Revenge in the Cold

By Son of the Specter 992

As Sean Krampton entered his school, he took off his hat, gloves, and scarf. He was surprised at how much it had snowed the night before. He was so busy taking off his stuff that he wasn't watching where he was going until it was too late. Without warning, he was knocked down so hard that his head began to spin. He looked up to see Superintendent Silverman standing right above him.

"Oh, Sorry Superintendent Silverman," Sean stammered as the bulky, muscular man helped him off of the floor. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

The superintendent smiled and nodded in acknowledgement and walked towards the principal's office. Sean continued on to class.

In the stairwell, Sean stopped as he heard the voice of Principal Hayels speaking in a very stern tone. "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times, students, teachers, and faculty are not allowed use cell phones. Hand it over Mrs. Monrow and get back to your classroom, the bell is about to ring." Mr. Hayels walked down the stairs and passed Sean without a glance.

Class went by quickly and recess came fast. Sean was alone on the bench as usual; he was a straight "A" student and the smartest kid in school. Because of this, he wasn't very popular and didn't have very many friends. He looked up to see Mr. Hayels standing next to him with what looked like a walkie talkie, or a cell phone. He seemed unnerved and shot his glance to the school roof.

Sean followed his glance over to the roof to see the figure of a man falling towards the ground. Sean saw the body land along with a group of other kids. One girl screamed as Sean jumped up and dashed over to the figure.

When he got to the body, there was a circle of kids and teachers around it. He pushed through and found that sprawled on his back in the snow was none other than Superintendent Silverman sprawled on his back. He had landed on a soft blanket of snow. Sean urged for the crowd to move back. He removed his glove and placed his index and middle fingers on the superintendent's neck hoping for a pulse. There was none.

Sean loved forensics. His TV schedule only included shows like I Detective, Forensic Files, C.S.I, and Case Closed. He was the most knowledgeable about mysteries, forensics, and crime solving in the school and everyone knew it. His opinion was the best of anyone's in the student body or the faculty.

Everyone waited eagerly for his response. Finally he got up and turned to the crowd. He lowered his head so that he was looking towards the ground, shook his head, and announced in a solemn voice, "He's dead."

Everyone was shocked. It was obvious that Superintendent Silverman jumped off of the roof of the school but why would he? It was well known that he lived a very good life. He had no reason to commit suicide. Sean was puzzled. Superintendent Silverman was wearing his hat, gloves, and scarf, but he wasn't wearing his coat. Sean started to take off his hat. He felt it and recognized it as one of the new thick hats that is padded to help protect the wearer's head. He removed the hat and found a large bloody bruise on the back of his head.

It took about an hour for the police to get to the school. They immediately began setting up boundaries and questioning the faculty and students. Sean was allowed by Principal Hayels and Inspector Krampton, Sean's uncle, to observe the investigation and take notes for an extra credit project later on.

Sean followed the investigation up to the roof that Superintendent Silverman had jumped from and looked around for himself. He was surprised to find a large rectangular section leading up to a tall pile of snow that seems to have been built up. There was also an open ventilation shaft that the police overlooked but Sean decided that it was too important to be overlooked

Inspector Krampton sent Sean back to class and told him that the case would be wrapped in just a few moments. Sean left the roof and went back inside. On his way downstairs, he passed Principal Hayels. Something caught Sean's eye, distracting him. He tripped over Principal Hayels' prized tiger headed cane.

He fell down the flight of stairs. When he looked up, he saw Principal Hayels leaning down to help him up. Afterwards, as Sean continued down the stairs, he noticed one of Principal Hayels' blond hairs in his hand. 'Hm' Sean thought to himself, 'must have brushed against his head when I fell'

He then went up to one of the police officers that were patrolling the school and asked him to call the inspector downstairs. After Sean's uncle met up with him in the cafeteria, he was asked to gather everyone else into the cafeteria.

