Each of us has a story to tell (Completed)

Chapter 14- James

Trigger warnings- Swearing, gun mention

Holy shit. I can't believe this is actually happening. This feels like something that would happen in one of those rubbish tv shows, 4 people having a conversation and one pulls out a gun. But this is real. This is happening right now.

"Jess calm down," Ryan says from the window. Jess turns to face him, still holding the gun.

Ryan seems only slightly more agitated "why are you so sure one of us is the killer? Do you not trust us?" He asks.

Jessica lowers the gun slightly "well," she says "I don't know all of you inside and out do I? For all I know the murderer could be in this room at this very moment." She lifts the gun back up, this time pointing it at me and Laura. Ryan now does something unexpected. He lifts his hands up and slowly moves away from the window. He places himself between us and Jessica. He's protecting us.

"Jessica," he says calmly, "we are going to find out who did this, I promise but even if one of us is the murderer, shooting us isn't going to solve anything. We will find out the truth, so just put the gun down on the front table."

Jessica lowers the gun for a second but quickly puts it back up again "how do I know I can trust you? What if one of you is the murderer?"

Ryan hesitates before replying "then they'll be arrested. But you can't take this into your own hands. We will solve the mystery. We will find the culprit, but please just put the gun down."

Jessica moves towards the front table, the gun still pointing at Ryan the whole time. Slowly she flicks on the safety lever and places the gun on the table. She steps back and we all breathe a sigh of relief. Ryan steps forward.

He looks at the gun from a distance before saying "it's ok it's fake. My dad has hundreds. I can tell the difference." Laura and I are both extremely relieved.

"Why did you do that?" Laura asks.

Jessica looks ashamed. "I...I'm sorry," she says "it's just that. I realised something earlier and I'm scared."

"What is it?" Ryan asks.

Jessica comes back over to our table and sits down. Ryan also rejoins us. Jessica pulls out 2 pieces of paper.

"I realised there's a secret message in the note found on Mr Grey's body" she explains.

"What, that one with all the elements and shit?" Ryan asks.

"Yes," Jess replies "look." She turns the sheets of paper around so we can all see. One is the four elements that were on Mr Grey's note and the other is a copy of the periodic table. "If you look at the elements and then at their chemical symbols there's a secret message" Jess explains.

"There is look," Ryan says pointing at the list of elements "Nickel is Ni, Carbon is C, Oxygen is O and Lanthanum is La. If you put them together it spells N,i.c,o,l,a, Nicola. But who is Nicola?"

Jessica's face goes white. "Nicola is my mother's name" she explains. We all sit in shock. How can Mrs Greenwood have anything to do with Mr Grey.

"Greenwood can't have killed him," Ryan says "she was running detention the whole time."

Laura then says "you could just speak to your mother about it?" The rest of us laugh.

"Yes," Jessica says "because that would be an excellent conversation to have with my mother wouldn't it 'hey have you killed any of the other teachers lately.' I don't think it would end very well."

"Well there must be something we're missing" I say.

"Yeah," Ryan says "lets make a list of possible suspects. Then we can cross off anyone who we can definitely rule out. Teachers included."

Jessica takes out a pen and a fresh sheet of paper and we make a list of everyone who was in the school between 4:30 and 5 last monday. After 15 minutes we have a list that looks like this:

Laura Jackson

James Jackson

Jessica Greenwood

Ryan Jamison

Mrs Greenwood

Mrs Gaskell

Mr Harris

"So we know that we can rule out you and James" Ryan says looking at Jess.

Jess nods and then says "We also know that my mother couldn't have done it."

Ryan shakes his head "no, we can't rule her out yet. She could have left the room when I did."

Laura now interrupts "no Jess watched the CCTV footage of the camera outside the detention room, she would have seen Mrs Greenwood leave the room." Ryan crosses Greenwood's name off the list now the list looks like this:

Laura Jackson

Ryan Jamison

Mrs Gaskell

Mr Harris

"Four suspects left," I say "shouldn't be too difficult to work out who it was."

Ryan shakes his head "no. It should be simple enough to work it out. We need to follow the suspects and see if anyone's acting suspiciously."

Jessica now throws her opinion into the equation "well considering the fact that you and Laura are still suspects we should go in pairs to follow Mrs Gaskell and Mr Harris around." The others and I nod in agreement.

Mr Harris is the gym teacher and the deputy head. This I think makes him a more likely suspect than old Mrs Gaskell.

Apparently Ryan agrees as he says "ok James and I will follow Harris you two can follow Gaskell."

Jessica looks dissatisfied and I think it's because we've taken the most likely suspect but apparently she was thinking something completely different.

"That's not fair," Jessica says "why should you follow Mr Harris just because you're boys? That's sexist Ryan."

Ryan is quick to respond "no it's not but what if he uses the toilets or goes into the boys changing rooms?"

Jessica looks alarmed "fair point," she says "fine Laura and I will follow Mrs Gaskell. Now let's get moving." It's almost 9am which means the bell is just about to go. We stand up and are about to leave when there's a knock at the door.

We all look around as the door opens. A police officer is standing there.

"Would one of the four of you be Ryan Jamison?" He asks. Ryan looks at him not even slightly afraid "yeah who's asking."

The officer takes an ID card out of his pocket. A shiny badge is attached on it. "DCI Clifton," the officer says then he continues "I'm assuming you are Ryan Jamison?" He asks looking at Ryan. Ryan steps forward "yes but why do you want to know?" The officer gives him a stern look. It takes a few moments before he speaks "Mr Jamison you are under arrest for the murder of Mr Grey."