“Good morning. My name is Detective Inspector Bartrum; I’m with the homicide division. You are Maisie Preston, correct?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.
I nodded, willing my voice to work when I spoke. “Yes,” I confirmed.
“Okay, Maisie, I just want to ask you a few questions to help with our investigation. Because we’re conducting these questions on school premises, Principal Bennett is sitting in on them too, it’s just standard practice,” he muttered, picking up his mug and taking a loud slurp of his coffee.
“Okay.” I nodded in understanding, wanting this over with already.
He nodded, looking down at his notepad and flipping over a page before looking up at me. “Did you know Sandy Watson well?” he asked.
“Um, not really. We weren’t friends or anything,” I answered.
He sucked his teeth with his tongue, just looking at me without speaking. The silence stretched on and on, and I cringed under his intense gaze. “I’ve been informed of an incident between you and the deceased that happened yesterday morning. Would you please tell me about that?” he asked finally.
I groaned inwardly. “We had a fight in the hallway. She said something that upset me and I reacted badly. I’m sorry about that, I shouldn’t have done it,” I admitted, looking at my feet, suddenly ashamed of myself. I’d jumped the gun yesterday and assumed that it was her that had sent me those things and poisoned Chester when I now knew that it wasn’t even her.
He picked up his pen and wrote something that wasn’t even legible; he would probably have trouble reading his notes again later. “What was the argument about?” he asked.
I sighed, closing my eyes, hoping he wasn’t going to ask this information. “Lately I’ve been getting these weird phone calls, threatening notes, that kind of thing. Then, two days ago, someone broke into my house and poisoned my dog. I’ve reported it to the police; DI Neeson is the lead officer on my case. I thought it was Sandy that was doing it, so I confronted her about it and we ended up fighting. But I later learned that it wasn’t her anyway because she was somewhere else when my dog was poisoned.”
Principal Bennett sat forward in her chair, her eyes concerned. “Oh, Maisie, why didn’t you come to me and tell me?”
The inspector held up his hand and shook his head, signalling for Principal Bennett to be quiet. “DI Neeson you say?” he asked, scribbling her name on his pad. I nodded in confirmation. “I have witnesses to the fight that say you actually told Miss Watson that you’d kill her if she came near you again. Did you say those words?”
I tightened my jaw, nodding guiltily. “I think so. It was all so fired up and stuff. I can’t remember my exact words. I didn’t mean it though; it’s just something that came out. I’d never hurt anyone, ever,” I replied quickly, begging him with my eyes to believe me.
“So why would you say it?”
I shrugged, not having an answer. “I don’t know. It just came out. I was angry, we were both screaming stuff at each other. I don’t really remember everything that I said.”
He nodded, picking up his coffee and regarding me over the rim as he took a deliberately slow slurp. When he put the mug down he cocked his head to the side. “This is just routine questioning at this time, Miss Preston. I’m just talking to everyone that had direct contact with Sandy yesterday, trying to piece together her last day.” His eyes bore into mine, seeming like he was trying to drag any lies out without me even speaking. I was incredibly intimidated by the way he looked at me; it didn’t feel like these were just routine questions.
I chaffed my hand up my arm, flicking my eyes up to the clock on the wall. I’d already been in here for almost ten minutes; everyone else had been out within five so far. Was that a bad sign?
“Where were you between the hours of nine and eleven last night?” he asked suddenly.
“At home,” I answered quickly.
He nodded. “And people were there with you? Parents, siblings?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.
I nodded. “My brother was downstairs, and also my, um, boyfriend, well, kind of ex-boyfriend, he came over last night,” I stumbled over my words, not quite knowing what to class Luke as anymore.
Inspector Bartrum raised both eyebrows at that. “What time did your boyfriend, kind of ex-boyfriend, come over?” he asked.
“About eight,” I lied. “I snuck him into my room, and he spent the night.” There, it was done; the lie was told. Now I should be allowed to leave and he would stop looking at me with those scary, challenging eyes.
A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Spent the night? I’m guessing that the parents don’t know that they boyfriend slash ex stayed over?” he inquired.
I shook my head quickly. “My parents are out of town, but my brother doesn’t know, he’d go crazy if he did.” I winced, thinking of how annoyed Alex would be if he found out this news, and I wouldn’t be able to tell him it was a lie either because then the police could find out.
