Nico sat in her English class, twirling her pencil between her fingers, absentmindedly staring at the board as her teacher scribbling on it. At some point, Nico tuned out, glancing over at Nate's empty chair. Nico texted him earlier, wondering if he was coming, and he replied, saying that he wasn't coming to school today. Nico sighed again, shifting her gaze to the window. Nico closed her eye and the events from yesterday came rushing back.
After Nico found the blood, Evan suggested going back because Nate wasn't in the best shape to continued, and Nico couldn't blame him. Nate was so freaked out that his face was as white as a sheet of paper and was shaking badly. But Nate wasn't the only person in a terrible mood after Evan dropped Zane and Nico off, letting them know that Nate would be fine and needed a good night's rest. At first, Nico wasn't okay because Nate would be there by himself, but Evan told her that he would be there with him and let her know if anything changes. After Evan drove off, leaving Nico and Zane alone on the sidewalk, Nico tried to talk to him, but Zane didn't want to have any form of a conversation with her. The only thing Zane did was shove his hands in his pockets, turning on his heels, walking to his house, not sparing her a glance leaving Nico by herself. Nico thought that maybe he needed some space for a bit, but his mood about her didn't change, considering that he didn't show up for their early tutoring session and never said a word to her before their first period when they ran into each other coming into class.
Nico stared out the window drumming her fingers against her desk, feeling guilty. If she didn't push to go back out there and went to the cops as Zane suggested, then maybe there won't be an immediate threat on their lives. As Nico sat there, she was pulled out of her thought by her teacher calling out her name.
"Ms. Water," her teacher called out.
"Yes, Mrs. Joy?" Nico said, sitting up staring at Mrs. Joy, who had a disapproving look on her face with her arms crossed.
"Nice of you join us. You are needed in the principal's office," Mrs. Joy said.
Nico nodded her head, collecting her things before leaving the classroom. Nico walked down the empty hallway, gripping her bag tighter with each step closer to the office. Nico reached the office and walked up to the main deck, looking down at the lady with brown hair tied up into a neat bun with red-rimmed glasses laying on her nose as she was furiously typing away on the computer. Nico stood there awkwardly, not know what to do until the lady spoke up.
"What are you here for today, Ms. Waters?" The lady said, not looking up at her, still typing away.
"Um, I was told the principal needed to speak with me," Nico said. The lady stopped typing, finally looked up at Nico, removing her glasses, placing them on top of her head before reaching for the phone, dialing the extension before bringing the receiver up to her ear. The lady sat there in silence, waiting, glancing up at Nico and held her finger up, telling her to wait a moment before she spoke.
"Hi Mr. McComb, I have a Ms. Nico Waters here. She said that you needed to speak with her?" The lady said, falling silent again.
"Alright, I will send her in," The lady said, hanging up the phone, pushing her chair back, getting up walking to the small door that was separating the lobby and the rest of the office.
"Come on, Nico, Mr. McComb is ready for you," The lady said.
Nico walked over to the lady, following her as she walked down the short corridor towards a door. The lady stopped in front of the door and knocked three times before a man called out from the other side to come in. The lady opened the door and stepped inside. Nico looked at the lady then to the principal sitting behind the big desk. The principal had a big simile when he locked eyes with Nico and motions her to step inside. Nico took a hesitant step inside before fully walking inside. Once Nico was inside, she scanned the office before looking at another man sitting in the chair with his back facing her.
"Thank you, Ann, that will be all," The principal said, and the lady nodded her head walking out of the office closing the door behind her. Once the door was closed, Nico stood there awkwardly shifting where she was standing before speaking up.
"Am I in trouble, sir?" Nico asked.
"Oh no, you are not in trouble. I assumed you are familiar with the police captain Mr. Stephen Towns?" Mr. McComb said.
The man turned around, looking over at Nico. Nico felt her breath hitch in her throat, looking at the man that sat in front of her. Towns looked like he was in his late forties, and the tired looked on his face made him look much older, especially with the gray hairs that were decorated throughout his dark brown hair. Nico tried to notice the other things about Towns, but she was too focused on the stern look on his face, especially the piercing look he had not breaking eye contact with Nico's brown ones. That stare alone gave an intimating aura about him that made Nico feel like she was frozen to the spot.
"N-no, I don't think we've met," Nico managed to get out, and Towns turned back at the principal and hummed before getting up from his chair and turning to Nico again. Nico almost cried out in shock when she saw how tall Towns was; he was a giant. Towns walked up to Nico, only stopping a foot from her, and Nico craned her neck to look up at the towering figure that stood before her.
