by Raven Snow
“It was forever ago. Don’t let it bug you,” she told Margo, not sure how much conviction was actually in those words. She took a bite of her pizza and tried not to think about it too much.
There was a lot of movement that caught Rowen’s attention while she ate. It looked like Channel 2 was setting up at strategic points around the auditorium. Julia Martinez was directing them. She was pointing this way and that, a frown on her face and a microphone in her hand. Rowen didn’t like her much, but she did admire her. Julia was good at her job—or jobs, rather. She acted as part lead correspondent, part director of Channel 2 news. She did a whole host of other things for Lainswich’s major local news source as well. She was impressive. You couldn’t say she hadn’t earned her success. Still, she could be a real opportunistic jerk. She might not hate the Greensmiths, but she was happy to exploit them for a story if she thought it would boost ratings.
Back in high school, Julia had been a pain as well. She’d been one of the popular kids. Her personality hadn’t won her that. No, she had been born to rich parents. They bought her an ever-expanding wardrobe of fine clothes and every new gadget or fad you could think of. She had been involved in the school newspaper and had been the only student at the school to play a cello in band. Seriously, whose parents could afford a cello? Rowen had been stuck with a heavily used clarinet. She’d hated that thing—another thing to hate about high school.
“They must be about to do something else on the stage,” Rowen said with a sigh. She took another bite of pizza, chewing and swallowing before she continued. “I guess I should go find Rose.” It wasn’t like she had had anyone swing by the table since she had sat back down with her food.
All through the night, people had been coming and going from the stage. The host of the evening was former captain of the cheerleading squad, Jessi. She was still short and blond and bubbly. She was a great deal heavier than Rowen remembered though. It probably had something to do with having three kids. She kept segueing into them apropos of nothing. She was standing on the stage again now, lingering next to the DJ. Her microphone hung off at her side while she stared at his laptop, likely waiting for the song to finish. Hopefully, this would be the grand finale.
“I’ll be back.” Rowen shoved the last of the pizza crust into her mouth and stood. She began shouldering her way through the crowd, doing her best to keep an eye out for Rose. She wasn’t exactly tall or particularly loud. Rowen lucked out and found her because of the flash from Peony and Willow’s cameras.
Grinning men and giggling women were standing up against a wall and between some potted ferns, holding one another. They were going one couple at a time, like it was prom photos all over again. Please let tonight be over soon, she thought to herself one last time before she waved to flag down Rose. Rose was standing in the middle of a small crowd, smiling and jotting things down on a pad of paper. The smile looked a little nervous. She kept opening her mouth to try and speak, but too many people were talking over her. It was like she was conducting several interviews at once and no one was asking her any questions. It was more a weird kind of forum than anything else.
“Rose!” Rowen called, raising her voice up over the din of the auditorium and waving her hand again.
Rose looked up. “One second,” she said to all those speaking at her. They kept talking but she raised a finger and awkwardly backed away from them anyway. “What’s up?” she asked Rowen, her eyes large. She looked oddly thankful for the interruption. No wonder she kept sending people Rowen’s way. Too many people here were way too willing to talk about themselves at length.
Rowen pointed to the stage. “I think she’s about to go on again. I don’t know if you want Willow or Benji to shoot some video. Hopefully it’s the finale. Julia Martinez is setting up like it is.”
Rose looked to the stage and then around the auditorium until she seemed to spot Julia.
“Thanks for the warning.” She turned her gaze to Willow and Peony. “I’ll go get Benji, I guess. I know Willow is getting pretty good with the video stuff, but…” She trailed off and dropped her voice to a whisper. “She seems kind of tipsy.”
Rowen would have been more surprised to hear Willow wasn’t a little drunk. A big part of Rowen wished she was drunk too.
“I take it you want me to stand here and make sure they don’t embarrass us.”
