Enjoy!

Chapter 5

"Anyway, let's go over what we have now." Jones said, snapping out of his drooling state.

"Well, the girl definitely seemed to of been suicidal." I said. "Yet that was murder. No way she could of thrown herself backwards with such force on her own."

"No. She couldn't of." Jones replied. "Jake claimed to of been friends and may have wanted something more. But had no idea whether or not she felt the same way or not."

"Then there's the sister who hated her and didn't like her taking her dream or her friends." I added.

"This case is so sad." Jones said, looking down. "I just hope we finish it quickly so her family can have some closure."

"I agree." I said. "And it's not even a gruesome case. Just sad how it probably could've been avoided."

"Right…" Jones replied.

"Not to mention that Brone was in the hallway when it could've happen and didn't go back until the following period." I said. "That still bothers me."

"Yeah. That is suspicious but so far we have three people that most likely could've done it. I don't think the principal did it though."

"Something tells me he didn't. But the other three do have reasons for killing her." I said and glanced over to see King coming up to us.

Jones noticed too and we both sat up straighter.

"Has either of you figured out who the killer is?" King questioned, stopping in front of our chairs.

"No…" Jones replied.

"But…" I added. "We do have three suspects that could be the killer."

"And?" King asked, wanting more.

"We also know that the victim was suicidal. At least the notebook we found in her bedroom made it seem like she was." Jones said, feeling sad again.

"That's awful." King shook his head, in a disappointed manner. "I can only imagine what she was going through."

"Yeah. We were going over the information we have now." I replied.

"We're still waiting on Nathan, Grace, and Alex to get back to us on the stuff we sent them along with the body itself." Jones added.

"Well, hurry up and finish the case. I don't think the family can manage much longer." King said with a sigh.

"We'll try harder but until the others get back to us, we won't know any qualities the killer has." I said.

"Then go back to the school and see if you can find anything else out there." King suggested.

"Okay." Jones nodded. "We'll head out in a minute."

"Fine by me." King nodded back and turned to walk away back to his office.

"Actually, I thought about looking into her locker. Maybe we can find something else there." I said, once King was out of sight. "Probably nothing that could tell us who the killer is but anything else is better than nothing."

"True. Will the principal get us inside it?" Jones asked and I nodded so he continued. "Let's go!"

About 10 minutes later, we were back in the school's office.

"Hi, Mr. Smith, can we ask you a few more things?" I asked, as we walked in and saw he was just behind the counter talking to a receptionist.

"Of course." He nodded and motioned us back. "We'll talk in my office."

"Great!" Jones smiled and we followed him into a room down the hall behind the counter.

"What can I help you with now?" Mr. Smith asked once we were inside.

"A few things." I started. "Can I have a copy of Brone's schedule? Just to have our own version of it."

"Sure." Mr. Smith said and started to type at his computer.

"Another thing," I continued as he printed the schedule. "Did Hannah have any bullying problems?"

"Sadly yes." Mr. Smith said with a frown. "What's worse is that it was mostly from her own sister." I noted that in my tablet.

"Yeah, we heard they didn't get along at all." Jones said. "What all did her sister do to her?"

"Basically made her a laughing stock and ruined her stuff. I have also been told by teachers and kind students that she pushed her around a lot too and berated her about things."

"I'm guessing about her learning disorder and not becoming a fashion designer when she's older?" I questioned and Mr. Smith nodded.

"It's so horrible." Mr. Smith said. "We tried to keep them apart and tried to tell her to leave her sister alone but Hannah kept hanging around her and her friends. Personally, I think it made things worse."

"It did." Jones confirmed. "Lucy hated her being around her friends."

"We contacted their parents but they probably didn't do much. They said it happened all the time at home too." Mr. Smith continued.

"Well, thank you for that new information." I said, turning my tablet off for the time being. "One more thing, can you let us into her locker?"

"Sure." Mr. Smith replied and got up, handing Brone's schedule to Jones.

A few minutes later, we were on the first floor science hallway and outside of a locker. Mr. Smith helped us get the lock off and left us to search it for any clues.

"Good thing the family didn't take anything yet." Jones said as we got our gloves on again.

"Yeah. Probably will be soon though." I replied. "Let's do this quickly."

Jones nodded and we got to work on searching the locker for anything that could help us in the slightest.

"I'm going to check her book bag." I said, taking it out of the locker.

I kneeled down and began to open it, taking her lunch out as well. For the most part, it was empty. As I unzipped the outer pocket and reached in, I did feel a small book. Pulling it out, I realized it was a diary.

"Please don't let there be anymore depressing pictures." I muttered to myself but loudly enough for Jones to hear next to me.

"What's that?" Jones asked, turning around.

"A diary." I said, flipping through the pages. "It's mostly full. Why don't we send this to Alex?"

"Good idea." Jones nodded. "He'll probably be able to read through it quicker than us."

"Did you find anything?" I asked, closing the book bag after putting the lunch back inside, deciding nothing else seemed suspicious about it.

After that, I placed the journal in a evidence bag and sat it down on the floor before getting up to my feet.

"A folder of some of her designs in it. Fortunately, none of these seem to be torn up." Jones replied, looking through them.

"That's good." I said, in relief. Not all of her hard work was gone.

Jones placed it back where he found it on the top shelf of the locker and we continued to search through the books and folders but didn't find anything else that could be important.

"I think we're done here." I said, putting the book bag back in the locker and picking the diary and my tablet up from the floor.

"Yeah, everything else is normal school books and work." Jones agreed.

By the time we reached the back of the school and the exit doors to the parking lot where our car was parked, I began to feel…off.

"Jones." I muttered, grabbing the railing of the two steps after we walked through the door.

"Yeah?" He asked, turning back to me.

"Take this." I handed him the tablet and diary with a shaky hand.

"Are you alright? I've never seen your hand shake like that before." He asked, worried.

"I don't… I don't feel good." I shook my head and my legs shook as I got myself down the stairs. "I'm starting to feel…lightheaded."

"Lexi?" Jones watched as I tried to step toward the car but my legs ended up collapsing underneath me. "LEXI!?" Fortunately, Jones was able to catch me before I face-planted into the concrete. But when he rolled me over, after setting me down, he saw I was already out cold.

Whoops...I killed myself...