A couple of weeks pass by and I find myself walking through the school halls yet again, the same people staring at me like usual.
The bruising on my face is completely healed by now and I've only got a small scar on my eyebrow, Alex says it adds to my 'badass' look which I have to agree with.
I walk into the student lounge again and jump on top of Tobin hearing a huff coming from her lips
"Seriously dude?" she says seeming unimpressed
"What? Still meeting you by the lockers at the end of the day right" I ask Tobin
"Yeah, I'll see you then" She says nodding her head.
I dragged Tobin to football training and it turns out she's a natural, running circles around everyone and our connection on the field seems to be just as good as the one on the pitch too.
"Here comes Satan" Ali mumbles out and I groan loudly knowing full well who's coming up behind me.
"What do you want Jaelene I'm not in the mood for your shit today" I say standing up to face the bitch
"I heard some rumours that you slept with Trisha at the weekend, according to her you went at it for hours," Jaelene says smugly making me just roll my eyes knowing full well Trisha is part of her crew.
"Oh, you're spreading rumours about me now? It's nice to know you have a hobby of spreading other things than just your legs" I say and hear Ash choke on her drink behind me.
"you're just jealous of my boyfriend and the fact I can get a guy, you only attract desperate lesbians who think being gay is normal," She says trying to think of a comeback.
"Lawson? Bitch please, I don't want your boyfriend. Nobody does, that's why he's with you" I reply back and watch as a few of her minions try to hide the laughs.
I know she's stumped for something to say back because her mouth keeps opening and closing like a fish but I wasn't expecting her to throw her drink at my face.
"Are you fuckin kidding me! What are we in glee or something" I say wiping the smoothie off my face.
I go to charge at her but Ash and Tobin pull me back before I can start a fight with her.
"Have a nice day Dan" Jaelene says before skipping off.
"This was a new t-shirt as well," I say scooping all the remains into the bin.
I storm off angrily and head to my locker to get the spare clothes I brought for tonight's training, I slam the locker shut, scaring plenty of freshmen in the process and walk towards my spot behind the school.
I strip off my top and throw it in the bin, putting my new one on and taking out a cigarette to smoke. I inhale the toxic fumes for a few minutes until Kelley comes out and finds me, taking the cigarette and throwing it to the floor
"hey!" I say angrily
"you're going to kill yourself if you carry on," She says and sure down next to me, both of us not saying anything for a few minutes
"you know what she was saying about me and Trisha isn't true, I don't even know the girl, well I do actually we have sport together but I don't talk to her ever-" I say starting to ramble a bit
"Dan, chill," Kelley says laughing at my flustered state
"I know you didn't do any of that, you were out with me at the weekend," she says as my face morphs into one of realisation
"oh yeah" I chuckle out.
"I think you won the argument today anyways, you've been getting better," Kelley says making me smirk
"I do try, throwing something at me was a low blow though," I say rolling my eyes
"that's just because she can't think of anything good to say back" Kelley retorts
"the spreading the legs one was definitely my favourite" I say and laugh to myself
"Alright, no need to make that head any bigger than it already is, you've got Portuguese class to be getting to," Kelley says pulling me off the ledge and back into the school.
I need to make this girl my girlfriend soon.
- - - -
"I'll catch you later Tobs, good practice," I say as I walk out of practice with her and Servando
"Catch you later guys," She says and heads off to her car
"After that practice I'm feeling ready for our first game back," Serv says as he walks with me through the parking lot
"Me too, I can't wait to get out on that field and play against another school finally, I'm sick of beating all your asses in training," I say cockily and smirk at the boy who just rolls his eyes at my usual behaviour.
"Have you got a ride home, I didn't see your bike in the car park today?" Serv says to me
"Yeah, Morgan is picking me up," I say and point to the car a couple of meters infront of us
"Dan can you hurry up and get in my car plea- oh h-hey Servando" Alex stutters out as she steps out of her car and realises I'm walking with her crush
"Hey Alex, how are you doing today," Serv says trying to act all cool but I can tell he's panicking inside
"I'm good thank you, just here to pick up Dan from practice," She says fiddling with the hem of her top.
