The Murder in Stall 4

by Marski, Renee

  Clara sat back and took her last bite of ice cream. “I’m gonna head home and read more of the diary. I’ll call you guys later.” She got up and walked out of the parlor, a lot on her mind.

  6.

  THE MISSING PAGE

  A s soon as she got home, Clara ran up to her room. She heard music coming from Jasmine’s room but didn’t stop. She picked up the diary and opened it, searching for the place where she’d left off. She started reading again, playing with the pages, touching them, trying to get a feel for the girl who had written this diary. That’s when she noticed the missing page. It was about halfway through the diary, and it appeared to have been ripped out. Clara rubbed her eyes. “I know it was all here yesterday.” Jasmine’s music reached her ears and she sat up, screaming, “JASMINE!”

  She charged into her sister’s room without knocking. Jasmine sat on her bed, singing to herself and doing homework. Clara started tearing her room apart before Jasmine had even noticed.

  “Hey! What are you doing?” Jasmine demanded.

  Clara turned on Jasmine.”Where is it?”she cried. Jasmine didn’t respond, so Clara grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Jasmine, where is the missing page?”

  Jasmine pushed her away.”I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

  Clara turned and tore through Jasmine’s drawers.

  “Stop it, Clara! Cut it out!” Jasmine shouted. She grabbed Clara’s wrist and pulled her away. “Leave my stuff alone.”

  “Oh, like you leave my stuff alone? Where is the diary page?” Clara cried.

  Jasmine shoved Clara so hard, she fell. “GET OUT OF MY ROOM!” The rage in Jasmine’s face took Clara’s breath away. Her pupils were constricted, and her black hair stuck out in all directions. Jasmine never looked like this.

  Clara stood up and brushed herself off. “Fine, whatever,” she cried dejectedly. She turned and walked out. As Clara headed over to her room, her mother reached the top of the stairs. She looked like she had just run up them, her face red from the exertion.

  Mrs. Young took one look at Clara and then reached out to her daughter. Clara shook her head and walked into her room without a word. Mrs. Young patted her blonde hair back into place and turned toward Jasmine’s door. Jasmine refused to look at her, just closed the door as quietly as possible. Mrs. Young shook her head, trying to figure out what was going on with her daughters.

  In her room, Clara found solace in the diary, in the thoughts of another girl. Even with the missing page, she could still piece together things. Betty hadn’t liked Andrew, as he creeped her out. He made her skin crawl just by looking at her. Betty couldn’t describe what it was about Andrew that bothered her, but the simple fact that he did bother her made Clara curious about him.

  7.

  samantha’s heartache

  T he next day at school, Clara stood in the bathroom fixing her mascara in the mirror. “Having light eyelashes sucks,” she mumbled to her reflection. Her hair hung crimped and loose around her shoulders. She wore light pink lip gloss on her small lips, trying to plump them up a bit. She adjusted her purple V-neck shirt to showcase more cleavage and grinned at herself.

  Clara shrugged and turned to go when the sight of stall four stopped her. She stared at it for a minute, noticing that now tape had been wrapped around the door to block anyone from using it like she had almost done. It suddenly occurred to her that Rodney might be able to help her with this case.

  After school, she headed to the police station, hoping to catch her brother there. She was just passing the church when she heard angry voices. Clara looked up to see Samantha and Andrew arguing in front of the church. A white headband held Samantha’s light blonde hair back from her face and she wore her cheerleading uniform. Andrew towered over her, his dark brown hair a mess, like he had been driving with the windows down. Samantha’s oval face was red as a beet and tears were streaming down her cheeks. Clara couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it ended abruptly, with Andrew storming away. He charged passed Clara without seeing her, leaving Samantha on the church steps.

  Clara walked up to her slowly, not wanting to intrude. “Samantha?” she whispered.

  The look of sadness in Samantha’s eyes tore at Clara’s heart. Her ponytail was coming loose from its tie and she looked like a snotty, red mess. Samantha wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and said, “Clara, hey, what’s up?”

