A Mystery Novel

~ČĤÁPŤĔŔ 26~

"Savannah couldn't have done it," Xander says to the detectives who look pissed that their interrogation was interrupted.

"I watched the clip over and over again, you guys missed the most obvious thing," Xander says, pointing at the screen of the laptop where the video is playing. "Jacqueline and Savannah went in different directions."

They all turn to video where Jacqueline is about to leave but Savannah stops her. Savannah says something to Jacqueline before Jacqueline walks away looking sacred as hell.

Savannah glares at Xander and then walks in the opposite direction that Jacqueline had gone. Then Xander goes back inside McDonald's.

"How did we miss that?" Jones asks himself.

"She could've circled back," Cooper says.

"Jacqueline would've been gone by then, the alley's not that long. And the CCTV camera at the other end of the alley didn't show Jacqueline coming out," Xander says matter-of-factly, "whoever kidnapped her was already waiting in the alley."

"So we're back to square one now?" Cooper asks, clearly frustrated.

~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~

"Aren't you coming in?" Xandra asks Xander when they get home. Xander is still sitting in his car and he doesn't look like he's coming out any time soon.

"I'm going to Miley's house."

"Why?"

"Because Jake's there and you're here."

"You're still mad at me?"

"Did you think I would just pretend like everything's okay? Because its not."

Xandra sighs and enters the car again.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to follow you everywhere you go until you forgive me," Xandra says and she obviously means it.

"Well, I'm not going to."

"A wise man once said, 'for family, do all that you can do. And after you've done all that you can do......that is all, because you've done all that you can do.'"

Xander furrows his eyebrows at her statement. "Uh...I-I don't.........truer words have never been spoken," he says, deciding it would be pointless to argue with Xandra about how dumb that statement is.

~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~

"I knew it! I was right, I'm always right," Miley gloats.

"I wish you weren't cause Jacqueline's gonna hate me when she finds out," Xander says.

"Wow, you cheated on two girlfriends. Did you cheat on Paige to?" Jacob asks.

"Kind of," Miley answers for Xander, "considering he went on a date with Savannah while he was still with Paige."

"I was already planning to break up with her," Xander says in his defense.

"But you didn't, it took you a week to break up with her," Jacob points out.

"Well, my apologies for finding it difficult to break up with someone I thought was the love of my life," Xander says sarcastically.

"You know, between the two of us, I always thought I would be the one to cheat. Have you ever considered being a player instead?" Jacob asks.