Chapter 14 

After we saw the note, me going home alone was out of the question for Blade. He insisted that I stay at his house till Bets got home.

Cye and Luna were overjoyed and begged me to read them a  story. They were so cute in their Pj’s cuddled up warm in their bed I couldn’t say no. 

“And the little girl lived happily ever after”. I finish. 

Cye and Luna are half asleep as I say goodnight and walk into the living room. 

“You hungry”? Blade asks as I sit down. 

“Sure”. I reply. 

Blade walks into the kitchen and returns a minute later with some popcorn. 

“What should we watch?” He asks. 

Something feels weird. Blades whole mannerism has changed. He seems so different. 

“Are you ok”? I ask 

Blade responds like I've woken him up from deep thinking. “I’m fine. Are you?” 

“Blade”. I say putting my hand on his shoulder. Urging him to be honest with me. 

“Silver, I’m just so terrified for you”. He beings shaky. “This is the second time someone has written you a death threat. What if they aren’t joking around?” 

“Blade. You don’t have to be scared. I’m being careful. I don’t want you worrying about me. Promise you’ll do your best to forget about it”. 

Blade looks like he wants to protest but he just says. “Fine”. 

I smile sweetly and lean against him. In truth I don't know the seriousness of these notes. But I'll  figure it out. Blade doesn’t need to worry. 

“Are you absolutely sure that this won’t cause problems”. Blade asks. We’re sitting on a bench in Southside Plaza. This is where students from Redwood and South high come after school or during breaks to get food or shop. Considering the tension between the two schools. Blade wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to be seen together. 

“It’s fine. Really you act as if we’re Romeo and Juliet”. I tease. 

“I call Juliet, she's got great hair”. Blade jokes. 

We talk for a bit then Blade grumbles frustrated. 

“Where is this chick already?”. Blade was talking about Dani. Last night she called and asked me to meet her here. I brought Blade along too. 

Finally Dani walks up to us. She sits down. “Hey Rocks, thanks for meeting. I have something important to tell you.” Only now does she notice Blade. 

“And who is this”. She asks politely 

Blade nods “Blade Apollo. How  you doing?”. 

Dani gives me a look which i can't tell is meant to say Ok boy, nice. or Really? 

“Blades helping me work on my case”. I explain. 

“So what exactly did you want to tell us?”. Blade asks 

Dani opens her laptop. “Well I called Rocks because after she asked me to hack into the Redwood database I went exploring a bit more.” 

Blade chuckles “Really you paid a hacker to hack your school. Isn’t that interesting.” 

Dani looks disgusted for a second before resuming. 

“Anyways, I did some snooping around. And found someone had recently edited the server. More specifically Rachel Young's account.” 

She passes over the laptop and I look. “Wow”. i all i could say. 

Someone had edited Rachel's profile to say she started Redwood in year 7. That's not true. 

“Rachel’s been there since kindergarten”. Blade says. 

This closes off a lot for us. 

“Ok here’s what we know” I start. We’re back in my room looking over my murder wall. “We originally thought Rachel started Redwood in year seven but we now know she was in the junior school as well”. I write this down and add it to my wall. 

“This debases our theory of her sister going to South Public and her getting a scholarship”. Blade points out. 

“Yes but there is always the chance that she was actually stilborn. What I'm more concerned about is why someone would try to cover that up. What does Rachel going to Redwood junior school have to do with anything”. 

“Maybe someone wanted us to think she was there on a scholarship”? Blade suggests. “But why”. 

We think for a bit. “Maybe the motive came from something that happened back then. Maybe they're trying to steer us clear of placing them in the picture.”  i say 

“That would be logical. But why wait at least six years for revenge. Why not just kill her.” Blade thinks. I can tell he’s mercilessly racking his brain. And we both reach a conclusion at the same time. 

“Because they”. 

“Couldn’t” Blade finishes. 

I scramble to my desk and pull out an old printed news article. 

“Look at this. A newspaper ran a story on a girl caught with drugs at school, she ended up going to juvie for six years  after a classmate testified against her.”

“Six years matches perfectly with our timing. She would have gotten out and went for Rachel's head”. 

“She was a student, she would know the layout, she would have owned a uniform and she would know places to hide”. I add

“It also matches perfectly with our facts. A revenge motive, and a pre anticipated crime”. 

“This makes perfect sense”. I declare. 

So it turns out finding an ex-felon is harder than I thought. There weren’t many people I know that would have had contact with her. Eventually we found someone who managed to give us her home address. 

We pull up to a small flat. It was beige with healthy overgrown grass. There was an old car parked out front. It looked cosy. 

We walk up to the door.  The lady who greets up is an indigonous Australian girl. Her hair was in a low ponytail and she was wearing a yellow and white striped top. 

