Cypress Alley

Chapter 24

Contaminating Ms Hartley's chips didn't seem so appealing anymore. After helping Eliza into her room, I threw the unopened bag onto her lap and closed myself into my room. Eliza was waiting by the hole in the wall.

"Well, I found it ..."

"Found what?" I groaned. 

She held up her phone. "She was sitting on it, apparently. I grabbed it when she left to go to the bathroom."

"Ew."

"I know right. It still works, though. Surprisingly."

I flopped back onto my bed, pulse still throbbing in my throat.

"What should we do?" she whispered, a moment later.

"Have you thought about telling the police yet?"

"No, I want to solve it ourselves."

"Maybe it's too much for us to handle..."

"If you survived the encounter with the murderer, we can survive anything."

"Did I really survive?" I asked, holding up my phone case, which now lay clumsily in a crinkled plastic bag. 

Eliza's face paled as she saw it again. "What if she comes after you now that you went back? It said 'never return'."

"I know what it said, Eliza. I can read," I sighed. "Either way, if she left the message there, she'd have expected me to come back. It'd probably referring to the next time we go."

Eliza pursed her lips. "Then we'll go back and catch her red-handed!" she declared suddenly.

"Eliza, are you insane? If we go back, we could get killed. We could die," I said slowly.

"Stop talking to me like I'm stupid, meanie."

"Well, that's because you are," I muttered.

Harrumphing, she rolled onto her back and glared at the ceiling. 

"I don't think this is a good idea anymore..."

"Excuse me. Yes, it is!" She sat up instantly. "Don't you want to avenge North?"

"There are other people who can do that. I, personally, feel that this isn't really about North anymore," I said, eyeing her.

"What do you mean?" 

"It's just my opinion!" I put my hands up defensively. "Calm down."

"Well, your opinion sucks!"

We heard a scream from down the corridor and immediately quietened.

"All I want to do is find out who killed her, OK? Why do you have to ruin everything?" she hissed.

I felt my face grow warm. I wasn't the one ruining everything, here. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gone back to Cypress Alley in the first place, and neither of us would have a death threat to contend with. 

"Fine, if that's how it is. You can do the investigation by yourself," I growled.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

I made to grab my poster and cram it back into place. As I leaned forward to do so, the white glow of Eliza's phone stopped me in my tracks. 

She'd clicked a name on her contacts list and was now typing furiously. I thought she'd have some sense, but clearly, I was wrong.

'Hi Jane-Rose ...'

---

It wasn't until the next morning that I found out what she was up to.