Killer

Chapter 18: Make Up or Make Not

The next day, I strolled through the hallway after Jace took us to school. I turned a corner and looked ahead to see a crowd of people lingering outside my first period. There was some loud murmuring and a mixture of confusion and terror on some of my classmates' faces. Then my eyes moved to the open classroom door. There was yellow caution tape all around the door, creating a blockage.

As I peeked my head across what was inside, there were four police officers walking around, and surprisingly, one of them was Detective Crest, wearing latex gloves, hovering over Mr. Burke's desk.

I panicked, my eyes glazing over. What the hell was going on?

I could sense something and turned back. My classmates had to ask what was happening and observe more closely. When they saw me turn to face them, they quickly looked and walked away. A police officer asked us to stand back and said that this area was strictly under investigation. His walkie-talkie cracked, "Dayne Burke."

My nerves grew very cold as the atmosphere spun. Were the police searching for any trace of Mr. Burke's affair with Rachel? If anything, I didn't see her outside the classroom or anywhere in the crowd.

I took a few steps away from the classroom, passing someone as I took in their vanilla-scented perfume. "Sunny?" she spoke.

I turned to see that it was Mila, pulling me with her to take a seat on a nearby bench. I nervously whispered. "What's going on?"

She shuddered and looked around our surroundings before saying, "Did you not hear the news?"

"What news?" I asked, and my heart was racing ten times more per second.

Mila muttered. "Mr. Burke got arrested."

"What, why?" I asked.

She sighed, shrugging her shoulders. Her breath smelled like onions since we were whispering so closely to each other. "God, who knows? But Mr. Hyde has a spare classroom upstairs for us to stay in until the police clear the area. Are you coming?"

I nodded. "Yeah, let me make a phone call." I had to let Jace know about this. There was no way.

I dialed his cell and trailed over to the quietest corner of the hallway. After a few beeps, he answered. "Sunny?" I took the time to fill Jace in on what was happening with the police and Mr. Burke, whom he ended the conversation with. "Yeah, everyone is talking about it in ceramics right now. Pretty screwed, right?"

I painfully swallowed. "Yeah, do you think it could be his affair with Rachel?"

"Probably so," Jace grunted. "Look, let's talk about it after school today, and also...I have a cool spot in mind where we can have our first date."

I frowned. I almost forgot that Jace wanted to create plans for our date just hours ago. "Okay."

"See you," he said.

"See you, too," I said back, hanging up the phone.

Everyone was whispering loudly in the hallways; lockers were slamming close by, and I could feel a million eyes on me. I thought to myself, what could Mr. Burke get arrested for? It could not just be because Rachel got into this freak mess with the police—could it possibly be a lot more, though? The way Detective Crest and his team were slowly wandering and inspecting our science classroom had to be something more serious.

The more I thought deeply about the outcome, the more it made me shiver.

***

"Hallo!" A short, olive-toned goddess in a white satin dress, gold jewelry, dark bangs, and layered dark eyeliner around her big eyes dressed as Cleopatra. Was it just me, or did she look similar to the girl from the murder tape? She was standing at the front entrance of the Halloween costume store. "Can I help you guys?" she smiled.