"Lian!" I shouted.
"Shh! What?" Lian asked looking around to see if anyone had heard us.
"It's…It's..a nightgown!" I said holding it up and trying to uncrumple it since it was thrown down there like some sort of trash…
"So? It's just a nightgown, what's so special about it?"
"Lian! There is ink on it and it smells of…blood!" I said with her quickly drawing her attention to me. We placed it on the small table in front of us and looked at the big splash of ink which went all the way down the sleeve.
"Could this be…are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She started saying and I nodded very quickly understanding what she meant. "I told you Billy's death was no mistake! Someone must have killed him. But how?"
As I was thinking with her, I rehearsed many scenarios that would have occurred and how it might've happened. However, I found the perfect thought. "I know! This was indeed all planned."
"What do you mean?"
"Can't you see? Someone might have shut the lights and gone in, it would have been easy, they shut it from outside by powering down the electricity box I hit my head on as I was carried away talking to Lilah. They might have shut the class lights and the corridor just outside it all except the one at the end of the hallway so there would be enough light for them," I was trying to sound professional.
"They would have come in while people were screaming, took the chance to close the door with all that noise, murder, and with that done, they took the chance of the screaming again, came out, locked the doors and opened the lights again disappearing," she finished getting the scene that was playing in my head.
"Did you notice something though..." I asked again.
"No, why, what happened? Did we miss anything?"
"No no, but the way Billy was killed got me thinking. This wouldn't be a suicide. The angle the fountain pen was pointing at was not an angle from which Billy could kill himself." I explained.
"How so? I mean I didn't look, you're probably the one who had the glimpse of hat gruesome scene," she mysteriously shivered.
"Well, as you might already know, Billy was wearing a tight blue sports jacket. And no offense to him, he's quite chunky so he can't really move around his arms that much, the fountain pen writing point was sticking out from the back of his neck. He was attacked, you can't kill yourself from that angle anyway, at least, you wouldn't be able to dig too deep, know what I mean?"
"I do, yes. Either way it would be very stupid of him to commit suicide, he was way too cheerful and mean. You could almost say he was enjoying himself before he died. Plus it would have taken more time to commit suicide if he had to find a way to shut the lights..." she told me.
"What you're trying to say is that, it's quite impossible." I proudly corrected.
All of a sudden we felt awesome to finally figure out something, but we also felt more scared than ever. We are now sure that this was murder, the smell of blood helped us.
"Hey, didn't Mrs Honeywebb mention letting a girl come in earlier?" I asked, Lian nodded quickly remembering.
She took our notebook out from earlier and wrote down all of our thoughts and suspicions from earlier. It's our way of finding out if we might end up right.
"Now we also think there is a possibility of the murderer being a girl," I continued as she wrote that down.
"It's actually definitely a girl, this nightgown can't fit a boy, you can see that because that waist would only fit a girls one, if a boy had worn it, then there would be a chance of it being ripped a little," Lian told me.
"Good thinking, you're right, the boys in the class are quite…big for a girls body, no offence."
"Oh! There's also another thing," Lian stated. "It's likely to be someone in our class, they studied our class well and knew where he would be, in order to kill him of course."
"No," I interrupted. "It's the first day Lian, there is a new teacher and a new seating arrangement. If it was a person from our class, they wouldn't have enough time to study where they would be. It's likely to be someone else who was here before and had looked at the seating plan a long time ago,"
"You have a point," she remarked tapping the pencil on her head. "Hey, is there a name on the nightgown?"
"Yes, very faint, washed out I suppose, and it looks like the murderer is…Alice Miller?" I said confused.
"Is that Prissy's sister? They seem to have the same last name," she asked and I nodded.
"But," I said a little bit flabbergasted. "If Alice really is the killer why would she leave the nightgown still in the corner with ink for everyone to see?"
"Yeah, it does look a little bit like a set up to me..."
"Well, let's look at her motive?" I suggested.
"Yes uh, her sister was being bullied by the victim Billy, but that's really more of a motive for Prissy I guess," she noted.
"And we both did see Alice outside with Prissy and her mum, she was also there when we were coming into the class…I remember seeing her, but there was no nightgown to be seen," I was doubting myself now.
"She could've stuffed it in her bag? I think we should confront her anyway because if she is the killer and we don't confront her, then we'll regret it, and if she isn't the killer and we confront her, then we're just wrong." Lian said boldly.
"Okay..." I replied nervously.
The next day, we wore our second-day non uniform. We walked to Mrs Miller's study and knocked on the door. She opened it.
"Yes girls?" She asked with a north London accent.
"We'd like to speak to Alice, would you mind telling us where she is?" We asked innocently smiling a little.
"In the study here, whatever for?" Mrs Miller asked. "I hope you are not wasting your time girls!" She said strictly and moved letting us in. "Alice will be here soon."
"Thank you, Mrs Miller, you can excuse yourself now," I said knowing what she was going to say next.
"Oh, but I would really rather stay." BINGO, exactly what I had in mind.
"Well you can if you really want to-" Lian started. Are you nuts!? That will be too awkward, and you might be thinking this. I will finish her sentence for her, I will save us, she'll thank me later.
