"So," Deputy Rye asked, circling Page in the chair. "You saw this body, any idea who it was?"
"Yes," Page swallowed, on the brink of tears. "His name was David Ianson. He went to school w/ me."
"Are you friends w/ the victim?"
"Yeah, well we were until now."
"Mmmhmm. So how did you find him?"
"I was there, I fell on him when I was trying to get away. I couldn't see."
"Trying to get away from whom? From what?"
"The person who killed him obviously!" Page cried.
"Did you see this person?"
"No, but he- or she- was tapping on the windows of the car."
"What car? Whose car were you in?"
"In Tom's-" Page stopped, realizing she would get him in trouble.
"Tom's car? Are we talking about Tom Sheridan? The same Tom Sheridan who picked you up from your house to arrest you?"
Page's eyes went wide. "How- how did you know about that?"
Deputy Rye began to laugh and dropped himself into a chair across from her. "Jesus H. Christ. Sonofabitch is at it again."
"What do you mean?" Page asked, sitting forward.
Deputy Rye waved a hand at her, signaling to dismiss the tramatic atmosphere in the room. "Sheridan. Playing pranks. He and I go way back doing that sorta B.S. to one another- I never thought he'd-" he paused to look at her. He coughed. "This will remain confidential, Miss Bookman. I don't want this getting around the office or your friend Officer Sheridan and I could both get canned."
"But Deputy, there's been a murder!"
Deputy Rye stood up again. "Miss Bookman, there's been no murder. He's playing a prank on you."
"Then why didn't he bring me home? Why did he let me run all the way down here and risk getting him in trouble?"
The deputy looked like he would consider the idea but then dismissed it as quickly as it had risen. "I'll call him now and get him down here so you can get the cuffs off, ok?"
Tom showed up about ten minutes later. "Page!" he said when he saw her, "I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Page demanded, tears streaming down her face unabashed. "That was just sick, Tom, sick!"
Tom and Deputy Rye both looked at the stares they were getting from colleagues and pulled her back into the questioning room.
"Young lady, I hate to do this," Deputy Rye said, "but I'm going to have to ask you to keep quiet about this- you could get your friend Officer Sheridan fired you know. Pranks aren't taken lightly around here."
"Good!" Page fumed. "I hope his dumb ass DOES get fired!" she spun on her heel and stalked out the door before the two men of the law could stop her.
Tom took a seat and rubbed his palm against his temple.
"This isn't going to look good if your little girlfriend presses charges, Sheridan," Deputy Rye said.
Tom sighed. "I don't think she will. It was just a joke. I feel bad about it now though- she must've been pretty scared. I went looking for that creep who was messin' w/ the window and when I got back from the car she was already gone, headed here I guess-"
"Wait a minute, are we talking about the same creep that Page claims to have tripped over? The DEAD guy?"
"What?" Tom asked, rising out of the chair in shock. "What dead guy? She saw a dead guy? Shit! No wonder she's scared-I'm going to have to go find her, poor girl-"
Deputy Rye caught him by the shoulder. "No, we're going to have to go to the scene of the crime. Find the supposed body."
"But they'll trace it back to me- or say she does talk, or someone pressures her into talking? I'll get fried!" Tom said frantically.
Deputy Rye shook his head sternly, a gesture he didn't usually use on his old pal, Officer Sheridan. "We know you didn't do it, Sheridan. We'll find the bastard who did do it though. We have to, it's our responsibility. Besides," he said, clapping him on the back,"don't you think they'd find you even more suspicious if she testifies that you were at the scene of the crime and you didn't do anything about it?"
Classes were dismissed early the next day at Cedar Hill High School in honor of David Ianson.
Page walked to her blue Chevy Camero w/ her friends, Kally Johnson, Barry Knox and Bailey Garris.
"I can't believe you were THERE," Barry was saying. "That must've been"
"Barry!" Kally hissed, hitting him in the stomach.
Page nodded. "It was... well fucked up to put it lightly."
"So who do you think did it?" Barry asked, rubbing his stomach.
"Barry!" Kally said through her teeth again.
