White Lies

2 - the star student

"India? Why does the name ring a bell?" I asked, continuing to sort out my dinner.
"You probably saw her name in the newspaper at some point," Jack continued, sitting nervously on my sofa, "she got all A*'s at GCSE and was on track for the same at A-Level."
"Fair." I replied bluntly, perching on the arm of the sofa with a container of  spaghetti Bolognese.
"They found her hanging from the ceiling, slashes on her wrists like Olivia," Jack told me without me asking, "but she had gashes on her stomach, almost like someone tried to operate on her."
"Fuck me," I groaned through a mouthful of pasta, "what do the pigs say?"
Jack scoffed.
"I may be the mayor's son, but I don't know everything just yet." He shot back, his knee bouncing.
"Fairy snuff." I answered, now halfway through the 'meal'.
"Is that all you have to say? Two girls have died." He asked, not as angry as it sounded it should have been.
"What am I meant to say?" I scoffed, not entirely bothered, "I know nothing about anyone in this town."
"I guess." He replied monotonally.

He left after a few more minutes of awkward silence, punctuated by me chewing. The next day I had the day off, so I stayed in bed until midday and only got up because of a town meeting.

~ in that town, one of the mandatory events was meetings held in the town hall. bearing in mind there were almost 400 people in the town, they did a good job of policing this event to make sure every civilian attended (excluding mothers with young children). i didn't care much for the meetings but hey ho, it was better than running back to my shitty parents.~

"As you may know, a terrible tragedy has struck our town," the mayor bellowed from the front of the room, as I leant against the wall at the back, "Miss India Cuper has been found dead. Here to tell us more is Sergeant Vass."
The plump (white) policeman stepped up to the podium, dressed smartly for the first time I had seen.
"Thank you Mayor Terrison," he gurgled, "we have reason to believe this death may be linked somehow to the," he paused and coughed awkwardly, "alleged suicide of Olivia Rosetyne, as both students died in similar ways. We advise all residents to be extra careful when turning in for the night."
There was a gentle murmur ripple across the crowd and I smirked at the paranoia that had suddenly sparked in the town.

~ i'm not sadistic per se, i just particularly don't have a fondness for the whole white-picket-fence community. ~

"We will find the perpetrator responsible for the end of such a promising future." The officer finished, resulting in a round of applause from the crowd (I joined in sarcastically) as he stepped away to allow the mayor to retake the mic.
"Thank you Sergeant Vass," he continued, "I'm sure it won't take long to find the undesirable to hold accountable."
The mayor may as well have glared right at the only people of colour in the room, and it wouldn't have been more obvious.

~ in case it's not clear, the entire town is full of racists, homophobes, transphobes and general assholes. but seeing as they have no real reason to refuse them the right to live here, they stay. ~

Three days passed before the inevitable racist arrest came. It was announced on the local news, that Tyler Pharol, an 18 year-old, black, student at the same school as Olivia and India, had been arrested on the grounds that he had 'had negative interactions with the two'. As it later turned out, he never spoke to Olivia, and the only way he knew of India was because his younger sister got dumped by her younger brother about three months before her murder. Still, that was enough of a motive for the crooked cops, and they jailed him 'indefinitely' (which means 'life sentence' in Low-Key-Racist).

Strangely enough, Jack turned up at my place later that day, looking vexed.
"You look vexed." I told him, just climbing back into my flat after a smoke.
"Yeah well, I don't think they got the right guy." Jack blurted.
"No shit, Sherlock," I retorted, "the defining point in their case against him is melanin."
"But what if the killer strikes again?" Jack encouraged the panic. However, due to living in a constant state of crisis, I wasn't affected by his attempts.
"Then they'll have to release Tyler and do an actual investigation." I stated.
"That's just a waste of time though." He grumbled, to which I shrugged.
"That's Oakhill for you." I replied.
Jack paused, clearly thinking hard.
"Who do you think'll be next?" He asked, a manic fire burning in his eyes.
"Dude I don't know," I grumbled, flopping onto my sofa with a fwump, "another student if the killer keeps with their M.O."
Jack nodded, not saying a word, before he stood up and left.
"Bye then." I called after him, not getting up from my sofa.

As Jack predicted, the next day there was a town meeting, harking about how there was yet another death in the same style as the previous two, and how the police were 'desperate' for the assistance of any citizens.

~ in case it's not obvious at this point, the pigs in this town were comically lazy. comical, if it weren't for the fact 3 teenagers were now dead in about a week. ~

I didn't recognise the name, and Jack didn't come to talk to me about the murder (ooh how dramatic!), so I paid no mind to it. That was, until, a list turned up in my shitty laptop case. It was written in what I assumed was Comic Sans, on very thick paper. I skim-read it, and upon realising it was a shit ton of names, I decided it might be a good idea to hand it in to the police.

Although, in retrospect, I probably should've just kept it to myself.