HIDDEN AWAY

It was afternoon at Angelwood High School, about 4:00 PM and after-school activities were just starting. The day had started like every other. It was a surprisingly warm, sunny day in early fall. The halls were cleaned up by the janitors, the halls now having that Mr. Clean smell. Cassandra Crenshaw just went into the locker room, getting dressed after swim practice. After finishing, Cassandra walked into the music room to get her equipment for Color Guard.

She was in a good mood, enjoying this warm, nice day. Deep in her thoughts, she didn't pay attention that another person joined her in the room. She didn't notice how the door was closed again, now the person slowly approached her. All of a sudden, a dark figure grabbed Cassandra. Before she had a chance to react or to fight back, she was slammed against the wall. She tried to fight back but without any success. Josh Lee, a football player, was just walking down the hall, when he heard a plea from the music room.

Instinctively, he ran to see what all the commotion was about. He found Cassandra gasping for air, her blood everywhere. As soon as he tried to help her, he was hit on the head. Before he got the chance to catch a glance of their attacker, everything around him went black.

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It was early the next morning, when Mac arrived at Anglewood High school. Even before he had parked his car, he discovered the familiar yellow crime scene tape.

"What happened here?" he asked, joining Stella, who had just joined him.

"The victim is 16 year old Cassandra Crenshaw," she answered. "She fell out of this closet when Susan Bennett opened the closet up. There was another victim, 17 year old Josh Lee; he was taken to the hospital this morning. I'm going to the hospital now to ask him questions."

"Alright Stella," Mac replied, already on his way inside the building.

"I'll meet you back here later."Quickly, Mac made his way through the endlessly long hallways of the school. He had just entered the room where the victim had been found, when Hawkes looked up at him.

"It looks like Cassandra suffered a stab wound directly under her right breast," he said before Mac could even ask him.

"And it is definitely not from a knife. It looks like she may have been strangled too, by something very fine and sharp when used with great force. TOD is approximately 14 hours ago, around 5:00 PM yesterday."

Mac nodded. "Thanks,",he said as he looked and he discovered the girl Stella had mentioned before; a young girl, shock clear visible in her eyes. Walking over to the woman, he added,"

Susan Bennett? I'm Detective Mac Taylor. Can I talk to you?".

Susan Bennett nodded. With a shaking hand, she tried to wipe the tears off her still wet face. "Yeah, sure.""What happened this morning?" Mac asked.

"Well I got here around 6:15 this morning," Susan started to explain. Her voice was shaky; she still had problems with controlling it enough to speak. "I parked my car and I came inside. I was going to put my coat away. I opened up the closet and the body fell out, I can't believe this happened."

"Did you notice anything strange when you came in this morning?" Mac wanted to shook her head.

"Nothing was really strange or odd, the only thing I can think of is that the doors were opened and there are always locked, there was no one in the room when I came in, everything looked normal, and nothing was out of place.""So, you are the only one with a key?"Susan nodded. "It's only me and one of the janitors; I'm not sure which one." "What about the keys on the closets?" Mac asked.

"I'm the only one that has the keys to those locks, this is the only way to open those locks, unless you cut the lock off," Susan nodded.

"Thank you.", Mac said.

"Your welcome, I can't believe someone would hurt Cassandra, this is so sad," Susan replied, new tears already rising in her eyes.

"Don't worry," Mac answered, giving the girl a supportive smile. "We'll find the person who did this to her."