"We are as responsible for Rosalind's death. So, don't you dare back out now. We all have our secrets which is making us feel guilty. Own up to it and help me find who killed her."
...
Valerie Hudson and Brianna Sawyer left their small town life and...
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The atmosphere took only a second to change from light to serious and grim. Everybody's eyes were glued on me, expecting further explanation for the sentence I had the confidence to say it out loud.
I took my time to process everybody's reaction and framed my answer in my mind. I want to lay out the fact. I wanted to show them what we all missed.
All of the puzzle pieces were right in front of us this entire time. We were the ones who missed it. We were all driven in the opposite direction and blindly, we all followed the clues.
"Valerie, honey, I know building suspense is a good feeling when you know something that others don't, but the anticipation is killing me and the others. So, if you don't spill right now, I swear to go-"
"It's Derek. Derek's the killer," I confessed, not wanting Brianna to finish the threat.
This was followed by another long silence. Everybody was frozen, but their expressions had changed. It was visible they were digesting the news and trying to make some sense of it.
Kelly and Blake exchanged uncertain looks. Brianna was staring at nothing, Jordan's eyes were still on me but his face had a quizzical expression. Lenny was the only one who made a movement as he sipped on his glass of water.
I decided to take this opportunity to further state why I had my suspicion on Derek, "While visiting Sarah, Derek was determined to find out what Rosalind spoke of him. At first, I thought that he was just desperate to know what her sister was going through, but after talking to Lola, I saw it with a different angle. Derek was trying to figure out if there were any loose ends he needed to take care of."
"You blamed me too," Lenny spoke. "For a brief amount of time, you thought I was the killer. What if this is just another hunch?"
"It's not," I assured him. "Think about it. We came up with an amazing plan to confront the killer. Why did it fail? Because it was Derek's idea. He knew that he will get caught if he met us at the abandoned kindergarten. So, to avoid that, he hospitalised me, sent Brianna to the city and put Jordan in jail."
Lenny shrugged in reply. Sure, my statement could be argumentative, but everything was there.
Every single thing that happened to us, every single plan that failed, it could all be tied to Derek and it didn't feel nonsense. They all fit together like they were made for each other.
"Derek knew me," Jordan spoke. "The day we met, he immediately recognised me. Rose told me she never mentioned me to her family and friends. She wasn't ashamed of me, she was just ashamed of the circumstances we met in."
"Rosalind never lied," Brianna whispered. "If she said she didn't mention Jordan, she had no reason to lie."
"Exactly. Derek knew who it was because he kept tabs on all of us. He sent a note to Jordan to join us at Picasso for the first time and then we received another note. He has clear access to Rosalind's diary. Nobody would suspect him."
