Symbiotic

Chapter Two

Roxie paced back and forth in the parking lot the next day, with no small degree of annoyance. If she said that at least part of it wasn’t the fact that Eve was late, she’d be lying. But the real reason was that it was early spring, it was definitely less than 80 degrees out, and she was freezing her butt off.

“Got a date?”

She smiled at the familiar voice, and turned.

“Why? You jealous or something?”

Chase grinned, getting out of his car. “Not at all, Rox. I mean, I won’t pretend I wouldn’t be a little hurt. But I couldn’t really blame you, since every guy in school fawns over you.”

“Yep, shame I’m not interested in any of them.”

He laughed.

“Ouch. I won’t tell them you said that. Anyway, seriously; what are you doing out here? It’s freezing.”

“I’m just waiting for someone. We were supposed to meet up.”

“Who? As far as I know, all our friends are in there,” he pointed at the school. Roxie drew her index finger across her neck. “If I told you, I couldn’t let you walk out of here. You know that, right?”

“So not someone popular, then. Oh my god, tell me it’s not Jill from social studies.”

She laughed. “You figured it out, Chase. It’s Jill from social studies. Please don’t tell anyone; my sparkling reputation would never survive.”

“Private Investigator Bancroft strikes again.”

She pushed him gently. “But seriously dude, you can’t stay.”

He pouted. “Aw, why not?”

“Do you want to hear about girl stuff for the next hour?”

Finally, he put his hands up in a gesture of defeat. “Ok, ok, you win! I’ll see you in chem.” He started walking backwards, still throwing that annoying grin at her as he left. “Until then, I guess I’ll be at the front gate. Alone. Just in case ‘Jill’ stands you up.” He bumped into someone, turning to apologise. “Oh shoot, hi Jill! No, we weren’t talking about you!”

Roxie shook her head. “Shoo, I’ll talk to you later.” She watched as Chase walked off with Jill, trying to explain himself. When she turned back a moment later, Eve was finally making her way across the parking lot.

“Geez Louise, took you long enough.”

Eve flushed, throwing her hands into her pockets. “Uh, sorry. My parents caught me trying to leave the house an hour earlier than normal.”

“Yikes. You must’ve had fun trying to explain that one.”

She shrugged. “You wanted to talk?”

“To the point. I like that.” Now that they were actually standing in front of each other, Roxie found herself hesitating. It wasn’t that she’d changed her mind, by any stretch of the imagination. But something about this felt weird all of a sudden – like she’d been caught stealing candy.

Eve started tapping her foot, and looking like she’d rather be somewhere else. Roxie realised that if she was going to bring this up, it had to be now.

“So, we both kinda knew Blair.”

Eve’s eyebrows creased, and her lips twisted a little. “Yeah…?”

“What if I told you I have a few ideas of who might’ve killed her?”

For several long minutes, Eve didn’t say anything in response. She seemed almost to retreat inwards; Roxie would’ve given up everything she owned that bore the name ‘Prada’ just to see what was going on inside her head. At this point, she’d honestly take a ‘no’. Anything but the deafening silence around them.

When Eve did speak, it wasn’t exactly the answer Roxie had been hoping for.

“Why?”

“Huh?”

Eve shrugged again. “I mean, yeah it sucks. A girl’s dead, that’s awful. But why can’t we just leave it at that, you know? She’s dead. Maybe we should just let her rest.”

“She won’t be the only one, you know.”

Eve stiffened. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m assuming you haven’t heard all the gory details yet.”

“No, and I’d rather not-“

“There was a note found with the body. Whoever did it isn’t finished yet. You wanna take the risk that you’ll be next?”

Eve took a step back. “Are you saying that I could be next, or that you could be next? I mean let’s be honest here; no one even knows who I am.”

As much as Roxie hated to admit it, she knew Eve was right. If either of them was going to be next, it was probably her.

Eve thought for another moment, then shook her short hair out of her face. “Why me? Seriously. Don’t you have half the school in your back pocket? If this is some kind of prank, whatever. You’ve had your fun.”

Roxie rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Eve. I know you’re into true crime novels. You always have one under your arm.”

Seeing Eve’s confused expression, she clarified. “You know, you’re not being any sneakier reading Matthew Murdock in class than I am on my phone.”

Eve glanced around and shifted from foot to foot; but something in her eyes had lit up.

“Ok, what have you got?”

“I knew you couldn’t resist.” She sat on a nearby park bench, beckoning Eve to join her. Digging through her Gucci purse, she pulled out a stack of papers with post it notes sticking out at odd angles. Eve’s eyes widened.