“If you don’t mind,” Rose smiled and hurried away, through the crowd. The people she had left behind all looked at one another. They moved their attention to Rowen next, like she was going to pick up where Rose had left off.
“I think we have enough interviews, guys,” Rowen said, putting on what she hoped was her best fake smile.
“It looks like the evening is winding down.” She pointed to the stage, hoping they would notice the host as well. She went to Willow and Peony next and lingered near the both of them. They continued making shot after mechanical shot. Surely they would run out of space on their cameras soon. Maybe they had already, and they were just taking shots for show. It wasn’t like they could possibly use all these photos that were being taken. Willow, especially, seemed to be accidentally getting a finger or two in front of the lens every time.
The upbeat 90s song the DJ was playing finally ended. Another song began to follow it, but only got out a couple opening guitar riffs before stopping suddenly. The microphone the host was holding screeched to life, and Jessi cleared her throat.
“Um, testing?” The microphone screeched again before seeming to level out.
“Sorry about that, folks.” Jessi stepped to the middle of the stage.
“I hope you’ve all had a wonderful night, and I hope this reunion is the first of many to come.”
She paused when scattered applause came from the audience.
“Thank you. I’d like to encourage everyone to make their way onto the dance floor as we remember some of Lainswich High’s finest moments.”
Jessi stepped to one side as the slide show changed. It showed new pictures now. Rowen couldn’t really tell them apart from the ones that had been playing on loop up until now. She supposed these had been deemed more important. They did seem to feature a lot of what this event’s target audience would likely remember. There were football games where a younger and slimmer Jessi was cheering. There was the homecoming court where Teaghan, Trish and Tilda were all featured prominently. Tina was there too. Rowen had forgotten how popular Tina used to be, how inseparable she had once been from all those other girls who had bullied the Greensmiths. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case anymore.
The dance floor was woefully crowded with people. Rowen couldn’t imagine what was going on in Ben’s mind right now. A sappy song started playing. Couples began to sway and slow dance. Rowen kept her distance.
The balloons in the ceiling fell. They drifted down over peoples' heads as they danced. For a second there, Rowen was worried over whether or not they had gotten a shot of that for the Inquirer. A moment later, the screaming started and that concern was wiped from her mind.
Rowen forgot about keeping an eye on Peony and Willow. She made her way toward the epicenter of the screaming instead. It was difficult. Everyone appeared to be trying to move away from it. At least that made it easier to find the scene of whatever it was everyone was screaming about.
It was in the middle of the dance floor that Rowen found a small group of people gathered around what it was that had caused all the alarm. The auditorium was dark and the thing on the floor was in a heap at odd angles. It took Rowen a few moments to realize it was a body. It wasn’t just any body either. She recognized the evening gown. This was Teaghan.
Rowen squatted down and did what she had seen no one else do yet. She put two fingers to Teaghan’s neck. She didn’t feel a pulse. She tried her wrist next and felt to see if there was any warm breath coming from her mouth at all.
“Move, move, move,” said a voice. It was Jessi. It seemed she had dropped the microphone on her way off the stage. The speakers w
ere making horrible shrill sounds.
“I’m a nurse. Let me see her!”
Rowen gave Jessi room to work. She looked back and found that more people were approaching. There was still quite a bit of shrieking going on, but a circle around the body had also formed.
“Everyone back!” boomed a voice. Ben hobbled up with his cane. He swung it once he was near the body, trying to keep people at bay.
“Give this woman room to work.”
It seemed that Jessi was already done, though. She sat back on her heels, her eyes wide. “She’s dead,” she said, her voice trembling a little. Even if she had seen a lot of death in her line of work, this had clearly hit close to home. This had been a night for celebration. This was a woman who might as well have been a member of royalty back when they were all in high school.
“Everyone out!” Ben shouted, raising his voice. “Lainswich police!” He took his badge from his pocket. He likely never left home without it. “I need everyone out in the parking lot now. Please wait for the police to get here before you leave!”
