I couldn’t remember a time I sat at the desk in my room feeling I was about to do something life-changing. It was only until now.
My lampshade turned on instead of the ceiling light, it made me feel like I was in one of those detective shows. Getting the photocopies from my bag, I arranged them down on the table and looked at them one by one. Most of them were shots of statement accounts, receipts, and documents made by the school admin and contractors. I could tell they were about purchases of construction materials, deals made, and a change of suppliers.
I got the front and the back of each picture photocopied into one sheet of paper for convenience. I read the notes again, more carefully this time:
The marks on the balance sheet show items that don’t add up.
Contradictory.
Some funds are missing.
Receipts are tampered.
Who’s in charge???
Some of Nicole’s scribbles looked hazy, as if she was making notes for herself; while others looked pretty neat and not rushed. If it weren’t for Calvin’s testimony, then I would have assumed that the handwriting was done by different people.
It was the mention of funds and who was in charge that made me consider it was something to look into. If proven right, it could mean trouble for someone or some people in the school. But if not, then Nicole had been mistaken. I wondered, does this really have something to do with her death?
In any case, I knew the only way was to do more research. I messaged Calvin if it was okay to ask him questions about the incident. (We exchanged numbers this afternoon so we could update each other more conveniently.)
“Do you know what was in the police report? Was there anything unusual?” I asked over the phone. I learned from an anime detective show to ask for unusual occurrences. It was usually the key that would lead us to the truth.
The voice from the other line replied, “From what I heard, there was no sign that she was attacked or taken advantage of. All injuries were caused by the fall. But there was one thing the officer noticed. He said that my sister had a dent on her chest, as if a hard object had hit her. The investigators didn’t find anything in the scene and they already convinced themselves it was suicide, so they concluded it was from the impact of the fall.”
I used my headset during the call so I could take note of important details. I asked him several more questions and then we called it a night. I told him not to do anything reckless while in school, and that we could meet in the library during breaks if needed.
If only I could ask someone from the Student Board, I said to myself, remembering that Nicole used to be a member. I was thinking maybe they have kept records or something, or heard any of the allegations from that time.
I suddenly thought of Yana and pondered if I should tell any of these things to her. She had become busy now that we couldn’t even get to do something together anymore.
Well, as if I haven’t been busy with this playing detective of mine.
I thought of sending her a text message but it was already late at night. “She’s probably asleep already, and I’m going to see her tomorrow, anyway…” I muttered as I drifted off to sleep.