  Clara touched her shoulder. “Are you OK? I heard you arguing.”

  Samantha sat on the steps and sighed.”How much did you hear?”

  Clara sat next to her. “Nothing, actually. I just saw you fighting. What’s going on?” Samantha looked into Clara’s eyes like she was searching for something. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. It’s none of my business, but you seem like you need to talk to someone.”

  Samantha sighed. “How do I know you won’t tell your three new friends? You seem really chummy with them.”The pain echoed in her voice.

  Clara scratched her head. “They’re nice girls, Samantha. Maybe if you just talked to them, you’d see how nice they really are.”

  Samantha’s shoulders slumped. “I know they’re nice. But people talk. And only Andrew and the pastor know what’s going on. So, if anyone finds out, I’ll know it came from you,” she said.

  Clara nodded and took Samantha’s hand. “I won’t tell, I swear.”

  Once again, Samantha searched Clara’s eyes, like she was trying to read her mind, searching for something in the depths of Clara’s soul. Apparently, she found it and made a decision.

  “I’m pregnant. I found out right before the bonfire and told Andrew on our way there. Since then, he’s been really pissed off at me. We came here today to talk to the pastor, who told Andrew that abortion is a sin in the eyes of God. I’d already told him, but he doesn’t listen to anything I say. I’ve already told him I want to keep it, but he doesn’t want me to. He broke up with me today. Told me he didn’t know who I was or what was going on with me, but that he wasn’t going to ruin his life like his brother did,” she said, unable to control the sobs any longer.

  Clara wrapped her arms around Samantha.”Let’s go get some ice cream. It’ll make you feel better,” Clara declared.

  Samantha nodded and followed Clara down the steps, in the opposite direction of the police station. Clara decided to talk to Rodney later; right now, Samantha needed her.

  Over ice cream, the girls talked about Andrew and his family. “There are actually three brothers, Alex, Andrew, and Anthony. Anthony is the oldest. He works at a seafood restaurant over by the movie theater. He went to college for a couple years but then came back home. He’s getting a degree online and working part time to save money. Not really sure how long he’s gonna hang around here,” she added.

  Clara sat back for a minute, in shock.”Dark brown hair, hazel eyes, looks like a Greek god?” Clara asked.

  Samantha nodded.

  “Dang, he’s gorgeous.”

  Samantha burst out laughing.”You’re not the first to think so. Lots of girls do, but he seems pretty uninterested in any of them. I think he’s too smart for them, honestly.” Samantha shrugged.

  Clara nodded and asked, “So, how did you and Andrew end up together?”

  Samantha took a bite of ice cream. “I’m head cheerleader, he’s the quarterback. He started winking at me at games and asking me out after them for drinks and stuff. We just kind of started dating; there was never anything official about it. It was like everyone expected us to be together. We even planned on going to college together. Now, I’m not sure I can.” She rested a hand on her flat stomach.

  “Samantha, you can still have a life. A baby won’t stop that,” Clara said.

  Samantha sighed and took another bite.”But it’ll make it harder. And Andrew hates me now,” she said.

  Clara looked at Samantha closely. “Did you ever really love him or enjoy being with him? I mean, you always seemed really sad,” Clara said.
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  Samantha shrugged.”It was OK when he was nice. Other times, he ignored me and pretended I wasn’t there. He’d talk about me like I wasn’t around. Or make comments about me that weren’t very nice. Then there were times when he was really sweet, and he could be very tender when he wanted to be. But that was usually when he wanted sex or something else from me.”She sighed.

  “Samantha, I don’t know you very well, but you’re a smart girl. Why did you stay with him?” Clara asked.

  Tears spilled from Samantha’s red-rimmed eyes. “Because I thought it was just pressure and stress and that once we left here, he’d really, truly love me and show it more. The tender moments made me think that maybe he had some good in him. That maybe he did truly love me. I guess I was wrong. And now I don’t know what to do.” She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

  “There’s always adoption. You don’t have to keep the baby. Plenty of families would love to take it,” Clara said.

