Four
Kieffer's POV -
"Hey dude. It's almost time," it was Dwayne. I heard him but I was too drowned in my thoughts to give him a response.
I heard his footsteps approaching towards me but I didn't bother to look. I was trying to understand the case that happened in my Science class. That case was filled with holes and I couldn't fill in. The dots would not connect like there was a missing link to connect it.
"Hey, Kieffer. Are you going to skip class this afternoon?" Dwayne raised his voice.
I sighed and frowned at him, "Go on ahead. I have something to do."
He shrugged with no further protest. He left the room and I was alone. My thoughts kept on wandering on the case and I couldn't snap out of it. It kept on bothering me.
Damn it. I had to solve this case or my mind wouldn't be at ease.
I stood and left the room. I went straight to the Science building where the case happened. It had been a long time since I solved a case but my intelligence never changed. It's just that I couldn't easily butt in on a case considering that my dad had plenty of pawns to block my way. He wasn't part of the police or anything, however he just managed to monitor my movements. And that's what pissed me off. I couldn't move freely.
I arrived at the room where the case took place and the door was sealed with a police tape. It seemed that there were no stand-ins so I went over the tape.
I saw her again. She was staring at the bottom of the blackboard where the chalk was placed. She seemed to be deeply in thoughts and she didn't notice my arrival. Or she did notice and did not bother to mind. I guess the case was so puzzling that it even made her stuck on it.
"Playing detective games?" I interrupted her.
She turned to look at me, "The case is bothering me and I couldn't focus on my class."
I smiled at her, "So you skip your class to be here?"
She chuckled, "Well, sort of."
I smiled at her and I was struck by how beautiful her smile was. I felt like the world froze and I couldn't get my eyes off of her. Her smile seemed to invite me to move closer to her and her face was sparkling like thousands of diamonds.
"And?" She raised her brows, "Do you have any clue how Sir Jimenez got the poison?"
"Uh…" It took me a moment before I could get my thoughts together. I was so distracted by her beauty, "Perhaps he got it before coming here?"
"Then you should be hospitalized by now," she replied.
My brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"
She grinned, "Sir Jimenez tapped your shoulder before he went to the teacher's table, right? If the poison was already on his fingers ahead, you would surely be paralyzed, 20 minutes after he tapped your shoulder."
I was speechless for a few minutes and thought about it.
Damn right. I completely forgot about it. Man. I guess my mind was clouded by her beautiful smile and I couldn't think properly.
I tried to compose a smile, "So how did he get the poison?"
"Right in this very room," she confidently answered.
I narrowed my eyes at her, "Didn't the forensics test the entire room?"
"Yeah and they failed to find any traces of poison," she answered back.
I snorted, "So how did he get the poison if it wasn't here in the first place?"
She smirked, "It's not that it wasn't here. It vanished right after Sir Jimenez collapsed."
"Hey, don't tell me… you already solved the case?" I sounded amused.
Stupid, Kieffer. Why should I be surprised if I already had the feeling that she also had brains, aside of the outstanding beauty that she possessed?
With a mischievous smile, she responded, "Definitely. Want to hear it?"
I was amused. And I was certain that I saw her eyes slightly moved to my back. I was about to turn when she spoke again. She probably knew that I noticed.
"Or it will be more entertaining to have that person come back here?" She stated.
Third Person's POV -
Right after her class, she secretly walked back to the science room where the case had occurred. She cautiously entered the room. The lights were on and the silence was so deafening. She made sure that no one knew she was coming there and she made sure that no one was following here. She went straight to the toilet and she opened the water tank. She found a small rectangular box attached to the lid. It was covered with a cellophane and a packaging tape. She carefully removed it and put back the lid. She hurriedly unwrapped the box and checked its contents. She sighed in relief when she saw that the contents were still there.
She put it inside her pocket and left the toilet. But she was more than surprised when she saw Alrisha and Kieffer standing beside the teacher's table. Both of them were waiting for her to come out of the toilet and perhaps waiting for her arrival.
"Was that our missing chalk box?" Alrisha asked.
"It will be troublesome if you put it inside the water tank," Kieffer added.
The girl smirked, "What are you talking about, Mcrae?"
"I was talking about the missing chalk box at the crime scene," Alrisha clarified.
"Didn't the police have it?" She replied.
"Yeah, they have it. But after conducting a test, it has no trace of poison," Alrisha sounded disappointed.
Kieffer turned to Alrisha with a puzzled look, "That's strange. The chalk that he used had poison but the chalk box where he got the chalk didn't have it?"
The girl shrugged, "Then he probably had the poison on his hand beforehand. And used the chalk to write his name on the board and touch other things."
Kieffer smirked and looked at her, "That's somewhat impossible and I'm the living witness. If he got the poison beforehand, I wouldn't be standing right in front of your nose."
The girl gritted her teeth, "What?"