Page shook her head. "I dunno. It could be anyone. I can't think of anyone who would have wanted to kill David though... he was such a sweet guy..." a solitary tear ran down her cheek.
"You were there w/ Tom, right?" Bailey pursued, his glittering green eyes gleaming w/ intrigue. "Who else was there?"
"No one except the person who murdered him," Page asserted bitterly.
"And David," Barry added.
Page stopped walking and looked at her friends. "Right. I don't even know why or how David would know we were there in the first place but you're right. He was there."
"And someone obviously didn't WANT him to be there and killed him," Bailey finished.
Page stared at him, wide-eyed. "It wasn't Tom, if that's what you guys are thinking. He'd never kill anyone-he's a cop for christ sakes!"
Kally put a sympathetic arm around her. "No one said he did it..."
"But he was there!" Barry interjected.
"Some of the most innocent people can be monsters underneath," Bailey said.
"Stop it, both of you!" Page cried, the tears running down her cheeks now. "I just lost one of my best friends, I don't need you to get my boyfriend run down, too!" She'd never admit it out loud but she was beginning to have her suspicions about Tom Sheridan as well.
Kally opened the large scrapbook of periodicals. "Hey, look at this!"
Page put down the newspaper she had been looking at and walked up to Kally.
They'd been looking for clues at the Cedar Hill Public Library that would hopefully lead them to the murderer.
Kally began to read the article she'd found.
" 'OFFICER ABRAM RYE RECEIVES DEPUTY TITLE '"
'Today local police officer, Abram Rye completed
his training for deputy ranks....
"Yadda, yadda yadda, 'Sheriff Burkstrom presented
Rye w/ badge...' Yadda, yadda, yadda...
'Rye was accompanied by mother, Winifred Rye, friend
and partner in law, Officer Thomas Sheridan and
nephew David Ianson.' "
Page's eyebrows shot up in the air. "I didn't know Rye and David were related!" She grabbed at one of the book's covers to look at the picture. Sure enough, Deputy Rye stood there, holding his badge for the camera, w/ his mother on one arm and David and Tom on his other side.
"Hmm," Kally mused. "Do you think that would have anything to do w/ it?"
Page frowned, struggling to come up w/ a good conclusion. "Maybe David and Tom were friends too... I mean, he never mentioned David except when I brought him up but it's possible."
"And maybe," Kally said, her mind spinning w/ ideas, "David and Tom or David and Deputy Rye had some sort of disagreement?"
Page continued to frown. "You think Barry and Bailey are right about Tom, don't you?"
Kally shrugged. "I'm not saying it's written in stone, Page, but who else can we point a finger at? If it wasn't you and it wasn't Tom, who else would have killed him and why?"
Page thought. "Ok, well... you said he might have had a fight w/ one of them. Why not Deputy Rye? I mean, he's his uncle and a figure of the law enforcement. Maybe David got busted doing something and he got angry at his uncle for not cutting him some slack."
Kally pushed a long strand of long, chestnut brown hair behind her ear. "So you think it was Deputy Rye?"
Page bit her lip. "Well, when I was at the police station, he seemed to know everything that was going on. He knew about Tom's fake arrest on me- he called it 'a prank'."
"Anything else?"
"Well, he said I could get Tom into a lot of trouble if I said anything."
Kally sucked her breath in. "And he could've gotten in even more trouble if someone who wasn't on Tom's good side told," she whispered. "Someone like David!"
Page grabbed her friend by the arm. "C'mon, Kal, we have to find Tom!"
Back at the police station, a very frantic Page was spilling her newfound information to a flustered Officer Sheridan.
"No, Page, there's not a snowball's chance in hell that Rye would pull something like that-he's my best friend."
"Exactly, Tom!" Page said, grabbing his arm for emphasis. "That's why he's the prime suspect! Best friends fight for one another through thick and thin and if one of them gets in trouble, the other one bails him out! I think that David was spying on us and Deputy Rye didn't want him to rat you out to Sheriff Burkstrom."