  Samantha nodded, then sobbed out, “I know. It just makes me sad that he wants nothing to do with it or me. I mean, it’s just a baby.”

  “I don’t think he had any intention of staying with you, honey. I mean, if he had, wouldn’t this not have mattered?”Clara asked.

  Samantha gave her a pained look.”Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t be surprised but I’d always hoped that he’d change or grow to love me the way his brother loves Natalie.” Clara squeezed Samantha’s hand. “I’m sorry. Normally I wouldn’t be spilling my guts like this, but these hormones have me all out of whack. Then he broke up with me and I just needed someone to talk to.”

  “It’ll be OK. You’ll figure this out. And you have friends and family who love and support you,” Clara said encouragingly.

  Samantha smiled. “That’s what the pastor said. It just made Andrew even madder.” She squared her slim shoulders and took a deep breath. “I can do this without him, you know? I can have a baby and go to college. I can still live my dream. It’ll be harder than I thought, but I can do it.”

  Clara bit her lip. She knew her next question was going to hurt Samantha, but she had to ask. “What did Andrew suggest you do?”

  “He wants an abortion. He said that there was no need for me to ruin both our lives when it could easily be taken care of,” Samantha said through clenched teeth.

  “And how do you feel about that?” Clara asked.

  The fire in Samantha’s eyes surprised Clara. “I would never do that. That’s the whole reason I took him to the Pastor in the first place. My parents got pregnant with me before they were married. They were in college together. And they kept me. How could I turn around and abort my baby after what they did for me? I may not raise this baby, but I sure will birth it.”

  Clara nodded.”And that didn’t make him happy, did it?”

  Samantha shook her head. “Nope, not at all. He said something about girls in this town liking to be knocked up or something to that effect. The only other girl to get pregnant in high school the last couple years was Natalie, so I’m not really sure what he’s talking about.” Clara filed the thought away in the back of her mind and continued to focus on Samantha.

  It was close to dinnertime when Clara finally got home. Rodney sat in front of the TV, watching some car show. Clara sat next to him, rubbing his head with her hand. “So, Rodster, can I ask a favor?”

  He narrowed his green-grey eyes at her. “You call me Rodster only when you want something. So, spill it,” he said.

  She grinned and patted his hair.”Well, it’s about that stall at school. Would you mind looking up the case files for me? And maybe seeing if you can get any prints-outs of it? It hasn’t been touched since the murder.”

  He rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure, Lil’ Sis. How would I get in there to do that? I can get the paperwork, but physical evidence … I don’t know.”

  She grinned. “That’s where I come in. Give me a kit. I can get you prints, and you can run them. Please? I have a hunch,” she said.

  “And what if those prints aren’t in the system?” Rodney asked.

  “Well, I’m betting they aren’t. I’m betting that prints were taken before and that no one knew whom they belonged to.”She implied that she knew a secret without saying it.

  “Wait, if prints were taken before, why do we need fresh ones?” Rodney asked.

  “What if the killer visited the scene again? Maybe there were no prints the first time but there are now,” Clara suggested.

  “Let’s look at the case files first, OK? If there are prints, I’ll run them again,” Rodney replied.

  “And if they come up as unknown, I’ll get some for you to run them against,” Clara declared.

  Rodney narrowed his eyes.”Clara, even if they matched, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t arrest someone because their prints were in a stall where a girl was murdered.”

  “But it would help, wouldn’t it?” she asked.

  Rodney nodded slowly.

  Clara clapped her hands together, gave him a hug, and ran upstairs.

  Pulling out her notebook, she wrote, “I have some suspicions about who may have killed Betty. Something that Andrew said to Samantha today got me thinking. If Betty was pregnant with Alex’s baby, it would’ve ruined his plans to go to college with his brother. Andrew is angry enough; maybe he killed her. Maybe the missing page mentions the pregnancy. I need to find out if Hannah knows anything about that.” Clara closed the notebook and lay back on her bed. This place was getting more and more interesting.

  8.

