Murder in Winter

Death in the snow

RE was just as awful as every fortnight, with Sir drawing everything out so that it took twice as long. On top of that, we were revisiting the christian calendar, which we'd spent ages on during the last three years.
I trudged through the snow as it continued to fall at my feet. Summer was chatting about how much she wanted it to be a snow day tomorrow, with Lia encouraging her predicament, as snow was scheduled for the rest of the week. I was only half listening when I felt my phone vibrates in my blazer pocket. Then Alex came over to join us as I turned the corner of the Science block.
"Hiya!" I greeted, struggling to unzip my coat; my phone was still shaking. "What've you just had? Maths?"
"Yeah, we're going over quadratic equations," he shrugged, his backpack swinging from his shoulder. I finally undid my coat and fished my phone out; its slim sparkly case catching the sunlight.
"Oh fun," I said sarcastically before dropping my eyes down to my phone. Danny was calling, so I accepted and lifted the phone to my ear. "Hiya, what's up?"
"Christmas? Christmas!" Danny began, the lashings of desperation generously given in his voice. "Christmas! Please say Ivy's with you?"
"No, just Summer, Lia and Alex. The last time I saw Ivy was the start of P.E," I answered, calmly.
"Oh my god," he began, hyperventilating. "She hasn't been here since then! Where could she be?"
"Chill, she has that support meeting at 9:30. Maybe it just ran over time?"
"Maybe," he agreed. "But I'm still worried. An hour over? Haven't they got other people to work with?"
I was about to agree when my foot caught on something and I began falling. My phone dropped from my hand onto the soft blanket below as I outstretched my arms. They took the majority of the blow, with my fingers becoming cold and pale. I heard gasps behind me, and turned round to see what happened.
By my feet was a pale purple leg, sticking out of the bush, with black boots. And attached to that was a skirt, and attached to that I'd assume was a body. A crowd was beginning to form around us, and I scrambled to my feet.
I glanced at Alex, who looked shocked. Curious, I tugged on the leg, dragging the corpse out from the bush.
It was Ivy, surrounded in a cloud of red snow; the point of a compass firmly wedged into her neck . No! I cried in my mind. Why Ivy?
I rushed over and picked up my phone.
"Danny!" I cried, cutting him off. "We found Ivy. She's here."
"What, really?"
"Yeah. But, there's a problem. She... She's dead..."
I was forced to pull the speaker away from my ear due to the horrific howling that began at the other end.
"W-where?" he cried.
"Here, on the path the opposite side of the anniversary garden."
"I'm on my way!"
Click! And with that the call ended, and I turned round to find that Alex and Summer were calling the police. Lia looked close to tears.
With sirens blazing in the background, Danny came running over, his breathing short and uneven. He went to say something before noticing the outline beneath the snow; he knelt down and gently brushed the snow off of her scratched face. The bush has sharp strong twigs, I remembered, before concluding it was from a fight.
Once the police arrived, Ivy's lifeless body was almost hidden by the newly-laid snow again, her eyes dull yet piercing. Danny was told to get back, and he accepted, his shoulders hunched over. They completely photographed the area and took the compass, dried, frozen blood still covering the point, which they dropped into a plastic 'evidence' bag; the body was lifted onto a stretcher and carried away...
Alexander came over and put his arm round me. "Maybe we should go," he whispered into my ear. I slowly nodded, slipped my arm through his and started walking to form. There was only one thing I knew: Ivy didn't deserve this. And now, I was determined to find the murderer...
As the four of us walked through the door, I heard someone from behind us. "Christmas!" I turned to see Hartness, waving a slip of folded paper at me. Behind her was her sister Melody, May and April.
"Hi," I greeted, rather confused as she pushed the square of paper into my palm; her gloves were soft but cold due to the flakes on them. "What's this?"
"Secret," she replied, her eyes glancing towards Lia briefly, but I saw it.
"Later," she simply added, before the group headed off to their own lessons. We stared as they retreated out of the door and disappeared around the corner. The snow had stopped falling.
"Well, I guess I'd better get going as well," Alex broke the silence, looking down at his watch.
"Oh, okay," I sighed, giving him a hug and quick kiss before the rest of us headed down the corridor for English in almost complete silence.
"Who were they?" Lia questioned.
"Our other friends," I answered. "Melody, May, April and Hartness." I couldn't believe that Ivy had been killed. Why? Was it to silence her? Surely it must be-what reason would anyone have to hate Ivy to the extent of death?
I opened the door to the classroom and sat down whilst getting my books out. Then I looked around to make sure no one was watching and pulled the square of paper out of my pocket. After unfolding it, I read the note scrawled across it in red ink: chat-murder-plan-as usual.
Assuming the plan was to meet up after school on the chat to attempt to find a lead, I stuffed the page back in its place. That's all fine.
Now I just need to get Lia to go elsewhere whilst I tell Summer in secret...