Adventure in the World of Crimes

1.11 The Cause of Everything

Breathed out, then breathe in, then breathe out again. She was trying her best to contain whatever bad words might roll out of her tongue. She was also clenching her fist and restraining herself, which was very hard to control, to hit the guy smiling from ear to ear in front of her with his arms wide open in the middle of.. what she thought was an abandoned classroom with intermittent light and full of cobwebs.

"Is this it?" Was all that came out of her mouth, dissatisfied. "You didn't even bother cleaning this room knowing that you have a new member coming?"

Blake shrugged, feigning innocence as he looked around. "Better have old one than nothing at all. They wouldn't even give me before."

"What I was trying to say is that you should have cleaned it at least. This looks haunted, who knows if there have bugs and cockroaches here." She rubbed her arms and anxiously looked around.

"You're more afraid of cockroaches than criminals who can kill you?" Blake asked, amused.

"No one can kill me, Mister Foster. The agents are not scared of criminals. More like the other way around. Can you stop prying about our lives and focus on yours?" The agent impatiently complained, pulling out one stool on the side and placed it near the table in the middle, she perched her feet on it and crossed her arms. "Proceed with your findings "

"You seem so comfortable with your position right now, but this is not where we are going to talk." Blake walked to the other side of the room full of classroom chairs, he started carrying out piles of chairs there as he looked at her, "Mind helping me?"

She looked back at him, he was carrying a chair and moving it on the other side, there were still a lot more chairs but Laura let out a nonchalant "No."

Blake just grunted, taking two chairs at a time and quicken his pace, after a while, he crouched down and search for something on the floor like a dog looking for his food.

"What are you doing, weirdo?" Laura asked in amusement, she stood up and watched him crawled until the very edge of the floor.

"Gotcha." He mumbled when he felt the small hole he was looking for that could only fit two of his fingers and not visible in anyone's sight unless they will look closely, He pulled it up slowly, coughing as he inhaled some of the dust. "Follow me, close it once you're in."

"Is that a secret passage or something?" Laura tried to look at what was inside but it was only pitch black. Blake sat on the floor, his feet were already inside, he grinned at Laura first before letting himself fall inside.

Laura rolled her eyes, doing the same thing as he did but held the rectangular door so it would close once she would be all in. She was a little hesitant at first, kicking whatever there was but when she felt something hard, she traced it and it was in a circle, she knew by then that she'll be sliding down. She sighed, inching a move then let herself fall as the loud thud of the closing door came in her ear.

She saw the end of the slide then readied herself for a fall when she felt herself bounced by the small trampoline at the end. She looked around her, her eyebrows raised by the unexpected charm of the room, it was clean, the complete opposite of the room above. It was only a small room like the ones of the rooms in their agency, it was bright, the room's painted with a bright color Beige, a huge bookshelf and a variety of books labeled alphabetically were neatly placed on the left, next to it was another metallic door which Laura does not know what, and on the left, the drawing of the school ground was attached on the wall and surrounded with a lot of pictures of unfamiliar faces all with red wires connecting to the school's drawing.

"Welcome to our humble clubroom, Miss Laura," Blake widely grinned. Like earlier, he was already in the middle of the room arms spread and welcoming her, a long table was placed in front of him, there was a fluorescent light on the ceiling that lit the whole room.

Laura rolled her eyes at his bubbliness, she stood up and pulled a chair as she sat, crossing her arms and legs and leaned back to the backrest of her chair, "So," She breathed, "I like this clubroom, perfect place for spending my boring vacant time, now tell me everything that had happened for the past years."

Blake nodded, her smile earlier faded as it changed into a more serious one. "Let me tell you about the past of my club first" Laura nodded and waved her hand, "So before, when this club was just newly built I have no members--"

"I'm not surprised." A side comment came.

"No one in the school was interested in Sleuth Club, no matter how much I appeal to them to join my club they just won't. I was frustrated. I felt like crying and giving--"

"Cut it out!" Laura exclaimed in annoyance, realizing what he was doing and saying "Take this seriously or I'll cut your neck."

"Chill, agent. I was just testing if you're ready." Blake uttered, then he continued, "One day, a guy came to me, asking me for four forms to fill out. He and his friends wanted to join my club for no apparent reason. So I gave them, and I met them the day after. They were Leo, Blaise, Earl, and Phil. Our works depend on the scholars if they have something to consult and needed our investigation, they will come to our clubroom which was above, and one of us will go with the scholar to see what happened."

"Let's cut the uninteresting part." Laura said in a little demanding voice, "What is this thing that they crossed the line?"

"Earlier this year, I was not with them most of the time, I don't know what has been happening, I just knew one day I lost my members, they quit without, again, apparent reason. As a president, I dug deeper into that, I investigated why. Around April, I overheard the three while they were at lunch, Earl was not with them, talking about this certain thing that the school hides, that the school was so cruel, they were awful and even cursed it. They were so mad about something, I do not have an idea at first. Then this May.." He stopped and looked at the left side.

Laura looked at where he was looking, it was the pictures and the drawing of the school. She spotted a picture of the four friends, "Leo died." She mumbled.

"Leo was the first one who died. It was unexpected, I believed it was certainly a suicide." He walked to the drawer at the back and grabbed a small box there. "I took a picture of his room. Take a look."

Laura took the printed picture in his hand. Leo's room was tidy, there wasn't anything out of place, even the blankets were neatly piled, it was almost normal and would not be suspected as a suicidal person's room.

"Nothing looks wrong, right?" She nodded, "I thought so, too. But when I asked his roommate about him, that's when I concluded something was definitely wrong. Moving to the next, Blaise died after two months." He got another picture in the box and gave it to her.

Blaise's room was messy, like what she had witnessed when she came to her room. Unlike in Leo's room, things were thrown all over the room, people could assume that there was a fight that happened or a wild frantic movement before the crime happened.

"Blaise's room looks suspicious. This was also the time I suspected something, and I confirmed it through Phil's death." He gave another picture, and it was Phil's room, it was also clean, there was a piano in his room, also a picture of himself hanging on the wall and a framed picture of the five friends on the bedside table. "Somehow, though they did not tell anything to me. They also included me here. They involved me as well as Eloise as subtle as possible."

"What do you mean? How do you know?

Blake pulled a ziplock plastic where three sticky notes were inside. He took it out and placed it on the table.

I love organizing my things. Now, I will allow you to take over it. Please keep it organized because I wouldn't be able to do this anymore. -Leo

I'm so sad. I wouldn't be able to see my plant grow. I used organic materials for this to be a healthy one, please water it daily. - Blaise

It is now my time. I love playing the piano. I always play every day to calm myself, I even dreamed of playing the organ after I graduate. Please donate my things. -Phil

"These were the notes I've found in every crime scene. These were all in a hidden place that no one would found easily. Leo's note was under the blankets, Blaise's was under the plant pot, and Phil's was inside the piano. But you know what's odd?"

"What?" Laura took the three sticky notes in her hand, reading it one by one in repeat as she thought deeply of what was odd with these notes.

"There was a common denominator with those three notes." Blake enunciated.

Then it dawned on Laura what he was talking about. She froze on her seat as she gave Blake a horrified look.

"Organ."