"But!..But…you'll be very disappointed about what we have to say," I finished off.
"Oh, no point of arguing with you girls I guess...I don't have the time for this. Right, go to the back library, she will be there in a minute or so," Mrs Miller leaving as a student carried books behind her.
As we were walking through Mrs Miller shouted "Finish whatever you're going to do and get prepared for tomorrow!" We nodded, and Lian made a face at her from behind. Tomorrow was our first day of school, so…
When we walked through, Alice wasn't there, so Lian sat on a chair until she heard footsteps, she wasn't turned the right way so when she came in, Lian would swivel around like how Sherlock would've when he shows up for a little 'pep talk' with the murderer.
As Alice came through, she shut the door and I shut the book I was holding, put it on the table and crossed my arms at her, trying to look like the most awesome detective of course, Lian turned around in her chair exactly like how Sherlock would have. She took a moment to stare at her.
"Now Alice," Lian said sternly. "Why…did you kill Billy Andrews?"
I stared flabbergasted, was that really the first thing she should've said?
Alice looked like a ghost. "W-What on bloody earth are you talking about?"
"Well, funnily enough, it happens to include blood," I stepped in. "You were clearly annoyed at the fact your sister was being bullied by Billy, weren't you? You saw the opportunity and did him in!"
"What does that mean?" Lian whispered to me.
"It's a more polite word for murder, I think," I whispered back coughing slightly and straightening up again.
"I didn't kill anyone! That is absurd," Alice shouted.
"Quite is actually," I added.
"So, what if I killed him! You have no proof!"
Lian stood as fast as lightning and stared right at Alice for a minute, until she quickly rushed to my bag.
"What are you doing?" I whispered at her.
"Just shh," She said and I, as usual, wasn't going to let her.
"Give me that!" I snatched it from her. "What are you doing? If you don't tell me that first, you can't have it." And from the corner of my eye I could see how Alice was in shock and pure confusion.
"The nightgown!" Lian shouted as she snatched the bag off me. I felt a little embarrassed because I knew the nightgown was there…but I had forgotten..
"O-oh of course," I said coughing a little clearing up my throat. I knew that!
Lian ran straight to Alice, maybe a little too close for Alice to fall down. Or too close for comfort I suppose.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" She said from the floor. Lian was looking at the door instead. Then she quickly looked down.
"Do you recognise this?" Lian asked so seriously, I'd never have seen her face like this.
"Girls, OH," Mrs Miller shouted coming out of nowhere. She must've smelt the disgusting smell of blood. "What is THAT," she asked and now we knew we were in trouble. "Where did you get that? Why do you have that? To my office. Right now!" She screamed as I dropped the pencil I was holding back on the desk.
We walked with Mrs Miller to her office, Prissy was there sitting down. I wondered why though.
"Alice! What was going on down there?" Mrs Miller asked Alice who still looked like a ghost. "Why are you shocked?" She asked again.
"Mother dear," Alice began. "They are blaming me for m-murdering Billy," she hesitated.
"WHAT," Mrs Miller shouted "Is that why the WHOLE school is WHISPERING about YOU being a KILLER?" She said looking at us.
How on earth did that information go out?! What on Bloody-
Oh.
That's right.
We're the BIGGEST idiots the world would welcome.
Prissy was probably coming in, until she heard us, she decided to listen. The walls have been made so carelessly that any bloody person would have listened.
But that's not right…maybe it was someone else.
"Mrs Miller, I am back now." A girl said. She had Blonde/brown hair and she had deep blue eyes.
"Well, have a seat then." Mrs Miller said as the girl sat down. "You told everyone that Alice murdered Billy, am I right?" She asked. Why was she being so nice to her...nevermind, I get it now. She's the teachers pet. Not surprised, she sounds like a teachers pet.
"Yes, Mrs Miller, I am sorry," she declared looking down. "But is it true?"
"That's enough now, please head back to class. None of it is your fault," she smiled warmly at her.
"You two. What the HELL were you thinking?!" She shouted startling us after the girl had just left.
"Mrs Miller," I said "W-we were just trying to detect. We don't know how the word got out."
"Well now you'll KNOW," she shouted. "A girl came to get a reading book, she heard someone or something FALL, she couldn't open the DOOR, instead she heard someone say something to someone about a MURDER, isn't it obvious?" she kept shouting. "Alice, what an embarrassment! Go to your dorm now!" But before she stood up. I put my hand on hers and passed her a note without making it look evident. She looked at her hand, and understood. She kept her hands closed.
"W-we're deeply sorry Alice" I pretended to cover the fact that I just passed her a note. She nodded and went out of the door.
You're probably wondering how I wrote that note, aren't you? Well, it's not that hard. When I was standing, I heard a pencil drop on my side of the wall. The pen which had been dropped made a sound which echoed right down my side of the wall. At first I was unsure but I could also hear the girl's high heel footsteps -the person whom I'd assumed would have been Prissy- As soon as I did, I knew we were in trouble but Alice and Lian didn't, so I quickly grabbed a pencil from the draw I found on a desk with a globe on it, and wrote the note. That's why I had dropped a pencil when Mrs Miller called.
But that doesn't change the fact that we are still in trouble.