Snapshot

Chapter 4

There's nothing as thrilling as being at a concert. Why else would you endure the long lines, the disgusting bathrooms and the ear-splitting noise? Don't kid yourself, the band is never better live. Not in the age when producers remove any flaws from a song. No, concerts will, and always have had, an electric feeling in the air.

It comes from the excitement of the hundreds of people around you. The thrill of the experience, and the distant hope that maybe, just maybe, that star on stage will see you in the crowd, and be intrigued by you. Maybe this time, they'll look you in the eye, and come and find you after. They'll take you into their lives. It's impossible, but for those few hours, you are a part of their life.

That's what Avery is hoping to capture when she ditches the stage for the crowd. Fairly Chaotic is about to go on, their opening act trying her best to upstage them. But her career isn't quite there yet. Carla something or other. Greg is on stage, taking pictures, and then he will move to the front area that is reserved for photographers. But she wants to try something else.

The fans ignore her as she takes shots of the crowd.

"Hey!" she calls to a particularly excited group of girls, all wearing T-shirts with band members' faces on them.

"I'm a photographer for Fairly Chaotic," she begins, flashing her employee badge at them. But before she continues, the girls all squeal and flock around her. She shifts uncomfortably at the flood of questions that pour from their mouths.

"Have you met them?"

"Is Jack as deep as I think he is?"

"What does Kole eat for breakfast?"

"Is it true that Kaden is dating Carla Skye?"

"Woah," she stops them, starting to feel annoyed, "I just want to know if I can take some pictures of you guys enjoying the show?"

The girls look at each other with excitement, all nodding eagerly. She braces for another onslaught of questions, but thankfully the boys come on stage, and she is momentarily forgotten as they begin their set. She tries to ignore the screaming teenage girls around her and take a few pictures, but it turns out to be harder than it seems.

Eventually, she calls it quits and fights her way out the crowd. A headache brewing at her temples. She sighs and grabs a bottle of painkillers from her camera bag. She pops them into her mouth and begins to chew, ignoring the bitter taste as she snaps a few pictures of the screaming entity that was once thousands of individuals.

"Hey!" one of the fangirls she was shadowing earlier walks up to her.

"Hey," she says, trying to be friendly, but her smile turns into more of a grimace when the boys start shouting into their mikes.

"I want to see!" the girl gestures to the camera.

Avery winces at the noise levels, she can only make out what the girl is saying because of her gesturing. She moves to show the girl some of the pictures, taking the opportunity to look through them herself.

"This one!" the girl shouts, stopping her at a picture of the girls looking at the stage with a sense of awe, "Send it to me?"

Avery frowns and shakes her head. "You can get it from the website!" she shouts. The girl looks like she wants to argue, but Avery shakes her head and starts to leave, the noise finally getting too much.

"Hey!" the girl grabs her arm angrily, "I won't sign a consent form!" she threatens, but Avery ignores her, the throbbing headache becoming worse. Her senses feel overloaded, and she wants to throw up. She rips her arm out of the girl's grip and runs.

When she finally makes it outside, she gasps for air. Her hands are shaking, but her headache seems to be going away.

"So much trouble for a few pictures," she mutters to herself. Sighing, she plops down on the sidewalk and decides to look at her evening's work. The noise from the arena is still very loud, but at least the atmosphere outside was less crowded.

The first picture that pops up is the one that she and the girl fought over. And she must admit that it is a good one. She zooms in, looking at it from every angle. Suddenly, the noise goes away, and she can hear the blood rushing through her ears.

She drops the camera, thankfully the strap is around her neck or Nigel would have to buy her a new one. She blinks away the tears of fright in her eyes and looks back at the picture. It is just someone's dad. It is not him. He hasn't found her.

***

"Do you know why you are here, Ms. Haynes?"

"Yes, I am being questioned about Clara's murder."

She watched Sheriff Dennings flinch. Why was he here? Was he a glutton for punishment?

"I bet you're wondering why Sheriff Dennings is here?" a fat man with a sparse mustache asked. She nodded quickly, feeling herself go pale under the sheriff's grief-filled glare.

"We thought it might help if he joined in on the interrogation process since he knows this town so well."

"But any evidence that comes up, it will be inadmissible in a court of law since the judge will say he's too close to the case," Avery blurted, wishing she could just shut up and answer the questions.

The man whistled through his teeth. "You," he pointed at her with his pen and she flinched, "are one smart cookie. But I won't tell if you don't" he winked at her and laughed, displaying his yellow teeth.

"Thank you, Officer Morgan," Officer Alvarez said smoothly, "Avery," he said gently, "you're not in any trouble here. We just want to ask you a few questions." He smiled at her and she gave him a quick smile in return. There were technically only two officers in their department, they had to ask for help from other counties, thus Officer Morgan. They would have done better without him.

A heavy silence settled over them as Officer Alvarez began doing some paperwork, and Avery felt herself hunch inwards at the lecherous stare of Officer Morgan. She focused on Officer Alvarez instead. He was a young man, in his early twenties. He was a handsome young man of Latino descent with warm dark eyes and a chiseled physique. Clara had called him "Officer McHotty". She was creative like that.

