Something About Alice Murphy: BOOK 1

P A R T - T W E N T Y - E I G H T

Chapter Twenty Eight; Wrongfully Exposed.
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"Who is it?" Jasper asked, after hearing the news that a girls dead body had been found in Alice's downstairs bathroom.

"I don't think they'll tell us." Candice murmured as they glanced towards the house just as Alice was escorted back out of it by a police officer into the cold February night wind. She still had Jasper's jacket on, and pulled it closer around herself as she walked back over to her friends, her expression blank and a little unreadable whilst strands of her hair blew in her face. "Did you see it?"

"I just saw feet." Alice mumbled. She was annoyed, still a little drunk and dazed at the state of her house and didn't know what the appropriate response was to the situation. She knew she should care about how some poor innocent girl had lost her life but she was more concerned about how someone had turned her mom's favourite couch into a trash can. She stared at the ground, furious that her party had ended this way... since all she wanted was one night to forget about reality, but reality wouldn't let her. And reality had a name and a gorgeous face they were all familiar with.

"Gross." Fei whispered, folding her arms around herself to protect herself from the cold as Jasper looked between all of them, wondering why they all seemed so... calm. But he kept his observation to himself as his friends seemed to react for them all, with one of them now throwing up into Alice's trash can outside and the other calling their parents frantically. To the girls it seemed like an overreaction, but Jasper continued to wonder why they didn't seem to be reacting at all in that moment. There was a dead body in Alice's house and they made it seem like it was a minor inconvenience.

"My mom is gonna be so pissed about that couch." Alice murmured, rubbing her forehead then glancing back towards the house as she imagined her parents reaction...

...The officers kept the them there for a while until the forensic team arrived to turn Alice's house into an active crime scene... bright yellow police tape was put up, with large white tents on her front yard to house all the equipment, they were each questioned for their statements, then escorted into police cars to be returned to their parents, since the majority of them were underage drinkers. All but one remained whilst Alice was being questioned, and he stood to one side to wait for her to be done...

"And when did the masked people arrive? Can you remember a time?"

"No." Alice replied bluntly, "I was outside, with Jasper, like I said and they just arrived."

"And you have no idea who they were? Or why they were here?" The officer asked, her tone suggesting that she might've thought Alice was lying about something. It had been the third time police had been called to Alices house, and they were all beginning to become a little suspicious. Alice stared at her for a moment, feeling the frustration tightening her chest, causing her to hold her breath for a moment to stop herself from replying something snappy.

"No." She replied bluntly again, beginning to shiver from the cold wind now that it had managed to break through the layer of numbness the alcohol had provided.

"Alright, Miss Murphy." The officer said, writing down her brief response and closing her notepad. "One of the other officers has called your parents they should be here soon. You'll then be escorted back into your house to collect some of your belongings since you won't be allowed to return to the property until we have cleared it from being an active crime scene. Does that make sense?"