The Mystery Of Eastbrooks High

Chapter Four: History Mystery

NORAH COULDN'T SLEEP. This was a common thing from the past two years, but this time, the reason was different. While most of the sleepless nights had been due to the endless sorrow about Noah, last night had been different. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened to Josh.

She recalled the last time she saw him, how he had bumped into her looking as if he were in a hurry, talking to someone on his phone. Norah had stayed up till her mom came back home, and asked her to tell her all the details.

Nothing new had been revealed by the autopsy. There were no traces: no fingerprints, no tire tracks, no footprints, nothing useful found at the site. The backside of the beach was rarely used, so there were no CCTV cameras. His bag had normal things, school books, a laptop, a wallet with his driving license and some cash, and his phone was taken in for examination.

Josh Park had been in a hurry to go to the beach to meet his girlfriend. They apparently had a small argument a few days ago and made up after the meeting. His girlfriend left at around 8:45 because she had to say goodbye to her cousin who was leaving the island, and her family had confirmed the fact that the girlfriend had been with them the whole time. His girlfriend, Kaylie, had told the police that it was a spot where Josh and she usually met up, describing it as 'their' place.

Josh coming home late wasn't something unusual, so his parents weren't concerned. But after there were no responses to their texts and calls, they called up the police in the early morning. His body was found shortly after. But according to the autopsy, he died at around 9 'o'clock the previous night. This meant that while he was packing up to go back home after his girlfriend left, and was leaving the beach through the back gate, someone intercepted and killed him.

This was somehow deeply connected with their murder mystery book club. It definitely wasn't a coincidence, the fact that they'd left the Truly Devious poem near the crime scene, and that it was the selected book for the fortnight and Josh was the one supposed to write the article.

Faces flitted in her memory, faces of the members of the murder mystery book club. The first face that came to her mind was Austin Walker's. She recalled the fact that he'd been talking frustratedly on the phone with someone, and left because he had something to do. Then something else flashed in her mind, the fact that Josh Park had been speaking with someone on the phone too.

The chances that it had been Austin speaking on the phone with Josh, then getting angry with him, then murdering him were very less to nil.

Just because they spoke on the phone at the same time didn't mean they were speaking to each other and that Austin did it, but her sleep-deprived mind willed her to reach for her phone, open the incognito mode and search up Austin Walker's name.

There were many Austin Walkers around apparently, so she added Isle Cambrooks beside it. She got what she needed. Austin Walker was the only son of Skye and Nico Walker, who were the founders and the CEOs of a huge company, and were very rich. But her mind slowly refused to take in the information, her eyes fluttering shut.

Norah closed the tab and locked her phone, tossing and turning restlessly before finally falling asleep. She woke up to her brother roughly shaking her awake, and freshened up, marvelling at how her stupid brain created a senseless theory just because two people happened to talk on the phone at the same time.

Nonetheless, she couldn't resist the temptation to ask her mother. "Hey, mom?" Norah asked, waiting as her mother unlocked the car, gesturing the siblings to get in and hummed in response to Norah's question. "I, uh, bumped into Josh that day after the book club's meeting was over. He was talking to someone on phone and seemed to be in a hurry. Was he talking with his girlfriend?"