17th of October, Monday
Evening
The occult club in their school had the same four visitors as on the 15th of October. Gathered here to further be suspicious of each other or remove suspicion from each other, the former seemed to be happening.
The occult club they all belonged to was located in the old school building. They had been part of the club since middle school, but it did not exist in their high school. When they were in the first year of high school, their middle school was moved to a new, well-constructed building. Even though they were now in their third year, they still visited their old middle school, which stood beside a playground near a wooded area. The playground being as silent as a graveyard.
They took their seats, and as before, there was a newspaper regarding Sasha's death laid on one of the chairs. Suddenly, Remi's phone buzzed. It was Inspector Daniel, the one currently in charge of Sasha's case.
Inspector Daniel: "Hello?"
Remi: "Hello."
Inspector Daniel: "Where are you currently, Remi? At home? And if you can also tell me the current locations of your friends?"
Remi: "We are all together, actually."
Inspector Daniel: "That saves the trouble, I suppose. Where are you guys?"
Remi: "In the old middle school, beside the playground near the cedar woods."
Inspector Daniel: "Is there anyone else with you other than your friends?"
Remi: "No, it's just us."
Inspector Daniel: "Then there's no need to bring you to the station. We will question you there. Is that alright with you?"
Remi: "Yes, better."
Inspector Daniel: "Ok, good."
Remi hung up the call.
Sarah: "What is going on?"
Remi: "It was Inspector Daniel. He is coming here to question us."
Lyn: "That was to be expected, I suppose."
They talked for ten minutes and then noticed a car approaching the building. Two people got out: Inspector Daniel and another officer whom no one recognized. The two looked up and saw Sarah and Sam looking at them from the window, realizing which room in the building they had to go to.
Inspector Daniel: "Hello. I am Inspector Daniel, and you have known me for a while. You probably haven't met him."
He pointed to the person beside him.
Inspector Rachel: "I am Rachel Henry, a detective accompanying Inspector Daniel to question all four of you. Unless proved otherwise, all four of you will be treated as suspects. You should be glad that you are minors, as we cannot take stern measures against you, but all four of you have strong evidence against each of you."
Inspector Daniel: "I have brought a lie detector for the questioning."
Remi: "I didn't realize that this case was so serious that a well-known detective and a lie detector were needed."
Rachel: "Well, I would like to start the questioning session with Remi. The rest, please wait outside."
The three left the room, with Inspector Daniel walking behind them, listening closely to everything the teens were saying. Due to his presence, they couldn't talk about what they wanted to discuss.
The lie detector was set up by Daniel before he left with the three. Remi's attention went from the lie detector back to Rachel as he cleared her throat.
Rachel: "So I went through all the texts you guys exchanged with Sasha in the group chat as well as in private chats."
Remi: "Alright."
Rachel: "Do you hate Sasha or not?"
Remi: "I do not hate her."
Rachel: "Then how would you describe your feelings toward her?"
Remi: "I cannot hate someone without a reason, and she was my friend. But at times, she was slightly annoying."
Rachel: "Annoying in what sense?"
Remi: "She invaded people's private space."
Rachel took note of the lines forming on the lie detector.
Rachel: "You answered my question slightly but not completely. Do you like her despite her annoying nature at times?"
Remi: "Well, yeah, I did like her except when she became annoying."
Rachel: "Do you like being around your friends?"
Remi: "Yeah, we have been together for a long time."
Rachel: "I think you prefer being by yourself rather than being with your friends."
Remi: "That is true, but that doesn't mean I dislike my friends."
Rachel: "I didn't say you do. I just proposed the idea that if you don't have to, you won't socialize."
Remi: "Yeah, you're right."
Rachel: "Now, I would like to ask you the most important question."
Remi: "..."
Rachel: "One of your friends killed Sasha."
Remi: "No, it wasn't one of us. I can say that for certain."
