Two Truths, One Lie and a Murder.

Chapter 7

11th January 2018

We began to investigate who the torn cloth belonged to immediately after supper. With the Hockey team's practice after school (Unfortunately I have sports twice a day , which is exhausting), me and Carmen had only time to whisper our new discovery to J.I.O over our supper, which was chicken curry or tomato pasta. We all agreed that, as me and Carmen have Miss Isles for prep, we should figure if it's hers then.

I was still figuring out how to actually find out if the cardigan was Miss Isles. Luckily, I passed her on the way into class and stop in the middle of the line to talk to her.

"Miss Isles!"

She sighed, exasperated. "Yes, Shaw?"

"Where is that lovely blue cardigan you always wear?"

"Excuse me?"

Suddenly Carmen, next to me joined in, "Oh yes! That green sweater is lovely, but I thought you would prefer that blue one in this cold weather,"

She looked at us, genuinely confused, "I only wear sweaters, I haven't worn a cardigan for years, girls. You must be getting me mixed up with someone else. Now get along please,"

She ushered us into the class and I glanced at Carmen and nodded. Miss Isles sounded so sure, we could rule her out as a suspect, shooter and chaser. She didn't have the cardigan or, obviously, the mans footprint. Finally we were beginning to narrow down our list.

12th January 2018 00:08am

"Meeting 59 of the J.I.O, Junior Intelligence Organization. Present - well, we all know that, write it down later, Sam, so we can get down to business," I declare and then pause to take a bite of my bamieh (it's a type of Iranian donut that cook had sent me from Tehran).

We were having our first midnight feast of the year and also our 59th detective meeting. We were all pleased that Miss Isles had been ruled out, so now we had 4 suspects. Our list now looked like this;

Mr Rogers
Art teacher
Alibi: Unknown
Motive: Unknown, but was heard threatening Miss Booker and possibly blackmailing her on the day of her kidnapping.
Opertunity for crime: Unknown

Miss Myers
Math teacher
Alibi: Unknown
Motive: Unknown
Opertunity for crime: Runs math camp on Friday afternoons.

Mamzelle Estelle
French teacher
Alibi: Unknown
Motive: Unknown
Opertunity for crime: Tutors after school

Mr Chamberlain
Science teacher
Alibi: Unknown
Motive: Unknown
Opertunity for crime: Holds football after school

"We still need to find out why Mr Rodgers was arguing with Miss Booker at the end of term," Kelsey comments, reading it over.

"I have him tomorrow, it's perfect opertunity to investigate," Sam says, "But how, I don't know,"

"What do you mean tomorrow? Now is the perfect time!"

They all looked at me, perplexed.

"We can go through his desk in his classroom now, instead of devising some impossible plan!" I explained quickly.

"But how do we get down to school? All the doors in house are locked at 10," Carmen asked, and the others nodded.

"Well doors aren't the only way to leave a building," Alex says, and we all look over, wondering what on earth he could be implying.

As way of explanation, he simply pointed above him, to the window. Suddenly I understood everything.

---

I scraped my hair back into a tight ponytail, and pulled on the leather gloves. I looked at Kelsey and Alex next to me, who were clad in black, same as me. I turned to Carmen who was surrounded by various laptops, displaying the security feeds of the surrounding corridors and the classroom itself. I turned to Sam.

"If Matron comes, it's your job to tell her we are at san with sore stomachs. Then warn us using the walkie talkie watches and we will hop right over there asap," I wave the black watch I have clipped to my wrist.

"But we're three floors up! What if you fall? What if you get caught?" She worries

Pulling out a long rope from under my bed (I have had it there since the start of school) and attach it to the steel post of the bunk bed. Throwing out the window I lean out watch it tumble in the darkness, making a soft thump as it hit the ground, thinking about what I was about to do. Kelsey leaned out next to me.

"Ready?" She murmured, her words whisked away by the wind.

I nodded, and gripped the rope ready to abseil down. All I had to do was make sure I didn't thump any of the first years windows below. (Our houses floors go, ground floor: dining hall etc, first floor: first years, sexind floor: second years and so on).

I took a deep breath, and shifted onto the window sill, the drawn curtains flapping about and hitting my legs.

I stood up, and then reaching down slowly, by black clumpy combat boot made contact with the centuries old brick. I leaned back slowly, and let my other foot off the window sill, where it came into place next to my other one. I could feel the tension in the room, as no one dared to breath. Slowly but surely,  I began to climb down.

Managing to avoid the first years windows, my foot hit the grass below, and I let go of the rope. I gave a sharp whistle, to let the others know Kelsey could begin her decline. No more than a minute later, Kelsey came sliding down the rope, fireman style, even faster than me. With a soft thud she was next to me and we gave the signal for Alex.

The rope gave a sharp tug, the dark figure of Alex appeared above us (some fruitcake fell down as well, and hit me in the arm, but I ignored that). He began to shuffle down clumsily.

Suddenly there was a hollow thud, and realising he had hit one of the windows, Kelsey gave a yelp.

"Alex!" I hissed "Quick!"

He began to shuffle faster he soon made it to solid ground.

"Run!" He whispered, "I think someone heard me!"

Turning in the direction of house, we began to run.