Each of us has a story to tell (Completed)

Chapter 11- Ryan

Trigger warnings- Blackmailing, swearing, drug mention and pregnancy mention.

As you can imagine the mere idea of me blaming Laura for something like that didn't go down well with James. We eventually decided to talk to Laura about it first.

"I got another note too," she says and holds up a note "the blackmailer is getting a lot more demanding." James and I both read the note.

IN LOCKER 111 THERE IS THE BAG OF COCAINE YOU GOT FOR ME EARLIER. COLLECT IT AND SAY YOU FOUND IT ON THE FLOOR NEXT TO LOCKER 121. SAY THAT YOU SAW WHO DROPPED IT, IT WAS RYAN JAMISON.

"Shit," I say "you can't do that." Laura stares at me in shock.

"I have to," she replies "I don't want my secret to get out." I can't believe James' sister is so selfish.

"Yeah but you'll be revealing my secret to keep yours hidden" I snap. "It's not much of a secret is it," she snaps back "half the school knows that you deal drugs."

"ROGERS DOESN'T" I shout.

"OK," James shouts "ENOUGH. L you can't tell that to Rogers, it would be exposing Ryan's drug dealing. He would be expelled. Besides, whatever you did can't be that bad."

Laura looks hurt "oh so his secret is more important than mine" she snaps. "Yeah considering neither of us knows what your secret is, it is more important" James replies.

"Ok fine I'll tell you," she says "come into this classroom for a second." We both follow her and sit on two of the desks, Laura remains standing. She pulls something out of her pocket, a piece of paper. She unfolds it and shows us the picture.

"I cheated on the maths entrance exam so I could get into the top class" she explains.

"Who gives a shit all that will happen to you is you'll be knocked down a class" I reply.

"Ok enough," James interrupts, "don't start arguing again please."

"I have an idea" I say suddenly.

"What?" James and Laura ask together.

"We need to tell Rogers our secrets."

"WHAT?" They say again, this time in surprise.

"We can't do that," James replies "Rogers will definitely throw both of us out and probably the girls too."

"Wait, Jessica's being blackmailed as well? What's she hiding?" Laura asks.

"She's pregnant," I reply "don't worry it isn't James' and Jess was held back a year in year 8 so she's old enough to give consent."

"That still doesn't mean we can just tell him our secrets" James says angrily.

"Actually I think we should J," Laura says "the blackmailer isn't going to give up anytime soon."

"Fine," James grumbles "but we should ask Jess as well."

We do ask Jess and with some hesitation she agrees to tell her mother, then Rogers. So that's how at 4pm after lessons are over, we are all waiting outside Rogers' office to tell him our deepest darkest secrets.

"Would the four of you care to come in," Rogers says. We all do and I'm about to speak first when Rogers interrupts "a new piece of evidence has come to light." None of us knows what he's talking about and we all stare at each other for a minute while he finds whatever he's looking for.

"When the autopsy for Mr Grey was being carried out this was found on his person," Rogers says. He turns his computer monitor around and we all see a picture of a note on the screen. It just looks like a list. It says

Nickel

Carbon

Oxygen

Lanthanum

"Does it mean anything to any of you?" Rogers asks.

"No" we all say at once. "Sir we actually came to talk to you about something" Jessica explains.

"Very well Miss Greenwood go ahead." We all explain one by one about the notes, the blackmailer and our secrets. When we've finished Rogers is quiet for a while.

"I am not going to expel any of you," he says "on one condition. I want the four of you to work out who killed Mr Grey, whether it was one of you or not. I want you to find the killer and expose them. Heaven knows the police are doing a hopeless job."

"We can do that," Jessica says for all of us. She pulls her notebook and pen out again and continues "so Mr Rogers, how was Mr Grey killed?"

Rogers replies immediately "he was pushed backwards and hit his head off of one of the desks in science lab 2. The autopsy showed that he died immediately on impact."

Jessica writes this down.

"And his time of death?" I enquire.

"Well the autopsy on Tuesday morning showed that he had been dead for less than 18 hours. The pathologists believe it to be at some time between 4:15 and 4:45."

Shit. That has just revealed 2 things. 1 is that Mr Grey was definitely in a fight with his killer and 2 neither James nor Jessica could have killed him. James was telling me the truth.

After that we all head into a spare classroom. Jessica immediately starts to take over.

"So what do we already know?" She asks.

"Well we know that whoever the killer is they must have access to the security cameras" Laura says.

"Unless the killer and the blackmailer are two different people" I say.

"Fair point," Laura replies "well the blackmailer at least must have access to the cameras." Jessica writes that down.

"The killer must be fairly strong to have pushed Mr Grey backwards hard enough that he died from the impact" James says. Once again Jessica writes this down.

"They might be on the athletics team" Laura suggests. Immediately all three of them look at me.

"Hey that was one time" I say. "Nah I reckon it'd be more like something Liam would do" James says.

"Liam Morris?" Laura asks.

"Yeah," James replies "he's strong enough to push someone that hard and he would have access to the camera's. He's the head boy after all, he could easily get the key to any room in the school." Reluctantly Jessica writes down Liam's name.

Although I don't think Liam would have the capability to kill anyone he does have a motive. If Jess told him about her and Mr Grey's secret relationship then there's the motive. Now all we need is to find out if he had an opportunity to kill him. If he did then I think we've found our culprit.