It Started With a Murder

Chapter Six

Adrian:

“It’s a stupid idea.” I say, shivering from the November, morning breeze. 

Murphy shakes her head, enthusiasm radiating from her face, “I promise you, it’s not.” She pauses, “How else are we supposed to prove your innocence?”

I look away, having no answer for her. Eventually I sigh and say, “She’ll never help us, Phee. She’s a Lenora twin.”

Murphy shrugs and stands up, “I think we may be about to find out if your right or not.” 

I frown, confused, before glancing up and seeing the Lenora twin making her way across the school fields, towards the bench where me and Murphy are.

As she gets closer, I begin to see the physical differences between her and the scary twin. This twin, Cathie, has shorter, choppier hair, it’s the same coppery colour but a completely different style. Her clothes are messier, her make up is minimal and she has books practically falling out of her bag. The more I look at this girl, the more I realise how different she looks to the scary twin.

For some reason this makes me feel happy, maybe this girl won't be as bitchy as her twin, maybe she got the nice genes.

“What the hell are you staring at?” Cathie asks the moment she reaches us, her voice full of disgust. Surprisingly, I actually feel a little disappointed that she hates me, I should have known it but actually having her treat me like dirt, without ever having spoken to me before, kind of hurts.

“Cathie, hi!” Murphy beams, ignoring the scowl that Cathie’s giving me, “How are you?”

Cathie turns away from me and looks at Murphy, her face showing only small signs of friendliness, “I’m fine. Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t particularly want to be seen with a murderer…” Cathie says.

“I’m not a murderer.” I interrupt, I am really beginning to dislike this girl, I thought Murphy had said she would help us!

Murphy shushes me, Cathie gives me a withering look before continuing, “Maybe not, that doesn’t change the fact that everyone thinks you are. ”

“So it’s about you keeping your good reputation?” I ask, allowing disgust to seep into my words.

Murphy sighs and turns to me, “Just leave it,” She says before turning back to Cathie, “I understand it must be hard for you…”

“Do you?” I ask, incredulously, “Why the hell did she come to us if she thinks I’m a murderer?” 

“I don’t!” Cathie shouts back, “I don’t think that you’re a murderer, I just think it would be best, for everyone if we aren’t seen together.” She pauses, “Unless you want to feel my sister’s wrath again!” 

This makes me think, Cathie does have a point here, her evil twin would more than likely have a big, big, big objection to her sister hanging out with the freaky, murderer guy. I didn’t particularly fancy being screamed at by the scary twin again.

"But I've been thinking about your... idea..." Cathie says, sighing.

“Your going to help us?” Murphy asks, her face lighting up.

Cathie pinches her lips together, then nods, “Yeah, okay.”

“Thank you, we don’t have to meet in public, we can meet at my house from now on.” Murphy says, a triumphant smile still spread across her face. “I live at 35 Bakers Street.” 

Cathie nods, “Okay, I’ll come round after school.” Murphy nods, happily before Cathie turns and walks away without a word of farewell, so she’s rude as well as unfriendly, what a charming personality!

Murphy sits back down, next to me, “Isn’t this great!” 

I roll my eyes, “For some strange reason, working with Cathie Lenora doesn’t make me feel ‘great’!” 

Later that day, I’m sitting on an armchair in Murphy’s house, Murphy and Josh are in the kitchen, supposedly getting some drinks and biscuits, though I’m pretty sure you don’t need to have your lips locked to make drinks!

I’m stuck with Cathie, who’s sitting in an identical armchair, opposite me. I look around, trying to think of something to say to break the uncomfortable silence, eventually Cathie speaks, “What’s taking them so long, I thought they were just getting some drinks?”

I smirk, “Lets just say, Murphy and Josh often get distracted when they’re around each other.”

It surprises me when Cathie smiles, I never thought she would smile at anything I say, “It must be nice.”

“What? Getting easily distracted? I don’t think I’d like it.” I say, noticing that Cathie’s gained a faraway look to her eyes.

Cathie frowns then laughs, a strange tinkling laugh, that stops abruptly when she looks up at me, “No, I meant having someone that can distract you so easily. You know just, just... I don't know… just forget about it.” 

I frown, suddenly curious as to what she did mean, now that she doesn’t want to tell me. I’m about to ask when Josh and Murphy walk in, Murphy straightening out the buttons on her top, I snigger and receive a whack over the head from Murphy.

Murphy and Josh sit on a sofa, in between the two arm chairs and immediately curl up, like their bodies just naturally gravitate towards each other. 

“So what do we do?” I ask, ready to start getting some ideas down as to who the murderer could be.

We all sit in silence for a few minutes before Cathie finally comes forward with a suggestion, “Why don’t we start by going over facts that we know about her murder?”

Murphy nods, “That’s a good idea.” She grabs a piece of paper and begins scribbling down notes, “Okay, so we know she was murdered at around 11.25pm on the third of November.”

“We know that she was beaten up and had acid thrown in her face.” Josh adds, my throat tightens, as an image of Annabelle, screaming for help as her face gets burnt away by acid, enters my mind, “We know that she died by swallowing too much of the acid.”

“It happened in one of the most deserted parts of the park.” Cathie says, a frown line appearing between her eyes, “It must’ve been someone that Annabelle knows, she wouldn’t have gone there in the middle of the night with someone she didn’t know, not unless she was kidnapped which seems unlikely since she left the house with her bag, phone and keys - which were all left untouched.”

“Basically we know that this person was someone that Annabelle trusted, probably a friend.” I say, my voice shaking with anger, “We know that this person is a monster.”

"For once," Cathie says, her voice showing similar emotions to mine, "I agree with you."

I study Cathie's face for a few seconds, realising that we share the same hatred for Annabelle's murderer, and for the first time I feel glad that she's helping us, because I know the look in her eyes, she won't stop until she's found the monster.