Dear Ava

Chapter 25

Ava's PoV:

Getting back from our secret hangout place, I felt even more drained than usual. Every time there was some lead that we discovered, it would be some false trail that we end up following. Why had Mason mentioned our place if he hadn't kept anything there? All I wanted was to go back in time. But that was not possible, was it? He was gone, just like that. Mason had such a bright future ahead of him. Why did someone take that away? Why would anybody do that? Whoever had done that was going to pay. I had to pick myself up, I had to find who had done this. And I will.

"Ok people, look at me. Every time we try and search for clues we end up empty-handed. We have to do something and step up our game."I said as I was unable to just sit back watch everything fall apart, I couldn't. So, I took charge.

"Ava, we know that. But what else could we do? We have to wait and be patient." James looked distraught too. I understood how he must have been feeling. He was trying to be the positive one, the rational one in this investigation, but he was breaking inside.

"Wait and do what?" I was not sure what he meant by that. We had to search for clues, we had to start looking, we had to work harder. I didn't care about anything else. Mason needed justice and I was going to give it to him. Thinking about Mason was hard. Tears were threatening to slip out of my eyes, but I didn't want to cry.

"Yes, Ava is right. Not every clue will fall at our feet. We have to work for it. We have to look around, and we'll find a solution."Noah said, trying to reassure me, trying to back me up. I know all of us needed a breather, we needed some rest, we weren't in the best state mentally, but we had to continue.

"You're right, Ava," James spoke after a while.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Oliver asked. He looked ready to begin the search, do something, just like me. But the letters dedicated to me were done. I had read them all. We didn't know what the next step really was.

"What about trying to relax and remind ourselves of all the clues we have had so far?" James suggested. He had got back in his element. He quickly got up to gather all the letters and placed them on the desk. The parcel that had the stack of six was emptied. I had never seen all the letters at the same time. I couldn't handle that. This was the whole mystery, those were all the clues. This was all the Mason I could have access to right now.

"Ok." I started, revising all the clues was necessary. "I got a letter from Mason, then James did. Both our letters pointed at finding this stack." I took a deep breath. It felt like such a long time when that had happened, but not much time had passed. "The first letter had a clue about the person who did that to Mason being someone close, then about something being stolen, his house being broken into, the person had a key. Now we know that it happened when Oliver lost his keys."

I finished, telling them all I remembered and all I knew Noah and James looked deep in thoughts, their eyes were clouded, mine were too. But out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Oliver, who was not at all focused on me, but his eyes were fixated on the stack of the letters that James had poured out. As I looked in the same direction, I got a little shocked too.

Hearing me inhaling sharply, Oliver got up to look at the letters spread out on the desk. There weren't the only three, there were some more.

Oliver picked one of the extra ones up.

"This letter is addressed to me."