Disconnected

Chapter 4

"Did you guys find anything?" I asked. Grace and Sam shook their heads.
"I may have actually." Lily stared at the screen with a curious look on her face. "Remember how Mr. Smit said that a school was built on top of the guy's basement?" Everyone nodded. "Well, I found that school he mentioned. It's our school."
Everyone had a look of shock and surprise on their face.
"Are you sure?" Grace asked.
"Yeah. It says right here, 'Johnson High School was built on top of where the alleged killing happened.'"
"I can't believe it," I said.
"Wait," Sam said, "If all of what Mr. Smit said was true, then why would the diary of one of the victims just be lying on the sidewalk? Didn't he say that the people disappeared without a trace, along with their belongings?"
"Yeah, he did," Lily replied. We all looked at the book. 
"I wonder if someone put it there for Daisy to find," Sam thought aloud.
We decided that we would get more work done if we were assigned specific things to research. Lily was researching the basement under the school to try to find out how to get down there, Grace was trying to figure out the names and families of the other victims, Sam was on what he called "detective duty." He was just supposed to find out more about what happened to the old mayor's daughter, and I was trying to figure out an answer to Sam's question about why the book would just be lying on the sidewalk. We had to clear our minds so we took a short lunch break at the McDonalds across the street. 
When we got back, I flipped through some of the empty pages in the back. I noticed something on the back cover, a stamp that said, "PROPERTY OF THE JOHNSVILLE LIBRARY." The librarian came up to us to tell us that they were closing but, when she saw me with the book looking at the stamp, she said, "There it is! Where did you find it?"
"On the sidewalk." I decided that the best person that I could ask my question to would be the librarian. "If you don't mind me asking, how did the library get a hold of this book?" 
"I'm not quite sure," she replied. "All I know is that was one of the first books in this building."
"Okay. Thank you. Do you mind if I check it out?"
"Actually, you can keep it. From what I've seen, no one's ever touched it. Now that I think about it, I'm not quite sure how it got on the sidewalk. I think I remember seeing it on a shelf somewhere."
"Wait, really? I can keep it?" I ignored the rest of what she said.
"Yep, go right ahead."
"Thank you so much."
"You're very welcome. Just one thing? Take care of it. It's older than I am, and let me tell you, that's saying something."
We left and decided to continue researching together next weekend.
That Monday, when I went to Mr. Smit's class, I told him about what we found. I had also shown him the diary and allowed him to read it for himself.
"I thought it was just a myth. I was just telling you that so I could get you guys to pay attention in this class for once. Maybe I'll do a little research of my own and let you know what I find."
"Okay. Thanks."
And with that, the classroom filled with kids and class began. We went back to learning about our usual stuff, like the effects of World War II. After that was math, then science. After science, we got to go home.

The second I walked through the door, I went straight to my computer and wrote down every idea I could come up with as to how the book made its way to the sidewalk. I came up with a few ideas. 
1) The librarian was wrong or lying when she said no one has touched the book for years. 
2) We're all hallucinating and the book was actually on a shelf in the library and not on my desk next to me. 
3) A ghost put the book there. 
I figured the most likely choice would be the first explanation. I mean it is the most reasonable one after all. I didn't believe in ghosts and I'm ninety-nine percent sure that I'm not on drugs. If that were the case, everyone who's seen the book is also on drugs. 
I decided to reread the pages for the twenty-fourth time within the past four days. When I reached the last page, I realized something. The writer, Sarah, said that the girl she saw had red eyes. In all of the pictures that I've seen of Mayor Johnson's daughter, she has had blue eyes. Either something happened to her eyes or it's not the same girl.