Killed By The Bell

Chapter 6

'It's just a joke. Don't worry.' Harry said, a hint of nervousness lacing his voice.

'Oh really Harry? You so sure about that then?' Ben asked skeptically.

'Well, why'd you open it then genius?'

'I didn't. There was a pop-up and all I did was click on it.'

'And here I thought that everyone knew not to click on pop-ups.'

Ben glanced back at the screen and continued. 'It's there now, so we better do something about it, and quick if you ask me.'

Harry grunted, but although he didn't think it was that serious of a threat, he couldn't help the echo of a voice in the back his head saying otherwise.

It was past mid-day and after hours of racking their brains for the mystery person who sent them the message/popup, Harry and Ben had just about given up. That is, until Harry had finally remembered that Anna hadn't come back yet. When the door opened, he was hoping that she had returned, but instead, Callum unexpectedly strode through the door.

'Dad! You're early.' Harry exclaimed trying his best to mask his surprise. Fortunately for him, Callum was too clouded by his thoughts to notice the tiny details hinting that Harry was indeed hiding something.

When Callum was on special cases like this one, he was never home on time, let alone four hours early. Sometimes he was even required to spent the night at work, but only on extreme cases.

'Yeah, well...' Callum cleared his throat before he continued. 'I have an announcement to make.'

Ben looked up from his phone, his gaze burning with curiosity.

'I got a proposition. From work.' Callum was slightly unnerved under the two pairs of eyes scrutinizing him. 'They found evidence in a city called Palma, that's in Spain, and I'm going to have be at the airport in ninety minutes.'

Harry tried to suppress the big smile creeping on his face from thinking about all the opportunities and freedom they could have without any adult supervision. Sure, he would miss his dad, but he was used to Callum leaving without warning. Besides, he was always back home in less than a week.

'I'll be back Sunday morning, Monday at the latest.' Callum added hurriedly. 'Now I don't have anyone available to stay with you while I'm gone yet, but-'

'Dad, we'll be fine.' Harry interrupted him. 'No need to bring someone in to baby sit us.' Callum gave him an uneasy glance, doubting his words.

'I'm almost eighteen, and besides, what harm could two polite angles do?' Harry smiled innocently.

'Actually, you turned seventeen only last month.' Ben butted in.

Harry shot him a disapproving glare. 'Not helping, Ben. Not helping.' Callum allowed himself a small smile as well, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners.

Harry was very similar to Callum, look and personality-wise. They both had bronze hair that was a little wild, but Harry had inherited his mother, Tessa's, brilliant green eyes. Ben also shared Harry and Callum's curly and wild hair.

Not ten minutes later after everyone had said their goodbyes- and Callum had grudgingly left, the the doorbell rang. Ben abruptly opened it to reveal a smiling Anna.

'There you are! What took you so long?' Ben blatantly probed as he let Harry take over.

'My mum came home and made me study Science.' Then she added quickly, 'I'm homeschooled.'

'See, she's homeschooled! There must be a reason for that! There are perfectly good schools around here, the only reason she would be homeschooled is if she was insane!' Ben angrily hissed then calmed enough to add, 'Mark my words, she's up to something, Harry. We can't trust her.' As a response, Harry sent him a glare that clearly meant stop-it-or-I'll-have-to-shut-you-up.

'So anyway, here's what I found. Apparently, Steve wasn't a very nice person. He's made quite a few enemies in his lifetime. There are many cases of him blackmailing and manipulating lots of people to get his way,' she hurriedly took a breath before continuing, 'so finding the killer will probably be harder than we thought. But now onto Carl. Let's see, Carl Hunter is a relatively boring person. All he is is a garbage man. He has been to prison though. Yeah, he stole a car when he was nineteen. Anything else you wanna know?'

'What about their family? Have you got any information of that?' Harry eagerly asked, ignoring Ben who was already sulking in the corner like a six-year-old.

'Oh, right. Nearly forgot about that.' Anna furrowed her brows as she scanned through her papers. 'Steve's mum passed away about... eight years ago from brain cancer, as for his dad, he and Steve's sister, Skyler, died from a car accident fourteen years ago. His dad was the founder of Support Corporation.' She quickly glanced up to see if either of them were still paying attention as she continued once again, 'Carl's father, James, lives in Argentina, and has been for the past three years. And his mother, Amparo, currently lives in Palma, which is in Spain.'

At that Ben jumped up. 'Spain? Isn't that where your dad found evidence of the case?'

'Please tell me you looked more into Amparo?' Harry anxiously asked.

'Sorry, didn't think it was that significant.'

Ben turned towards his computer and typed in Amparo Hunter's name hoping to find something. Luckily, he did, 'Harry, Amparo Hunter's mother is the sister of Relina Revera. You know what that means, right? Amparo is Relina's niece.'