Teenage Detective
Chapter 6: A Guy Named Gavin
Alin was aware that Harry was acting slightly odd after seeing the guest book. "Hey Harry, what's wrong?" she asked. Then she noticed the certain name on it. "It's!"
After informing Hermione, they began to spread out and look out for any male with a scar on his cheek. But their search was to no avail.
"Did you girls find him?" Harry asked as they met up again.
Alin shook his head. "I can't find him, if he did come, I could have spotted him from miles away," she said.
"Maybe he left early because he got something to do," Hermione guessed.
"Or maybe because of the police, Mr. Gavin is a much suspected person right now," claimed Alin. They quit searching and went through the funeral in a somber mood.
"Why all of a sudden you want to go to Corbin's place?" Alin asked anxiously as she and Hermione walked briskly to catch up to Harry.
"You already solve the footprint mystery, shouldn't we be searching for Elisa's father who is in town," Hermione pointed out a bit mad at Harry for the way he was turning his back when spoken to.
"The problem appeared above the footprints," Harry told them, but the girls were puzzled. "If the killer's method was really what I just proved to the inspector, then the killer must be the one who stole Farah's shoes, proceeded to do the murder, wait for the snow to come down and walk backwards to leave prints."
"Yeah isn't that the whole story," Alin said in annoyance.
Then Harry turned his head to them while walking. "If that's the case, then to whom is the killer showing the footprints to?"
Harry's point took the girls by surprise. Hermione the spoke. "Of course it should have been obvious in the first place, after an hour of snowing, the rain will fall and destroy the footprints, it would be a waste of time if nobody saw them."
"In other words," Harry continued for Hermione. "The killer is someone who knows that the footprints will be seen by someone later."
Alin eyes went wide. "Could it be..," she stuttered.
"Furthermore I think the killer knew the time we were going to dig up the time capsule," Harry said hesitantly.
"No way!" Alin protested furiously. "It can't be one of us. It just can't be!"
"But Harry," Hermione cut in. "Everyone was present when we walked into the school area, before that, the snow didn't fall yet, so there shouldn't be any prints left by us."
"Yes this shows that everyone has an alibi!" Alin added firmly.
Harry looked at the girls with nonchalant face. "Everyone?" he said simply.
The girls then realized they forgot someone. "Corbin!"
Police cars were parked in front of an old rundown double storey house where Corbin and his family live. The police was questioning Corbin, who was alone at home.
"But I have an alibi," Corbin scowled. "Before six, I was doing chores at the harbour and left the place around six."
The inspector smirked. "We also did our investigation and you left at five fifty pm, which left ten minutes before the snow fall down," he said then turned rough towards Corbin. "But I heard you were on a motorcycle going to the harbour, why is that!" the inspector demanded.
The inspector's foul interrogation skill worked and it made the blonde nervous. "If I rode on a bicycle like I always do, I'll be late for my friends," he said tensely.
"But you were late in the end," he shot a scary glare at Corbin, making him silent. "Only at six twenty, you appeared at the school area, isn't that correct?" he added with satisfaction.
Then he did the absurd, the inspector showed the town map and the quickest route from the harbour to the school. "I asked a traffic policeman to ride a motorcycle following this route, twenty minutes was all it takes! In other words, before you saw your friends, you got ten minutes to do the crime," he accused.
This made Corbin seethed with anger. "How can that be? I can't ride the bike well yet so don't compare me with a traffic police!" he scowled.
The inspector ignored Corbin's yelling. "Enough you're coming with me to the station," said the grey haired man, motioning his men to arrest Corbin.
But suddenly the door burst open. "Wait!" yelled Harry, he was panting heavily, but his composure still intact. Alin and Hermione were behind him, panting.
"Harry!" Corbin said in confusion.
Harry ignored Corbin and got to his point. "No matter how fast he rode the bike that day, he can't reach the school before six ten and that's why Corbin has an alibi!"
The inspector was infuriated with Harry. "You again, what's the weird now?" he spoke with a bit of anger.
"Isn't the snow fall on six am?" Harry asked back.
The inspector nodded, his brows raised. "Yeah, the real time was five fifty eight but I don't see a problem here?"
"Think carefully," Harry said. "If Corbin arrived at school at six ten, the snow should've been piling at school; the question is how did Corbin walk into the middle of the school field without leaving any footprints?" Harry's question caught the outlandish inspector and the police by surprised and they were quiet, unable to answer. "If he did left footprints, not all would be covered by snow ten minutes later!"
The police left with humiliation especially the inspector. The sound of the police car faded as Alin hotly waved at them.
Harry winked at Corbin while grinning. "It's alright now, Corbin!"
"Harry.." the blonde boy murmured.
"This makes Elisa's father more suspicious!" said Alin indignantly, her temper still need some time to cool off.
Harry then spoke what on his. "In my opinion, maybe its time we gathered and talked about the time capsule at the park, we were heard by or our mobile phones were heard unknowingly… even though its-"
Hermione cut off Harry, something she has not done a long time. "Harry, if we have time to talk, isn't it better to go straight for the answers?" she said in her bossy tone.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked quickly.
