Riverside

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Where were you yesterday?" was the first thing Peggy asked me during lunch when I walked into the cafeteria. "You're the head cheerleader and you missed cheerleading practice."

I raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I know. Didn't Ronnie tell you? I had a dentist appointment and I couldn't get out of it."

"Well, you should have tried getting out of it," Peggy said and I was very tempted to roll my eyes at her. "We need all the practice we could get because of the basketball game after school today."

"Peggy, I know that," I said. "It was fine for me to miss just one practice." Besides, I was the one who came up with the routines. I knew them like the back of my hand and I could still perform it perfectly fine after missing one practice.

"Yeah, well, we all voted on it," Peggy said. "And we thought it would be best if you didn't perform today."

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked. If I didn't perform today? I knew the routine before anyone else on the team, and I knew it the best since I was the one who choreographed it, and now Peggy was telling me that I couldn't perform? Me, the head cheerleader?

I let people on the team miss practice all the time when they had an appointment or their shift for their job suddenly got changed and they were still able to perform during a basketball game. If they knew the routine and were at most of the practices, then there shouldn't be a reason that they wouldn't be allowed to perform.

Now, I was being told that they thought it would be best if I didn't perform.

"Majority won," Peggy said. "Most of us thought that as a head cheerleader, you should be at every practice. But you missed out yesterday, so I had to cover for you."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "I told Ronnie to cover for me."

"But she doesn't have what it takes," Peggy said. "Sorry, Arden, but maybe next time, you should put the team first." When she walked away, I scoffed. Unbelievable.

I didn't even want to go eat lunch with her if she was going to act like this.

My cell phone suddenly rang, so I pulled it out of my pocket to see Marilyn's name across the screen. I answered it and she told me that Peggy told her I wasn't going to be performing in the basketball game today so she wanted to see if I would come with her to talk to some people who knew the Gillespies.

I agreed. What better way for me to get my mind off of this whole thing than to work on the case?

After school, I immediately went to my car and pulled up the address that Marilyn sent me after the call. It was the house of Zara Duff, the maid who came by the Gillespies' house every Saturday to clean it.

I drove to the house and parked on the side of the road. Marilyn was waiting for me at the front door and once I arrived there, she knocked on the door. A few minutes later, we were greeted by a petite woman with her brown hair tied in a messy bun. She gave us a warm smile, though it was mainly directed to Marilyn. "You must be River's lawyer," she said, opening the door wider for us. "Please, come in."

We both thanked her as we walked in and I closed the door behind me. Zara led us to the living room and the three of us sat down. The living room was small, with not too many decorations to liven up the place --quite different from my house. A chair, a couch, and a coffee table seemed to be the only things here, besides a family portrait hanging on the wall and blue curtains drawn to the side of the window.

"This is Arden," Marilyn said, gesturing to me. "She was the one who hired me because she thinks River is innocent."

"Well, I can guarantee that it's a high possibility," Zara said. "I've been going to their house to clean on Saturdays for just over two years and once I heard that River shot and killed all three...." She shook her head. "I just couldn't fathom it."

"You don't think he's capable of doing it?" Marilyn asked.

Zara shook her head. "Absolutely not. I do know that sometimes, even those who seem like they are not capable of pulling something like that somehow are able to, but....I mean, River? There is no way he would do that."

"What makes you so sure of it?" Marilyn asked.

"Well, for one thing, he loved his brother more than anyone," Zara said. "They have....had one of the strongest bond between brothers I have ever seen, and I only saw them once a week for three hours. Whenever Emerson needed something, he would go straight to River for help, whether it be helping him get something or if he was hungry. Most of the time, he refused to eat something that his parents made when he specifically asked River for help."

"But doesn't that just show how much his brother loved him, not how much River loved his brother?" Marilyn asked.

Zara shook her head. "No, I could see how much River loved his younger brother. River was a quiet boy and didn't even talk at all, not even to his parents, but once in a while, I did catch him talking to Emerson, and River always had a huge smile on his face. If River ever did want to hurt or even kill his parents, there is no way he would have done the same thing to Emerson."

"I know River didn't have a good relationship with his dad," Marilyn said. "Have you ever witnessed it?"

Zara scoffed. "All the time. Almost every time I was there, Charles, River's dad, was yelling at River, usually at the stupidest things like his shoes being too close to the front door or not closing a cupboard all the way. That was probably why he started staying in his room all the time around January when he dropped out of high school. Apparently, they got into a huge fight about it and Charles may or may not have physically hurt River over it. I don't know, that's just what I assumed because of all the yelling Charles does and I did catch a glimpse of River to see a bruise forming near his eye. It's odd that Charles is like that when he was on the police force."

Zara saying that sparked a recent conversation I had with my dad. Dad was telling me that Charles was on the police force and how he was apparently one of the nicest officers out there.

I guessed he acted a lot different at work than he did at home.

"Then again, it is believable, the way he acts," Zara continued. "He was constantly pointing out so many things while I was working there, like how I didn't clean the washroom properly after Emerson just used it and messed it up again. Quite frankly, I would have quit that job if I didn't need the money. I couldn't really stand Charles or his wife." Zara looked at me. "Are you one of River's friends?"

"Not really," I said. "Long story short, I met him at the back of the police car when I asked my dad if he needed a ride and he wrote on a piece of paper that it wasn't him. He doesn't know who did it, but I really believe that it isn't him. He looked so upset and heartbroken when he was being take to the police station, and you saying what you just said about his relationship with his little brother makes it make sense. He wouldn't do that to his brother."

Marilyn and Zara talked a bit more about the Gillespies. I still was quite positive that River was innocent, but I had no idea who could have done this.