Pattern

Chapter Twenty-Five

I took a minute. "Maybe.. But she fits the profile, like the other girls. The same colour skin, eyes, hair." 

Officer Knightley nodded. "I know.. Anyway, you need to get to school. Please. I need you to find more things out - I've kids to interview, stuff to do, but you'll be in the place where all the victims went to. Just, let everyone know she's gone, find out what you can."

The exhaustion and desperation in his voice made me nod. "Okay." I turned to leave, and his voice stopped me.

"I still don't like you, but maybe you could change that."

I managed a half-smile.

"Maybe."

--

A few classes passed, and nothing happened. No-one mentioned Prudence, or the kidnapper, or anything related to it. I'm not sure if it was a good or bad thing - in a way, it annoyed me that no one was the slightest bit concerned, but at least they weren't spouting crap.

 Crystal came up to me at break, though, and gave me a sad smile. "I heard about your friend... I'm really sorry. I hope they find her, I really do. At least everyone knows it's not you now."

I faked a smile. "Yeah, at least there's that." I didn't want to make Crystal sad with an outburst of "I don't think there is any good side to this, I don't give a shit what they say."

She patted my shoulder. "You know, if you feel like it, you can come to mine later. If you're feeling down, or something."

I couldn't help but be taken aback. "Uh.. thanks, but I'm going to work on finding her. I don't want to be here, really, I'd rather be searching every inch of this town."

"Oh. Yeah, I understand," She scratched her head, blushing slightly, and walked away. 

I took a minute, then realised. Did Crystal .. like me? I couldn't help but feel strange - flattered, but strange. And bad. I'd never really thought about her before the party. She was nice, and I could do with having her as a friend. 

But, you know, nothing more.

--

When school ended, Madi found me with her two friends, and also friends of Prudence. I didn't know their names, though they looked friendly enough, probably not as distrusting as Madi had been before. 

"We're going to the station, you coming?" She asked me.

"Of course," I murmured, following them out. 

It was a bit weird being in their group - I'd never hung out with them before, except when I'd sat at Prudence's table, but they'd ignored me. Yet the guy, Dylan I thought, was inching towards me slowly, as the girls were having a deep conversation that he wasn't included in.

"Hi," He said awkwardly. "So, you're joining us on our mission to find Prude then, yeah?"

"I tend to work alone," I said in a deeper voice than intended. He looked a bit scared. I panicked - I had to try, these were her friends. "But, yeah, I'm going to find her. Well, we are. Together and all that stuff."

"I hope so," He sighed. "She's great, I can't believe this happened.."

"Don't worry, we'll find the bastard that did this and make sure he gets locked up for the rest of his life. Or dies, whatever works," I replied cheerfully, trying to be reassuring.

Dylan didn't look reassured. "You know you can't kill him, right? You'd get locked up for sure."

"Oh, not me," I said quickly. "I'll just beat him up a bit, don't worry."

He still didn't look reassured. I didn't understand people. But I felt like I had to be the one to explain myself. "Sorry if I'm acting weird or something.. I'm a little worried."

"We all are," He smiled. "Don't worry, dude. You're trying, aren't you? Even if it's just for her sake. I know you two used to be friends, you probably have more of a bond with her."

"Oh, she told you?" I was surprised - and happy. Prudence had told her friends about me.

"Well," He'd resumed his awkwardness. "Madi told me that when she became friends with Prudence, she had no friends. She'd been really close with someone, and then he'd left her, and she wasn't sure how to make friends with anyone else, and that guy was you.. So we all hated you for a while."

"Along with the rest of the school," I muttered. 

"Sorry," He said quickly.

"It's fine," I brushed away his apology. "I was a jerk back then.. Hell, I still am. Well, not as much. But I promise you, I'm not going to do that again. I'm not going to hurt her, ever again."

After a minute, he nodded. "I believe you.. but you might want to tell Madi that a few hundred times. She puts up with you because Prudence likes you, but otherwise, she'd have your head on a stake."

"Thanks, Dylan." I grinned at him. We were nearing the station, and I hadn't spent the walk feeling left out, worrying about the fact the person I called my best friend had been abducted, and I didn't know how to help. 

We walked in, one after another. Prudence's dad wasn't at reception, but one of the officers went to find him.

From the look on his face when he appeared, nothing good had happened. He looked up at us all tiredly. "Thanks for coming, she'd really appreciate it.. but there's nothing. We've no leads. I don't know what to do."

"Nothing?" I asked. "What about Melinda Lawless?"

He looked at me. "Who?"

My eyes widened. "She didn't hand over the photograph?"

"What photograph?" A determination had appeared in his eyes again. "Avery, what photo?"

"Last week, when Natasha got kidnapped, she - Ms. Lawless - got an envelope, addressed to her, with a photo of Natasha in it, tied up and stuff. It was awful, but she said she'd let the principal know, and the principal would ring the police..?"

"Well, she didn't." 

"Prudence.. She believed Ms. Lawless was directly connected to it."

Officer Knightley half-sprinted to the phone. "What's the school number? I'm going to ring, right now."

Dylan took out his phone. "I'll get it now.."

Now that we had a possible lead, it didn't look so bleak. 

At the end of the day, all we had was hope.