Murder in Winter

The murder weapon

On Thursday, no more snow had fallen and school was on, which most people would hate, but I was thankful for. Now we'd be able to do some more detective work, and-more importantly-get closer to finding Ivy's murderer.
Since it was still cold, I made sure to wear a vest, jumper and coat, plus bring my gloves with me, and I was thankful for it, for a chilly continental breeze swept across the ice; the late arrival of the bus meant that I had to stand out in that weather for nearly twice as long as I was expecting.
As soon as I got in and Summer came in from her Netball club, I recited the plan that Danny and I came up with to her. Thankfully Lia wasn't in yet. "Summer, if Lia's in today, I need you to do something," I told her seriously, looking straight in her eye.
She nodded, "sure, what do you want me to do?"
"Distract her. I don't suspect her at all, but we can't take the chance, I suppose."
"What? Why?"
"Danny and I are going to go talk to Miss Lauren. You know about the compass? Well, he pointed out that our forms have a maths test next week, for which you need a compass."
"So?" she raised her eyebrow at me.
"So...everyone has been using a compass for the last term or so and they've been reminded since before Christmas. Wouldn't you say it'd look suspicious-especially after the murder-to turn up on test day without one?"
She nodded. "I see, so you believe that the murderer will've bought a new one?" I nodded. "You sneak off, I'll cover for you."
At break, I nodded to Summer, who nodded back, and slipped off to find Danny, who agreed to meet me outside the office. The breeze had picked up again and I wrapped my coat around me as far as it would go as I scuttled through the few-inches-deep snow. When I got to the office, Danny was already there.
"Hiya," I whispered, shivering.
"Hi," he returned the greeting and stepped out of my way, swinging his arms to point in the direction we were headed. "Shall we?"
"Yep," I answered, popping the 'p' out of coldness, not cheeriness. We walked through the large, dark blue double doors into the warmth, and I undid my zip and lifted my furry hood off of my hair. "Got the paper?"
"You betcha!" he replied, pulling a clipboard from his bag before zipping it up again and swinging it back onto his shoulder, then fishing a pen out of his blazer pocket. The river of people had died down during the time we'd been standing there, and now we could see the door of the library, which we started walking towards. It was covered in posters about book awards and reading challenges; in the centre of these was a hand-drawn sign saying "welcome to the library!"
"Ready?" Danny asked me as we approached the door, on the perpendicular wall to the support room's. He reached out for the handle.
I sighed. "Yeah. Let's do it."
"For Ivy," he whispered, twisting the handle and pushing the door open...
I followed him through the red door into the library; racks upon racks of books of all shapes and sized stood in front of me, stretching all the way over to the far wall, like fields stretch into the horizon. There was a small queue at the front desk, probably retuning books, so we joined the back of it and began just staring round the room in silence. From where I was stood, I could see right through the lines of shelves to the back of the room, where dark blue pillows were scattered and matching cushioned sofas with little reading tables were placed. Then, towards the left hand wall, opposite the door, was a flight of steps that rised up to the upper floor; here, typical school desks and chairs were laid out for lessons to be held, along with library clubs. Across from them was a row or two of computers, of which you could use for homework. Around the off-white walls were pin-boards of all different shades of colours with posters advertising many genres of books, made by students about works they'd read. Behind Miss Lauren's desk was a beautiful blue board, with bookmarks, posters and other things advertising an upcoming book award thing or other, that Miss really enjoys. She puts so much effort into making these displays look fantastic. She's great.
"Hi Miss," Danny's voice woke me from my thoughts.
"Hi Danny, Christmas. What can I do for you?" she asked as she smiled sweetly, her teal eyes shining and her silky, shoulder-length hazelnut locks bouncing.
"We wanted to ask you some questions," I replied. "See, we're doing this survey for a maths thing, and we decided to ask around here, too."
"That way, students know where the better deals are," Danny finished. The librarian nodded, politely.
"I see. What is the survey about, may I ask?"
"The title is 'which school supplies are the best?'"
"Okay, what do you need to know?" she asked, sitting down on her comfortable wheeled chair that all teachers have.
Danny looked down at his clipboard, reading off the first question that we'd listed as 'useful information'. "How much do your protractors cost?" he questioned, pretending to scribble her answer down.
"How many people bought them within the past two weeks?"
We repeated this for rulers, rubbers, and sharpeners when she asked "is that it?"
"Nearly, there's just one more item of stationary," I answered. "Compasses."
"Well, they cost fifty pence," she told us, although we already knew. "As for how many..." she typed something into her computer and read something. "We've sold fifteen in the past two weeks."
"Do you know how many of those were from our classes?" Danny questioned. "See we've got a test coming up...I'm just curious how many people are unprepared!"
Miss Lauren fell silent for a minute, then looked up and started laughing. "Yeah right are you 'just curious'!"
"What do you mean?"
"News spreads around here. You think I haven't heard about you and your friends playing detective?" I shrugged. I assumed all the children knew. So it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine all adults knew as well. "Well, I know how Ivy died-by which I mean compass to the neck-" she began, reducing her voice to a whisper as to not attract unwanted attention. "And frankly, you guys are clearly following better tracks than the police: they think they can get information from the actual compass. As if the killer didn't wear gloves in the snow! You guys'll find the answer first. I know it. As long as you stay safe. As for your question, the only people I know of that bought one are Michael-who bought one Monday lunch-and Jay, who bought two early Tuesday. Still, I know from books that that doesn't mean you can cross anyone off; the library isn't the only place to get a compass."