It Started With a Murder

Chapter Ten

Adrian:

I’ve been home just thirty minutes before there’s a hammering at the front door. I take my time going downstairs to answer it, thinking it’s probably my dad, who’s forgotten his key… Again. Opening the door, I’m surprised to see Cathie standing there, her eyes wild and her hair tumbling messily out of a plait. She looks like she’s just escaped a mental home!

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Are you alone?” Cathie replies, her eyes staring up at me, a crazy look running through them. I nod once before Cathie pushes me into the house and shuts the door behind her. “I’m really freaking out!”

“I kind of guessed that.” I smirk.

Cathie just stares at me, blankly, obviously she isn’t in the joking mood, “I found some… Something weird.” She sinks to the floor, holding her arms around her stomach, “I was in Pearl’s room and I found something in her diary… about Annabelle.”

I pause, beginning to understand Cathie’s crazy look, “What was it?” I lean down until we’re head height.

Cathie begins to plucking at the loose threads on the carpet, “It was just some stuff, it was about loads of people, they all had nicknames so I don’t know who any of the others were, but apparently Annabelle stole some guy off of Pearl.”

“Is that it?” I ask, surprised that Cathie is so worked up over that, isn’t their group constantly stealing things off of each other.

“What do you mean ‘is that it’!” Cathie asks, her voice managing to sound both incredulous and insulted.

I shrug, “Do you seriously think that your sister would kill Annabelle just because she took her boyfriend?”

“Pearl can be very selfish.”

“That would be taking selfish to a whole new level.” I say, wondering why I’m bothering to protect the scary twin, this conversation is all back to front; Cathie should be standing up for her sister, not me.

Cathie closes her eyes for a long time giving me a chance to study her face. She’s pale, a lot paler than anyone else I know, her hair’s a coppery colour and I can’t be certain if it’s natural or died, it’s a pretty colour though. She startles me when her eyes fly open.

“I know what we can do.” She smiles, a strange smile which immediately makes me suspect that she’s up to something.

“What can we do?” I ask, allowing myself to drop the short distance to the floor, my knees aching from squatting. 

Cathie bites her lip, “We could see if Annabelle felt the same way about Pearl.”

Ten minutes later I find myself giving Cathie a leg up from my garden into Belle’s, there’s a faint thump as she lands on the other side of the head-high fence. “Hurry up.” She calls. I sigh, really not wanting to go onto the other side of this fence; it’s okay for Cathie, if she gets caught over at Belle’s, no one will mind, they’ll just feel sorry for her, thinking she’s still grieving her dead friend. However if they find me over at Belle’s, I will be slaughtered, because of course I’d be there to add salt to the wound, to hurt Belle’s family even more, just because I’m a nasty murderer.

“What the hell is taking you so long!” Cathie calls from the other side of the fence.

I sigh, making up my mind in that instance, I did not want to live with the word ‘suspect’ constantly hanging over my head and there must be something in that house to help me, “I’m coming.”

I grab the top of the fence and pull myself up and over, landing next to Cathie. “You okay?” She asks, her face scanning mine.

“Fine.” I say, “Are you certain that there’s no one here that could possibly see us?”

Cathie nods, beginning to make her way to the back door, “I’m sure, Mr and Mrs Dickson are out for a meal with my parents, your parents are out and Pearl went out after getting some text, apparently she urgently needed to see someone.” She pauses whilst she bends down to pick up a key, hidden under an empty plant pot, next to the backdoor, “I suggest taking the shortest amount of time possible though, I don’t know how long Pearl’s out for and she doesn’t know that I’m not home.”

We both stay silent as Cathie carefully unlocks the door, part of me nervous that Mr and Mrs Dickson are going to be in, even though Cathie’s so adamant that they’re out. 

I breath a sigh of relief once we actually get inside the house, it takes us only seconds to reach Belle’s bedroom, both of us know the route so well. “What do we do now?” I ask, my lips dry as I stare around the all-to-familiar room. Nothing’s changed, everything’s in exactly the same place, all her books, her CD’s magazines, the only thing that seems at all different is the smell; Belle always wore this sweet smelling perfume, a lot of which rubbed of in her room. Now it just smelt empty.

Cathie sighs heavily, I look over at her and realise that she, too, has been sent back to thinking about Belle. “Lets get this over with.” She mutters, her voice far less enthusiastic than it was ten minutes ago. 

“Do you know where her diary is?” I ask.

“I know it’s in one of the boxes under her bed, I just don’t know which one.” 

We both lean down to look under the bed, where a stack of over twenty boxes lye. “We better get to work.” I say, pulling out a handful of the boxes.

Going through Belle’s things felt strange and vaguely wrong, I pushed the feelings away though, concentrating on finding this book that holds all her secrets, secrets which could clear my name, secrets which could lock up the monster of her murderer.

“Adrian.” Cathie whispers, breaking me out of my thoughts; I look up at her, she’s staring, surprised at a small, red book in her hands, “I found it.”

Sorry it's kind of late up, the next part should be up in the next couple of days (just a small hint, the next chapter's all about Annabelle's diary - there are a few surprises!!!)