"Page, when I say he's my best friend I mean that I know him. He'd never kill anyone. He's got a legal obligation as well as a good set of morals."
"But maybe he isn't what he seems, Tom! What if... what if David was in some kind of trouble and he didn't help him out?"
Kally jumped into the conversation w/ a new idea. "Yeah, what if Deputy Rye showed up to see how your 'prank' was going and found David there and they got into a fight about it. And the argument of David being a troublemaker came up and so they began to struggle. Maybe Deputy Rye didn't even mean to kill him, maybe David attacked him. It could've been self-defense!"
Tom gaped at them as if he were about to agree and then shook his head. "Where in the hell do you two get these ideas?"
Page smiled cynically. "We watch a lotta teen slasher flicks."
More library research led the trio to the discovery that David Ianson was in fact a troublemaker. Though not many people knew, before he and his family moved to Cedar Hill he had a big shoplifting record and was known for missing a lot of school.
Page read through the computer's newspaper article sadly. "Just like Bailey said,people aren't always as great as they seem to be."
Tom rested his hands on the back of her chair and buried his mouth in her hair.
"Yeah," he murmured, "I never knew you were a cyber nerd."
"Tom!" she admonished. "This is NOT something to be taken lightly.
Tom kissed the top of her head and looked at the screen. "Sorry, sorry."
Kally was looking through another book of periodicals when her eyes froze on a particularly alarming caption. She slowly looked over at Tom and Page and in a moment of fright grabbed up her purse and slammed the book shut.
They both turned to look at her. "Kally?"
Kally backed away from them, her eyes filled w/ fear. "I can't- I- I-I've gotta go!"
W/ that she turned and fled the library as fast as she could.
"I saw it, Barry!" Kally was crying out. "Right there in the Cedar Hill Times it said, 'Thomas Sheridan was arrested on two accounts of disturbing peace.' "
Barry shrugged his shoulders high. "So the guy got into a fight. That makes him a murderer?"
"I don't know, Barry, but he was the only one there that we know of besides Page
and Page was the one who found David's dead body."
"Hey, speaking of dead bodies, look who's coming our way."
Kally glanced away from Barry to see the tall, dark and handsome Strange Carrison.
The raven-haired sixteen year old was bedecked in leather boots, a black leather jacket and pair of black denim jeans.
"Well, looky what the cadavers dragged in!" Barry crowed.
Kally said nothing and continued to watch Strange who wasn't just passing by but actually approaching them.
"Hello, Kally, Barry," he greeted them.
Barry grinned w/ delight in the torture he was about to lay on Strange. "Heya, Strange. How's the family?"
Strange nodded. "Good."
"Oh, really? 'Cause last time I heard they were pretty cold, smelly and slab-laden if you know what I mean!"
"Barry!" Kally said, elbowing him in the ribs. She thought Strange was kinda creepy but she would never say anything rude to his face.
"Well, Barry, last time I checked I couldn't smell a thing," Strange retorted.
"Yeah," Barry laughed. "Because you're so used to smelling like death yourself!"
Strange glared at him and then turned his attention to Kally. "Have you seen Raven?
I've been looking all over for her but nobody's seen her. She was supposed to meet me after school to help me w/ my English homework."
Barry laughed some more. "Oh, so now you're running around w/ Rave-Rave, huh? You got a thing for pasty people dontcha?"
Kally gave him another poke to the ribs.
Strange looked about ready to explode. Instead of answering though he walked away in a huff.
Barry began to sing: "you really want me to be a good son. Why do you make me feel like no one? Dum da da dum dead bodies everywherrrrre!"
Kally smacked him.
"Ow! What?"
"Why do you have to be such an ass, Barry? He didn't do anything to you and you know Raven is my friend. You didn't have to make fun of HER."
"Well, it's not my fault she's as pale as a corpse. She looks like a walking vampire."
Kally hit him once again.
"Ouch! What? She does! And how can you NOT make fun of someone who's dad is an undertaker?"
Kally got up from her seat on the side of the high school's large outdoor fountain and walked away, ignoring Barry's annoying howls of laughter.