A disapproving click of the tongue came from the corner of the room, and I felt my face flame with embarrassment because Principal Bennett now believed that Luke had slept in my room.
“And what is the boyfriend slash ex-boyfriend’s name?” the inspector asked, his pen poised above the paper ready to write.
“Luke Hannigan,” I answered, watching as he scribbled it on the pad.
“He’s at this school?” he asked. I nodded in answer, and he looked up at the female officer that was holding the clipboard and standing by the door. “Can we get Luke Hannigan in for the next round of students?” he requested. She nodded, writing on the clipboard too. Inspector Bartrum looked back to me. “Do you know of any reason why someone would want to hurt Miss Watson?” he asked.
Despite the fact that she’s a spiteful, nasty witch? was my first thought, but, “No,” was what I answered instead.
He sucked on his teeth, just watching me silently again for a few seconds before he spoke, “Okay, I think that’s all for now. I’ll put in a call to DI Neeson and speak to her about your case and let her know that Miss Watson has been a victim of homicide,” he said, waving his hand at the door. “You’re free to go. Please don’t talk to the other students sat outside, just go straight back to class.”
I nodded quickly, relived that it was over. “Okay, thanks.” I picked up my bag and practically ran from the room, ignoring how the remaining students on the chairs watched me as I walked past. I tried not to wonder what they thought about the fact that I’d been in there three times as long as everyone else. Would they see that as something else to gossip about, and another factor to add to my guilt? I hoped not.
In every single class I went to after that, the receptionist popped her head in and pulled out at least one student, in my last class of the morning she actually removed five students. As the time passed people seemed to be looking at me less and less. News seemed to be spreading of the fact that Luke snuck into my house last night, I was secretly dreading lunchtime when I would see Alex, and he would ask about it. I was going to have to lie right to my brother’s face and wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest.
When the bell sounded I hung back in my class, deliberately wasting time and procrastinating before deciding that I would forgo the confrontation all together. Instead, I decided that I would spend my lunchtime in the library. I sent a quick text to Charlotte informing her of my plans and that I had an essay to finish and then snuck out of the class in the direction of the library.
The volunteer librarian looked up as I walked in but because I came in here a lot all she did was a casual wave as I strutted past and into the back where they had the comfy reading chairs. I didn’t have any work to do, so on the way past I nabbed a romance novel with a decidedly sickly cover of a couple embracing on a beach. When I got to the chairs I settled down in the seat to read it for an hour.
My plans were ruined when a bag dropped down next to me ten minutes later though. I cringed and looked up expecting Alex to come and give me the third degree. I was pleasantly surprised to see Luke standing there instead. “Hey,” he greeted somewhat cheerfully.
Hmm, I guess Alex hasn’t caught up with him yet! “Hey. How did you know I was here?” I asked. I hadn’t told Charlotte where I was going, just that I had work to finish off and wasn’t going to lunch with them.
“You weren’t at lunch, so I thought to myself, where would Maisie be? Then it hit me, comfy chairs at the back of the library,” he mused, plopping down in the chair opposite mine and ripping open his black backpack. “Hungry?” he asked, pulling out a sandwich carton and bottle of Pepsi.
I nodded, taking it eagerly as my stomach gave an angry growl. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until then. “Thanks, Luke.”
He smiled, taking out another sandwich and sitting back in his chair. “What you hiding in here for? Are people still saying things? Who is it? I’ll talk to them,” he suggested, looking at me curiously.
I sighed and ripped open the packet, lifting out half of the cheese sandwich. “No it’s fine. I’m just kind of trying to avoid Alex. He’s gonna go mad when he hears that you stayed over last night,” I explained, wincing.
Luke cringed and nodded. “Hadn’t thought of that. Hiding in the library is a good plan. Think we could stay here forever so I don’t get my ass beat?” he joked. His eyes twinkled with amusement, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You should probably move towns,” I teased, winking at him playfully. “My dad’s back this afternoon too so you’ll have two Preston males out for your blood.” I bit into the sandwich greedily, not even bothering to savour it. I hadn’t eaten anything all day so now I was actually ravenous.
Luke waved his hand dismissively. “I can handle them. You’re worth it,” he replied, smirking at me. “How’d your interview go? All as planned, right? You said what we agreed?” he asked, lowering his voice and leaning forward in the chair.