Nicer ways to go

FOUR

WINTER

My desk phone rings and I pick it up with an eye roll, already sick of people calling me and speaking in another language or worse still, messaging me like a total perv.

"If this is a foreign sales company..." I warn through gritted teeth before getting abruptly stopped by a strangely familiar voice

"Hello?" The babbling on the other end of the line makes it hard to hear what the caller is saying but I hear the word stabbing and, as horrid as this sounds, I light up inside at the prospect of an actual crime being committed here. A crime that I might actually be able to help solve.

"Did you say someone's been stabbed?" I question, just to be sure it isn't one of the local stoners pulling my leg. I'm even tempted to ask them all the medical exam questions like 'who is our current president?' but decide against it when they begin talking again.

"Yes, I think someone's dead"

"Where is this happening?" I ask and scrawl down the address "Name please"

"Alexa Williams" I stop listening at that point, slamming the phone into the receiver and kicking my chair behind me as I spring forward and rub through the office, ignoring the things that clatter in my wake until I reach the computer where Sean is sitting, smoking.

"Alexa just called in a stabbing at... this address" I throw the bright green post-it-note in my hand at Sean who looks flustered as he catches it awkwardly in his free hand "We need to go, now"

"Bloody hell I-" he stutters as he analyses the address in his hand, frowning as a plume of smoke fills the space between us and I sling my bag over my shoulder, grabbing my keys

"We'll take my car".

Sean took driver's Ed of course, everyone eligible did. But not everyone had a panic attack before getting in the driver's seat but still somehow managed to pass their test with flying colors.

"Fine, you're driving" he finally concedes, picking up his own bag before following me towards the door, looking slightly unsure about it all when we reach the doors of my black SUV.

"Winter isn't this the school's address" he asks in worried tone and I look at him to check if he's being an idiot at a bad time. He's not.

"Shit" I fling open the car door and hop in the driver's seat.

And as we speed off towards the school I know, in my gut I know. Whatever awaits us there is not going to be pretty.

~

I breathe through clenched teeth as I drive, hitting the accelerator so hard that when we gain speed Sean gives me the 'Slow down' look. And he never, ever gives me the 'Slow down' look.

When we finally arrive at the school, or at least, how close we can manage to get to it, there's a swarm of people gathered around the open gate and I have to elbow a fair few of them out of my way, including a little girl who shoots me an angry glare as she sucks on her lollypop. Alexa is standing right at the very front of the tsunami, glancing around anxiously as she checks her phone before she spots us and shoves the sparkly pink monstrosity in her pocket.

"Winter I-"

"Save it" I shove past her frantically and into the gates, groping around in my bag for the wallet that contains my favorite birthday present- my PI license. When I finally manage to locate the thing I feel someone grab my arm and pull me back a bit, forcing me to turn round.

"Winter?" Sean's blue eyes are electric blue storms against his pale skin, a stark contrast from his cocoa hair as he stares down at me intensely with his eyebrows pulled together in a questioning expression

"What?" I demand, looking over my shoulder and then back to him, not really having time for his antics "What?"

"Are you sure you want to do this?".

I don't give myself any time to back out of it, just blurt the word "Yes" before twisting free of his grip and swaggering into the high school with my head held high.

"Christ almighty" Sean mumbles under his breath upon seeing the sectioned off crime scene

"Do people know how to do anything in this town?" I mutter before yelling "You're tampering with an actual crime scene".

The officers look at me, dumbfounded and I raise my eyebrows, making them all back away. I've lived here for all of six months and they already know I do their job better than them at the best of times.

The first thing I notice is the smell, not of blood or of the rain that fell earlier but the smell of death. It lingers on the concrete at my feet, clouds the air, behind to stick to my clothes and get in my pores. This is the moment I forget who I am and all of that which isn't such a good thing when a police sergeant asks me who I am indignantly. This just results in me chucking my credentials in his face and walking further into the belly of the beast. I don't know what it is that makes me look down, whether it's the change in ground texture or the fact I nearly slip but I do and I find myself staring down at a thinning trickle of blood that starts a few meters away and ends at my wine colored converse.

"Winter we can-"

"No" I tell Sean as his fingers hover over the inside of my elbow.

As I walk towards the body my legs seem to become increasingly less helpful, shaking and weakening so much I'm dragging myself there in the end, resisting an almost primal urge to bury my face in Sean's shoulder and walk the other way. I have to do this, I have to.

Shelly Parker was my trig partner, amazing girly friend and the first person besides Sean to even try and make me feel remotely welcome when I first arrived here, now she lies mangled and bloody at my feet with her dark brown curls fanning every which way around her head. Her green eyes stare up at me, gaping lifeless portals. There are multiple tears in her white shirt, points where the knife entered her before retreating and then re-entering again, blood splattered all over her torso.

I'm shaking now, properly shaking and Sean is at my side, not saying anything as Shelby Cartridge runs over to us in a blur of blond and blue.

"Oh my god" she whispers as Sean glances up at the brick wall in front of us

"Winter look at the wall".

Needing to take my eyes off my friend's dead body I glance up, only to find an even worse sight awaiting me in the form of a rust red smear against the white bricks. It makes me walk back into Sean's shoulder. Written in big jagged letters are words, sticking out like a raging fire in rain season.

DING DONG THE BITCH IS DEAD...