Are you all ready to have your minds blown? Because this is THE chapter where everything starts falling into place!
To teezee-Cat bought a new diary when she moved into the apartment...and you'll find out several reasons why in this chapter and the next :O
To Blondielov2U-That's cool you got a puppy. I love dogs :)
And also to: EmmaRose58, sloth13 and NeonLovesYou, thanks for your reviews!
CHAPTER 19
Tori's POV
It had been one week since Robbie was sent to the police station.
And just yesterday he had gotten out.
We were right; it was a false charge and the evidence wasn't strong enough to keep him there for however long his sentence might've been. But apparently now he'd been properly fingerprinted and had all sorts of samples taken from his body in case he needed to be tracked down again. And the police would always be watching him until the investigation was closed.
"Man, Robbie, you are one seriously lucky guy," André congratulated, patting him on the back. Everyone was at my house and we were having a small celebration for Robbie's release.
"Yeah," Robbie echoed, taking a sip from his plastic red cup.
"So what's it jail like? Is it true that you have to share a space with like, a murderer or something?" Jade asked, too late realizing the choice of words that had spilled from her mouth.
"If you mean sharing a space with myself then yes." Robbie rolled his eyes.
"But…you didn't really kill Cat, did you?" Beck asked, looking slightly panicked.
"No. How many times do I have to say it?" Robbie got up, standing uncomfortably by the fireplace like he was going to leave. "Why…why do you guys keep thinking that I did it anyway?"
Jade exchanged an awkward glance with her boyfriend and André snuck a peek at me, a sheepish expression on his face.
Finally, Jade said, "Well, you weren't acting very 'Robbie-like' the few weeks after Cat first got attacked. Especially since you kept avoiding everyone and hiding. It made it seem like you were, guilty or something."
Beck, André and I nodded in agreement, not feeling like adding to the discussion, because honestly, that was pretty much just the gist of it.
"I…really liked Cat. I pretty much spelled it out for her but I still don't think she got the point," Robbie kicked the air, his free hand knotting in his hair, looking frustrated. I felt really bad for him as he poured out his feelings for his now dead crush.
"Just seeing her every day, she was such a bundle of joy to be around. She made me really happy." I looked up and saw tears in his eyes. "And knowing that she wasn't understanding my actions…wasn't reacting to them…well, it didn't feel very nice."
Jade was holding on to Beck's hand, and I knew that she could relate to Robbie. For the first time ever, probably. Here she was with someone she loved, and had been acknowledged with it in a warm embrace. Robbie never had that sort of luck.
"In all truth, it did make me want to hurt something. Someone. Fortunately, I'm too cowardly to pick up a knife even to save a life, let alone end one. And then, when she died…I guess a part of me died inside too. I would never get to know if she really liked me back or not. Never get a chance to hold her hand, kiss her on the cheek, tell her that I loved her. It's all gone. All because of some crazy idiot."
I walked over and patted his arm as he wiped away the flowing tears. André was gazing at us kindly, and Beck was squirming uncomfortably, Jade shooting him a tense look.
"You can be sure that this 'crazy idiot' pays for what he's done. To all of us." Jade stood up, glancing around. "We have leads. We have clues. Now all we need to do is put two and two together, and we'll get an answer. Hopefully."
"Thanks, Jade," Robbie sniffled.
"Don't thank me yet. We've barely figured out anything, in my opinion."
"Hey," I said, "when's the next time we can go the apartment? We still need to check out that journal I found in Cat's room."
"So soon?" Beck sounded skeptical. "I'm not sure. Does anyone know if they've amped up the security because of…um…Robbie's arrest? No offense."
"None taken," Robbie sighed.
"Maybe not," André replied. "But yeah, I agree with Beck. We have been going there quite a lot, and we don't want to have to keep getting through that Derek doorman guy. He may be annoying and self-centered, but I don't think he's stupid enough to realize that every time we go there the Valentines aren't."
"Then when are we going to check out the journal? It could hold some really important information or something you know," I persisted. "And like they always say, 'Third time's the charm,' right?"
"'Third time's the—' wow, Vega. Just…wow." Jade was shaking her head in mock sorrow. "Well, as long as we don't attract any more cops, I guess we can go. But this will be the last time, okay? I don't want to spend half my life trying to find something that might not even exist, or we've already found and we just don't realize it."
"Yay! Thanks, Jade!" I couldn't contain my excitement. She was the leader of this whole operation after all, and now even I had gained her approval. Running over and jumping on top of her, my arms flinging around her neck, and I hugged her as tightly as I could.
You could feel the awkward in the air, and the boys were snickering as I choked her. She wasn't even returning the hug, just standing there like an idiot with me clinging on for life.
"Yes, yes, you're welcome. Now get off of me before I change my mind," she said in a tight voice. Laughing, I got off, but stopped when I saw that her face was scarlet and she looked very upset.
"Lighten up, Jade," Beck smiled, nudging her, and she took a deep breath, the pale in her cheeks returning.
André stepped forward with his drink cup, raising it high in the air. "To Robbie's release, and hopes that we find what we're looking for in Cat's apartment," he said solemnly.
We picked up our own glasses and had a toast, crossing our fingers that we would find something helpful.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Jade's POV
"All right, Vega. Show me where the journal is, and I'll have it open in a snap," I ordered the girl. We were already inside the apartment, having completely avoided Derek with some new stealthy tactics that we would be using from now on if we ever had to come back—which I was certainly not planning on. This time it was André down in the lobby, keeping an eye out for the Valentines. I knew it was only going to be so long before our luck ran out and they came home early one day.