“Whoa, ok. You’ve uh, put a lot of thought into this.”

“Well duh. Don’t want to accuse an innocent man.” She started flipping through the papers.

“Suspect number one; Blair’s dad.”

Eve narrowed her eyes, and Roxie pointed out a note she’d made.

“They got into a fight just before she went missing. Witnesses said it got messy. Besides, isn’t it usually the parent?”

“Doesn’t explain the note. We’re dealing with a potential serial killer, remember; personal grudges don’t necessarily apply.”

“Ok, you’re right. Guess we can cross him off as a suspect for now.”

Eve leaned back as Roxie moved on to the next ‘suspect’.

“Number two; Mr Bates.”

“The science teacher.” Eve stood up, stretching. “Ok, this was a waste of time.”

Roxie jumped up. “Eve, wait!”

“No. You clearly don’t know the first thing about solving crimes. You know what you look like right now? A conspiracy nut. And I’d rather stay away from conspiracy nuts, if you don’t mind. I live with two of them already.”

Roxie opened her mouth to beg, to plead- but didn’t get the chance, as a loud click and bright light went off.

Both girls froze, looking around. Roxie tugged at Eve’s sleeve. “Yo. You heard that, right?”

Eve’s eyes continued to dart around. “You bet I did. I knew it…”

“What are you talking about? You think I’m involved in weird s**t? What’s going on?”

“Some creep’s been following me around. I can feel it. I think they’re taking photos of me?”

Roxie grabbed her arm more firmly. “Have you called the police?”

“Wh- No.”

“Eve, this is serious! What if it’s the guy?”

“The gu- Oh s**t, you’re totally right.” Whatever colour Eve’s face usually contained drained away, and Roxie knew she’d made her point. However much Eve thought she was acting like a lunatic, even she would have to admit that she didn’t want to end up in a coffin herself.

Eve picked up her bag, and handed Roxie hers.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late for school. We’d better go.”

“What? But we still have-“

“Walk, Roxie.” She felt Eve push her, and did as she was told.

The two started towards the school gates. Roxie couldn’t decide whether she was relieved or annoyed that Chase hadn’t actually been waiting for her. Eve leaned in close, and the faint smell of shampoo tickled Roxie’s senses.

“We’re alone out here. There’s no one else around. If this really is the killer, we’re basically asking to be his next targets.”

“I don’t think being alone inside the school is much better.”

“You’d be surprised how much more secure a school is, actually. There are tons of people around. Teachers, other students. And if he follows us in, it’ll be really obvious that he’s not supposed to be there. It’s not the same as grabbing us off the street.”

Roxie nodded, and squeaked as she swore she could hear footsteps behind her. She tried to tell herself that she was imagining them, but that was difficult when Eve was walking faster too.

By the time the girls reached the safety of the school gate, they were panting. Roxie hadn’t even noticed that they’d broken into a run. Eve leaned over on her knees as she caught her breath. Roxie sighed.

“Look, I won’t pretend I know what I’m doing. I don’t, ok? I know that. But that’s why I need your help; I can’t do this alone.”

Eve was still fighting for air, forcing the words out between each gasp.

“You’re- you’re right. I can’t promise anything, but we can try. I’ll see you at lunch.”

Roxie’s heart sped up at the thought of having to explain the situation to her friends.

“No! Not at lunch.”

“Uh. Why?”

“It’s just not a great time. How about after school?”

Eve groaned and threw her head back. “You’re gonna get me killed.”

“The murderer?”

“No, my parents. Ugh, fine. After school. But I can’t stay long, ok?”

Roxie nodded. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked away as if she’d never spoken to Eve in her life.

Once she reached her friends, she slotted perfectly back into the group as if she’d always been there. But as she pretended to laugh at a joke someone had made, her mind kept straying back to thoughts of the strange art girl with dark hair, and the bizarre pact they had made that morning.

The day flew by, and Roxie was soon waiting by the tree at the front of the school. The various letters were still mostly present; but it had rained during the day, and the fresh smell of wet earth was starting to become permeated with the deeper smell of rot. Eve’s bird drawing had soaked through, and was curling at the edges.

Panicking as several of her friends passed, Roxie kept her head down. The people in her group were chatty, and would never leave if she let them see her. Most of them seemed not to notice her, too busy talking amongst themselves. But her luck ran out a moment later as her best friend approached.

“Hey girl.”

Barely avoiding cussing, she looked up and smiled. “Hey stranger. How was last period?”

