The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event
November 16, 1991
("Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains)
Parker Westby had his back leaned against one of the off white walls, arms folded, headphones blaring away around his neck, brown eyes lazily scanning the toxic dumping ground that was the high school cafeteria.
He saw the science geeks busily screwing away at some sort of invention, a group of girls hurriedly chatting away over an unkown important thing, the football players tossing a football across the table, drama students weaving through the crowd, kids waiting in line to recieve their food, and faculty roaming around the edges of the room.
Turning his head slightly, he saw one of the drama students chatting to a group of bored looking guys and girls, trying as hard as she could to raise ticket sales.
"And it really is going to be a great play" she said in a enthusiastic voice "so please by tickets, we have plenty left and in case you can't make it to tonight's performance, we have two other this week so no one misses out". All of them groaned slightly, each one wanting this girl to go away.
"Can you just go now" barked Elise Hartshore
"Well, thanks for your time" she said, looking slightly defeated by this unanimous display of disapproval.
"Hey Lydia!" Parker yelled, the girl turning her head in response, face brightening up once she saw him, immediately walking over to where he stood.
"Hey Parker" she said, "What's up with you?"
He shrugged "not much" he replied, "just killing the time till next hour. I still see your trying to get people to buy those play tickets huh?"
"Yeah" she said "and as you just saw, it isn't exactly going well".
"After last years disappointment of a show" he said "doesn't seem like to big of surprise. And as for Elise, she's nothing but a skank, so whatever shit comes from her mouth is worth less than nothing".
She nodded, chuckling slightly at this comment "your right" she said "only reason why most of them even showed up last year was to see Austin Richards with his shirt off".
"True" he said "I swear we teens today are just so motivated".
"But really, this years show is going to be so much better" she said "after last years debacle, we made sure that we wouldn't screw this one up. You're going to come right?"
"Don't I always come?" he said.
"Two years running" she said.
"My point is proven" he remarked.
Matt Klein had just caught the football, his beady eyes scanning the room till he saw the science nerds working on their project. Deliberately throwing the ball off course, it went smashing into one kids lunch, splattering everyone in mashed potatoes and gravy, then it knocked right into the contraption they had been working on, sending the entire thing to the floor.
All the players howled with laughter, while Adam Baker came running up to grab the football.
"Aw, look Matt, you broke it" he called out, picking up the mangled piece of metal, everyone laughing in response, while none of the faculty members seemed to respond to the whole incident.
"That ass" Parker said in a disgusted voice.
"I take it then you heard" Lydia said.
"You mean about the whole charge being dropped?" he responded, "yeah, I heard. All thanks to daddy over there" he was indicating to the principle of the school, who was roaming around the cafeteria as well, giving his son an encouraging look as if he approved of it all.
"You talk to Liz yet?" she asked.
Parker nodded his head "yeah but I haven't seen her since Tuesday. How's she doing?"
She sighed, "Well, as good as expected, I mean, after what she went through…"
"It should have never happened in the first place" he said, fist clenching as his anger steadily rose.
He gave out a low, frustrated sigh "there's no justice left in the world" as he said this, he looked over to see Calvin Ridge shaking down some freshman for money, face turning purple from the choke hold he was being given.
Shaking his head, Parker took his back off the wall "I better go" he said, hoisting up the backpack at his feet "got a lot of things to do over the weekend".
"Really?" she asked, "you've never been busy before".
He shrugged "shit happens" he replied, starting to walk off.
"And you will come to the play, right?!" she asked.
"I will!" he responded "don't worry so much".
"Then I'll see you tonight!" she responded, waving him by.
Nodding in response, he raised his bag up higher; turned forward and exited threw the cafeteria doors.
At the bottom of the schools entrance steps, Parker's dead body laid sprawled on the floor, the moonlight outside casting his body in a eerie silver glow. Bloody stab wounds dotted his chest, a long slash mark running across his throat, eyes glazed over as he stared off into nothing.
The detective was just about finished filing away the contents of the box, the last items being four issues of the Inquire stacked next to him, each story on the front page blared the same messages.
