What Did You Do?

Chapter Seven

It is now Thursday and the girls and I are meeting up for lunch before heading back to the boarding house to collect our books. I have been watching Chloe closely but have found nothing.

Yesterday, we saw Jonathan watching us again and plan to confront him soon.

Jackie and Mia are still being asked frequent questions from Samantha and we decided to talk to her today at lunch.

Chloe and I are standing in line in the covered entrance way to the dining hall shivering. All around us rain pours down on the hard concrete. Everyone is dripping wet and visibly shaking from the bitter cold air.

Jackie and Mia race up the queue, looking like drowned rats, and join us.

"Guys, we just saw Samantha Turner. She was heading inside the library. We should follow her." Jackie exclaims, panting.

"Ok, good idea. We can get food back at the house." I say quickly.

"Let's go." Chloe says hurriedly.

We rush past shivering students, along wet footpaths, and into the library.

Together we move stealthily around the isles of books, collecting books of our own, as to not look suspicious. After searching all the tables and desks we decide she must be in the reading room.

The reading room is a quiet space located at the end of the library. Not many people go there as it is quite a long walk along the dark old library hallways.

Silently we slip into the room unnoticed. Samantha is the only one in here. She is sitting on the other end of the room, away from the door and window. I think about how easy it would be for her to kill us in here, leaving us to rot and die. Like she could have done to Mr Miller.

We march to the arm chairs around her and take our seats. As she looks up from her book I notice she is reading, How to Get Away with Murder!

"I was hoping to see you guys. I wanted to ask a few more questions-" Samantha says.

"Enough!" Mia barks, "Your innocent girl act is over. We know what you did!"

Samantha looks terrified and I wonder if she would have had the guts to kill a man.

"Why did you kill him?" Jackie queries.

"Ki- ki- kill him?" Samantha stutters out, shakily. "You think I killed Mr Miller?"

"Why else would you be asking all these crazy questions?" Chloe declares.

Samantha scrunches up her face and starts crying. The girls and I exchange glances and surprised looks.

If we want any information from her, she has to be able to speak without crying. I think.

"Samantha, why don't you tell us why you were asking so many questions? Okay?" I suggest softly.

  "Well, my dad is the he- head of police and I- I thought if I could hel- help his case he might be more prou- d of me!!" She bursts into tears again and I move around to comfort her, convinced she didn't do it.

"It's okay. It's going to be okay." I say, patting her hair softly. The girls and I silently discuss what to do. In the end it's Samantha who speaks.

"I'm sorry. It's just so hard when you're the only child and still the least favourite. My Dad always wanted a boy, I am just a disappointment. I just thought if I could help his case maybe I wouldn't be such a screw up." Samantha explains. She has lifted her head from my arms, revealing a red and puffy face.

"We all just want to make our parents proud." I say.

"We understand what it's like." Chloe adds.

"And we are here for you if you need us." Jackie smiles.

"Sorry for thinking you did it." Mia adds, regretfully.

"Thank you." Samantha says gratefully.

After sharing a quick group hug and guiltily explaining why we thought she killed Mr Miller, we leave Samantha to her book and stride back to the boarding house, itching to discuss our new discovery.

When we return to the house, soaking wet, we find a large envelope, addressed to Mia, sitting on a table inside. It has no return address and scribbly red writing. Suspiciously she picks it up and together we rush to the dorm.

"Who do you think it's from?" Chloe asks once we are safely inside Mia's room.

"I don't know. I wasn't expecting anything!" Mia responds blankly.

"Go on. Open it up." Jackie says.

Carefully Mia tears open the envelope and slides out the contents.

"It's a photo." Mia says.

We all stare down at the photo in shock.

"It can't be." I stutter.

"Why?" Chloe queries.

"Do you think..?" Jackie suggests.

"But him... no!" Mia coughs out.

We sit in silence and shock as we ponder our new found lead; Jake Prescott. Mia's boyfriend. The photo shows Jake and Mr Miller sitting inside a cafe talking. They both look a dark mixture of angry and confused.

"Alrights it's decided then. He is a new lead." I say. It is a few hours later and we are back in Mia's room after dinner. We finally hauled ourselves to the dining hall after making our shocking discovery. Now we have decided to make Jake our new lead and Mia volunteered to watch him.

I hope Jake didn't do it. He is a nice guy and Mia loves him.

"And Mia will watch him." Chloe continues.

"So who should we be watching out for tomorrow?" Jackie questions.

"Jake and Jonathan." Chloe responds.

And you, I think guiltily.

"Right and let's try to confront Jonathan if we see him again." I state.

I watch as everyone nods in agreement before noticing Mia has been silent the entire time.

"It's ok Mia, it probably won't be him." I say softly, while shuffling over to her side of the bed and giving her a hug.

"But why would he be with Mr Miller then?" Mia asks sadly, settling into my embrace.

"You never know but Jake is one of the kindest guys out there. Why would he do this?" Jackie reasons while her and Chloe gather around us on Mia's bed.

"C'mon, I think we've had enough for today. Let's watch a movie." Chloe suggests cheerily.

"I have popcorn!" I say as we gather together for a long stormy night.