The next hour went by so fast it was almost a blur, the piercing sounds of police and ambulance sirens mixed with the cries of young children who knew the unfortunate victim filled the air. The car park was full of worried and panicking parents that were coming and going from the school grounds at almost criminal speeds to make sure their child was as far away from the crime site as possible. The site itself was being tapped off from the public by almost the entire Musain Police Department, the body had been removed from the lake and had been respectfully sent off to be examined by professionals and now the officers where scanning the area for clues and interviewing any students that wished to speak about the discovery. As for the four who had discovered Casey, they had been ushered back into the school before they even had a chance to resist. Now sitting in an empty classroom, several police officers had accompanied them as they waited to be been too. None of them had said a word since the discovery, the image of the young girl half floating in the frozen water still engraved into their minds, it was even hard to make eye contact with each other. How where they meant to feel, act or even start a conversation? Eponine just kept her head down, eyes closed trying to think of anything that wasn't the pale open eyed face of the young girl she knew. For the past hour she had clung onto Enjolras's hand and wouldn't let go, needing something solid and real to keep her in reality, not that Enjolras would ever let go of her. He too was in a state of shock, he knew this whole missing child case wouldn't end well but never in a million years did he ever think it would result in a death. Even if the girl wasn't Megan Howell the idea that a young girl can be found dead on school grounds was a horrifying thought, gripping Eponine's hand tighter Enjolras stayed deep in thought. Joly's head was going though the motions, he was looking around the room trying to focus on anything that would distract him from the events of the past hour, whether that be the posters on the walls, the words scratched into the school desks or even the patches of black mould he saw across the ceiling. In any other situation he would exclaim out loud his concern about the dangerous of black mould if not attended to quickly but for some reason he could not get the words out of his mouth, his body frozen in shock. Combeferre however was the most calm out of the four, yes he too was shocked and saddened by the discovery of young Casey but what Combeferre could understand was how did they not know Casey was missing, at least missing long enough to be brutally beaten and killed the way she was. He was almost certain that they would uncover the face of poor Megan. The young man looked over to the two officers standing by the door and observed them, they too looked a mixture of shock and confusion, maybe they too believed when the call for a dead body was called in they expected to see Miss Howell. He glanced over to his friends observing them also, he noticed Joly's eyes darting back and forth across the room, he watched Eponine focussing on her breathing as well as also noticing the joint hands of two of his best friends. He was about to break the tension in the air but before he could the classroom door opened.
The group of adults that entered the room went as followed, Mr Smith the head teacher of the school, detective inspector Javert and Jean Valjean, it was at this point Combeferre and Enjolras shared a quick glance at each other both thinking the exact same thing. 'When did Javert get back to town?', and lastly Madam Thenardier, who quickly rushed to her daughters side and geld her close.
"Children, I am sorry to keep you waiting especially after the horrific sight you have just witnessed but we had to attended to other matters more quickly." Mr Smith stated bluntly, he was never a man of compassion or emotion for that matter so the children expected nothing less. "I am sure you are familiar DI Javert and Mr Valjean here considering you are friends with their daughter so I will leave you all to it, I still have yet to inform the school board about this whole situation so if you will excuse me." And with that Mr Smith quickly departed with the two officers, leaving the seven other people in the room. Mrs Thenardier was the first to speak.
"Ive talked to all of your mothers, and although they are worried sick I have told them that I will personally bring you all home thats why they not here with us. I know this is tough you guys but I need you to listen to what Di Javert has to say." Her words were calm and more soothing than the bluntness of Mr Smith's which helped Eponine look her mother in the eye for the first time since she entered the room. Madam Thenardier moved to sit behind the kids as DI Javert slowly moved towards them to sit in front of them.
"Children," his deep gruff voice pulled the kids out of their own thoughts "I know this is very hard to understand, children your age should have never endure what you have today." He was trying to be sensitive that much was clear, they had all heard the stories from Cosette of 'bad cop Javert' who would leave suspects shaking in their shoes after five minuets of being questioned, but that was with full group adults who were rapists, murders and kinds of evil. These were just four teenagers who had stumbled upon one of the classmates brutally murdered.