Chase slumped. “Annoying. Mr Fields gave us so much homework! Look at this thing, it’s a novel! Remember when homework assignments were one page? Forget that!” He waved the thick booklet around as he ranted, making Roxie giggle.

“But it’s not like we get homework like this from all our classes every day, right? Oh wait, we do. Because all our teachers seem to think they’re our only teacher.”

“Do you have a project for that class, or just the final?”

“Nah, just finals. And boy am I counting my blessings. Hey, what are you doing hanging out here anyway?”

She shrugged. “ Nothing man, just chilling is all. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sure,” he groaned, starting to walk off with his homework booklet in tow. He stopped and turned back.

“Hey! I was wondering. That new movie’s out; did you wanna go see it?”

She rested a hand on her hip. “I’d love to, Chase.”

His face glowed, like she’d plugged in a string of fairy lights. “Wait, really? Um, Saturday? Five?”

“Yeah yeah, it’s a date. Now get home, before your dad starts worrying!”

The boy jogged off, leaving Roxie’s thoughts scattered. It was… a date? Were they going on a date? Was that what Chase wanted it to be?

Damnit, why did I say that?

Eve slipped out of the building, making her way over. She put her hands up as she approached.

“So, I’m here. My parents are going to kill me, but at least I get to spend my last day on Earth helping a conspiracy nut. What now?”

Despite her harsh words, Eve was allowing the barest trace of a smile to grace her lips. Roxie thought for a moment.

“I know a place that might be good for this kind of thing. After all, we can’t exactly stand under this tree the whole time.”

Eve tilted her head. “What kind of place did you have in mind?”

Roxie took her hand, leading her off the school grounds. “You’ll see.”

“Man, how far is this place?”

“It’ll be worth it, I promise. You’ll like it.”

Eve sighed, but continued to follow her. She stopped as they entered the town park.

“The park? I mean, I know I give off the impression that I’m a shut-in. But I do leave the house sometimes.”

Roxie threw her an annoyed glare.

“Stop being a smartass for five minutes, will you? The edgy art freak act is getting old.”

Eve’s mouth snapped shut. Roxie led her through part of the park, and towards a line of bushes.

“One of my friends brought me here ages ago. She just thought it would be a cool place to smoke and talk about boys, actually. But don’t worry, she doesn’t come here anymore.”

She walked along the row of bushes until she found what she’d been searching for; a small dirt track, almost utterly shrouded by the foliage around it. She took Eve down the track for a time, and put her arms out as they reached their destination.

“We’re here. Enjoy, art freak.”

Eve couldn’t move. Her fingers twitched, as if she could pick up a brush from thin air and paint the scene before her – because God knew she wanted to.

Graceful trees stood, their arms reaching above the two girls in a warm embrace. Warm sepia trunks wound down to an overgrown carpet of vibrant green, which was dotted with flowers so bright they looked like fireworks. A delicate, seemingly handcrafted bench sat close to a small pond, the water so clear it could be a mirror.

“This place looks like it came from a storybook,” she sighed as her mind finally returned from the black hole that was her artistic side. She turned to find that Roxie was staring at her with an amused expression.

“Eve is happy now?”

She nodded. “Eve is very happy. You were right, this place is awesome. But we should really get to work.” She took a decisive seat on the bench, holding her hand out to Roxie.

“I know I’m gonna regret saying this. Give me those files.”

Roxie frowned. “I thought you said I didn’t know what I was doing,” she accused. Eve rolled her eyes and held her hand out again.

“I still think that. So prove me wrong. Give me something to work with here.”

Roxie went through her bag, and handed Eve the files. As soon as their hands touched, the girls felt a jolt of electricity.

Pulling her hand back and examining it closely, Roxie addressed Eve.

“At the risk of sounding crazy, did you feel that?”

“Yeah? Must’ve just been static. Not that interesting.” Eve started scanning the pages, flicking her dark hair out of her eyes and biting her lip in concentration.

“Bodies were all found in a quarry off the West side of town… Hey, I know that place!”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, my dad used to work there. It’s totally open to the public now; maybe we should go there.”

“What does that accomplish? It’s not like we have any of the fancy forensics crap the police do.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s useless. You can learn a lot about a murder by investigating how the bodies were dumped.”

“Ok, we’ll do that.”

Eve rummaged through her bag, finding some scrap paper. She jotted down a note to visit the quarry, sticking it inside the folder. Turning through a few more pages, she laughed.

The sound was like a bell, ringing pleasantly in Roxie’s ears.

