A Condemned Haven

Chapter 24

As soon as Clarke got home, she rushed straight to her room and found that notebook. It took her like a half hour because she couldn't remember where it was and then she realized she had hidden it under her mattress to keep the detectives from finding it when they went through her room for evidence. That was seriously how incompetent they were. When she saw the familiar sticker, she had bought him from a coffee shop in the next town over, she was hit with a wave of nostalgia. Every time her and her family went somewhere, she always got him a sticker. There was one from Washington, California, New York, and North Carolina. This was the notebook he wrote important dates and thoughts down in. He had left it at her house after a movie night and kept forgetting to come and get it because he was so busy with the team. One of the many things that had led to their fight.

When she opened it to the last page there was a combination and a locker number. A locker at school? She read the short script below it that explained the date and time that a drop would be made and when he was supposed to pick it up. Next to the combination was a number about 11 numbers long. It was the area code of their town, so it was a phone number. Whose phone number was it? She could call it, but what if it was the number of the killer? It couldn't be, that would be too stupid. It had to be someone's number. She scrolled through her phone to see if it was anyone from the team's number. She only had about half of them, but it was none of theirs. Why would he write a number down when he had a phone? Maybe he didn't want to put it in his phone, and that only gave Clarke a hundred more questions.

Every time she answered a question it seemed that eight more popped up. So, she had a locker number and a combination. It had to be from the school, where else could it be? It was Sunday though and the school was closed, she would have to wait until tomorrow to check it out. She couldn't just do it in front of everyone. The date he was supposed to go into the locker was the day after he was killed. Did that mean that whatever was in there was still there? Why would he need to be so secretive about what was in there that they would need to exchange it in a locker in the back of the school? What was Brandon doing?

As Clarke flipped backwards, she saw more combinations and different lockers for different dates. It went on for almost six months. Most of the stuff in the notebook were personal notes of how much water he drank and what time he had certain events and dentists' appointments. Clarke knew he logged everything in this notebook, but it was literally everything. How was she supposed to know what was important and what wasn't? Her birthday was in there. The dinner he had missed so he could go to a team thing. Next to it was a note to apologize to Clarke. At least he knew he was wrong for missing it.

That dinner seemed so long ago now. In a lot of places there were mini notes about reminding Francis of things. She hadn't realized that Francis and he were so close, or maybe they weren't. Maybe Brandon was just afraid of him. If Francis wasn't already dead, Clarke would've thought it was him killing people. Tomorrow when school started, she had to find out what was in that locker. Maybe she would finally find that damn photo.

It was all she could think about the next day as she sat through her classes. She didn't talk to Jack at all, even though he kept glancing at her every now and then. She didn't have the energy to fight with him again right now, not when she was too worried about getting into that locker. The good thing about her school was that if a locker wasn't used that year, they just left it alone. They had more lockers than students so the ones in the back of the school never got touched. That meant she had a really good chance of finding whatever was in there. When the last class of the day finally let out, Clarke practically jumped out of her chair. She couldn't take one more minute of wondering. As she walked briskly through the hall, she felt someone watching her and realized it was Jack.

"Clarke!" She was too busy right now, if she just pretended, she didn't hear him, she could keep going.

"Stop fucking walking away from me?" Clarke finally stopped walking and turned to look at him. His hair was a mess and he looked like he hadn't slept. She knew she had upset him, but not to this extent.