Madison Sinclair is Dead
Chapter 3
A/N: Enjoy! By the way, I'm not going to invent too much of the relationships between the already known characters. I know that Dick and Madison dated. Shelly and Meg were good friends (reference: A Trip To The Dentist). I think there are two Shelly's on the show, a white blond girl from the pilot and the Shelly Pomroy from A Trip To The Dentist (the "hot foreign exchange student"). Shelly #2 is our Shelly. I think the white Shelly dated Duncan ("She's a talker." Duncan. "I hate it when they talk." Logan.) but for plot reasons Shelly Pomroy dated Duncan. Again, enjoy!
The Story So Far: Madison Sinclair, the Neptune resident everybody loved to hate is dead. Marcus Wheeler, Pan High's richest student, is blamed. Shelly Pomroy, Madison's best friend and Wheeler's ex-girlfriend, doesn't- and can't- believe the story. She may not be a private eye, but she sure knows how to annoy the local deputies, making weekly visits to the Sheriff's department. Being an annoying rich girl throwing boring parties at the Kane estate is the only life she has ever known. But now, she's close to getting to the bottom of things. Or she would be if it weren't for one little annoyance….
"No way."
"I know what your thinking," Dick Casablancas, my worst enemy, says. "Why did such a fine looking, intelligent boy like myself decide to go to Neptune's very own college instead of branching out in the world in places like England, France, or, uh, Utah?"
I hate him.
"No, I know why you chose to come here. Not only does Hearst have a great Greek System and lots of parties, but you can also drive home once and a while to get Beaver to do your homework."
He frowns. I hate him.
"What I can't believe is that you got into any other place besides Neptune Community College."
"What can I say, my application blew them away."
"So Beav wrote your essays?"
"Correctamundo." God, I hate him. He smirks. I hate that smirk.
Find an escape route, Shelly. Don't let him talk to you any more. Your brain may fry. That's a very bad thing. He's a very bad thing.
"Well…. I should go. I'm supposed to meet my roommate." I say. I head out of Building 4D but he follows.
"Ah, roommate? That sucks. I have an awesome apartment a couple blocks away, if you want to check it out."
No Dick. I don't want to check it out. I hate you. Don't you get it?
Okay, maybe it sounds like I'm a hateful person, but Dick is a dick. He and Madison went out for a while, but he was as faithful as could be expected. She never showed it, but she really loved him. He loved women. Actually, I wouldn't say 'loved'. Maybe 'like liked'. The only person Dick could ever really love is himself.
And maybe Cassidy. But nobody calls him Cassidy. 'Beaver,' Charming, right?
When I, Madison and Dick hung out, Cassidy would follow along. I could never call what we did with him 'hanging out'. He was more like Dick's shadow.
Now I know I'm being mean. Cassidy is okay. I even, uh, went out with him for, like, a week, so it doesn't really count.
When Madison and Dick were in public it may have seemed to many that they hated each other, but when the whole school wasn't around to watch them they were… intense. Too intense. After a while, I couldn't be around the two of them together anymore. I spent my time without Madison with Meg Manning.
When they broke up, Dick spread rumors about Madison. I pretended for Madison's benefit to be unaware of the rumors, but believe me when I say they were nasty. But as far as I know, Madison had no idea. She masked her pain by trying to go after another boy. Duncan Kane was her new obsession, an obsession that eventually got her kicked off the cheerleading squad. When he and I… well there is no need to get into that now.
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea, Dick." I say, and then make my merry way out.
I check the time. It's only eleven o'clock. I guess that's what happens when you're kicked out of class two hours early. Which reminds me: THREE HOUR CLASSES? WHAT GIVES?
Now that I've gotten that out of my system….
I left a note for my roommate Cindy, a girl I have yet to meet even after living in the dorms for almost 18 hours, asking if she'd meet me for coffee, and she left reply: simply "Sure."
Two hours and thirty minutes gives me just enough time to annoy the Neptune Deputies.
My car purrs as I turn the key in the ignition. My radio turns on, serenading me with the best bands a college radio can afford.
"That was Wanker with 'Julie Ripped Out My Heart and Replaced It With A Can of Peas' Wanker will be in the studio with us tomorrow on Crazy Mark's morning show."
I'm sure Wanker is an amazing band, but I change the channel anyway. I search for an oldies station, something to soothe me.
"She stole my heart and then-"
"It just isn't American! If Bush wants to-"
"Rock on!"
"Sinclair-"
"Because I only have eyes for you…"
I quickly turn back to the station before. "The loss of the last appeal could mean bad things for Wheeler. I repeat what I have been saying for the past month, this kid should have gotten the chair."
"But Harper," squeaks another voice. "There is no motive."
"Which makes him even more psychotic. He claims innocence but he won't give an alibi. He refuses to tell police where he was, not even when the rest of his life is on the line."
"All the evidence is circumstantial. If we've learned anything from the Lily Kane murder case it's-"
"You keep bringing up the Lily Kane murder case, but I don't see the relevance. In the Kane case the evidence pointed to Koontz, and he confessed. The system wasn't at fault."
"But it was flawed. The confession was the end of the case. No further investigating was done. Aaron Echolls was brought in on the same crime and prosecution didn't even attempt the death penalty."
"There were completely different circumstances. If Koontz's story were true, it was premeditated murder. Echolls committed a crime of passion."
"Better police should have been brought in to investigate. Bottom line, Harper, is that I have no faith in the Neptune County Sheriff's department."
Finally, something the news and I can agree on.