Secrets Worth Killing For

CHAPTER TWO

There would be only five people working the case. From Riverton, there was Detective Evan O'Riley, Major Frank Connolly, Officer Kennedy Cross, and Officer Jesse Tanner. From Briarwood's Police Department, there was Hal Davis. Four people was more than enough resources that could be sacrificed from Riverton PD's busy schedule.

Evan stood on the other side of the yellow tape, observing the scene in front of him. Everything seemed to be moving quickly and efficiently. The forensics team, photographers, and medical personnel were busy at work, analyzing the scene, taking photographs, looking for anything that might arouse suspicion.

Everyone was working cautiously, eyes peeled for something that could prove useful. A weapon, gunshot residue, a suicide note, perhaps? There was nothing but the bodies, as far as anyone could tell. And the bodies stuck out like a sore thumb. Evan had tried to drown them out, compartmentalize them in his brain so that it wouldn't be so painful to look at. Yet every single time he glanced in that general direction, the overwhelming sense of dread filled his body.

There were two forensic photographers on scene, as well as a sketch artist and an evidence recorder. The flashes went off simultaneously, capturing the images of the dead girls. Their heads, their hands, their legs, splayed out in different directions, blood seeping from underneath them, trailing down the concrete. Two of the girls were face-down, their eyes concealed from the world to see. It seemed a little less agonizing to only see the back of their heads. The third girl, however, was facing upwards; eyes closed, head crooked off to the side, allowing everyone to get a good look at the damage that had been done, the life that had been lost.

There were two officers posted on the roof of the school. The area was sealed off and a secondary scene analysis was being conducted up there. The roof was the very last location that the girls were alive, after all. They were scouting the area for anything, including the much-anticipated suicide note that everyone was certain existed, footprints, fingerprints, weapons, DNA. Anything they found was bagged and put into evidence.

Once everything was photographed and recorded, the girls were finally granted some peace by swiftly being zipped into body bags and taken to the local coroner's office for the post-mortem.

There were eight hundred students at St. Paul's Catholic School. It was up to Evan and Kennedy to conduct the preliminary statements. Determine if the students saw anything, heard anything, noticed anything suspicious happening at the time of the incident.

Evan and Kennedy stepped away from the crime scene and towards the crowd of teenagers that loomed nearby. The principal had organized them into small sections to allow the preliminaries to go down smoother. Evan watched Kennedy as she walked, her dark brown hair swinging in a high ponytail behind her. She had an interesting walk, Kennedy Cross – very straight-forward and determined. She didn't like to waste time. And right now, Evan knew that all she wanted was to solve this thing and wrap it up.

There were only two possible outcomes here. Statistically speaking, a triple suicide was extremely rare. One kid jumps, understandable. Two kids jump, okay, maybe they talked each other into it. But three? It was almost unheard of. But still, that was the conclusion that people were already coming up with. That the girls jumped. Like some sorority sister pact that they each swore on.

"I was walking through the atrium and I swore I saw something drop in front of the windows at the front," one student said.
"Did you hear a scream?" Evan asked. "A cry for help?"
The student shook his head. "Nothing. I didn't even know what it was. Didn't think much of it. So I went back to class. It wasn't until after that I realized..."

"I heard someone screaming," one girl explained. "From outside. People were going to the courtyard for lunch and must have seen the bodies. Then all I heard was screaming."