Monteverde Academy

Chapter-55

It had been two days since Yves' suicide. Not that time mattered that much now. The news of Yves's suicide terrified the whole Carthan community. After Garessa's death and the selzer attack, the news of the death of a noble Carthan at the school had shaken everyone to the core. The newspapers printed nothing else, and the school was to shut down for sure. 

The news no longer affected me. My thoughts were preoccupied. Besides the sadness in my soul over Yves's death, a flame of vengeance had lit up within me. No one else had noticed a piece of paper lying next to Yves. 

A tear-stained paper that said 'I helped kill Garessa.' over it. It was written in Yves's handwriting which would have proven his death as a suicide. And it would have allowed the blackmailer to walk free. No foul play was being suspected and Yves would get justice. Even if Yves had killed himself, my stomach turned at the thought, his blackmailer had a big part to play in his death. And I would not allow him to walk free. I would find him and get justice for Yves. 

A part of me hurt so much at the loss it was hard to believe that such pain existed. Yves, the responsible and caring one of our friend group was dead. The word had a sense of finality to it and made me numb. 

I found a part of myself grasping at the little information I knew about the blackmailer. Finding him was all I could think of when I was not thinking about Yves. I took the crumpled-up piece of paper from my pocket every second I was alone, gazing at it and trying to decipher something. It looked as though it had been torn from a diary. As I stared at the paper for the thousandth time, an idea finally started forming in my brain. 

A mad idea, a long shot by far. But it was something. 

The page had been torn from a diary and was tear-stained. It was written by Yves surely. Maybe he had helped to kill Garessa and the guilt had been too much for him. My stomach lurched at the thought of Yves being involved in something like this. It was another reason why I had kept the note to myself- It would have caused speculations to fly about Yves and his parents already had his death to deal with. They couldn't stand to hear of him being accused as a murderer. 

It meant that Yves' blackmailer was a Selzer who had made him help plan the attack. And Yves was full of guilt about it and wrote it in a diary as he had no one else to confide in. I understood that part. But what if the blackmailer had found his diary, tore the page out, and hung Yves? Yves wanted out of his deal and this might have angered the blackmailer. Whoever he was, he was ruthless enough to kill Garessa and might have killed Yves as well. 

I wondered what happened to the rest of the diary. The blackmailer must have burned it. But he might have kept it. When the note of Yves' confession wouldn't surface, he might be tempted to provide more proof. I know I was grasping at straws but it was worth checking out. It wasn't like I had many clues. And I owed Yves this.