Betrayed in Blood

Chapter Twenty

"Your friends at the campaign of sorts a few weeks ago?"

"Oh, yeah, them. Well more specifically, the one with the megaphone." She laughed again.

"Yeah, she's the one who pushed us to write about everything. Well, we already planned to, but she encouraged it." Zoey paused for a moment. "Anyway, we won't be able to do the interview now because of class and because our cameraman isn't here, so when did you want to take the it?"

"I can do this afternoon."

"Perfect, we'll see you then."

As set up, all three members of the committee were together in the otherwise empty journalism classroom when Camilla arrived at the end of the school day. The cameraman-Dylan Alder she learned was his name-was completely set up, and Leah had a clipboard with a notepad that had neat ink writing down nearly each line. Zoey was sitting at the teacher's desk, elbows propped on the desk and fingers intertwined at face level. Everything seemed completely prepared for the interview, which was unexpected since Camilla only took a few minutes to get there after the last bell.

Zoey watched Camilla enter, as if studying her, and said, "You can sit in the chair across from Leah."

Camilla nodded and took a seat. Leah straightened her back, saying, "Hi, Camilla. My name is Leah Miller, and I'm the interviewer in the newspaper committee." They shook hands before she proceeded. "So, we will be asking a lot of questions about Amanda's disappearance, Tiffany's death, and Amy's testimony, as long as you're okay with that. I know they might be sensitive topics for you, so if you need to take a breather at any time, do let me know. Also, the interview is already being recorded visually and auditorially. We won't cut the cameras at any point until you leave, but you may step out if you feel uncomfortable. Any questions?"

"No," she replied, "I understand." Truthfully, the interview process seemed much more uptight than she had expected it to be. Why did they need to keep the cameras rolling? And why were they already recording?

She shoved her curiosity out of her head as Leah cleared her throat. "To start us out, could you introduce yourself?"

"Sure thing! My name is Camilla Green. I'm a junior here at Edwardsville High School, and I'm involved in cheerleading, drama, chorus, and debate, as well as being top of my class since middle school and class president." It was crucial for her to express how perfect she was to the committee and anyone that would later see this footage or read the newspaper, so the made sure to give off a great impression.

"Wow, you're quite busy! I'd like to know, since you're class president, you probably know lots of people at Edwardsville, and although she was a senior, did you know Amanda?"

"Yeah, I'd say we were acquainted, not really friends, though. I knew her because we were both in drama together, but other than that, we didn't have a ton in common, so we didn't really click. But I liked her, she was cool."

"Alright, now let's dive straight into the issue of her disappearance. That day-September 19th, to be precise-where were you after the school day ended?"

"I had a drama rehearsal. It was just a run through of the plot and everything about our upcoming musical. The cast list had just come out, so we were just going to get ideas for sets and acting and discuss the plot together."

"According to Amy, you left the room around the same time as Amanda. Is this true?"

"Yes, but I left before her. Amy keeps changing the story. In the police interrogation, she said I left after her, but now she says it's around the same time. The truth is, she just doesn't remember."

"I see. You left before the rehearsal was over, I assume. Why was that?"

"Oh, well my mom has memory problems, so normally when I tell her that I have something to do after school, she puts a reminder on her phone. She must have forgotten that day because she called me and told me to come home. My dad was back for the first time in a while, since he owns a corporate business in Chicago, so she wanted me to be over for the evening. We don't get to see each other often after all, so I decided to put family first in that moment and left, although the rehearsal wasn't crucial anyway."