A Condemned Haven

Chapter 29

As soon as Clarke opened her eyes, she felt emotionally drained from everything going on around her. She thought some sleep might have helped clear her head a little, but last night all she did was dream about Brandon. She knew less about him now than she did before he died and that was more frustrating than anything else that was happening. She needed to talk to detective Vale and figure out who was helping Brandon steal. It didn't take her long to find the police station number online and she knew she would have to call the receptionist to get through to him. That was going to be fun. She just told the receptionist that she had information on the Clarke Holden case, and she pushed her through right away. Go figure.

"Detective Vale." He sounded so serious through the phone that it was almost comical.

"It's Clarke Holden."

"Oh, the receptionist said it was someone who had information on you, not actually you." She could practically hear him furrow his eyebrows through the phone.

"Yeah I figured it was easier that way."

"You're probably right, so what's up kid?"

"Can you look someone up for me?" She knew what she was asking him to do was a little against the rules, but she was hoping her reasoning would convince him.

"Depends."

"I found out that Brandon was stealing in order to pay for college. I want to know who was helping him and in order to do that I need to know if anyone from my school was known for that kind of thing."

"Like breaking and entering? You know I'm not allowed to do that." He was such a cop.

"What if I told you I could return what was stolen, which is a lot of money by the way? I'm sure the owners would be very happy to see them. Not to mention that a lot of it is jewelry that definitely probably has a family heirloom in it somewhere." Detective Vale was silent for a moment as he considered her offer. He could even maybe solve a couple of burglary cases like this. Not really right to shame a dead person though.

"Deal. There is one kid named Thomas Hall. He's in juvie now for burglary, breaking and entering, and assault with a deadly weapon. He's in the same juvenile correction facility you were in. You gonna tell me where the stuff is at?"

"Yeah it's in a storage unit across town. Unit 821. Thanks detective."

"Don't get into too much trouble."

"I'll try."

Thomas Hall. She remembered him; he was always a little bit creepy. She kind of got a serial killer vibe off of him when he was in her chem class her first round of junior year. He could have killed Brandon if he tried to come forward. Maybe that was what Brandon had been talking about when he said he was going to confess at the end of the year. If Thomas had hurt someone when breaking in maybe Brandon had felt guilty. That wouldn't explain why other football players were dying though. Maybe they were involved too. She might have had the whole thing wrong. It felt like her theories were all wrong lately. The players that were dying might not have had anything to do with the photo. They could have all of wanted to come forward and Thomas and some other guy must have wanted to keep them quiet. Before she could jump to any conclusions though, she had to talk to Sammy.

She walked into the school with a mission. Sammy was the only person she wanted to talk to right now. Jack had his car now, so he didn't need her to drive him, so she was on her own. Sammy always hung out with them in the morning, but Clarke had come in a little earlier to see if she could catch her before she met up with the guys. She found her sitting at a table outside with a book she recognized for their English class. She was probably filling out the worksheet their teacher had assigned.