Once down the main steps of the campus she spotted a slender but short brunette walking towards a brown Toyota Corolla. "Hey!" Kally called out.
Raven O'Ryan smiled and turned around. "Hey, Kally, what's up?"
Kally jogged up to her and frowned. "Oh, not much. Just freaked about the murder you know."
Raven nodded. "Yeah, you never think it'll happen to someone you know. Pretty scary." She studied Kally's troubled face. "Something else is bothering you, Kal... I mean, I know you knew David but I think the only people really close to him were Bailey Garris,Rodney Phibert and of course, Page."
Kally was near tears. "I'm scared for Page, Raven. I really am."
"Page?" Raven looked alarmed. "Why? Because she was there? You think she's having a breakdown or something? Post traumatic stress?"
Kally waved all the suggestions away, agitated. "No, it's Tom."
"Tom..." Raven searched her memory. "Oh! Cop Tom! Her boyfriend."
"Yeah. I think Tom killed David."
"What?! How could that be? I thought Page was the one who-"
"Yeah, Page found him but Tom was w/ her. He left the car to see who had been making noise on the window."
"Noise on the window? This is starting to sound like an Urban Legend..." Raven said, doubtfully.
"Well, it happened!" Kally cried desperately and Tom was the only other person there. Plus I found this!" she said, shoving a copy of the newspaper article on Tom's arrest that she'd pulled up in the computer lab at school that day.
Raven read over and looked at Kally, frightened agreement beginning to rise in her.
"Wow. You could be right."
"Yeah, I need to see if I can find anything else out... Page doesn't believe me and I doubt she's going to listen w/out more concrete evidence."
"Do you want me to help you?"
Kally smiled at Raven's generosity. "Thanks, Rave, but I think someone else could use your help more. Strange was looking for you, I guess he's not doing to well in his English class."
"Oh, crap!" Raven cried, smacking her forehead. "I was supposed to look for him when school got out."
"Yeah he should be here still-it was only a couple of minutes ago."
"Ok, I'll go look for him," she said jogging away and throwing Kally a smile. "Good luck Detective Johnson and be careful!"
"Yes," Page swallowed, on the brink of tears. "His name was David Ianson. He went to school w/ me."
"Are you friends w/ the victim?"
"Yeah, well we were until now."
"Mmmhmm. So how did you find him?"
"I was there, I fell on him when I was trying to get away. I couldn't see."
"Trying to get away from whom? From what?"
"The person who killed him obviously!" Page cried.
"Did you see this person?"
"No, but he- or she- was tapping on the windows of the car."
"What car? Whose car were you in?"
"In Tom's-" Page stopped, realizing she would get him in trouble.
"Tom's car? Are we talking about Tom Sheridan? The same Tom Sheridan who picked you up from your house to arrest you?"
Page's eyes went wide. "How- how did you know about that?"
Deputy Rye began to laugh and dropped himself into a chair across from her. "Jesus H. Christ. Sonofabitch is at it again."
"What do you mean?" Page asked, sitting forward.
Deputy Rye waved a hand at her, signaling to dismiss the tramatic atmosphere in the room. "Sheridan. Playing pranks. He and I go way back doing that sorta B.S. to one another- I never thought he'd-" he paused to look at her. He coughed. "This will remain confidential, Miss Bookman. I don't want this getting around the office or your friend Officer Sheridan and I could both get canned."
"But Deputy, there's been a murder!"
Deputy Rye stood up again. "Miss Bookman, there's been no murder. He's playing a prank on you."
"Then why didn't he bring me home? Why did he let me run all the way down here and risk getting him in trouble?"
The deputy looked like he would consider the idea but then dismissed it as quickly as it had risen. "I'll call him now and get him down here so you can get the cuffs off, ok?"
Tom showed up about ten minutes later. "Page!" he said when he saw her, "I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Page demanded, tears streaming down her face unabashed. "That was just sick, Tom, sick!"
Tom and Deputy Rye both looked at the stares they were getting from colleagues and pulled her back into the questioning room.