“Why have you got Mr Latimer in here? He’s just an art teacher.”

“He was Blair’s art teacher. Besides, have you met the guy?”

“No, I never had him. You’ll have to enlighten me.”

“He’s one of those kooky guys.”

“All artists are kooky; that’s kind of our thing. Can you be more specific?”

Roxie felt the corners of her mouth falling into a smile. “More kooky than usual, I mean. Like, he never takes a shower kooky.”

Eve shuddered. “Awesome. So we’ll leave him on there for now, and come back to that later. Most of these other guys, I can rule out pretty quickly. I’ll admit that this isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“Whoa, what?”

“I mean, you did look into actual reasons a lot of these people might’ve done it. To be fair, a lot of those reasons are kinda silly,”

“Hey…”

“But for the most part, they’re not just random townspeople. They’re people Blair actually knew. Credit where credit is due.”

Roxie puffed her chest out in mock pride. “Aw, thanks! That means a lot, coming from you.”

“Oh shush,” Eve chided. “Anyway, rule one of solving crimes; if it doesn’t fit all the conditions for a suspect, don’t try to make it fit. Like I said before, a personal grudge doesn’t fit the bill for a serial killer. So we can cross almost all of these off for now. We can always look back through them later if we need to.” She separated all the rejected suspects out, and moved them to a different section of the folder.

“Yeah, it does make sense when you put it like that. Could it be any more obvious that I’m out of my depth here?”

“Not really,” Eve answered in a matter of fact tone. Roxie winced, and Eve met her eyes with a coy smile.

“Luckily for you, you were right. I’ve been reading crime novels for about as long as my parents have let me. Doesn’t make me an expert, but at our school? Not to brag, but I’m probably the best you’re gonna get.”

“I figured as much. So what’s our next move, Officer Verbeck?”

Eve bit her lip. “I still want to check out that quarry. I don’t have time today, but maybe tomorrow we can swing by.”

“Sure. I’ll have to stop at home for a few minutes, but I can head straight there after.”

“Cool. There should be a way to get our hands on the public police report, too. It should be long enough by now that they’ll be released to the public. Those will give us a bit. Not much though.”

Roxie toyed with her hands, thinking.

“What if I can get my hands on the private reports?”

Eve raised her eyebrow. “And how are you going to do that?”

“I have my ways. Don’t patronise me.”

“Ok, ok. If you could get the private ones, those would probably have a lot more info than they’re willing to tell the general public. But, as I’m sure you’re aware, that’s also illegal. So if you’ve got any shady plans, you might wanna be careful.”

“Noted. By the way, I hereby designate this as our main base of operations during this investigation. Hope you don’t mind,” she added with a grin. Eve leaned back on the bench, breathing deeply.

“I really don’t. This place might give me the inspiration I need for my art final.”

“Ooh, do tell.”

She scoffed. “I have to develop a piece that represents my journey over the course of this last year. Stupid, huh?”

“I don’t know, there’s a lot of cool stuff you could do with that.”

Eve stood, putting her hands to her head. “Like what? Nothing’s changed for me so far, and nothing’s going to change in the next six or so months. I’m pretty sure my parents are actually allergic to change.”

Roxie jumped up, creeping up behind her. “Well then, I guess I’ll have to give you some inspiration.”

“What d-“ was all Eve had time to say before Roxie pushed her into the pond.

It was deeper than she had expected, and so cold in the spring chill that she came up already chattering. She opened her mouth to yell, to get angry… but could only tread water in shock as Roxie jumped in herself.

The sheer force of the splash almost pushed her back underwater. A few seconds later, Roxie bobbed back to her surface. Her carefully applied makeup was now streaming down her face, but she laughed as if it made no difference.

Eve shook her head. “Well, I’m soaked. Hope you’re happy.” But try as she might, she couldn’t muster any anger in her voice. Roxie’s grin was wider and brighter than the sun. “Believe me, I’m very happy. You need to stop worrying for once, girl! Have fun!” She splashed Eve in the face, making her splutter.

Eve scoffed again. “Oh you did not just.”

“Oh, I think I did. What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m gonna kick your ass so hard!” Eve managed through an almost uncontrollable laughing fit, as she pushed Roxie underwater. Seconds later, she felt Roxie grab her foot, pulling her under too.

Several people stopped to listen upon hearing a young girl shriek that day. Knowledge of Blair’s murder had reached everyone, after all, and tensions were high. But once they realised that what had been perceived as a sound of terror was closely followed by giggles, each pair of listening ears slowly turned away and went about their day.