“Hi,” I say sweetly. “Are you Ciji”. 

“Yeah who’s asking”. Ciji replies in a indinginous accent. 

“I’m Blade and this is Roxanne. We had some questions for you”.  Blade says. 

She invites us in and we see her house. It’s messy in a neat way. Nothing is where it should be but it all looks perfectly in place. The curtains are half open and half shut. There’s cups and cushions scattered around. Seems like a nice place to live. 

“So what can I do for you?”. She asks, sitting down. 

“You were a Redwood student up until year six, when you went to juvie for drugs, correct”? Blade asks point blank. 

Ciji looks like she’ll cry or scream. “I’m sorry, what is this about”? 

“Allow me to dish out the facts for you”. Blade begins. “You got caught with meth on you at school. You were caught by Rachel Young. You pleaded innocent at court and after testing negative for drugs you were charged with six years for having drugs in school and possession with intent to distribute. Funny enough the same year you finish your sentence. The kid who ratted you out is murdered”. 

“What are you getting at?” Ciji asks.  “You think I killed her. I didn’t. I wish I had though. She ratted me out for something I didn't do. I was framed. Those drugs were planted on me. Why do you think I tested negative on the drug test? Twice”. 

I pause. I grab Blade and take him by the shoulder so our backs are turned to her. 

“I think she’s being honest”. I whisper. 

“To tell the truth, so do I”. He replies. 

“We believe you”. I decide. “But we still want to know where you were on December 15th 2000”. 

Ciji scoffs. “Fine, I was with my parole officer. Yeah on top of the hefty sentence I got two years of parole. I hope Rachel rots in hell. And if you find the killer let me know cause I'd love to shake their hand”. 

“That is one seriously messed up mind”. Blade says as we leave. 

“Yeah but I read that prison can make people go crazy. Imagine what it would do if you knew you were innocent”. I point out. 

“We’ve hit yet another dead end”. Blade grumbles. 

“Maybe so. But doesn’t this give us a thread. We know that Rachel went to the junior school. Maybe there’s something there that we missed”. 

“I don’t know”. Blade says. “Doesn’t it seem like we’re going in circles a bit at this point”. 

“Do you.. want to stop?”. I ask sadly. 

Blade stops in the ground. “Oh hell no Silver, sorry I didn’t mean that. I was just thinking out loud. I don't want to stop, not until Whoever killed Rachel is rotting away and our faces are on the cover of the daily newsletter.” 

I sigh. “Oh that’s a relief. Cause I really don’t want to stop either”.

“You know after all this time we still don’t know where Rachel's body is”. Blade remembers hopping off the bike and walking towards the door. 

“Yeah, I mean I'm still getting over the fact that it is more likely still hidden at the school”. I reply. 

“Imagine you could have walked past the body every day and never noticed”.  Blade says. 

“That's freaky. Anyways I think it’s safe to assume the body is buried. There’s a lot of grass land at Redwood but it’s changed a lot over the years. Buildings get put up. Or bricks are laid.” 

We walk up to Blade's room. Blades room is very different from mine. His sheets are all navy and he has some band posters up. There are some photos of him with Cye and Luna. Some of his family. Books throw over the floor. Blade's room seems very much like him. 

We print out a map of the Redwood campus and sit on his bed. “Ok, here are all the areas that used to have grass that have been renovated. I cross out some spots with a marker. “These places have been slightly renovated. Like adding new grass or stuff.” I cross those out as well. Whoever it was wouldn’t have  been able to dig very deep before the cops came and saw. It was supposedly raining that night so no one would have noticed the mud. And that huge spot of grass wasn’t grass when Rachel was there”. I cross that out as well. 

“All that leaves it this spot”. Blade says, indicating at the small trench around the school that's filled with dirt and plants. 

“It’s small but it could fit a body” I observe typing it into my phone. 

I fold the paper and shove it into my pocket. 

“Give me a ride”? I ask 

“Want to watch a movie or something”.  Blade asks as we walk into my living room. 

“Hm maybe but first I want to look at Rachel's case one more time”. 

We walk up to my room. I open the door then stop. “Um actually Blade your right we are going in circles. Maybe we should take a night off. Clear our heads a bit.” 

“Yeah sure”. Blade says. “Thanks to you and your silver tongue I've developed an unhealthy obsession with 2000’s movies so we need to have an Amanda Bynes movie marathon”. 

I smile and we walk downstairs. Blade should see the movies. What he shouldn’t see is the huge paper stuck to the middle of my murder board. What he shouldn’t see is the threat in the note. The warning I'm being given. I know where you live and I know how to get in. It tells me. 

You need to stop this you slut born bitch