The life of Tyrus after Season 3

Belief/doubt

Cyrus POV

The next day TJ, Buffy, Jonah, Amber, and me were sitting at The Spoon, discussing how we should start the investigation.

"How about we take a look at one of the flyers? They're the same as the big poster. I got myself one out of the trash cause I had a feeling that we could use it."

We were all looking kinda surprised at Buffy. It was to be expected that she was already one step ahead of us, but it still catches me off guard everytime. When she unfolded the flyer we saw the same picture as on the big poster, the same words are printed, it's basically the poster in mini. Looking at it gave me a bad feeling but I'm willing to do anything to find the culprit.

"Cy, TJ you should know when this picture got taken right?"

Right, I should be able to answer Jonah's question. The clothes we were wearing and the colour of the bedsheets give it away.

"Yeah, this shows me and TJ when we were in his room. This was the evening before the crime. And it also looks like this picture got taken from outside room through the window."

"Wait this was the evening before it happened? How could anyone take a picture of you, photocopy it on hundred flyers and a big poster, and get all of that done in one night?"

Buffy asked a good question. This seems almost impossible to pull off. After all, the paper of these flyers don't look like they got printed by any normal machine, that's actually high-quality photographic paper. And the poster isn't any known paper size either, which means-

"They had to have access to a print studio. Our father started to work at one, in fact, this could even be the same paper they use for their projects."

I got cut off by TJ but that's right, that's the only conclusion we can draw. He took the flyer and turned it back like he was looking for something.

"...I was afraid of that. Can you all see that little sign in the down-right corner? That's the symbol of Finnigan Photos, that's the same company our dad works for."

Surprised as she was, Amber took the flyer out of TJ's hand to see for herself. By her reaction, I could tell that TJ was right.

"Ok ok, the paper that was used comes from the company your dad works in, but that doesn't mean much. Remember that the studio got re-opened this summer and many people in Shadyside started to work there after that, even my mother was working there for a short amount of time. There are many kids whose parents are working there. What bothers me, is how they got into the school. They didn't bust a door right? So they had to use the keys, but Mr. Maxwell of Thomason would never give the keys to a student."

Buffy had a good point. They had to enter the school somehow. Amber's eyes got wide open and she was starring at the ground.

"Actually... Andi texted me that Maxwell gave her the keys to the entrance hall, so she could be the first one in the morning to finish the preparations..."

It got quiet after Amber dropped that bomb. No, this can't be true. I didn't bring up Andi so far because I was sure it would've been impossible for her to access the school during the night, but now...

"So someone has to talk with Andi...?"

I don't even wanna think about the possibility, but...

"Wait, what? No, you guys don't think she could do something so horrible?"

Buffy was looking at our faces, obviously angry that we even consider that possibility.

"Is that really true?"

As much as I hated to say these words, they had to be spoken. Buffy now focused on me.

"Stop it already, that's enough!"

"...I can't stop! I don't wanna do this either. Of course, I don't want to do this. But we need to do this."

"Cyrus, are you listening to what you say? We both know her since 2nd grade, how can you even doubt her?"

"That's not it Buffy. I suspect her because I want to believe her."

"I don't think belief and doubt are necessarily opposites."

We all looked surprised at Jonah who now started talking.

"As things are right now, we have to doubt her to a certain degree, but I still wanna believe in her innocence. But if there's no room for doubt, then there's no reason to believe. Even I can tell that. If you want to believe in someone, you need to overcome doubt first. Belief, without doubt, is simply a lie."

And I believe all of us were surprised by Jonah's deep speech. He has these moments where he says something that should be so clear that we completely forgot it. Jonah Beck you sure are something else.

"...Fine, do what you want, I won't stop you."

Buffy finally gave in.

"Alright, I'm gonna talk with Andi. TJ, Amber can you go to the studio where your dad works in? I don't think that much photo paper can go missing without anyone who would notice it."

I feel like a real detective at the moment, even I feel somewhat excited. I mean as excited as I can feel about such a case. This mystery should be easy to solve as soon as we finish collecting the evidence!

A/N: So I'm gonna pick up the pace a bit by now, soon I can go over to the finale of this story, there are only a few chapters left until the culprit is revealed. Anyone got an idea how this crime was set up? If yes don't hesitate to send me a message and tell me what you think happened. So there's that for today, I can't promise an update for tomorrow but there's definitely gonna be one on Sunday. Have a nice weekend everyone :D