Rachel: "But as a person investigating this, I will say that it was one of you four. To be more specific, I will say that it was Lyn who plotted this, calling Sasha, the victim, to a deserted place to push her in front of the moving truck. But that will be my conclusion if I don't delve deeper. I think that you, Remi, indirectly instructed them. You enlightened Lyn about the prank and instructed Sam to be at the cafe. When Sasha arrived, Sam was recorded on CCTV footage getting out of the cafe and standing behind Sasha as she was seen holding her phone and texting. She didn't notice Sam behind her. Right at that moment, the CCTV stopped working. It turned out someone tampered with the wires. So, the time when Sam was behind Sasha must also be the time—"
Remi: "One footage does not prove anything. Were there any fingerprints of Sam on Sasha if he really pushed her?"
Rachel: "His hand wasn't captured by the CCTV, but I assume he was wearing rubber gloves, fashionable ones so nobody would find it weird."
Remi: "I am more interested in the physique of the person seen behind Sasha by the truck driver."
Rachel: "The person seemed to be the same height and age as Sasha. Since it was raining heavily and dark, that was all the driver could see. So, Sam wearing gloves did—"
Remi: "Sam was not wearing any gloves that night."
Rachel: "You need to stop cutting me off mid-sentence. Anyway, I assume you met him that day to know that?"
Remi: "He went silent. I know exactly what he is trying to do: asking a question, then going silent so that the other person reveals more than they intend to. But despite knowing this, I am willingly doing as he desires. If I do not tell him what I know, one of us would be wrongly accused.
So, Lyn and the others pranked Sasha that they were going somewhere fun and their meeting spot was the cafe. But while they were discussing this and texting Sasha, I wasn't around my phone, so I didn't know about the whole thing. Until at 8:15, I saw a text from Sasha in the group chat as well as the older texts. The cafe is only five minutes from my house. I texted Sasha to wait for me there as I needed to discuss something with her. When I went there, Sam and Sasha were both there. Even though Sasha agreed to meet with me, she started acting weird and said she was going to take a taxi home. Meanwhile, Sam and I went inside the cafe since it was a weekend. After 10 minutes, there was suddenly a lot of commotion. We went outside to witness Sasha dead on the street. The ambulance and police were already called, so we went home."
Rachel: "I have two questions about your side of the story. First, why was there no text between you and Sasha about that meeting? Second, did you really not see anyone around who may have pushed Sasha?"
Remi: "I asked her to delete the messages. If I really had information, I would have told Inspector Daniel."
Rachel: "If Sam has an alibi, then only Sarah and Lyn are suspects. But first, I want to ask you why you think it was none of your friends."
Remi: "I don't think any of my friends had a reason to do so."
Rachel: "One more question. Are you hiding anything from me? Anything at all?"
Remi: "I have told you what I know."
Rachel: "There is one thing you did not enlightened me with but I was beforehand by your friend Lyn."
Remi: "I assume it was the call between me and her on the day Sasha died?"
Rachel: "Yes. It seems you guys have discussed about this."
I explained to Rachel about how there is no call history from my side and showed him my phone.
Rachel: "Well, then you are dismissed. Send Sam and Inspector Daniel on your way out. And one more thing—you are not out of suspicion of plotting Sasha's murder."
Remi: "Well, your lie detector should have known if I was lying or not."
Rachel: "It can't detect good liars."
Remi: "Is that so? Well, I will be out."
Remi walked toward Inspector Daniel and the others to let them know who was next for questioning. Inspector Daniel walked away with Sam.
Sarah: "Is it bad?"
Remi: "Yes."
Sarah: "Is that so?"
Lyn: "But didn't Sasha herself admit it was one of us? Why are you surprised?"
Remi: "I still doubt it could be one of us."
Sarah: "Me too."
Lyn: "Are we going to the ritual—"
Everyone went silent as Inspector Daniel walked towards them. It was the same as before but this time with Remi alongside them in place of Sam to experience the lack of privacy.