"Young lady, I hate to do this," Deputy Rye said, "but I'm going to have to ask you to keep quiet about this- you could get your friend Officer Sheridan fired you know. Pranks aren't taken lightly around here."
"Good!" Page fumed. "I hope his dumb ass DOES get fired!" she spun on her heel and stalked out the door before the two men of the law could stop her.
Tom took a seat and rubbed his palm against his temple.
"This isn't going to look good if your little girlfriend presses charges, Sheridan," Deputy Rye said.
Tom sighed. "I don't think she will. It was just a joke. I feel bad about it now though- she must've been pretty scared. I went looking for that creep who was messin' w/ the window and when I got back from the car she was already gone, headed here I guess-"
"Wait a minute, are we talking about the same creep that Page claims to have tripped over? The DEAD guy?"
"What?" Tom asked, rising out of the chair in shock. "What dead guy? She saw a dead guy? Shit! No wonder she's scared-I'm going to have to go find her, poor girl-"
Deputy Rye caught him by the shoulder. "No, we're going to have to go to the scene of the crime. Find the supposed body."
"But they'll trace it back to me- or say she does talk, or someone pressures her into talking? I'll get fried!" Tom said frantically.
Deputy Rye shook his head sternly, a gesture he didn't usually use on his old pal, Officer Sheridan. "We know you didn't do it, Sheridan. We'll find the bastard who did do it though. We have to, it's our responsibility. Besides," he said, clapping him on the back,"don't you think they'd find you even more suspicious if she testifies that you were at the scene of the crime and you didn't do anything about it?"
Classes were dismissed early the next day at Cedar Hill High School in honor of David Ianson.
Page walked to her blue Chevy Camero w/ her friends, Kally Johnson, Barry Knox and Bailey Garris.
"I can't believe you were THERE," Barry was saying. "That must've been"
"Barry!" Kally hissed, hitting him in the stomach.
Page nodded. "It was... well fucked up to put it lightly."
"So who do you think did it?" Barry asked, rubbing his stomach.
"Barry!" Kally said through her teeth again.
Page shook her head. "I dunno. It could be anyone. I can't think of anyone who would have wanted to kill David though... he was such a sweet guy..." a solitary tear ran down her cheek.
"You were there w/ Tom, right?" Bailey pursued, his glittering green eyes gleaming w/ intrigue. "Who else was there?"
"No one except the person who murdered him," Page asserted bitterly.
"And David," Barry added.
Page stopped walking and looked at her friends. "Right. I don't even know why or how David would know we were there in the first place but you're right. He was there."
"And someone obviously didn't WANT him to be there and killed him," Bailey finished.
Page stared at him, wide-eyed. "It wasn't Tom, if that's what you guys are thinking. He'd never kill anyone-he's a cop for christ sakes!"
Kally put a sympathetic arm around her. "No one said he did it..."
"But he was there!" Barry interjected.
"Some of the most innocent people can be monsters underneath," Bailey said.
"Stop it, both of you!" Page cried, the tears running down her cheeks now. "I just lost one of my best friends, I don't need you to get my boyfriend run down, too!" She'd never admit it out loud but she was beginning to have her suspicions about Tom Sheridan as well.
Kally opened the large scrapbook of periodicals. "Hey, look at this!"
Page put down the newspaper she had been looking at and walked up to Kally.
They'd been looking for clues at the Cedar Hill Public Library that would hopefully lead them to the murderer.
Kally began to read the article she'd found.
" 'OFFICER ABRAM RYE RECEIVES DEPUTY TITLE '"
'Today local police officer, Abram Rye completed
his training for deputy ranks....
"Yadda, yadda yadda, 'Sheriff Burkstrom presented
Rye w/ badge...' Yadda, yadda, yadda...
'Rye was accompanied by mother, Winifred Rye, friend
and partner in law, Officer Thomas Sheridan and
nephew David Ianson.' "
Page's eyebrows shot up in the air. "I didn't know Rye and David were related!" She grabbed at one of the book's covers to look at the picture. Sure enough, Deputy Rye stood there, holding his badge for the camera, w/ his mother on one arm and David and Tom on his other side.
