POV Janice Avery
Janice's head had been swimming since the revelations that Randall had given her. The idea that Leslie had been the victim of some sort of conspiracy was nearly impossible to comprehend.
Leslie was the most innocent person that Janice Avery could imagine. To imagine fate being so cruel as to take her at twelve years old was difficult to fathom on its own. Now Janice had to deal with the notion that what had happened may not have been an accident after all.
Janice, while thinking of this felt a fire build inside her. Whoever was evil enough to take Leslie Burke from this life too soon was someone she would hunt to the ends of the earth, if necessary, to bring them to justice.
"Hey, you ready to get this started, " Randall said, approaching Janice in the pre-selected location. "You sure nobody is going to look here?" He added.
"I'm positive." Janice responded "This has never been a very popular spot this thing is more of a monument than anything else"
" So this is the bridge that Jesse Aarons built" mused Randall at the wooden bridge that was in the spot that he had been to years ago as a trooper " This is a level of devotion that is amazing for a middle schooler"
"Well Jesse is a rare guy and Leslie was a rare girl" Janice responded "The connection between those two was something else, two misfits who just hit it off"
Wilson instinctively walked over to the place that he had first seen Leslie laying on the ground with the medics around her. "So let's go over the events of the day of the incident, Leslie goes out in the morning and falls from the broken rope. Hits her head and drowns"
"That's what they said happened." Janice responded
Randall asked " Do you see what is strange and improbable about this?"
" That the time the rope broke was when Jesse was not around, it seemed like simple bad luck at the time" Janice answered
" Where was he then?" Asked Randall
"He was on a field trip" Janice answered
"A Field trip? But it was a Saturday" Wilson responded rather puzzled. "And why was Leslie not on this field trip as the two were the same grade in school."
Janice gave the answer "Well, it wasn't an official field trip he went one on one with a favorite teacher. She took him to an art museum."
Randall's eyes were nearly out of their sockets " Favorite teacher? One on one field trip? On a weekend?"
"I know it sounds pretty suspect," Janice responded. "But nobody thought much of it because Leslie's death was the bigger story".
" Much to this teacher's luck, if not people would have been on her like flies on dog shit" Randall responded "I mean, what the hell was she thinking?"
"I don't know" Janice responded " She was an eccentric type who wanted to do things her way."
"Where is she now? Wilson asked
" Got out of Lark Creek, was offered a spot as some sort of music critic a couple of years after Leslie…." Janice's eyes got big " wait a minute sudden life improvement after taking Jesse away from Leslie that day…. I just can't believe it, not Ms. Edmunds, she would never be involved with something like this."
"Perhaps not knowingly" Wilson responded "there is always a chance that she may have been used by someone with nefarious intent, I have seen it happen before that people get an offer of some sort in exchange for a favor that just seems too good to be true. It happens where someone tells you to drive a car to a certain location for a few thousand dollars and turns out the car is full of drugs. It wouldn't be too far fetched to get someone to take a boy out of town for a day and then kill his best friend"
" That seems very plausible" Janice responded
"But you also said that there were issues with Bill and Judy's speech patterns can you tell me more?"
"Usually parents who have suddenly lost a child are either inconsolable and crying uncontrollably or so deep into shock that they appear emotionless. Those who murdered their own child are prone to using words that distance themself emotionally from their child and the crime. Bill and Judy did not fit either of these patterns" said Wilson
Janice raised an eyebrow " Was there a known pattern that they fit"
Wilson hesitated for a minute "According to my knowledge Leslie Burke was an only child correct?"
"I never saw any evidence that said she wasn't" Replied Janice.
Wilson looked off into the distance as if lost in thought. " The speech and behavioral patterns from the Burkes most closely aligned with parents whose child was killed by a sibling"
Janice was quite surprised to hear this "What, how?"
"They were talking and acting like they were doing something difficult to protect or save their own child. In the case of a dead child it usually means that a sibling was the culprit." Wilson said, still looking rather puzzled "But the issue is finding out who they were protecting as they only had one child and she was, from what I saw, laying there dead."
"Alright let's discuss next steps" Janice transitioned " I would say that from everything that we have the first area that we should look at is the involvement of Ms. Edmunds. That seems more doable than tracking down The weird EMTs Leslie's parents or her officially non existent sibling"
" You know anybody we can talk to about more of the details of the field trip she took Jesse on?" asked Randall
"I think I know someone" Janice responded
POV Maybelle Aarons
It was a Saturday morning like most others. Maybelle had completed her chores and had gone to her father's hardware store where the high schooler would work for a number of hours each week to earn herself some money.