After everyone was brought together, Sean got up in front of them and began to speak.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and students, this, Superintendent Silverman appeared to have jumped off of the roof of our school." Sean began, "However, one person in this room murdered him and made his body fall off of the roof."

At this, the inspector interrupted, "Uh, Sean, sorry to disappoint you, but we've already closed this case as a suicide. Sorry."

"I know. That's exactly what the murderer wanted it to look like. He was there with the kids during recess when the body fell, creating the perfect alibi. During the investigation, I found a bunch of clues that point to one person as the murderer." Sean stood up straight and pointed directly in front of him at the murderer, "Principal Hayels, you're the murderer."

Principal Hayels looked shocked when he heard this. "What are you saying Sean? I was with you when he fell. How can I be the murderer?"

"I'll tell you exactly how. It was quite simple. You first had Superintendent Silverman come to your office where you killed him. You then took him up to the roof. This was easy, being the principal you knew what times all teachers would be where and how to avoid being seen. After bringing him up to the roof, you set him up close to the edge with a remote control car beside him attached with a snow plow. Later, during recess when you set up your alibi by standing right in front of me, you drove the car forward into the corpse of Superintendent Silverman pushing him off of the edge. Finally, you drove the car into the open ventilation shaft where it fell into the intersection of all ventilation shafts in the building, your office where you picked it up later."

Sean was interrupted by Principal Hayels. "Listen young man, all I've heard are hypotheses. I don't like being blamed for things that I didn't do. Now, stop throwing around false accusations without proof."

"I'm afraid he's right Sean. You really need some proof." Inspector Krampton agreed.

"Don't worry Uncle, I've got proof. First off, on the roof, there was a large rectangular clearing that led up to a large built up pile of snow. This proves that snow was plowed in that area. Secondly, during recess, you were on a cell phone or a two way radio. Since I know that the school doesn't use radios, you must have been using a cell phone but your policy is that students, teachers, and faculty aren't allowed to use cell phones and since this is the rule that you are so strict about, why would you break it? Because you disguised the remote to the car as a cell phone and needed it to carry out your plan. The next piece of evidence is strange. The victim was wearing a thick hat that was made to protect his head from harm and he landed on a blanket of soft snow, but his head had a large bruise on it. My conclusion is that you bashed him over the head with your cane before setting up this whole plot."

"Good hypothesis, but where is the physical proof?" Principal Hayels demanded.

"I will give it to you in a minute but first, sit down Principal Hayels, I need your cane." The principal handed Sean his cane. "Here is the physical proof. In the tiger's mouth you will find a few strands of hair, but this hair is black while your hair is blond. This only shows that this cane at some point hit Superintendent Silverman's head, probably when you bashed him over the head. With all of this evidence, is there anything that you would like to add?"

Principal Hayels lowered his head and tightened his fist. "The big oaf had it coming to him." He said in a stern voice. "13 years ago, on this very day, my older brother committed suicide after being blackmailed by that monster, Silverman. My brother had been embezzling money at a company that he and Silverman had been working at together. Silverman found out and forced him to pay him off in weekly allowances. After a while, he ran out of money but that wasn't good enough for Silverman. He threatened to turn my brother in but my brother couldn't take it. That night my brother jumped from the roof of his apartment building. My family was devastated. We all knew it was him but couldn't do anything about it. I was working as a principal when he started his job as superintendent and leaped at the opportunity to do away with that heartless fool."

The police handcuffed Principal Hayels and began to lead him out of the school when he stopped. "Sean," the principal began, "and everyone, what I've done is inexcusable. Take today's events into account and please, don't throw your lives away like I did. Sean, you are a magnificent student. You always told me that you wanted to be a forensic scientist when you grew up. I think that you will do greatly." Hayels let the police lead him away.

The next day, Sean's face was on the front page. He was embarrassed. It was a picture taken of him by an officer during the investigation. The headline was "PRE-TEEN SLUETH SOLVES MURDER AT LOCAL MIDDLE SCHOOL." It took almost a month for Sean to get over what had happened but time passed and he went on with life as all people should.