"Sir Jimenez tapped my shoulder when he arrived and went to the teacher's table," Kieffer stated.
"Then the poison was probably on your shirt!" The girl raised her voice.
"How naive," Kieffer sighed, "I should be in jail right now if my shirt has a poison after conducting a test with it."
"How did Sir Jimenez get the poison and where?" The girl asked impatiently.
With a half smile, Alrisha replied, "He got it here. In this very room. From the poison chalk box on the bottom of the board."
The girl's heart suddenly pounded in nervousness but she managed to laugh to hide it, "Have you forgotten what you said earlier? There was no poison found on the chalk box."
"That's because you replace it with another," Alrisha immediately replied.
The girl froze as she grasped her fist. Her lips were pale and heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest.
Kieffer grinned, "You hit her right in the mark."
Alrisha also smiled, "I thought it was strange. I checked the chalk box before the police arrived but the chalk inside the box was complete. It seemed like it wasn't used at all. If that was the chalk box where sir got the chalk then there should be one missing."
"I see. When did she do the replacement? We never left the front until the police came," Kieffer asked.
"Probably after sir collapsed. Everyone's attention was diverted to Sir Jimenez so no one would notice," Alrisha explained.
The girl snorted, "I can't believe you're accusing me of this, Mcrae. You didn't even see it, not any proof to back up your reasoning."
With a mischievous smile, Alrisha said, "Really? What happened to your socks?"
The girl's eyes widened as she slowly looked down.
"You used it, did you?" Alrisha continued, "You used it to put the chalk box in it and taped it on the lid of the water tank."
Kieffer brows furrowed, "Why would she taped it on the water tank if she could dispose of it somewhere?"
"Remember what I told you?" Alrisha replied and stared at him.
Kieffer was silent and tried to recall whatever Alrisha told him earlier. It took him a few minutes before he could remember it.
'It will be a pain if I let her go to the public restroom. There will be a possibility that she will pull out tricks or something.'
After realizing it, Kieffer smiled, "That's right. She wasn't able to."
"Exactly. She knew the police would interrogate us and do a body inspection after. So she had to keep it away from her and most likely, get rid of it later on." Alrisha explained.
"Enough already, Mcrae! All of those were empty reasoning! You can't just go around and point a suspect with your finger!" The girl exclaimed with a glare fix at Alrisha.
"Then you don't mind showing us what's in your pocket?" Alrisha challenged her.
Her jaw clenched as she slowly put her hand inside her pocket. She gripped on the box that she took out of the water tank earlier and desperately thought of a way to get herself out. Alrisha and Kieffer were observing her in full guard. They thought she might come up with something so they keep themselves on guard.
Later on, the girl sighed in defeat. She pulled out the chalk box from her pocket and threw it on the floor.
"I thought it was perfect. I never expect to have an intelligent classmates," she mumbled while staring on the chalk box.
"So if this chalk box has traces of poison and has her fingerprints, this will be conclusive evidence," Kieffer stated.
"But who would believe your statement? As if there's someone else here aside from us." The girl informed them.
With a smirk, Kieffer pulled out his cellphone and showed it to her, "Did you hear that Inspector?"
"Loud and clear, Kieffer," Inspector Fernandez responded from the other line.
"Inspector Fernandez and his subordinates were listening on the phone from the other room. It's no use escaping," Alrisha said.
"Excellent deduction as always, Kieffer!" Inspector Fernandez exclaimed while he was walking towards them, "How I wish I had brains like you."
"It's not me this time, Inspector. I didn't do anything," Kieffer politely answered, "She did the deduction."
Inspector glanced behind Kieffer, "Who?"
"Her," Kieffer turned to look beside him but Alrisha wasn't there anymore, "Did she already left?"
"Who are you talking about?" Inspector asked in a puzzled tone.
"Her… I think her name was A… Al…"
"Alrisha Mcrae." The female suspect answered, "She already left right when the police entered."
Kieffer frowned and the Inspector was disappointed too.
'Man. What an attitude. But got to give it to her. After all, she solved the case and I didn't expect that she would be that intelligent.' he thought to himself.
However, there was this weird that was bothering him. Every time he was with her, he always had it. It felt like it wasn't the first time that he met her. Like somehow, he already met her somewhere. But she was not the girl that he used to meet every 26th of April. She did not even recognize him. That girl and her were completely different yet he had that strange feeling. He did not seem to understand it.
Well, it seemed he had a personal mystery case. He need to find out who she was and find out what connection she had to him for having that unexplainable feeling.
Alrisha was walking towards her next class. She thought about Kieffer while on her way. She seemed to hear his name somewhere but she couldn't recall it. And what bothered her the most was he knew about Akira.
Suddenly, something came up in her mind. She was about to set a foot in her room when she decided to skip her class and headed back to her room. There was something that she wanted to confirm. And maybe if she was right, she could finally have a lead to a certain case that brought her back in town.