People hadn’t really waited for Ben’s instructions. Not a lot of people wanted to be around a murder scene. Lots of people were hurrying outside already. Rowen didn’t follow. She stayed right where she was, looking down at the body and trying to puzzle out what must have happened to it.
Poor Teaghan. Even if Rowen had hated her in school, she wouldn’t have wished this on her. It seemed so strange to see her lifeless when not so long ago they had been chatting. Who had done this? How had they done it? Sure, she had dropped when the balloons had, but surely it wasn’t the fall that had killed her. Rowen scanned the body. There were no obvious signs that had suggested she had been murdered in a violent way. She badly wanted to move forward and get a better look at the body. That seemed like it might be in poor taste, though. A look back told Rowen that even Channel 2 was keeping their distance. They still had their camera rolling, of course, but they were keeping their distance.
That same glance back also told Rowen that Teaghan’s husband Dave was also approaching. His eyes were wide and scared. He had probably heard his wife’s name mentioned. Given that his wife wasn’t with him, he had to know that hers was the body on the dance floor. He just didn’t want to admit it until he saw for himself.
Dave collapsed to his knees as soon as he was a few feet away. It was as if his legs refused to support him anymore. He started to crawl toward his wife, but Eric swooped in to grab him.
“She’s gone,” Eric said, gently. “You have to leave the crime scene like it is. You have to let the police figure out what happened here.”
“It’s not a crime scene! It’s my wife!” Dave struggled. A few of his friends from the football team hadn’t left the auditorium yet. They swooped in to help drag their friend outside. He cursed the whole way. Rowen couldn’t really say that she blamed him. She couldn’t imagine what her reaction would be if it was someone she loved laying there on the dance floor.
Looking past the commotion of Dave and his friends, Rowen spotted Rose pushing Benji’s camera down. This really wasn’t something they would be showing on the blog. News though it was, a video of it would be in poor taste. Margo looked to be doing something similar, standing in front of Julia Martinez and her camera man and saying something. At least it didn’t look like Julia was arguing with her. The camera man started to lower his camera.
Rowen turned back to the corpse. She gave a start when she found Willow had come to stand beside her. She was swaying a little on her feet, still a bit tipsy.
“Well,” she said quietly. “At least tonight wasn’t totally boring.”
Chapter Three
“I’m sorry,” said Willow.
“You’re sorry that you’re not sorry?” asked Rose.
Willow nodded. “I’m sorry that I’m not sorry. I just can’t bring myself to feel sad about a person like Teaghan being murdered. People die all the time. Heck, in Lainswich they get murdered all the time. I’m just saying that, if it had to be someone…”
“I have to agree,” said Margo. “She wasn’t a nice person.”
“See?” Willow patted Margo on the shoulder. “She gets it.” She looked to Benji.
Benji shrugged. “She told everyone I was poor… Which I was, but that’s kind of a nasty thing to make fun of someone for.”
Willow looked at her sister next. Peony just looked at Tina. She obviously didn’t feel comfortable speaking ill of the dead with Tina beside her. It was no secret that Tina and Teaghan had once been friends. Rowen wasn’t sure how they had fallen out, but there were obviously still some feelings there. Tina wasn’t even listening to the conversation, fortunately. Her gaze had gone distant. She was looking out at the night sky, her arms hugging her body. It was chilly out.
The parking lot was mostly empty. Lainswich High’s alumni had been good about staying until the police arrived. A few people took it upon themselves to block the exits or take down the plates of those attempting to leave early. Rowen wasn’t sure if whoever had done the deed would have been in a hurry to leave. Heck, she still wasn’t even sure how the murder had been carried out. It had to have happened sometime after Teaghan and company had come by Rowen’s table but before the last song of the night. That left a lot of time unaccounted for.