"Hmm," Kally mused. "Do you think that would have anything to do w/ it?"
Page frowned, struggling to come up w/ a good conclusion. "Maybe David and Tom were friends too... I mean, he never mentioned David except when I brought him up but it's possible."
"And maybe," Kally said, her mind spinning w/ ideas, "David and Tom or David and Deputy Rye had some sort of disagreement?"
Page continued to frown. "You think Barry and Bailey are right about Tom, don't you?"
Kally shrugged. "I'm not saying it's written in stone, Page, but who else can we point a finger at? If it wasn't you and it wasn't Tom, who else would have killed him and why?"
Page thought. "Ok, well... you said he might have had a fight w/ one of them. Why not Deputy Rye? I mean, he's his uncle and a figure of the law enforcement. Maybe David got busted doing something and he got angry at his uncle for not cutting him some slack."
Kally pushed a long strand of long, chestnut brown hair behind her ear. "So you think it was Deputy Rye?"
Page bit her lip. "Well, when I was at the police station, he seemed to know everything that was going on. He knew about Tom's fake arrest on me- he called it 'a prank'."
"Anything else?"
"Well, he said I could get Tom into a lot of trouble if I said anything."
Kally sucked her breath in. "And he could've gotten in even more trouble if someone who wasn't on Tom's good side told," she whispered. "Someone like David!"
Page grabbed her friend by the arm. "C'mon, Kal, we have to find Tom!"
Back at the police station, a very frantic Page was spilling her newfound information to a flustered Officer Sheridan.
"No, Page, there's not a snowball's chance in hell that Rye would pull something like that-he's my best friend."
"Exactly, Tom!" Page said, grabbing his arm for emphasis. "That's why he's the prime suspect! Best friends fight for one another through thick and thin and if one of them gets in trouble, the other one bails him out! I think that David was spying on us and Deputy Rye didn't want him to rat you out to Sheriff Burkstrom."
"Page, when I say he's my best friend I mean that I know him. He'd never kill anyone. He's got a legal obligation as well as a good set of morals."
"But maybe he isn't what he seems, Tom! What if... what if David was in some kind of trouble and he didn't help him out?"
Kally jumped into the conversation w/ a new idea. "Yeah, what if Deputy Rye showed up to see how your 'prank' was going and found David there and they got into a fight about it. And the argument of David being a troublemaker came up and so they began to struggle. Maybe Deputy Rye didn't even mean to kill him, maybe David attacked him. It could've been self-defense!"
Tom gaped at them as if he were about to agree and then shook his head. "Where in the hell do you two get these ideas?"
Page smiled cynically. "We watch a lotta teen slasher flicks."
More library research led the trio to the discovery that David Ianson was in fact a troublemaker. Though not many people knew, before he and his family moved to Cedar Hill he had a big shoplifting record and was known for missing a lot of school.
Page read through the computer's newspaper article sadly. "Just like Bailey said,people aren't always as great as they seem to be."
Tom rested his hands on the back of her chair and buried his mouth in her hair.
"Yeah," he murmured, "I never knew you were a cyber nerd."
"Tom!" she admonished. "This is NOT something to be taken lightly.
Tom kissed the top of her head and looked at the screen. "Sorry, sorry."
Kally was looking through another book of periodicals when her eyes froze on a particularly alarming caption. She slowly looked over at Tom and Page and in a moment of fright grabbed up her purse and slammed the book shut.
They both turned to look at her. "Kally?"
Kally backed away from them, her eyes filled w/ fear. "I can't- I- I-I've gotta go!"
W/ that she turned and fled the library as fast as she could.
"I saw it, Barry!" Kally was crying out. "Right there in the Cedar Hill Times it said, 'Thomas Sheridan was arrested on two accounts of disturbing peace.' "
Barry shrugged his shoulders high. "So the guy got into a fight. That makes him a murderer?"
"I don't know, Barry, but he was the only one there that we know of besides Page
and Page was the one who found David's dead body."
"Hey, speaking of dead bodies, look who's coming our way."