"Im going to let you tell us, in your own words, what happened this afternoon between the hours of 3-4pm, you can take as much time as you need. Just just so you are aware, I will be taking notes and no one will interrupt you." And with that the floor was theirs, immediately both Joly and Combeferre looked to Enjolras to speak and with a sigh Enjolras being to speak.
"It was the end of school, so everyone was walking to their cars, I had offered a ride home to these guys so we were sorting the seats out when suddenly there was this scream…" Enjolras went on to tell the inspector of how the four of them discovered the body and the short aftermath of the find before the police where called in. Just as he said Javert was sat making notes, nodding along to the story at certain bits making it clear to them that he was indeed following the tale. It wasn't until the Enjolras was done speaking when Javert took a moment to re read his notes and composed himself until asking,
"I don't not mean to sound disrespectful but answer me this if you can, why did the four of you decide to run off into a possibly dangerous situation instead of going to an adult first? What if God forbid the person responsible for this tragedy was still there at the crime scene?"
"The kid was terrified and wasn't able to say anything we didn't know what was even happening, all we knew was that there was no teacher to alert outside so we just acted on impulse. At the time were where the only senior students on site." Combeferre spoke, a little offended by the statement, of course they were going to do something in that situation, instead of run the other way to find an elder who probably wouldn't even do anything. "Besides we did send a friend of ours to find an adult, we told Grantaire to run back in to find someone."
"That you did, but you still ran into the direction of a crime scene not knowing where the culprit was still there, not only endangering yourself but the others around you. And to to it all off contaminating the crime scene all four of your DNA will be either on or around the body of Miss Jones with could halt this whole investigation." The four teens looked up in shock, they completely forgot about that, not only did they run into a possible murder scene but Combeferre even touched young Casey's face so that they could identify her.
"Lets not scare the children now, there reasons for doing what they did are reasonable. after all they are not trained police officers and I am sure they wanted answers just as much as we all do." Came the gentle voice of Jean Valjean, it was the first time he had made himself known to the whole room and the kids were grateful for it, Javert took another small moment before nodding in agreement leaning back into his chair. Valjean took this silence to ask a few questions of his own taking the empty seat in front of Eponine, giving her a small smile before asking
"So Eponine dear, we now know that it was you who identified young Casey, did you know her well?"
"No, not really I only met her once" her mouth was dry, words struggling to come out of her her grip on Enjolras became tighter as she continued, "before school ended for the holidays she came up to me needing help to find her friend, we didn't find her in the end our guess was that she just went to class without her anyway that was it." The three boys looked at her oddly, that wasn't the story she had told them, why wasn't she saying the whole story, they didn't say anything not wanting to get her in trouble so they just nodded instead.
"We just assumed it was Megan" Joly quickly added
"I would understand your assumption, considering the fact Miss Howell is still registered as missing, what we now need to do is find links between the two girls and trace Miss Jone's last moments over the holidays. I believe that it would be best of you four to now head off home and take some time for yourself I know it was been a stressing day. I have taken the statements you have written earlier for me to read through and will need reach out to each of you individually later on incase of any further questions. Thank you." After Javert's final words Madam Thenardier took this as her cue to usher the kids out to the room, before leaving the room Eponine glanced over to Jean Valjean one last time and noticed his worried face. Being the head of the community it made sense that he would too feel distressed about the whole situation it was just hard for him to show it. The need to look strong and calm in times of chaos and distressing times was just apart of his character, a trait that allowed the man to be trusted in leading the town in the direction he knew the community needed to go in to stay strong and stable. With a reassuring smile Eponine nodded her head in gratitude and left with the rest of the group, until just Javert and Valjean were left in the room.
There was a small comfortable silence while Javert went over his notes as Valjean watched from the window as Madam Thenardier drove away from the school with the four kids in tow, he knew these kids all too well, he saw them often hanging out and studying with his Cosette and has grown quite attached to the large group of friends his daughter has.
"Thank you for coming up and taking over this case, were only used to a few shoplifters and kids mucking around, I don't think our police department has ever dealt with a situation like this in nearly fifty years."
"It's no problem, we were getting nowhere with the The Patron-Minette case as its seems they have disappeared off the face of the earth so the case was taken away from my team. In any case this is my home and we will find out what is going on. To loose a child that young, I cannot imagine how her parents are feeling right now."