  GIRLS’ NIGHT IN

  S tacy’s sleepover started out like any other: movies, popcorn, and root beer floats. “Sorry we couldn’t have done this sooner, guys, but my mom wanted to do family stuff last weekend,” Stacy said with a laugh.

  They were huddled on the floor in front of the TV in Stacy’s living room. The TV, a 60-inch plasma screen that her dad had picked up during a Black Friday sale the year before, stood like the centerpiece of the room. The brown suede couch bore the marks of being well used. Stacy’s mom was into quilting and one of her first quilts hung off the back of the couch. Two pillows perched on either end of the couch, their patterns of blues and yellows complementing the pattern on the quilt. The girls were surrounded by blankets and pillows from Stacy’s room, while a huge bowl of popcorn sat between them. From the kitchen, to the left of the living room, they could hear the sound of the microwave.

  “What did she make you guys do this time?” Hannah asked from her spot on the floor.

  “Camping. The bonfire ‘inspired’ her.” Stacy’s derisive tone wasn’t as serious as she made it sound. Clara could tell that Stacy hadn’t minded it quite as much as she let on.

  All the girls were huddled on the living room floor, surrounded by sleeping bags and pillows. Each wore their pajamas and they had just finished doing each other’s hair. Tracy’s red curly locks were piled on top of her head, with ringlets framing her heart-shaped face. Even though she was chubby, she was cute. Her wore a large blue tank top and little black shorts. Hannah’s black hair had been straightened, which made it look longer than usual. Her pajamas consisted of a matching set of purple plaid. Stacy’s blonde hair braided in a mermaid braid, Tracy’s first attempt. Stacy wore a camisole and plaid pants. Meanwhile, Clara’s dark brown hair had been curled and hair-sprayed so that it held in place. She wore short shorts and an old shirt of her dad’s.

  Looking at the girls, Clara decided to get her question out of the way before the night got going. “So, I was wondering … was there any possibility that Betty was pregnant when she died?”

  Hannah stayed silent, but both Stacy and Tracy shook their heads. “Not that we know of. And if she was, it was never released,” Stacy said.

  Clara looked at Hannah. “Hannah, did she tell you? Maybe mention it right before she died?”

  Hannah nodded, fiddling with her sleeping bag. “Yes, she mentioned it. She had found out just a couple of weeks earlier. They had agreed to not tell anyone, but Betty
couldn’t keep it from me.”

  “Hannah, did they tell anyone else, maybe their families?” Clara asked excitedly.

  “They told her mom. And I think his brothers. Anthony was happy for them, but Andrew was pissed. He got so mad, he put his hand through a wall. Betty said she was really scared of him after that,” Hannah said.

  Clara nodded. “I think that may have been on the missing page. And whoever took it wouldn’t realize that you’d know all this stuff.”

  Hannah nodded and looked at the TV.”Can we watch the movie now?”

  Clara saw the sadness in her eyes. She touched Hannah’s hand, then stood. “I’ll get the popcorn. Anyone want more drinks?” When all the girls chimed in, Clara grinned and headed off to the kitchen.

  Stacy’s house was big. Like, mini-mansion big. The first floor had a living room, a kitchen with an attached dining room, a half-bath, and a den. Upstairs were five bedrooms and two bathrooms. It reminded Clara of a fairy tale home. The kitchen had a black infrared stove and oven, a microwave over the stove, and a newer dishwasher. The appliances were all black and the counters were dark granite. It was the kind of kitchen Clara would have loved to have, including the dark cherry wood cupboards.

  Once the popcorn finished, Clara headed back into the living room. She settled down next to Stacy and passed around the popcorn. The first movie ended up being a romantic comedy, something to lighten mood after the earlier conversation. Clara tried not to dwell on what Hannah had told her and to instead enjoy the movie. After it finished, the girls started talking about guys.

  “So, do any of you have a crush?” Clara tried to be as coy as possible.

  “Um, well, we have regular dates, but none of us are in anything serious,” Stacy said with a grin.

  “Details?”Clara asked.

  “I like one of the linebackers on the football team. We’ve gone out a couple times but he’s really shy,” Tracy said quietly.