"Is that so because if I remember correctly, you were in my station two nights ago," Towns said, looking down at Nico with the same intensity from before. Nico swallowed, staring back at the man before focusing her attention down at the cheap brown rug that the principal had. Nico closed her eye for a moment, taking a deep breath placing a hand on her chest, regaining the confidence that she lost from this intimidating man. Nico pushed the fear she had away and snapped her head up, looking back at this man, matching his intense stare with one of her own.
"Two nights ago, I remember Lieutenant Peters was questioning me. So if you are him with a mask on, then I have nothing to say to you," Nico stated, crossing her arms. The principal shot up from his chair, almost tripping over it as he rushed over to Towns side nervously.
"Nico, you do not talk to Mr. Towns like that. I am so sorry I don't know what has gotten into her," Mr. McComb said, and Towns held his hand up, shaking his head.
"No, she is right. I am not Lieutenant Peters, but the difference between him and me is that I know something he doesn't. Isn't that right, Ms. Waters?" Towns said, crossing his arms, watching Nico shift her emotion from confidence to somewhat reluctant.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Nico said, unfolding her arms, taking a step away from Towns.
"Oh, I think you do," Towns responded, with a slight smirk appearing across his lips. Nico didn't know why but that smirk made her feel uneasy, and she took another step away from Towns thinking of a way to leave this office with short answers to his questions, whatever they were.
"If you are here to arrest me, then I have an English class to return to," Nico stated tighten the hold she had on her bag's strap.
"Arrest you? Oh no, I am not going to arrest you. I am here to ask you a couple of questions," Towns said.
"I already answer all the questions you guys asked me that night," Nico said.
"Yes, but I have a few questions of my own. So how about I give you two options since it looks like you don't want to answer my questions here. So the first option is that you can come down to the station with me. We can have a civil conversation without any hostility. Or we can do it my way and call your father and tell him to meet you down at the station because you were arrested for not cooperating in this investigation," Towns said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I can say no because I am not a suspect, and besides, you need to have proof that I did anything to take me down to the station," Nico said, glaring at Towns.
"I don't need proof to bring you down for questioning. I need probable cause," Towns said.
"You would dare?" Nico said.
"Listen, kid, I gave you an option, and you and I both know that we are going down to the station," Towns bent down to be eye level with Nico. "but if you down want to make a scene making everyone think you are a criminal, then I suggest you come with me corporately. The choice is your kid," Towns said, straighten out his back. Nico looked into Towns' eyes, and the seriousness in his eyes know that he was willing to escort Nico out a free woman or in handcuffs. Nico closed her eyes and sighed, running a hand through her unruly curls before looking back up at Towns.
"Fine, I'll help," Nico said, and Town hummed lightly and walked towards the office door, opening it looking back at Nico, who was now facing him, looking down at the ground in defeat.
"Let's go," Towns said, but Nico held her hand up.
"Only if you don' call my father. Today is his only day off, and he needs the sleep," Nico said, looking back up at Towns. Towns looked at her and nodded in agreement before looking back at Nico's forgotten principal.
"You don't mind that I am taking Ms. Waters out of school because I don't think she will be able to sit in on the rest of her classes?" Towns said, and Mr. McComb shook his head aggressively.
"No, no, no, it is fine. I will let the rest of Nico's teachers know," Mr. McComb said.
Towns nodded his head before looking back at Nico, gesturing for her to move. Nico took a small step toward the exit before looking back at her principal, who was already back at his desk making calls. Nico sighed, looking back and Town, who had the same stone face he had when she first looked at him. She walked through the door, and Towns walked around from the door stepping out with Nico looking back at the busy principal one last time before shutting the door close.
Nico sat in Towns office in front of his sizeable empty desk, watching him at his filing cabinet against the wall to Nico's left, searching through his files, pulling out the ones he needs tucking them under his arm. Towns pulled out the last file he needed before slamming the draw closed, making Nico flinched a bit. Towns walked back to his desk, sitting in his big chair tossing some of the files on his desk before looking through the others, pulling content out from each one before pushing it off to the side, placing the contents in the front of Nico spreading it out so she can see them all. Nico leaned forward just enough to look down at what Towns showed her, and her mouth went dry. Towns had a dozen or so photos but not just any photos. These were pictures of the case he was working on about Emma. Some images ranged from the woods she was found to pictures where she was last seen to her body lying on a cold table with surgically cuts showing a bit from the white sheet covering the rest of her.
"Why are you showing me this?" Nico quietly asked, pushing the photos back to Towns.
"Well, because I believe that you know something about how Emma ended up in the woods," Towns said, grabbing a folder from the pile he pushed aside and began to flip through it.
