a cold summer

Chapter Sixteen ~ Detective Brown Returns

The next few weeks passed without incident. Lots of reporters and news teams came to interview me. They all wanted to know how I solved the murder, how I felt knowing I had put a famously lethal serial killer behind bars; and most importantly, did I miss my friends? I'll admit, I did tear up a little during some of those interviews, but they thought that was part of the show so it didn't matter too much.

I spent time getting to know more of the students at uni. Now that my two friends were dead, I was in the market for a new friendship group. Luckily, I found one. Emmica, Madison and Zooey were the only other three people who took marine biology. I used that as an excuse to talk to them. Amazingly, we actually had a lot in common and became really close.

Instead of moping around in my room feeling depressed and isolated, I was living my best life. The rest of the summer flew by. That wasn't to say I didn't miss Jesse and Isa. I would always miss them. But I knew they would be proud of me for moving on.

I even got to know some of the locals who lived in the village. They were all rather wacky and constantly gossiping about someone. I was soon plugged into everything that happened on the island.

Before I knew it, we only had a week left to go until we went back to school. So I suggested a picnic by the loch which the others happily agreed to.

***

"These sausage rolls are so good!" Zooey gushed.
"I know, right?" I said.
Madison reached for a pork pie. "This is such a great spot. I'll miss it when we leave next week."
I nodded. For the next three years, we would be stationed at a research facility in New Zealand. Kind of like a learning on the job experience. We were all really excited, but I would certainly miss this place.
"Me too," Emmica said sadly.
I crammed another sausage roll in my mouth and suggested that we go for a dip in the loch.

We stood at the edge of the pier and watched the water as it approached the small beach in shimmering waves. I looked at the others. Jumping in seemed like a good idea at the time, but no one seemed particularly keen to go first. I was about to say we could just go and sit on the beach, when someone pushed me from behind. Zooey.

I crashed into the water in a very unpleasant belly flop. I wasn't the only one. Emmica and Madison came crashing in behind me, squealing and laughing at the same time. Zooey exploded with laughter and then jumped in with us. I submerged myself underwater and looked around at the clear, green loch. The sun was shining which made the ripples of wave shine lights onto the bed of the loch. I could see the legs of my friends kicking spastically and splashing the water around them. I surfaced the water and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had not turned to winter and my friends weren't floating dead in the loch. Instead, I joined in the water fight that seemed to be transpiring.

Eventually, it turned to night and we ended the summer picnic. I waved goodbye to the other, promising that we would have picnics in New Zealand next year. When they all left to go home, I went back inside to get the summer work we were supposed to do finished. I had briefly started one essay but I still had two more to go and I had no idea what to write. Instead, I decided to leave it to tomorrow and procrastinate for the meantime.

Suddenly, I remembered my Detective Brown story. I meant to finish it but never did. That would be a great way to procrastinate. I could watch some netflix and eat pizza later.

I went upstairs to my room and pulled out the loose piece of paper I had written the story on and re-read what I had written so far:

A single window lit the dusty room at the end of the corridor. A broken chair lay in three splintered pieces underneath the desk which was slowly sinking into the floor under the weight of the many files and memos strewn across it. An ancient computer, still on from last night, was dangling precariously over the edge of the desk. The floor had a clear inch of dust with one area cleared by the door as it swung open and closed at least once a day. Opposite the desk was a small, oak door with a rather large hole in the middle of it, covered up by four pieces of duct tape. The tape had been there since 1987 and was peeling away sneakily from the hole. The office was about as organised as a pigsty although Detective Brown insisted that it was just perfect, despite many protests from the neighbours.