"I'll see you tomorrow Serv, I've gotta get back home," I say turning to the boy and doing our handshake
"Yeah no problem, I'll see you later Dan, and you too Alex" He replies, heading in the direction of his car.
"you didn't tell me you were walking out with Servando!" Alex exclaims hitting my arm as we get into her car
"First of all, ow. And secondly, we just happened to leave training at the same time okay, chill out" I say in my own defence.
"Why does it matter anyway?" I say knowing the answer already from what Kelley told me on our first date but I want to hear it from Alex first
"Ugh, because I've liked the guys since like freshman year," She says rolling her eyes and trying to play it off like its nothing
"I know that already, Kelley told me I just wanted to hear you say it" I tell her laughing as she just looks at me with her mouth open.
"That's just mean, you can bet your ass this is the last time I'm picking you up from practice Parker," Alex says as she starts to drive off
"Come on! You've got to admit it was a little funny" I say still chuckling at the look on her face
"Do I look like a person who finds this funny?" She says turning to give me a stone-cold look
I let Alex stay angry for the rest of the ride back to her place while I just chuckle to myself, excited to tell Kelley about it tomorrow. Alex parks her car in the driveway and I follow her into her house.
"Hey sweetie, how was practice," Pam says taking my bags off me and pulling me into a hug
"It was good thanks Pam, feeling ready for the game this weekend," I say
"That's good, I'll make sure I'm there to cheer you on in the crowd," She says to me
"You've got work on Saturday though Pam, I don't want you to mess up your schedule or something just for one of my games," I say feeling bad that she's going out of her way to see me play
"Nonsense, this is your first game and I don't want to miss it," She tells me and walks off with my bags, probably going to wash my dirty clothes like she always does.
"Dan and I are going to do our homework so please don't come in" Alex shouts to her mother before dragging me up to her room
"I don't have any homework Alex," I say confused as to why she's locking her door and telling her mom that
"Neither do I but I need to make sure my mom doesn't come in my room unexpectedly and sees what we're doing," She says still not making much sense
"I'm still lost Morgan," I say honestly just as she pulls a huge box from under her bed.
"This here is all your information and evidence you've collected that I took a copy of plus some extra things I've been doing," She says and takes off the lid, placing everything out around her room and moving her wardrobe to one side to reveal her wall with 'Darren Parker Murder Investigation' written at the top
"Wow, we're really doing this then," I say in a little shock not realising how seriously Alex would take this
"I said to you on the day you told us everything I was going to help you until we figured it out even if it meant I missed graduation and I don't go back on my word," She say making a small smile spread across my lips.
"Let's do this then!" I say excitedly, ready to hopefully get closer to the truth
"First of all, who are our main suspects," Alex says grabbing a pen
"Obviously, Brittney and Mick to start with," I say and watch as Alex grabs a picture of them both and sticks it to the wall writing 'main supsect' at the top of it
"There's also this other guy but I hardly know anything about him just that he's definitely a businessman," I say and grab a question mark putting it next to my step-parents and writing businessman underneath it.
"Okay we need to put down the relations they have to your dad," Alex says
"Well Brittney was married to my dad after a year of dating, it moved very quickly and then he was murdered on heir honeymoon" I start to explain
"What about Mick, did they ever meet?" Alex asks
"Not that I've found out but he came onto the scene 2 months after dad and I know that they were already a thing beforehand, the way they were together just told me that they had been that way they were for a while," I say as Alex writes this all down
"Mick is a bit of a mystery, I know he does deals with lots of people, there's always different men coming in and out of our house and I know theres a main guy he works for because I saw this letter signed by Camden Hackley which I have no clue what it means" I tell Alex and pick up a few things like a photo of the letter I took to stick on the wall too.