"Death At Local High School", "Serial Shooter Turns To Murder". "Students And Parent's Cry For Justice", "A Sign Of Things To Come?"
With the last one stored away, he picked up the box and set it into the empty compartment above, the front end reading "Westby, P. Dec 1991".
Present Day
Lily Rush parked the car near the front of the school entrance, Lieutenant Stillman already waiting for her by the front doors.
"Ah, there you are Lil" he said to her as she got out "where's Scotty?"
"Got held up with something" she responded "didn't say what, just that it was important. I asked Kat if she could come down instead".
"She gonna be here soon?" he asked.
"Yeah, said she be here in just a few" she responded "in fact…yep, that's her".
Sure enough, another car came driving up to the entrance, Detective Kat Miller stepping out of the drivers seat.
"Hey Lily," she said "boss, hope I didn't keep ya waiting".
"Not at all" he replied.
"So what gives?" she asked, walking up to them.
"Got a call from a janitor who works at the school bout an hour or so ago" Stillman began "said that he was working on a broken gas pipe in the mechanical room when he happened to come across a discarded backpack hidden behind one of the boilers".
"Students?" Lily asked as they walked through the entrance doors.
"Probably" he replied, "figured the thing had been back there for years, considering the shape he found it in. Anyway, he wanted us to come down and see if it was something of concern".
A few minutes later, the three of them were in an abandoned faculty lounge, not having to wait long till the door opened, a short dumpy man walking in, a grubby black backpack gripped in one.
"Mason?" Stillman asked.
"Yeah, that's me" he replied in a gruff voice.
"Lieutenant Stillman, Philly PD" he said "we spoke on the phone".
"Ah yeah, right" he said, "are those two…"
"Detectives Rush and Miller" he indicated to the two of them "also from Philly PD".
"Nice to meet you both" Mason said, both the women nodding in response.
"That the backpack you told me about?" Stillman asked.
"Oh, yeah, yeah this is" he said, bringing the thing over to the table "um, I didn't look inside it or anything, figured it wasn't right looking through other peoples stuff, so I thought I just leave that stuff to you guys".
"Understandable" Lily replied, sliding the thing over to her, grabbing hold of one of the zippers and opening the top. Inside, she saw an old crinkled shirt, flattened roll of film, and a couple of schoolbooks stuffed with papers, all the average stuff you'd find in a high schoolers bag.
"Yep" she said, pulling out the contents "defiantly a students".
"Anything of interest?" Stillman said.
"Not really" she replied, while Kat began to open one of the side pockets "got your shirt, books, binders, the usual".
"Found a wallet here" she said, pulling it from the side pocket.
"Any license of sort?" asked Stillman.
"Lets see" she said, flipping it open "there's a drivers permit, belonging to a…Parker Westby".
"That name sound familiar Mason?" he asked.
Biting his lip slightly, he nodded "yeah, I've heard of him, real tragic story".
"How so?" Lily asked.
"Back in 91" Mason said "that kid was found murdered at the bottom of the school entrance steps. From what I heard, he was stabbed a couple of times before the perp cut his throat open, caused a real frenzy back then".
"Why?" Kat asked.
"Because" he responded "every one knew who the killer was".
"Really?" she said "whom?"
"Do any of you remember that serial shooter?" he asked "you know, guy going around campus shooting up students for a month or so".
"Ah right" Stillman said, "Yeah, I remember that, all over the papers when it happened".
"Wait, you mean…" Lily began, foggy memories coming back to her "the Fairmount serial shooter? is that who your talking about?"
"That's the one" Mason replied.
"But how do you know if it's the same guy?" Miller asked "if all this guy did was shoot people down, why change his motive for this Westby kid?"
"I dunno" he said "maybe he was special case. but believe me, I know it was him, I just know it".
"I still find it hard to believe that this kids killer" she continued "and this Fairmount shooter are the same people".
"Guys, look at this" Stillman said, pulling out from the bottom of the backpack a 10-inch long hunting knife, dried blood smeared on its surface "I think we got our murder weapon. Least now we know why it was hidden in a mechanical room".
"All we need now is our murderer" Lily said.