"Why you so nervous, little girl?" Officer Morgan barked, and she jumped in her seat. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

You are a dirty cop, she wanted to yell. You are so deep in The Tigers' pocket you might as well buy real estate there. You have probably murdered more people than the "criminals" that you lock away. You would sell your grandmother for a cup of coffee, you degenerate.

At least that's what she wanted to say. But what she said was: "N-no, I'm not nervous." Officer Morgan smirked at her and started picking at his teeth. She found that she hated this man.

"That's enough," Alvarez barked, looking up from the paperwork, "You were at the party, that night, weren't you?"

She smiled bleakly and nodded.

"In fact, you're quite the party girl, aren't you?" Morgan chimed in, giving her body an appreciative once-over. She clenched her teeth and leaned back, crossing her arms. "There's never a party you aren't at."

"You would know, wouldn't you?" she spat, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands. She felt horrified at her lack of self-control. "I'm sorry," she gasped, "it's been so stressful."

"That's okay," Alvarez said kindly, shooting Morgan a dirty look before the fat policeman could retaliate. "Some kids said you were taking pictures of the party?"

Avery froze and looked down. She found that she hated those kids too. It was unreasonable, but she hoped that they would have left her out of this. It might seem like an innocent thing to say, but those kids had been waiting for her downfall for a long time. Not just her, all her friends too. There were five other people with better cameras than her at the party, but they wouldn't have to answer for that. She would. She was the one whose father was in jail, so of course, she had to be a criminal by relation.

"That's right," she said softly.

"We are going to have to ask you to turn over that camera so that we can look at those pictures."

"I can't," she blurted. She saw Sheriff Dennings lean forward in his chair. Officer Morgan smirked. They felt they had her. They had already decided she was guilty, and anything she said would confirm that. It wasn't just the kids that wanted her gone. It was the adults too. They all thought she was trouble. They weren't wrong.

"Why not?" Alvarez asked kindly.

"It's broken," she said, telling the truth, "You know how teenage boys are," she smiled uncomfortably.

"That's okay, you said you always backup all your pictures on the cloud," Sheriff Dennings piped up. She went pale. How did Sheriff Dennings remember? He was right, she had told Clara so. And because her aunt had confiscated her laptop as punishment for going to the party, that photo was still on there. Sheriff Dennings was going to see what his daughter looked like a few minutes after her murder.

"My aunt has my laptop," she mumbled numbly.

"She can bring it by later," Alvarez beamed, "Thanks for your help, Avery." He packed up all his things and walked out, motioning for Morgan to follow him. The door shut behind them and she was about to get up when Sheriff Dennings sat down across from her.

"Tell me, Avery, did my little girl suffer?" his tone was pleasant, but his eyes were haunted. She looked at him, horrified. "See, I know you and your friends did it. You may not have killed her. My money is on Jeremy."

She shook her head desperately, her lips parted as she wanted to deny what he was saying, but he held up a hand to stop her. "You and your friends took everything from me. And I won't stop until you have nothing."

She stood up abruptly, but the sheriff caught her arm and twisted it painfully. She whimpered as he forced her down to meet his eyes. "You will suffer, you all will suffer, just like I am right now."

"Avery..." Alvarez started, walking in and looking at her paperwork.

"Sheriff!" he cried when he saw what was happening. The sheriff smiled and let go of Avery, who quickly wiped the tears from her eyes.

"We were just having a little chat, weren't we, sweetheart?"

***

"Hey! Are you Avery?"

Avery looks up sharply to see who is calling her. She has been so caught up in the memories, she never even noticed that the concert ended. "Yes, I am," she tells a woman in a suit and heels who walks up to her.

"Great, come on, we're going swimming."

"Uhm... I don't know you," she reminds the energetic woman.

"Oh right," the woman laughs, she is stunning, "I'm Ava, the boys' manager."

"You're their manager?" she asks in disbelief.

"Were you expecting a bald old guy?" she laughs, and Avery can't help but nod. "Don't worry, I get that a lot. Come on," she says linking her arm with Avery's, "We're going on a highly illegal night swim at the hotel pool."

"Why?" she asks in confusion as Ava drags her along.

"Because I find that an act of rebellion loosens them up before I force them to begin writing a song."

"No, I mean why am I coming?"

Ava gives her charming laugh again and looks down at Avery with glittering eyes, "Because Kade says you need to lighten up a little."

"Yeah, well Kaden needs to mind his own business," she grumbles.

Ava stops in her tracks and stares at Avery in wonder. "What?" she asks uncomfortably.

"You're the first person I know who doesn't squeal when Kade gives her a bit of attention, and I just want to say," she holds up her hand for a high-five, "Amen, sister!"

Avery can't help but laugh and high-five this endearing woman.

"I am so happy to have another girl on the team," Ava gushes, pulling Avery along into the unknown.