"I don't think Brittney knows much about what he does at all, Mick is a lot cleverer than he let's on and I think that's his advantage" I inform Alex who hums in agreement. I route through the papers over the room and find what I'm looking for
"These here are all receipts and transcripts that I've collected from all the different towns we've moved from that pinpoint Mick to be in the are that a murder has happened," I say and place everything on the wall
"Are you telling me that he has murdered over half a dozen people?" Alex says in shock as we look on at the newspaper articles the murders were published in
"I am, just looking at this one for example, at 10:16 p.m on 22nd May 2006 he went to an off-licence and bought rubber gloves, three bottles of bleach and tarp. Who buys that if you're not trying to clean up a murder! And what do you know, the newspaper says that the police suspected the man to have died at around midnight the same day" I say pointing to all the clues that link him to it
"Why have you not gone to the police, you have evidence that clearly ties him to 6 murders Dan, 6 murders and you're living in the same bloody house as the man" Alex exclaims turning to me
"I know Alex but every time they catch someone else. I went in one time saying they had the wrong guys and they practically kicked me out the precinct, they don't want to know about it" I say letting out a sigh.
"What about all of these photos, where do they come into this all," She says pulling out a bunch of photos I took when I followed Mick
"I spent about 3 months following Mick whenever he went out late at night and snapped these pictures, he did hundreds of drug and weapon handoffs to multiple different people and he was always the one in charge but I know he was getting orders from Camden Hackley," I say and place them under the Mystery man
"Theres no evidence anywhere of who or what this Camden Hackley is?" Alex says staring at what we've got up on the board
"Nothing anywhere, they've covered their tracks very well" I reply
"One thing I'm confused about is how your dad is linked in with all of this, he wasn't dirty right?" Alex asks me
"God no, he was the kindest man ever, wouldn't hurt a fly. He was a scientist and worked for AIM, the American Institute for Science down in New York and he was part of the team that were trying to create new and improved drugs. He didn't talk much about his work, it was all very classified stuff but when mom dies he would just emerge himself it in all, spend longer hours in the lab, take work home; I always wondered if he found something out he wasn't supposed to" I tell Alex, remembering everything I haven't talked about in years
"maybe he was getting close to something and someone didn't one him knowing about it so they sent Brittney to find out what he knew" Alex questions
"That's what I thought too but all his work colleagues had nothing sketchy about them, I trailed all 4 of them for 2 months after dad was murdered and nothing out of the ordinary came up" I say and let Alex write it on the board anyways, a big question mark next to it.
"My eyes keep on drifting back to Camden Hackley, it sounds familiar and I don't know why," Alex says the two of us sit on the bed just staring at the two words until she gasps and starts getting up routing through the papers
"I can't believe it didn't click earlier, it makes sense now and you wouldn't have figured it out since you've only been in this town for over a month but I've lived here my whole life" Alex rants out, still looking for something
"Your'e doing the thing where you just talk but don't explain" I say wanting to know what she knows
"Where in this town also has the name Camden," She says stopping what she's doing to look up at me
"I don't know Alex, can you- oh shit, Camden Forest where I took Kelley on our first date!" I say clicking on as she pulls out a printed picture of the forest entrance.
"It makes sense right! Camden Hackley is clearly a code name for somewhere in this town, Camden Forset is a famous landmark I just don't know where 'Hackley' comes into it all" Alex says adding it to the murder board
"It's a start though, further than what we had to begin with," I say
"But who do we know that knows everything about this town and its history," Alex says and I know who she's getting at
"No Alex, I'm not getting her involved in this. you're helping me already with this and that's one more person than I wanted, I'm not adding Kelley to the list" I say putting my foot down hard on this matter
"You're right, Kelley doesn't need to get involved in this too we'll just have to do our own research," Alex says agreeing with me.
This whole thing is a mess really but I need to know what happened to my dad and maybe I can finally move on with my life.