Chapter 18: Updating the Murder Board

I bounded up to my room, eager to sort through the newly acquired information. I grabbed a few sticky notes and got started.

'Disappearance of Newton Wes.' I linked that one to Victoria Herim's name. And I linked one more note to make it a trio. 'What did Asher want with Newton?'

'Someone messaging Janet from Asher's phone.' She was probably the prime suspect. Why would she be talking to the person who now had Asher's phone? Whoever that person was, he had Asher's bad habit of deleting messages almost straight after he read them. I was just grateful he hadn't deleted everything off the chat with Victoria; probably because he never looked at that chat after the picture was sent. I drew a big red circle around Janet's name with a red permeant marker.

At least now I knew Hugh's murder wasn't connected to Asher's.

Next on the agenda: Janet's phone. Hopefully she was a message hoarder. I needed to figure out why she was cosying up to the guy, or gal, who murdered Asher. If she was seeing someone else, then her dumping Asher would make sense.

What was even more puzzling was why the sim card in Asher's phone hadn't been changed.

I had just finished updating my murder board when a knock sounded on my window. Caspian.

I tried to shoo him away, the last thing I needed now was to be in even more trouble with my mother; but he wouldn't listen to me.

"I'll break the window," he threatened. His voice was muffled by the glass.

I sighed and granted him access.

He climbed in, quickly pecked me on my lips and gazed intently at my murder board.

"What's next, Sherlock?" he asked teasingly.

"We need Janet's phone," I replied.

"Can't James hack it?" he asked.

"Unlike Asher, Janet's alive. I can't ask James to do something illegal." I bit my lip as I thought about how I would get the phone; stealing the phone was illegal as well. "I need to get her phone," I told Caspian.

"Leave it to me," he winked and scooped me into his arms. He didn't seem angry that I had asked him to do something illegal. I couldn't ask James, because he wasn't tough. He'd get caught too easily or hand himself in to the cops, because that's just who he was. Caspian on the other hand was a Stinger, he was part of a gang. He knew what he was doing, well at least I hoped that was the case.

"And we need to speak to Victoria Herim," I added.

"Absolutely not," Caspian objected, combing his fingers through my hair.

"Please," I pleaded.

He shook his head and I realised that he would not budge on this point. I would have to work on that later.

Suddenly I felt Caspian stiffen. "Someone's coming," he whispered.

I focused my ears, and sure enough footsteps were getting louder. Caspian couldn't hide under the bed; it was too low. He didn't have enough time to struggle through the window. I yanked my cupboard door open and gestured to Caspian to get inside. He obediently climbed in, disappearing behind the hangers of clothes. It was a surprise that he actually fit. I mouthed a quick 'sorry', before shutting the cupboard door in his face.

"I thought I heard voices." My mother yanked open the door and looked around.

"YouTubers' voices," I held up my phone.

As soon as she left, I opened the cupboard. Caspian emerged with one of my bras balanced on his shoulder. He hooked the red, lacey bra on his fingers and dangled it in front of my face. I blushed. My face was probably as red as the bra. I grabbed the bra and threw it in my cupboard, before slamming the door.

Caspian chucked.

I slipped his hoodie off my head and offered it to him.

"Keep it as a memento," Caspian smiled.

What did he mean by that? Why was he giving me something to remember him by? Did he not want to see me again?

He noticed the distress on my face. "What's wrong, Maddie?"

"You don't give a memento to someone you see often," I threw the hoodie on my bed.

"That's not what I meant." Caspian rested his hand on the small of my back. "I just thought if you had a Stinger hoodie, all the creeps would lay off you," he clarified. "Like that James guy," he added after a short pause.

"James doesn't like me that way, he was just being friendly," I assured him, relieved that the hoodie was not a memento, but a safety mechanism.

"You're so oblivious." He ran a finger down the side of my cheek. I don't know if he was teasing or not, but his face looked dead serious.

"You should leave before my mom comes back," I suggested, worried for both our sakes.

"Come with me?" he asked.

I wanted to but I couldn't. "I can't," I replied.

"I know the most beautiful place," he tried to convince me, giving me puppy dog eyes.

"I'm going to be in so much trouble," I sighed.

"That's my girl." Caspian kissed my cheek. "Grab a swimsuit."

"Unlike you I'm not into surfing," I protested, folding my arms across my chest.

"Who said anything about surfing?" 

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