"Im going to check in on them tomorrow, give them tonight to have some space and grieve, do we have any information as of now?"
"So far, all that we know is that death was caused by a blunt force trauma to the back of the head so death would have been instant." There was no tone in either mans voice, they just wanted to get the whole conversation over and done with.
"What about the scars on her body? Surely they must have been done before death?"
"No, we have just been informed that those slashes to the victims body and limbs where done after death."
"Jesus…weapons?"
"From looking at all the notes form the medical officers first estimations, were looking at large bulky object, metal possible sharp edges."
"Something like a shovel?"
"Something exactly like a shovel" Javert agreed. He too wished to get this conversation, in fact this whole case over and done with too, while he loved the thrill of an investigation when it involves the murder of a child he rather wished he was doing paperwork. "Ive seen statements from the kids, that Grantaire especially that the caretaker was spotted on campus holding a shovel, then suddenly when all hell broke loose he was nowhere to be found. I want to speak with him immediately."
The town was quite that evening, barely anyone was walking about the streets. Families stayed inside keeping their children close, today would be a day that would not be forgotten quickly. Madam Thenardier had closed the cafe early and had closed the blinds to give the group inside some privacy, the parents of the friendship group had decided it would be best to stay together and take the evening to let the day sink in after all most of their kids had seen some truly horrific things that day. The parents knew that they needed each other right now, both the kids and the parents. While the parents sat together sharing their concerns and worries over coffee with just hints of bandy, the kids where also huddled together although not much had been said.
"You never think this would happen would you, I mean you see it in movies and tv shows but when it happens for real.." Marius was the one to break the silence unable to stand the awkward tension in the group,
"I really thought it was going to be Megan" Combeferre said bluntly, "I mean it had to have been her, we didn't know about another missing person. It makes no sense."
"What I don't understand is why you lied Ep." The group looked at Joly in shock as he made his quiet statement,
"Excuse me?" Came Eponine's shaky response, not really wanting to be having this conversation at that particular moment, she saw the faces the three boys gave her after her talk with Javert so she knew this would be coming sooner or later.
"You didn't tell Javert about the whole story, you didn't mention the fact that one minuet she was with you then suddenly she had disappeared, what if that was relevant."
"Joly I don't think he wanted to know about some sick prank a couple of first years decided to play on me, I don't see how that would be relevant." Her tone came out slightly more aggressive than Eponine intended as Joly hung his head in response deciding not to say anything else. "Im sorry Joly, I'm just, I don't know this whole day has been the day from hell." Joly gave a small smile accepting her apology and turned to comfort Musichetta who looking at all the news articles about the incident on her phone, already some of the big news outlets had taken the story and blown it out of proportion.
"He's right though Ep, maybe you should have mentioned it." Surprisingly Cosette had joined the conversation, while her dads where dealing with all the immediate dealings of the investigation she would be staying with Eponine and Madam Thenardier for the night. "Even if you don't think it would be much help at all you shouldn't leave anything out about the last time you saw Casey, even the smallest detail can be a clue."
"Your right, next time your dad comes to see us I will tell him I promise." Silence came to the group again, even though they were not talking they took comfort in one and other, Courfeyrac had returned from behind the coffee bar with a few packets of biscuits and crisps for the group to munch on while still in between Grantaire and Combeferre,
"So if it wasn't her, what do we think has happened to Megan?" To hear such a serious a statement from the prankster of the group sent shivers down the groups spine, Courfeyrac may be a joker but he knew when the time was right.
"I don't know but I have a bad feeling about this whole situation." Enjolras muttered, he couldn't help but remember the slashes on Casey's body, he remember about how unusual and familiar they looked but he could put his finger on it.
"You think both Megan and Casey are linked somehow?" Combeferre asked,
"Maybe, I'm sure we will find out soon enough now that Javert is taking over the case."
"I think we should take a moment to remember Casey, and Megan even if we still don't know what is happening." Grantaire spoke up raising his mug of coffee, "I know most of us barely knew Casey but we all knew-know Megan." The rest of the group joined Grantaire in raising their cups and glasses, it was Jehan next who spoke.
"Those we love don't go away, they walk beside us everyday. Unseen , unheard, but always near. Still loved, still missed… Casey and Megan."
"Casey and Megan."