Who Killed The Principal?

Chapter Seven

       "What are we doing here?" Jamaal asked his partner who was busy staring up at the window of the office they were in. Okoye sighed before looking at the entrance to the block.

   "Do you think it took the girl three minutes to kill the principal?" He asked and Jamaal shrugged.

   "Maybe." He replied.

   Okoye began to walk back in but at a pace a girl would take. He looked at his wristwatch as he walked and before he reached the stairs, the three minutes was up. "Even if she ran, she wouldn't have made it to the office and back in three minutes." He muttered. As he reached the top of the stairs, he walked slowly to the office and noticed a broken window. He wondered if it had to do with the case.

    "Okoye.." Jamaal called. He was pointing at something on the ground of the hallway. Okoye stepped closer only to see a red fading substance on the floor. The drops of red substance trailed in a zigzag line back to the office. As Okoye's eyes followed the trail, he looked up at the end of the hall. Just above the large hall window was a camera blinking a tiny red light. Jackpot!

    "Jamaal, check if that camera is also connected to the principal's laptop fast." He ordered and Jamaal ran into the office to retrieve the footage. Okoye continued to trail the fading red substance back into the office and he knew it was blood, the principal's blood.

   "It's connected! I have a video of nine o'clock that night recorded here." Jamaal said after a few minutes. Okoye rushed to his side and they played the video. 

    The camera covered from where the broken window was to the front of the office. Five minutes into the video, the principal was seen walking to his office and unlocking it. Ten minutes later, no one else came up and Okoye's question was answered. Natasha never came up to the principal's office.

    "Jamaal, did you see that? Natasha didn't come up. I knew that the time was too short. That means someone else was here." Okoye explained. Okoye decided to watch till the end, at least till the security men arrived and saw the principal's body. The two detectives watched anxiously and the video continued, the time was slowly passing till it clocked ten. They both knew one thing; the suspect list just became bigger.

****

A day before the murder.

     The class thanked the last teacher of the morning before sitting down in exhaustion. It was Saturday morning so no other teacher would be coming in for the rest of the day.

    "So just like that, Monday will just reach and we'll write that nonsense exam." Sam said sadly. A few students sighed in sadness while others kept quiet.

    "I've even called my father and told him to look for a new school for me." Ella who sat at the front said.

   "If we have a massive failure, the school can't do anything but pass all of us na." Pasim joked and they laughed.

   "Why don't we have a class hangout after this extension?" Gabby suggested, gaining her classmates attention. 

   "An outing to rest our head from the stress." Nini added, fanning her face with her hand.

   "I like where this is going. Where do we go?" Kelvin asked turning his chair to the back.

   "Maybe that cinema beside the mall. A new movie is coming out on the first of September, we can go and watch it before school resumes." Gabby said and majority of the class agreed.

   "We can even drop by the game house on the first floor of the cinema." Nnennal suggested. The class made a noise of approval at the idea.

   "To top it off, I could pull a couple of strings and get us a bus that will take us to that waterpark and back. Don't worry, I'll sponsor that one." A plump girl, Nora, said and the class hollered.