"Well, from what I told Mr. Peters is that I was running in the woods, and I stumbled across it," Nico said, and Towns hummed, still looking through the folder.
"Yeah, I know," Town dropped the folder in front of her sliding it closer towards her. Nico picked up the folder and saw that it was her report from that night. "You said that you had a feeling right," Towns said, and Nico looked up at him before closing the folder placing it on the desk.
"That's right," Nico said, slowly sliding the folder back to Towns. Town pick the folder back up before placing it back on the pile and pulling a different file out, beginning to look through that.
"Now tell me something, Nico. When you found the body in any way, did you touch it?" Town said, glancing up at Nico.
"No, well, only when I tripped over her. Why?" Nico asked, and Towns slid another file towards her. Nico picked this one up, and it was a lap report, and she tilted her head in confusion because she didn't know what she was looking at.
"In any case, the victim would harbor some DNA, but for Emma, there was nothing she was wiped clean," Town's said.
"And you think that I cut her body up and clean up the evidence after?" Nico said, throwing the folder back in the desk, harshly knowing what Town was implying.
"Actually, Emma didn't die from excessive blood loss. She apparently died from some poising in her system," Towns said.
"So the cuts on her body were made after she died?" Nico said, sitting up in her chair, and Towns nodded his head, leaning back in his chair.
"Listen, kid, I know this is too much, but I am trying to find out who killed this girl and my only lead right now is you, so I need you to start telling me the truth," Towns said, leaning towards Nico.
"What do you mean?" Nico said, looking at Towns, with his famous unreadable expression on his face.
"Yesterday, I received a call from my nephew saying that he wasn't coming home because he was staying at his boyfriend Nate Cambridge's house because he was feeling depressed about Emma Silvers's death. At first, I assumed that it was because they were classmates and the two were in the same drama club, but then this morning, I received another call, this time, from the Lieutenant's son Zane Peters. He said, and I quote being Nancy Drew putting yourself and the people close to you such as Zane Peters, Nate Cambridge, and my nephew in danger because you are trying to uncover what happened to Emma Slivers. That is worrying to me because my nephew is involved in something he shouldn't be, but it also means that you know something that I don't, isn't that right? Now you can tell me what you know, or I pick up that phone right now and tell your father what you have been up too" Towns said. Nico looked at him, stunned, like she was just slapped in the face after hearing that. Nico felt her eye well up, the tears threatening to spill over, but she blinked them away, clenching her fist, looking down at her lap, feeling hurt.
"I- I- you won't believe me," Nico responded, focusing on her lap.
"Try me," Towns answered.
Nico took a deep breath and told Towns everything she knows from the night she found Emma's body to include Nate's story before Emma's death to what Zane saw that night. After she was finished telling Towns everything, he sat there in silence before getting up from his chair, stepping over to the windows before shutting the blinds close. Towns walked back over to his desk, reaching in his pocket, pulling out a key before unlocking the desk draw sliding it open, extracting a folder filled with a bunch of paper and pictures that were tied together with a string. Towns dropped it on top of the desk with a heavy thud and sat back down in the chair, picking the folder up, unraveling the string opening it before spreading the contents out. Towns pulled out a picture from the pile, examining it before placing it out in front of Nico.
"Is this what it saw?" Towns asked.
Nico picked up the image and froze, looking at the picture feeling her blood run cold. Nico looked at the photo of what the surveillance camera caught of Main Street. The street was dark, except for one light that illuminated a person standing in fear but not just a person. It was Emma, and from the picture, she looked terrified. Nico's eyes slowly followed where Emma's eyes were looking at Nico's eyes widen in horror. Ever since that night, Nico never told anyone that she was not alone when she sat there staring at Emma's lifeless body waiting for Zane to find her. In the distance, Nico made out shadow of a person watching her in the distance, but only this didn't look like a person. The shadow was tall and thin with long arms and legs, its hands a long fingers that were sharp at the ends. That thing stood there still at first Nico that she much have him her head when she fell, but the more times she blinked it away, it never left until Zane called out for her discovering her frozen on the ground. Nico never thought it was real, but here it was in a photo that could only capture its shadow. Nico looked back up at Towns, who was staring at her waiting for her answer, and she slowly nodded her head.
"What am I looking at?" Nico weakly asked.
"That was the last place Emma was seen and that," Towns said, pointing at the picture. "Is your killer," Towns said.
Nico looked back at the picture one last time, looking at Emma and the fear in her eyes she had in her final moments. Nico shifted her eyes to the shadow and knew that that thing is still out there and even hunting. A million questions were going through her head, and the one thing that kept getting at her was what was it going to do next?