“What are you doing, You big fat idiot”. Blade screams at the Television. In today's world there are only so many movies without drugs, gangs or violence.  In the end we played She’s the man.  My favourite movie ever. Blade was sceptical at first but now he's yelling at Duke as he kicks out Violia cause he thinks she kissed Olivia. 

I laugh hysterically as Blade tries to reason with a movie. “SHE’S A BLOODY GIRL”. He yells. “ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN COULD SEE THAT. HOW MANY SOCCER BALLS HAVE YOU TAKEN TO THE HEAD”. 

“See I told you you’d like it”. I giggle triumphantly. 

“Yeah well you forgot to mention how VERY STUPID DUKE IS”. Blade says, frustrated. “And Duke what kind of name is that, did his mother think she was having a dog or something”. 

I explain the naming to Blade when we hear a rustle outside. Then a note slips under my door and whoever put it there dashes. 

Blades look concerned, I'm quite worried as well. I go to pick up the note cautiously and bring it back to the couch. I open the envelope and almost throw up when I read it. Just two lines are written but I want to scream, cry, run, hide and fight all at once. 

Rachels secrets were buried for a reason, 

Keep digging and you’ll be the one underground

Blade is pacing back and forth in front of me. Something I'm beginning to understand is a nervous thinking habit. “What do we do?” he says “We go to the police, that's what we should do”.  He answers himself. 

“No,” I say firmly. “The police will ask who we think did it, then we’d have to expose the snake charmers. And they’d make us cease our investigation, you know they will, And I can’t do that, I just can’t”. 

“Roxanne look, I don’t want to stop either, I’m having the time of my life breaking into buildings and blackmailing drug rings with you. But they threatened you. Not me, not us, you. And I think making sure that Rachel’s Redwood legacy isn’t repeated is more important.” 

Blade actually doesn’t want to see me get hurt.  I really don’t want to put him through worrying about me. But at the same time I can't stop. 

“Blade”. I say walking up to him. “I get that you're concerned but I won't stop. It was just one note and I'm not going to let a potential prank keep me from uncovering the truth. I won’t hold it against you if you want to leave. But I'm doing this and I really want to do it with you”. 

Blade puts his hands on my shoulders “Fine but we are being much more cautious from here on out. ok”. 

I nod. 

“My god is there anything you won’t drag me into Silver”. He says laughing. 

“One or two things,” I respond. 

Blade and I are up in my room staring at the murderboard that was once my wall. “Look, I just have to ask”. Blade says “Are you sure you didn’t murder Rachel”? 

“Ha ha very funny”. I respond. “On top of all the information we learnt tonight, we still don’t know if the snake charmers were involved in Rachel's disappearance or  just Rachel herself.” I think aloud. “Let me see the file, maybe there's more in there”. 

Blade passes me the file. It’s a standard yellow file, there’s not much in here that I don't already know until I flip the page and see something. 

“Um, Blade, did you look through this file before?”. I ask, panic rising in my voice. 

“Hm no I wanted to look at it together” he mutters half asleep on my bed. “Why”. 

“The legend says that the bloody handprint of Rachel's blood was made with a glove so there were no fingerprints.”  i say. “But that’s not true, The print was made with a hand. Rachels hand”. 

Blade bolts upright. “What”. He says shocked. 

“Look, it was made with a bare hand so they ran a fingerprint scan  on it. The scan showed that it was Rachel's hand that made the print”. 

I hand him the file to look at. “My god” he murmurs. “What exactly does this mean though”? Blade asks, confused. 

“I’m not sure”. I say pinning the sheet on my wall. “It could mean nothing”.  Or everything

“What's this?”. Blade asks, pointing to a note on the wall. 

“That's what the note that was left said”. I explain. 

“What does a life for a life mean?” Blade questions. 

“Hm, I'm not sure? Maybe there was a revenge motive”. I note that and add it to the wall. 

“Well that wouldn’t be consistent with our theory of the Snake charmers. Cause they would have killed her to shut her up. Not to get revenge”. 

I take a step back. Looking at my board. “So who hated Rachel enough to kill her, and leave a trail with the note”. 

“Well we know one thing. Whoever it was didn’t take it lightly. This wasn’t a crime of passion. No one could lose their temper and murder someone without leaving some evidence. And definitely couldn't have cleaned it up before Mrs.Clinton got back”.  Blade points out. 

“Let's  draw out a timeline”.  I say pulling out a paper and some pens. “We know that at around nine Mrs.Clinton went to the bathroom. The staff bathroom is on the other side of the school, all in all she would have returned in 15 minutes. It would have taken one minute for her to be out of earshot of Rachel. Provided whoever took Rachel was waiting for Mrs.Clinton to leave they would have been with Rachel in about thirty seconds.”. I write this out on the timeline, turn to Blade to ensure he’s following my train of thought. Then I resume. “If it were a crime of passion we would have expected then to have had words. But since we ruled that out it seems likely they didn’t talk at all. But still let's say they talked for three minutes than murdered Rachel”. 

“Wait we don’t even know if Rachel was murdered.” Blade points out. “True.” I say “But let's assume she was. We still don’t know how she died. Stabbing would take two minutes, she’d have been able to scream. Repeated stabbing would cause a mess. Strangulation? No.”

“What about blunt force trauma?” Blade suggests. 

“Yes”. I reply enthusiastically. “Let's say they found something heavy enough and hit her in the head hard enough, she’d be dead before she hit the ground. Hit her on the side of her head so she wouldn’t bleed too much. But just enough to make the handprint and throw off the cops. This whole thing should have taken about eight minutes”. 

“Isn’t that cutting it a bit close?” Blade asks. 

“Maybe, Regardless they have four minutes to get out of the library before Mrs.Clinton comes. They write a note. Thirty seconds. And wipe down any surfaces they touched, then again with a dry cloth to hide the tampering of evidence. They drag Rachel's body using something of theirs to stop the bleeding. And take her away to dispose of the body.” 

Blade inhales. “Well it’s tight but that sounds about right. Plus if the snake charmers were involved and working together they would be done in like half the time”. 

“I know, but are we missing something, it doesn't add up somehow”. I flip through the file. “Oh dear god I say. 

“What is it”. Blade asks. 

“Look at these”. I say showing Blade the file. These are all  security images of the gates that night. Do you see this? Empty, Empty, Empty. No one except, Rachel, Mrs,Clinton and the police came or went that night”. 

Blade studies the photo’s. “Maybe they hid with the body until the next day”. He suggests. 

“No look, The security was monitored every day and night until Rachel was declared a cold case. That was a month. After a few days you would notice the smell or flies or something. They only way you wouldn’t”. 

“Is if Rachel's Body was permanently hidden at Redwood.”. Blade turns to me. “It could still be there today Silver. Rachel could still be there”. 

“You promise to call if any more threats come.” Blade says at my front door. 

“Yes I promise.” I reassure him. 

“Ok”. He says. “I’ll see you tomorrow than. Don’t die”.  

“I’m holding you to the same deal”. I tell him.

He walks out the door. And I'm not going to lie even though Bets is still not home and Blade is gone. I don’t feel alone. I feel like someone was watching me and my next move. 

Rachels Ghost?