Kally glanced away from Barry to see the tall, dark and handsome Strange Carrison.
The raven-haired sixteen year old was bedecked in leather boots, a black leather jacket and pair of black denim jeans.
"Well, looky what the cadavers dragged in!" Barry crowed.
Kally said nothing and continued to watch Strange who wasn't just passing by but actually approaching them.
"Hello, Kally, Barry," he greeted them.
Barry grinned w/ delight in the torture he was about to lay on Strange. "Heya, Strange. How's the family?"
Strange nodded. "Good."
"Oh, really? 'Cause last time I heard they were pretty cold, smelly and slab-laden if you know what I mean!"
"Barry!" Kally said, elbowing him in the ribs. She thought Strange was kinda creepy but she would never say anything rude to his face.
"Well, Barry, last time I checked I couldn't smell a thing," Strange retorted.
"Yeah," Barry laughed. "Because you're so used to smelling like death yourself!"
Strange glared at him and then turned his attention to Kally. "Have you seen Raven?
I've been looking all over for her but nobody's seen her. She was supposed to meet me after school to help me w/ my English homework."
Barry laughed some more. "Oh, so now you're running around w/ Rave-Rave, huh? You got a thing for pasty people dontcha?"
Kally gave him another poke to the ribs.
Strange looked about ready to explode. Instead of answering though he walked away in a huff.
Barry began to sing: "you really want me to be a good son. Why do you make me feel like no one? Dum da da dum dead bodies everywherrrrre!"
Kally smacked him.
"Ow! What?"
"Why do you have to be such an ass, Barry? He didn't do anything to you and you know Raven is my friend. You didn't have to make fun of HER."
"Well, it's not my fault she's as pale as a corpse. She looks like a walking vampire."
Kally hit him once again.
"Ouch! What? She does! And how can you NOT make fun of someone who's dad is an undertaker?"
Kally got up from her seat on the side of the high school's large outdoor fountain and walked away, ignoring Barry's annoying howls of laughter.
Once down the main steps of the campus she spotted a slender but short brunette walking towards a brown Toyota Corolla. "Hey!" Kally called out.
Raven O'Ryan smiled and turned around. "Hey, Kally, what's up?"
Kally jogged up to her and frowned. "Oh, not much. Just freaked about the murder you know."
Raven nodded. "Yeah, you never think it'll happen to someone you know. Pretty scary." She studied Kally's troubled face. "Something else is bothering you, Kal... I mean, I know you knew David but I think the only people really close to him were Bailey Garris,Rodney Phibert and of course, Page."
Kally was near tears. "I'm scared for Page, Raven. I really am."
"Page?" Raven looked alarmed. "Why? Because she was there? You think she's having a breakdown or something? Post traumatic stress?"
Kally waved all the suggestions away, agitated. "No, it's Tom."
"Tom..." Raven searched her memory. "Oh! Cop Tom! Her boyfriend."
"Yeah. I think Tom killed David."
"What?! How could that be? I thought Page was the one who-"
"Yeah, Page found him but Tom was w/ her. He left the car to see who had been making noise on the window."
"Noise on the window? This is starting to sound like an Urban Legend..." Raven said, doubtfully.
"Well, it happened!" Kally cried desperately and Tom was the only other person there. Plus I found this!" she said, shoving a copy of the newspaper article on Tom's arrest that she'd pulled up in the computer lab at school that day.
Raven read over and looked at Kally, frightened agreement beginning to rise in her.
"Wow. You could be right."
"Yeah, I need to see if I can find anything else out... Page doesn't believe me and I doubt she's going to listen w/out more concrete evidence."
"Do you want me to help you?"
Kally smiled at Raven's generosity. "Thanks, Rave, but I think someone else could use your help more. Strange was looking for you, I guess he's not doing to well in his English class."
"Oh, crap!" Raven cried, smacking her forehead. "I was supposed to look for him when school got out."
"Yeah he should be here still-it was only a couple of minutes ago."
"Ok, I'll go look for him," she said jogging away and throwing Kally a smile. "Good luck Detective Johnson and be careful!"