"It's right over here." Tori dragged me into Cat's bedroom, a place that I didn't really want to be in at the moment. The memories of her last assault flooded my mind, but I pushed them aside as Tori went to the dresser and took out a thick pink notebook. "This is it."
I took it, noting, "It's really light."
"Yeah," Vega nodded.
"Well, let's find out what's inside, shall we?" I twirled the ring of keys in my hand, knowing that the last one had to unlock this, or if not, something else. I'd already discovered the purpose of the other two, but I still hadn't told anyone about the pills in the medicine cabinet.
Thankfully, the lock sprang open, and I slipped it off eagerly, Vega coming forward and opening the journal.
But instead of being filled with a stapled stack of paper, scribbled on over and over with someone's life story, it had a rectangular hollow hole carved in the middle, in which was holding a small envelope.
"This is a journal?" Vega asked curiously, taking out the contents and leaving me with the so-called memoir. I flipped it over in my hands, trying to find if there was any more secret compartments, or if it could actually be used as someplace to log down thoughts, but there was nothing.
"Is there anything written on the envelope?" I asked. "Or inside?"
"Yep. It says 'Robbie Shapiro.'"
My head perked up as Tori brought the packet up to her ear and shook it, and I could hear something small sliding around on the inside.
"No way."
"Yeah! Look." Tori pointed to the front of it, and she was right. Sure enough, in what was a handwriting I would recognize anywhere, the letters were spelled out in our friend's name.
"Go get him then."
Tori ran out the door, almost screaming for Robbie. I heard Beck asking what the problem was, but she ignored him, pulling Robbie into the room. I looked up from my spot on the floor, and found that his eyes were closed shut, like he was afraid of what he might see.
"Hey, Rob. Open your eyes and get a load of this," I told him.
Hesitantly, he cracked one eye open and saw that I was holding the envelope, holding the side with his name on it towards his body. Robbie dropped to his knees, reaching out and taking it from me calmly, his hands shaking.
"W-Wh-Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"Found it in Cat's 'journal,'" Tori informed him, sitting down next to me, crossing her legs on top of each other in some weird meditation pose.
Robbie gulped noticeably; I think he was trying not to cry again. Slowly, he slid his finger into one corner and ripped it across the top, trying to be as gentle as possible. I was getting extremely impatient, but I forced myself to control my temper.
Turning the envelope upside down, a piece of folded paper fell out, and something else which I couldn't distinguish at first. Ignoring the letter, Robbie picked up the unknown object and held it up so we could see it properly.
It was a necklace; a thin black cord with a dark green nut bolt hanging right in the middle.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
André's POV
Being in the lobby of Gladiolus Gardens wasn't actually as bad as I originally thought. Derek had fallen asleep behind the main desk, which was a good thing since we hadn't exactly registered in yet. I had been playing with my PearPhone for the past few minutes, holding the notebook Tori had given me before she went up with the others. But now I was bored, so I went through it.
I opened it past the cover, and flipped through briefly, taking a short glance. The entire thing was pretty much empty, except the first page. I turned back to the beginning to see what she had written.
Cat Valentine (now deceased)
-Formerly lived in a house (now destroyed)
-New apartment number is K-5
-Father, mother, older brother
Clues (given by Cat herself)
-The word 'iller' (maybe indicates to a miller?)
-Three keys (unlocks apartment, xxx?)
Clues (we assume)
-Robbie Shapiro (now innocent)
-Hollywood Arsonist (burned down her house, turned on stove after last meet, burning picture found in graveyard)
Oh, so she's keeping like a record of what's happened. That's actually a pretty smart idea, I thought, closing the notebook again and resting my head back on the dusty couch.
Suddenly, and idea popped into my head. I wrenched it open, folding it back so the Cat Valentine information and clues were on top, looking right back at me. I reached forward and picked up a pen from the cup on the cracked coffee table, and tore out a new sheet of paper to write on.
There was something very familiar about the word 'iller.'
Why didn't we see it before?
Tori was wrong about it pointing towards a 'miller,' whatever the heck that was.
I was almost one hundred percent sure it had something to do with a killer.
But why would Cat give Tori the word iller and not include the K? It just doesn't make sense. Sighing, I closed back up the notebook, thinking hard.
And then it struck me.
I snatched up the blank paper, having to scribble to get the ancient pen working before writing down the word iller in big, bold letters, evenly spaced out. Underneath, I wrote the apartment number K-5.
ILLER
K-5
I did some instant math in my head and quickly erased everything but the letter K and the dash, inserting five blank lines instead.
K-xxxxx
My brain was reeling, my fingers shaking as I wrote in the remaining word.
K-ILLER
I almost stood up and started dancing with joy at what I had discovered. This was some extremely crucial information everyone else needed to know about. Scooping up things and looking as not to leave anything behind, I snuck past the snoozing Derek and ran towards the elevators. When the doors opened I hurried inside, pushing the correct buttons as hard as I could in hopes to make the machine move faster.
It felt like an eternity flying up to the fifth floor. As soon as the gates opened, I was out in a flash, banging hard on the apartment door with my free fist and elbow. Just seeing the gold-lettered words 'K-5' engraved on the wood surface burned into my mind.
Killer.
Killer.
Killer.
Ha ha! See? Cat's apartment number wasn't just something I made up that had no significance or importance whatsoever!
And Robbie's necklace? I've actually mentioned it way beforehand somewhere in this story...but do you remember where?
I hope you all enjoyed it. Thoughts?