The Murder Of Justine Allebone

iii

*~*~**~*~*

The sun was high up in the sky, the heat boring down in unforgiving splashes.

It was fortunate, as much as it could be, that we weren't out there to witness it's assault.

I was currently sitting in the local police station, waiting anxiously for someone to give a straight answer to what was going on.

Fiddled around in my seat uncomfortably, I tried to position myself so no skin touched the cool metal of the seat.

Me, and a couple other students that hadn't needed immediate medical attention has been instructed to stay for questioning.

Trying to tell them that I hadn't even been involved until the last minute was a waste. They were adamant on having anyone and everyone they could, here.

Nobody had really spoken yet. The silence stretched across the room and I wondered why we just couldn't get up and leave.

At some distance, I could see a couple people in uniform. It seemed as though a halo surrounded them. They stood with an air demanding dignity.

I couldn't help but sit up straighter when one of them approached us.

As he walked towards us, his hand stayed put onto his pistol the entire time; he frequently did subtle double takes, as if looking out for something, or someone.

It was when he was standing right in front of us that I saw the badge pinned to his uniform.

Johnson Bradley, Chief Investigator

The guy beside me, Vivaan, a junior as far as I could recall, stirred out of discomfort and I instinctively moved to give him space.

I looked back up again to see the man survey us, just as almost all of us most certainly did him.

"Which one of you is-" he paused, looking into the sheet he held in his hand, "- Cole, Brenda Cole?"

Someone snickered and Johnson turned to glare at him.

His demeanour was cold, offhand-ish; he would clearly rather be anywhere but here.

Brenda raised her hand meekly. He simply said a quick come with me and spun on his heels, walking away quickly.

Brenda hurried to follow him, stumbling slightly.

She hadn't been able to stop crying when we'd been brought here. She still seemed a little shaky.

I leaned back, resting my head onto the cool metal. I closed my eyes, trying to erase the memories of today.

Another officer came to us to inform us, in a much friendlier and warmer tone, that our parents had been informed of our whereabouts and praise us about how well we were handling this.

He left before I could ask what was happening. I didn't want to call out to him for the fear that I would sound a lot less brave than I fancied I was.

"So what do you think that was all about?" Vivaan, the guy sitting beside me, asked.

I shrugged wordlessly, my mind not particularly interested in making conversation.

He continued, "I was only entering the school when the sirens sounded. They  insisted that I stay for questioning."

My gaze flickered down to my red-tinged hands. I had scrubbed and scrubbed to wash off all the blood I could, but I couldn't stop the images from flashing through my mind.

I clutched my fists, tightly shutting my eyes to fight the headache that started clawing into my scalp.

He must've followed my line of vision, for I head a little muffled gasp. I opened my eyes to see him looking away from him, as if he didn't see what he so obviously did.

Collecting himself, he turned to me again.

"So you're the one who saved that teacher." He paused, framing his words with care.

"They were talking about you some time ago. I was placing my bets on buff guy over there," he said a second later, a doubtful expression on his face.

I wordlessly nodded, not wanting to talk about it.

He seemed to catch on as it was silent again; the others had kept to themselves too. I still didn't know what had happened and I was afraid I didn't really want to either.

My thoughts kept straying to Ms Willow.

Was she okay?

Who had done that to her?

The door to the interrogation room seemed to swing open with such a force, I was shocked it stayed in place.

In a flurry of red hair and blue overalls, Brenda exited the room with tears streaming down her porcelain face.

All eyes turned to her as st ran past us and right outside.

Johnson walked out after, and much unlike Brenda, showed no sign of even the slightest distress.

"Jacy, Jacy Allebone," he hollered, and I got up instantly, smoothing down the crumples off my jeans. He tilted his head to the side, signalling me to follow him.

I did so without protest. I had discovered that sometimes, it's easier to go along with certain people. It only brings conflict if too much reason was brought into play.

The unusual coolness to the room could be felt immediately upon entering it. It was like a gust of untimely wind, like a mild slap on the face.

It had a very strange feeling about it, an eerie, chilling air that seemed to bite at my heart.

I sat down where he told me to, the table reaching halfway up my torso.

In my lap, hidden securely under said table, my nails were digging into my palms and I was extremely thankful that I had trimmed them just a few days ago.

I could only handle so much blood on my hands in one day.

The investigator sat in his chair, his head held high.

I focused my eyes on the table, as if the scratches on the flawless metal were much more interesting than this conversation, or his laser gaze that seemed to see straight through me.

He extended an arm, and placed an instrument on the table, a somewhat small, rectangular object that I knew was constructed to record audio.

He raised one long finger, pressing one of the bottons and sat back again.

I felt his gaze inspecting me, but I didn't look up. I hadn't yet answered his question about what my name was.

He seemed to sigh, but it wasn't a sigh of resignation, like I had previously hoped, but one of pity.

I will never forget the first words he spoke directly to me, the four innocent words that tore my world apart.

They were my undoing.

"We found a body."