"Let's go and find Ms. Catherine and asked about Mr. Gavin L.P, if the father and daughter did write letters to each other, she should've known something," Alin said and it made sense and also took Harry by surprise.
Harry thought for a moment then spoke in agreement but when he saw Alin and Hermione already went ahead, he quickly dashed to catch up, leaving a clueless Corbin behind.
It was almost dawn when they reached Ms. Catherine's restaurant at a neighbouring town. Harry, Hermione and Alin were welcomed and treated to a nice dinner.
"Sorry to bother you, Ms. Catherine," said Alin sincerely.
"It's quite alright… lunch already pass and I have my rest, I'll prepare some dinner for you three," she said dotingly, and left to the kitchen. She came back later with food she thought Harry and Hermione would love.
Harry's eyes caught the address of the restaurant on the menu; he then remembered that in the guest book at Farah's funeral had addresses also.
"Ms. Catherine," he called the older woman to attention. "During the Elisa's funeral, you said her father was absent, isn't that right? He asked.
The older woman was quite puzzled but answered yes anyway.
"But in the guest book has someone name Gavin L.P and the address was this place." Then Harry stood up from his seat. "Please tell us the truth, did Elisa's father really come to the funeral!" he demanded although he was showing rudeness.
Ms. Catherine was silent for a moment then laughed a bit. "You got it wrong, Harry dear," she said in her laughter, making the teens puzzled.
"You got the wrong Gavin L.P, he's not my ex-husband," she said truthfully.
"What!" the teens gasped in unison.
"The Gavin that came to the funeral was another person… he's a regular customer of this restaurant, and used to be our neighbour, that's why he came to the funeral… there's a lot of L.Ps here and Gavins too… about six or five of them in town," she explained. "Don't you know what L.P stands for?"
Ms. Catherine's question hit his mind, and he immediately thought of someone. "Then where's Elisa's father now?" he asked.
The older woman's face turned solemn. "About that… before Elisa passed away, it's hard to contact him, you could say he hasn't known about his daughter yet."
The three went back to Alin's place by bus. Along the ride, Harry was unusually quiet while Alin was frustrated.
"Another dead end, have to start from the beginning," the wavy haired girl mumbled.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked, anxious of his quietness.
"I feel like I've been careless of something," he answered back simply.
At the same time, Amy was at school. All the lights were turned off, so she equipped herself with torchlight and went to her favourite place, the Tennis Club room. She was carrying a paper bag from the hardware shop.
"This place is too dark," she said with worry, when she opened the door of the club room.
She placed the things she was carrying on the table and moved the chair adjacent to the burn out light above her.
"Have to hurry and change the light bulb and find that thing," she said to herself. "If that thing picked up by someone else, I'll-" she jumped when she heard the door creaking.
A dark figure came into the room as Amy spun around in fright. "Who's there?" she asked, almost screaming.
She turned relief when she recognised the visitor. "Oh, it's you, what do you want?... you almost scared me, why did you come here?" she said stutteringly.
The figure remained silent and pulled out a dart from his pocket.
Amy's eyes went wide as she saw the same type of weapon that killed her bestfriend. Her mind told her to run and she did but the killer grabbed her swiftly. Then with all her might she pushed the killer off her, the killer then staggered backwards. Amy ran pass him but slipped down when she stepped on to something beady and fell down on her front. The killer was now standing above her and she crawled toward the nearest wall.
She turned around, putting her back to the wall. She took a good look at the cold face of the killer. She was utterly terrified for her life. The killer held her now.
"You… you killed Farah!" she cried.
The killer drew out the dart again.
"No…stop!" Amy pleaded.
A shrill scream erupted that night, but no on heard as eerie silent followed.
Harry could not stop the burdening guilt inside him. The day started normally when he, Hermione, Alin, Kevin and Darren were waiting for Amy and Corbin in front of Alin's parents' motel. They were planning to help the townspeople cleaning up the Snow Festival. Next thing he knew was Corbin came screaming on his bike, screaming for them to run to the school.
They were not permitted to go inside the school but all they heard was the news of Amy's death, killed in the same way Farah did. Alin instantly broke into tears as Hermione gathered her in a hug to comfort her. The bushy haired girl too was in tears.
Though his friend's mourning did not reach his ears, all he could do was recalled Amy in his memories.
"Amy, you dressed a bit showy!" Harry teased when he was eight year old to Amy and Darren laughed along.
"I hate you guys!" an eight year old Amy cried in anger.
He then reminiscent about yesterday's conversation.
"This will ruin my image… I used to be bright," she wiped her eyes quickly and faced from the other two occupants in the room.
Harry gritted his teeth. "Unforgiveable!" he cursed, and slammed his fist to the school wall, blooding his hand. The others were surprised by his action but he did not care.
"I can't forgive something like this to happen… no matter the excuse… I will catch the killer with my own hands!" he swore to himself and with determined face and also the memory of Amy, Farah and Elisa in his mind.
"You'll wait… I'll capture you!"
A/n: I'm trying to finish this story so i can be proud of finishing a story this year.