Granted, whoever had killed her was unlikely to be someone who had any prior experience with murder. They had dumped her body in the balloon net. That seemed equal parts passion and stupidity. They wanted the body to fall down and shock people. They wanted to make a scene. At the same time, how could they have known that the net would support her weight until dropped? It was a perverse kind of miracle it had. The murderer couldn’t have thought things out much before they committed to their plan.
Seeing that she wasn’t going to get a response from her sister, Willow stretched. “All right,” she announced. “I’m headed home.” She stood and offered a hand down to Benji. They lived together and had almost certainly arrived in the same car. “See you guys tomorrow, I guess?”
Rose nodded. “Get there early,” she told her cousin. “No later than nine!” she called after her as she walked away. “In the morning! We have a lot of work to do!” Rose frowned. Willow was already several yards away, waving a hand back at them like she understood all that. It was up in the air whether or not she would actually show up on time.
“We should probably do the same,” said Peony, looking to Tina. When Tina didn’t respond, she placed a hand on her shoulder. Tina jumped.
“You okay?” Peony asked quietly. When Tina didn’t immediately answer, she nodded out toward the few cars left in the parking lot. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”
Tina nodded and stood, clearly liking the sound of that idea. She looked back at the others and forced a smile. “See ya later guys.”
Everyone wished Peony and Tina a safe trip home. Once they were out of earshot, Rowen turned to those left. “Who do you think did it?”
“I can’t imagine,” said Rose, watching Tina and Peony walk across the parking lot and vanish behind the flashing lights of the cop cars.
“There are plenty of people who would have reason to hate her. God knows I do… did.” Margo was seated on a stone bench with Jasper. Everyone else sat on the curb. “She bullied so many people.”
“Sure, but would they be here?” asked Rose. “I saw a lot of people here tonight. I interviewed a bunch of them too. It seemed like they were all having a good time. It seemed like they all remembered high school fondly.”
“So, you’re saying we’re the only ones here tonight who hated her?” asked Rowen.
“Hate is a strong word,” Rose mumbled. “But no… Not exactly, there’s a good chance someone who did enjoy their high school experience killed her. I’m just saying… I don’t know. It narrows it down some.”
“Surely there are some cameras in there,” Eric said, glancing over his shoulder and back toward the auditorium. “I know there were a ton of people there tonight, b
ut surely the footage will shed some light on something. At the very least, it should narrow things down, right?”
“Hopefully,” said Rose, not sounding too optimistic about solving this thing that way. “Assuming the cameras still work.”
“Or ever worked,” Margo added.
“Our high school was never the most well-funded,” Rowen explained to her husband, in case that needed saying.
Rose looked to both cousins who had remained with her. “Are either of you getting any… feelings about this place?”
“You mean, do we sense Teaghan? Like, as a ghost?” asked Margo, being blunt about it. Rose nodded. Margo shrugged. “Not really.” She looked to Rowen. “You?”
Rowen closed her eyes. She didn’t feel anything, but she figured she might as well give it a shot. “No,” she announced with a sigh. “Though, I’m not sure if I could.”
“There’s a lot of residual energy here,” said Jasper, reminding Rowen that he could sense these sorts of things too. “A lot of terror.”
“Yeah, well, a corpse dropping on you from the ceiling will do that.” Margo stood. “If you’re expecting us to all show up bright and early tomorrow, I’m going to need some sleep.” Margo stretched and exchanged some goodbyes with everyone. After that, she and Jasper disappeared into the parking lot as well.
It was getting late. Rowen checked her phone and saw that they were well past midnight. In another hour or two, the sun would be coming up. “We should all go home and get some rest if you want an early start tomorrow,” Rowen said to Rose. She knew that her cousin was waiting on Ben to finish up, but who knew when that would be.
“You can go on,” Rose assured them. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in the morning. Get some rest.”
“Come on.” Rowen wasn’t going to leave Rose out here on her own. “Give Ben a call. Let him know we’ll be taking you home. You know Ben. He’ll be out here all night.”