She was at the register counter, feeling sort of bored during the slow morning, when she saw a familiar face enter the store. Janice Avery entered and walked through the store looking up and down each aisle but not seeming to pay much attention to any given item, which was rather unusual behavior. It was obvious she was making sure nobody else was in the store but it was unclear why. It seemed highly unlikely that a local cop would commit a robbery without even putting a mask on.
Janice approached the counter "Hey Maybelle, nice seeing you, I need your help with something."
"I see" Maybelle said "And from the way you just checked out the whole store I don't think you're looking for a new pair of pliers".
"Not quite" Janice responded " I think you may be able to help me with a sort of ummm… extracurricular investigation"
"What could I possibly know about that you would be investigating?" asked a bewildered Maybelle
"It's about Leslie Burke" Janice relayed
That name slammed into Maybelle like a freight train, It was a name that had always hung over her world but, for her brother's sake, she dare not speak it. "Wh-what about her?, it was simple, she was swinging on a rope, it broke and she drowned" Maybelle responded
"There is some doubt though" Janice stated " I talked to
a state trooper present at that scene, The medics were sketchy as hell, didn't let him near Leslie's body."
"Sounds a bit odd" Maybelle said "But hardly what groundbreaking investigations are made of"
Janice steadied herself and took a deep breath "There was other evidence, Leslie's parents were acting weird"
Maybelle's eyes grew wider
"We don't think they killed her" Janice reassured," but they were not acting consistent with what you would expect people whose daughter died in an unexpected accident would act like he said their speech patterns were off and they acted like they were protecting someone".
"So, what brings you here? Is there something specific you need from me in terms of help?" Maybelle asked.
"I need to know as much as possible about the field trip that Jesse took with Ms. Edmunds. It is highly possible that someone may have influenced Ms. Edmunds to get Jesse away from the creek without her knowing the true reason." Janice responded
"Ok" Maybelle added dumbfounded "Jesse does not like to talk about this all that much but I remember some details. She called in the morning and I answered, she asked for Jesse so I gave it to him saying that it was his girlfriend calling He responded saying "She isnt my girlfriend" now I realize he probably thought it wasn't quite Ms. Edmunds, I remember hearing that she had originally planned to bring her nephews to this museum but that plan had fallen through. That Is all I can remember aside from the fact that Ms. Edmunds did not speak at all to my mom."
"That is interesting" Janice "said it may be the start of something"
POV Jesse Aarons
Jesse sat in the classroom as Monster-Mouth invited Leslie to the front to read her assignment.
"I am moving gently forward over the wild and beautiful unexplored world below me. I am floating in silence and breaking it up with the sound of my breath. Above me there is nothing but shimmery light…."
Jesse, who had been becoming more comfortable with his new neighbor and classmate, was amazed by the imagery she described and found himself beginning to picture the things she described such as a school of silver fish and the bubbles rising from the water.
"i don't have as much time as i need to see everything but that is what makes it so special"
Jesse came back to the present where things were in some ways the same, he was sitting in a classroom hearing someone talk about SCUBA diving. This time it wasn't Leslie, but it was one of the many instructors in blue t-shirts.
This was the SCUBA oriented phase of training. SCUBA Phase surprisingly involved a lot of classroom instruction "Just leave it to Leslie to make this application of math and science seem like magic" Jesse snapped himself to reality he didn't make it through all of this just to be dropped and sent to "The Fleet" over a math test.
POV JANICE AVERY
Janice had arrived home and begun doing her research. She found Ms. Edmunds on Facebook.
"Time to do a little bit of snooping" Janice thought to herself "First off I will look into her nephews"
Sure enough Ms. Edmunds did have two Nephews, but all of the information on facebook stated that they were raised in Nevada much too far away for impromptu plans that could fall apart so quickly. Janice then had another revelation " Wait a minute, she has two nephews, she had a good rapport with Leslie. Why did she let a ticket to the museum go to waste when she could have invited Leslie" Janice could not think of a single reassuring answer to this. She pulled up the burner email she had made for this investigation.
She began drafting an email to Randall. The subject line read; Person Of Interest: Miss Edmunds.