Penhallow

I

n/a: first crime/suspense story guys. Just for fun :-*)

Prologue
A murderer is on the loose. The first time someone realizes what is really going on in our little town, two people were dead.
My name is Brittany King, a junior student at Stevenson High School, which happens to be the only high school in our little Penhallow town. Everyone calls me Bree. Our town, Penhallow, is situated just east bordering the city proper. We have a close and quiet environment, as expected in a small community like ours. We know of almost everyone in town and news here easily spread around. Our town is peaceful or has been until those murders break. There were two persons reported dead in just the span of five months. The deaths were random as well as manners of death. Only one thing was confirmed- they were murdered.

I
In my entire 18 years, I've known of only five deaths. One had been my sisters', only 4 years my senior. It happened when I was 12 years old. She fell on the stairs of our house and broke her neck. A pathetic death in my opinion. I'd rather die in an alien invasion or doing something crazy like robbing a bank. I'm still missing Riley even after six long years. Another death that I've known was that of our neighbour only two blocks from our house- Mrs. Harrolds. She was a nice old lady living alone, a family friend whom I used to visit. She died of cardiac arrest about five years ago. Too sudden. She was strong for her age. The other two deaths were impersonal, someone I knew by their faces. One a cancer victim and the other died in a vehicular accident. The last one was the death of Barry Quinn, a well-known bully in my old middle school. It happened when I was 14. Food poisoning they said. Not surprising. He used to bully weak students for food. A pig, that one. And a fitting death.
We were living our usual quiet and peaceful life when the storm broke out. The first reported murder was that of a high school girl named Laura-or was it Lauren? - Harley. She also attends Stevenson... or used to. The incident happened on September, just by the start of the first term. I didn't know her personally but we were in the same year group. She was pretty famous among the boys, bonafide member of the In-group. According to the report, she was choked to death in an empty room inside the school. Her body was found by a teacher two hours later after she was killed. A pretty bold move by the culprit, doing it in a busy place full of students and teachers. That should be the first clue of the identity of the killer. Only inhabitants of the school are allowed to enter the premises- teachers, students and staffs. The lack or the lightness of security is normal in small towns. Visitors are uncommon and they stand out. There were no visitors visiting the school that day. Trespassers... possibly.
According to rumours, she was killed by some jealous ex-girlfriend. It was publicly known that Laura's boyfriend (let's stick to Laura) is Seth Matthias, a famous soccer player in the school. It was no secret that Laura was after Seth for quite some time and it was very recently that her effort paid off. They became an item just days after her murder. And before that happened, there were rumours that Seth had a secret girlfriend or something like that. He denied it while looking so forlorn when the authorities asked him for a statement.
When the police questioned Laura's friend, they said Laura was late in her fourth period. Her friends thought that she skipped the class (maybe to hang out with Seth). It's normal, cutting classes like that... in a normal a day... but the turn of events proved to be not normal. No one expected that. Laura's time of death from the autopsy had been 10:34 am. Half an hour after her fourth period started. It was Eric Jenkins, the Health Science professor, who found the body in an empty laboratory room. At first, he was suspected of the crime but his alibi proved otherwise.
T

he police questioned almost everyone in the school and separated those who did not have an alibi. But they didn't have enough proof to indicate someone. There was neither a witness seen nor adequate clues discovered. The police suspect that it was done by a professional as no amateur can pull off a crime this clean. For the moment, the investigation was put on hold, a failure in other words.
Her death caused such uproar in our school and in the whole town, it lasted for several weeks. It was put on local news. This was the first time that something like that happened. Most parents, including mine, decided not to send their kids to school for a while in fear that what happened to Laura will happen to their kids. After all, it was no accident but an intended murder. The school had no choice but to temporarily close the school, and so I got off free for one week. The police used that time to investigate the crime scene looking for clues. I spent my time just lazing around.
Things had to go back to normal in the end, and it took almost a month. But then, when the subject seems to go down and everyone almost feel secured again, our professor in Health Science was found dead in his house with a knife still sticking out of his chest.