. Ariel was over with Cori, Reyn and Raphina. Olivia had taken the day off to meet her dad for the first time before Lexi's funeral.
"Looks like it," Francis nodded, "We should report it then,"
"Who was it again?" Annabelle asked. Sometimes the others forgot how young she was, the poor girl shouldn't really have been involved with murder investigations at all. She was only fifteen.
"Reyn and Bradley," Femme breathed out their names, "I saw them with the gloves in the woods and we saw Bradley looking for them together, but they were gone,"
"Do you think Reyn took the gloves?" France looked at Femme, his eyes briefly darting over to Reyn sitting at Cori's table.
"Well, whoever took then killed Lexi," She shrugged.
"Either way, we're telling the authorities, right?" Annabelle looked at them both in turn.
Next thing the school's principal came marching into the canteen with a few guards behind him. He turned, probably asking then to hang back so the students wouldn't be alarmed. It was too late for that though, many had already seen them. Francis, Femme and Annabelle watched as their principal approached Cori's table and informed Raphina that she would need to go with them.
"Is... Is Raphina getting arrested?" Annabelle's jaw was a centimetre from dropping off altogether.
"Looks like it," Francis couldn't look away as Raphina was led off by the two police escorts.
•~~×~~•
Olivia was upset. She couldn't even get it together to go over to Lexi's or even try to get in touch with Ian. One day, she had a sister and the next thing she was taken away from her. Would it ever end? Her mother told her to do some gardening. She didn't want to. Lexi was dead. She was dead. Pruning her garden wouldn't do anything to bring her back.
She was in her bedroom, hugging her knees to her chest and alternating between crying and over thinking the horrible circumstances.
Then her phone buzzed to life, her funky ringtone playing at a respectable volume.
"Hello?" Cori.
"Hi Cori, what's going on?" She rubbed her eyes as she held her phone up to her ear.
"They came to school and took Raphina," She said. Yeah, her voice was shaking and clearly she was in distress, "They think she killed Lexi,"
"The police?"
"Who else?" She laughed sarcastically, "You don't think she did it, do you?"
"Cori, I-"
"Listen... Ariel is coming over to mine after school, can you come over too?"
At first Olivia was happy that Cori cut her off because she really had no idea what to say, but then she wondered why Cori was reaching out to her at all. How did she even get her phone number?
"Sure," She said after a brief hesitation, "What time?"
"I said about half four to my parents, if me and Ariel aren't back from school, my room is the second door on the left once you get up the stairs," Cori told her.
"Okay," Olivia was just nodding at this point, not sure what responses to give.
"Great, see you later," Then she promptly hung up. But when Olivia got to Cori's house, she arrived more or leas at the same time as Ariel.
"I thought you were walking with Cori from school," Olivia tilted her head as the blonde approached her.
"No, she said to go ahead, that she had a thing to do first," Ariel shrugged. She seemed just as unsure about the whole thing as Olivia did, which did put both of at ease in a weird way.
So, they knocked on the door and were let in by Cori's mother. She seemed nice, told then the same thing as Cori did. That her room was the 'second door on the left once you were up the stairs'. The girls followed the instructions gladly but couldn't help noticing all the religious icons littering the walls. Crucifixes, scared heart paintings, there were those little containers nailed to the wall beside each door for holy water.
"I didn't know Cori's family was so religious," Olivia couldn't help but chuckle once they were alone in Cori's room, "Not that it's a bad thing of course, I just didn't expect it,"
"Religious?" Ariel creased her brows.
"Didn't you see all those portraits of Jesus?" Olivia gestured to the rooms outside the door.
"Didn't you see all the guns on the walls of their living room?" Ariel said, making the same gesture.
Then the door opened and Cori joined them.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," She sent them an apologetic smile as she closed the door, "Thanks for coming over. Do either of you want some jellies?"
