Cypress Alley

Chapter 30

Eliza was waiting for me at the bus stop.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi."

"Thanks for this, Eliza."

"Yep."

"Do you want to know what I found out?"

"No. It's probably stupid, anyway. Phoebe's mum is the most pretentious brat in town. There's no way she wants to tarnish her perfect reputation with murder."

"I know, but remember the jacket Phoebe said belonged to her mother? The killer was wearing it in Cypress Alley when I met her. And the date and time Phoebe said matched perfectly."

"OK. Investigate whatever you want."

I gawked at her. "You pretend you don't care, but you must care if you risked detention to come here."

"Who said?"

"Don't tell me you came here for me. You want to know what happened."

"What if I did come here for you?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"... but also to find out what's been happening with the case," she admitted. 

"I knew it."

"Big deal."

"So stop acting so standoffish."

"Fine."

We walked the next few metres in silence, as I compulsively checked behind us. Noticing this, Eliza's eyebrows furrowed.

"Do you really think the killer is following you?"

"Definitely." I shuddered. "Do you want to see why?"

"OK," she said uncertainly.

I handed her my phone. "She sent me this."

As Eliza scrolled her eyes widened. "Yikes..."

"Yep."

"That's super creepy."

"Definitely."

"Fine. Maybe you're not a wuss. Seriously, if I were you, I would've been so scared that I would ask me to come and pick me up in the city, or wherever you were."

"I was just a few stops away from the city. At the police station."

"Really? Why?"

"To talk about the case. You know what happened last night?"

"Wait, what?"

"That was the last straw. So I handed over all the evidence."

"You did what?"

"And I told them everything, so they're looking into it."

"Seriously Elijah? You can't just give over the evidence that we got together without telling me!"

"Well, all the things I gave over were either found by me or given to me. Not you. I found the piece of North's shirt. I received the letters the killer wrote. So stop trying to control everything after having done nothing."

She was red. "Well," she huffed. "If you're going to be selfish like that, I'm not going to help you anymore."

She picked up her pace. I tried to follow, but she was much too fast. Aware of this, she broke into a sprint. There was no way I'd be able to catch up to that. I called her name but she either hadn't heard or refused to. It wasn't long before I lost sight of her,