Jessica's Dead

There was a moment of silence as the officers took in the sight of the poor sixth form student, her face flawed already from the force of the stones to her perfect skin. The chief investigator sighed as he looked around the circle, noticing how the Medical Examiner had already arrived and was crouched down next to her. “She’d already been down on her knees. I’d say she’d tripped over that piece of rubble.” He said pointing at the piece of marble rock, gently raising himself so that he was standing. “She’d have knelt back up, been a little aggressive and would then have been immediately aware that the attacker was behind her. He’d have been holding her for a couple of minutes, the touch wasn’t intimate. You can tell from the bruising around the chin area.” The man sighed. “The blade would have then been drawn across here from the left to the right. The killer would have watched her bleed.” The officer smiled over at him.
“Thanks doc.” He said looking over at him and then turning to the officers. “Do we have an ID yet?” The officers nodded.
“Jessica Williams, seventeen year old. She attends the local catholic school and was walking home from work.”
“What does the shell mean?” The officer shrugged.

***

There was never a moment of silence when the seven girls got together. They’d noticed that Jessica wasn’t there but that didn’t shock them, she was always late for school after a late shift at work. She said it was because she had to work. They knew it was because she was struggling to keep up with the sleep patterns.

“I can’t believe she actually said that to him!” Carrie squealed laughing as she listened to Hayley tell her about the latest tale of the romance between Laura and Dale. They’d just got over a pregnancy scare and now the two of them were talking marriage and Laura had warned him away by claiming lesbianity at the mention of the word.
“She believes it will keep him at bay.” She said smiling before noticing the police car slowly pull up outside the school gates. “I wonder what’s happened now.” Hayley muttered biting her nail gently as she played with the hole on the left arm of her cardigan.
“Some old neighbour would have complained.” Ellie said laughing as she looked away from Roxie and stood up to lean over the balcony, watching the police walk into the head of the sites office.

***

The girls stood outside the office, very afraid of what they had done. Hayley was calm due to the fact she had dealt with the police before but the others were starting to pace and were talking in rushed tones. The door opened and out stepped Mr Lawrence, inviting them into his office.

Mr Lawrence was always being called names by the students because of the way he acted like a complete ogre. There was no way you could talk to him unless you had been sent for because you had misbehaved in another lesson or you’d broken a school rule along the way. These girls had very rarely pissed any teacher off so they’d never had any dealings with Mr Lawrence but they still called him names as they hated how he treated the students on a whole.

The police officer stood as they entered the room, his hands strangling each other. The girls could tell he was going to tell them something they wouldn’t like due to the way he avoided any of their eyes. Mr Lawrence sighed as he looked over at them, indicating for them to take a seat on the semi-circle of chairs that had been organised.

“In the early hours of this morning, Jessica Williams was found dead in the graveyard across from her house.” The girls all gasped as they clung to each other, their faces all shocked at the news they’d just heard. “As you are her friends we would like to ask if there was any person who would want to harm her?”

Hayley, Ellie and Lily all looked at each other, their eyes sending the same message. Yeah, us. There was a long period of silence as each girl tried to think of someone who would want their friend dead. “There is no one.” Roxie finally spoke up, coming to a conclusion for them all. The officer smiled sadly before nodding at Mr Lawrence.
“You may leave now.”