"A body has been discovered!"

Was what was heard over the loudspeaker at the same time that everyone heard Dawn cry out, "Oh my god."

Immediately, all excited buzz stopped, and everyone jumped out of the pool to hurry over to the golden-blonde.  Tommie squinted as she tried to see what the psychologist was staring at, until-

"F*ck- f*ck- no-" was what came out of Stratus's mouth first just seconds before he dove into the water, emerging a few seconds later with the body of a familiar freckled brunette. 

The pool water couldn't hide the distraught gleam in his storm-blue eyes, especially with his glasses now floating in the water a few feet away.  It was the most vulnerable that Tommie had seen him, and she knew that it was best to give him a moment to collect himself.  It was easy enough to look away, though, given how nauseous the sight made her.

"You all have two hours to assess the crime scene!" Ace declared, their voice piercing Tommie's ears.  God, she hated that voice.

Still, she stood there and tried to get her spinning brain to slow down enough that she could process what was happening.

"I think we can all agree that this wasn't an accident," Evan said quietly, breaking the unbearable silence.

Tommie stared at the body, now gently set on the pool deck. 

"She must've been drowned.  There's some scrapes and cuts on her hands, evidence of a struggle, but likely from hitting the pool walls or the deck," Dawn observed. "The murderer had to have been strong in order to keep her down like that."

"Is that all we have to go off of?" Evan frowned, his dark blue gaze bearing into the corpse. "That's not a whole lot."

"You're right.  But now we know that the murderer has to have been strong enough to forcefully keep the head of a martial artist underwater.  If there's anything we should've learned by now, it's that Amy was very strong," Dawn told him.

"So then the murderer has to be..." Tommie thought for a moment.  Only one person could possibly come anywhere close to Amy's strength, as far as she could tell. "Stratus.  He just brought her up from the bottom and lifted her out of the pool with ease.  Surely holding her under wouldn't be too much harder for him."

Dawn looked over at Stratus. "Are you sure?  He seems very upset."

"Ever heard of acting?" Evan snapped.  It was clear he was shaken and unsure how to cope, even if his expression didn't give it away.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Dawn insisted. "We don't have much context on the situation just yet."

"That's because that's all there is!" Tommie gestured to Amy's body. "Someone drowned her, and that's all we have to work off of."

"So that's it, then," Jax huffed.  Jackie whimpered next to him.

"I believe so," Dawn confessed, her emerald gaze dropping to her feet.

"Well, we should still search for clues, right?" Evan suggested. "We're all still kids, none of us can create a perfect murder and get away with it that easily!"

"No, he's right," Alister admitted, tugging at the cuff of her sleeve anxiously. "There has to be more to this."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Tommie demanded. "We have to go search the building before the trial!"

"I'll investigate the pool area, since we're already here," Alister volunteered. "See if anything got left behind."

"And everyone else can split up along the first and second floors," Dawn finished.  She then glanced around before suddenly saying, "I didn't realize that Stratus left already."

"I mean, it's not looking so good for him right now," Evan said.

"Or he's grieving his friend," Alister shot back.

"It doesn't matter," Dawn interjected. "Let's get on with the investigation before we run out of time."

Tommie exited with the rest of the group, volunteering to take the trash room and bathrooms along with Evan.  They walked down the hall together in dead silence before Evan finally spoke.

"So, uh, my secret was that I've lied on a few audition papers about age and stuff," he blurted.

Tommie stared at him. "You're serious."

"Yeah, I know, it's really bad," he sighed, his gaze dropping to the floor. "I mean, I really wanted the parts, and it was just that easy, and I feel bad about it now but-"

"I ruined my friend's life," she said.

"...What?"

"I photographed her cheating with another friend's boyfriend, and never owned up to it.  She was bullied until she had to drop out of our school.  I'm... I'm her only friend now." Tommie swallowed the lump in her throat as she spoke.  She had single-handedly ruined her best friend's life.  That was what she'd seen written on her paper.

Before Evan could respond, she felt her handbook buzz in her bag. Evan was already turning his on.

"A case update. Name of victim, Amy Diaz, Ultimate Martial Artist... time of death, 11 PM. ...Cause of death: unknown," he said slowly.

"Well now we know- she drowned, obviously," Tommie said.

Evan looked up at her. "...I'm not so sure now. If we know what the cause of death was, wouldn't the data be updated?"

Tommie thought for a moment. As much as she didn't want to admit it... Evan was right.

"Then what killed her?" she asked him. He shook his head.

Upon arriving at the trash room, they both stopped in their tracks. The incinerator was not only on, but there was a large pile of burnt trash next to it. The floor was still wet from the sprinklers.

"I don't remember this being here." Evan stared at the strange pile, wrinkling his nose in confusion.

"...Or this, either," Tommie added as she noticed something discarded in front of the incinerator. It was a piece of some sort of cloth, singed on the ends and smelling slightly of chlorine. Without hesitation, she silently tucked it into her skirt pocket.

"This is so weird," Evan mumbled, taking a step back and observing the room once more. "I don't get how this heap of sh*t could've gotten set on fire unless it was intentional..."

After a beat of silence, he added, "Oh."

"Yeah, now you put two and two together, dipsh*t," Tommie remarked. "If it doesn't seem like an accident, chances are that it's not. Wow, go crazy, so mind-blowing-"

"Alright, you can stop now," Evan grimaced, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

They proceeded to scour the rest of the room to find nothing else out of the ordinary, and then continued down towards the bathrooms. After a half-hour of searching, the two of them came to an agreement that there was nothing unusual in either one. Instead, they returned to the trash room to fish through the burning pile for any potential evidence.

"This is gross," Tommie gagged as she daintily peeled back a layer of damp cardboard with two fingers.

Evan responded by throwing a soggy banana peel at her. She screamed before bonking him over the head with a cardboard box. Then, she realized that she was no longer screaming and was, in fact, laughing with Evan as they threw trash at each other like toddlers. They must've done it for some time, too, because Ace's voice returned over the loudspeaker to remind everyone to report to the court room.

"Oh my god, we smell so bad," Tommie cackled, sniffing her sleeve and recoiling in disgust.

"We're really gonna be the main event of the trial. Just... hopefully not in the guilty-of-murder way," Evan snickered, putting an arm on her shoulder as they turned the corner and arrived in front of the elevator.

Immediately, Alister, who was the only one already there, took a massive step back.

"First of all, why do you two look like you went swimming in a dumpster, and two, why do you smell like it as well?" she demanded, clearly horrified.

"Wait, do we smell?" Evan took a step towards Alister, extending his arm. She practically dove backwards in an effort to escape.

"What's going on over here?" Dawn asked as she approached. "Is everything okay?"

"They're trying to kill me!" Alister pointed accusingly, her other hand on her hip. "I think I might vomit if they even breathe in my direction."

Jax laughed as he found himself stumbling across the scene. A few seconds later, Stratus appeared, and they all crammed into the elevator for the second time.

"I really, really hope that there's more to the case than what we found at the crime scene," Jax said, breaking the silence. "I found nothing."

"I mean, there isn't really anything to go off of. According to the digital handbooks, Amy's cause of death is unknown, and it doesn't seem like any of us have any idea what could've killed her besides drowning," Evan responded.

Stratus then spoke for the first time since discovering Amy's body. "Actually, we do."

***

(1450 words)

Was gonna add what he found but heyyy I'm already past my 1000-word "limit" so might as well just make it a bigger cliffhanger.

Dw the next chapter should come out pretty soon!

So... I think I forgot to ask this last chapter but... who do you think killed Amy?