Penhallow

IV

I continue to be with my friends as days passed. The talk about the murders had mellow down but people are still wary. The students started to move in groups anywhere they go, even when going to bathrooms. At first it was funny and awkward, now seeing everyone huddled together is normal. I seldom see people alone. Its common to see  them now by twos or by fours. Classes are a little stressful since the school is making up for those weeks’ worth of absences. Exams are here and everywhere, making the students so busy to even think of other stuffs. 
Days are getting to normal but my friends are not. Well, just two of my friends. Gray and Jenzy. Gray is now the no. 1 absentee. Not in classes but in our get-togethers. He says he’s helping with his Dad working on the cases. Dedicated much. By the end of March, it was Jenzy’s turn for hide-n-seek. I don’t know what is happening to her. Last week we only see each other three times at school. I thought she was recovering but she’s getting worse. I was thinking that maybe it was about some other stuff but I had a feeling that it was related to Rebecca. Lately, she’s becoming more withdrawn and I started to get worried. Yes, she’s the one who discovered Rebecca’s body but she’s not the only who saw it. She didn’t even like Rebecca to begin with to feel upset that much. So maybe it was really about something else… I talked to Gray about her and he seems to be in the same wavelengths as me and said to give her some time. I’ll give her more time, I decided. I will wait for her to open it to me before asking her. She always does. For I can feel that this is something else….
This week, I haven’t seen her at all. The last time I saw her, and that was five days ago, I saw dark circles in her eyes and she’s looking a little gaunt. I was about to explode from worrying and I had had enough. I sent her a text telling her to meet me that night and have some best friend time together. She surprised me by replying okay. We decided to meet me at our favourite spot later that day. I was planning to coax her into confiding her what was bothering her.I can say that she’s not grieving for we both dislike Rebecca, in her case hate Rebecca. Maybe the memory of her death haunts her more than I realized. A sudden thought cross in my mind that maybe she knows the identity of the killer. But I dismissed that as ridiculous. Even the police had a hard time figuring it out, and well, Jenzy doesn’t have a talent for puzzles and mind games.
After my class, I left immediately for my meeting with Jenzy.  Our meeting time is at 8:00 pm in a cozy bookstore café near the town’s plaza.  I arrived there at 7:30 with Jenzy’s favourite cupcakes that I baked. I saw Nancy on my way here but she was hurrying into somewhere before I even managed to call her out. When 8:00 came, Jenzy is running a bit late. As thirty more minutes passed with no text from her I gave her a call but no answer. The café closes at nine. I started to get worried. Jenzy is not the type to be late. I waited more until 9 with 16 missed calls total. The café closed up for the night and still no answer. As I was on my way out I tried calling her home, Mrs. Kendrick answered on the fifth ring telling me that Jenzy is not home and out since five o’clock.  I didn’t want to worry them for nothing but these are dangerous times, I can’t risk it. I told them that Jenzy didn’t show in our meeting and that she’s not answering my calls. Now, we were all feeling uneasy.
I made my way to her house to wait for her just in case to see Mr. and Mrs. Kendrick trying not to panic. Jenzy is their only child. She is also not answering their calls. I contacted Nancy and told her everything. She also had no idea where Jenzy is and asked me to give her news when Jenzy arrives. I also called Phin and Gray and they gave the same response as Nancy. Gray said that he’s going to inform his dad first and then help look for Jenzy. By 10:30 and still no news from Jenzy we got the police into action. Together with Phin and Nancy, we looked for Jenzy around town while Gray was with the Sheriff. Around past one we received a call from Gray. What was it with Gray being the harbinger of bad news? For the news he gave us left as frozen in shock and horror. Jenzy’s dead.
The death of Jenzy was a shock to all of us that sent us to varying degree of grief. It was the police who found the body in the forests near Clancy’s house. How and Why no one knew. The cause of her death was a blow to the head caused by a medium sized rock also found lying beside her covered with blood. She was literally stoned to death. After hearing that news, everything seems to fade and I’ve been in a sort of haze. The police interviewed me, Nance, Phin and Gray and almost everyone in connection with Jenzy.  As if it could help. Not before and not this time as it turned out. Everyone has an alibi. Of course, the killer has an alibi. The police can do nothing but speculate without proof. And the killer was proven to be lucky if not clever. The police connected her death to the first three deaths and this case is officially recorded as serial murder. The town’s danger code was now on red. It was finally put on news but after some months, they are still far from identifying the murderer. And as time flies away, this became old news, but not to us, not to us who were left behind. We can never forget that this incident happened to us.
Jenzy’s murder had been the last one for a long time.