Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Caden turned to the new arrival in the room, pure rage driving him through his next actions. This one gesture raised a lot of questions... The one person that Ash was infatuated with was Katie and it seemed less than likely for a dying person to try and write the name of their loved ones rather than their killers. The first person that came to mind when he saw the name was that of the person that stood before him right now. Each passing thought seemed to convince him more and more that he was staring at Ash’s murderer. His need for justice was beginning to cloud his judgement even though no one could blame him for his suspicions.

Ash had been killed with a poisoned knife and his throat had been skillfully cut to make it so that he bled to death without uttering a single word of help. Not to mention the only person Kyle would have trusted to get that close to him with a weapon in hand would have been Katie as well. Everything seemed to point directly to her. The weapon that had been used as well as one that only Katie was authorized to use in the school.

Katie soon noticed the malice that was directed towards her and spotted the letter that was written on the floor. From the look in Caden’s eyes, there didn’t look to be a way for her to calm him down and allow normal conversation. “Does this look like something that could happen in the safest school to you?” Caden asked her, his voice shaking with anger.

All of Katie’s work to promote peace in this school and bring about a sense of safety was shattering right before her eyes. The mass panic that she found in the corridors proved that. Considering the reports on werewolf casualties in the school being more than humans, there was going to be an uproar of chaos when it was revealed that a werewolf was killed within the walls of Brigade high school. Katie’s mind worked on summing up how much she was supposed to deal with that she didn’t manage to notice the fist that connected with her jaw a second later.

Katie hit her back hard on the whiteboard at the front of the room, falling down into a crowd. Her jaw pulsed with pain from the impact of the blow Caden had delivered, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Are you messing with me right now?” Caden asked, his voice low and dangerous.

“I won’t let it slide the next time you try to hit me,” Katie said. She walked right past him and up to Ash’s body, using two fingers to close the boy’s eyes. “Damn it, Ash. What were you trying to say?” Cole was astounded by her level of confidence that it only seemed logical that she wasn’t the killer. Come to think of it, there was nothing she would gain from killing the boy. As far as Cole had noticed in the past days, Katie did not prefer violence and kept it to a minimum. Her fight with Shaemus spoke for itself.

“Where were you, Katie?” he asked, his voice coming out hoarse and almost inaudible.

.....

“I was... at the Hunter’s Agency...” she said, “I’m afraid we might not be in the clear yet about there being rogues in the school that are suppressing their abilities.”

“You expect me to believe a rogue killed him when wolfsbane is thick in the air and the precision of the cut is no doubt something of a master’s job. Not to mention the letter he’s written on the floor...” he said inquisitively. The pain in his chest was beginning to subside although it still felt like he had lost something within him and hurt like hell to even think about it.

“Your suspicions are your own right. I can’t blame you for lashing at any conclusions in your mind so that you can seek justice for the crime that has been committed today. While you have lost your pack member, I have lost everything that I’ve been building since the day I set foot in this school. I’m only remaining calm so that I can keep a level head while carrying out an investigation on this. And when the time comes that I find Ash’s killer... I’ll put him through more hell than he can imagine,” Katie’s voice was getting shaky towards the end, allowing the listeners in the room to get a sneak peek into the rage that boiled deep within her.

“Katie...” Caden called, his hands still balled into fists. This was hard on all of them and he had been the first to act out of pure emotion rather than reason, “I’m sorry I hit you.”

“It’s okay... I’m just surprised you have already ruled me out of this considering he wrote the first letter of my name with his dying breath.”

“I can’t deny that it points to you more than anyone else that I know, but...” he paused, taking in a deep breath, “it also doesn’t make sense for you to kill someone as innocent as Ash. And for that, I will hold off on any suspicions that I have against you until we have more information.

The paramedics finally made it to the room and got to work on bagging the body accompanied with everything entailed in their job descriptions. The five students stood aside and watched in silence as the body Ash’s body was put on a stretcher and carted away.

When the stretcher was just about to pass by them, Cole placed his hand on it stopping its further progress. “When the autopsy is finished, the body is mine,” Cole spoke, his voice low while he said it.

“Do you happen to be part of his...” the paramedic stopped when Cole stared him straight in the face, “Never mind Mr Lycaon, we will give you a call when the autopsy is done,” With that, he let them leave with Ash’s body.

A sudden silence from the commotion snapped everyone out of their thoughts. A sole set of footsteps stood out in the silence. A few moments later several people could be heard moving through the hallways. The first person to come through the door was a tank of a man. The man dressed in sleeveless black leather clothes, an unbuttoned jacket similar in design to the one that Katie owned except that it could easily be twice the size. On the inside of the jacket, he donned on a thin black shirt that did not hide a thing about his physique. The leather trousers that he wore just seemed like overkill with the bad boy outfit.

Katie greeted the man with a slight bow of the head. This was a gesture that registered deep into the minds of the werewolves. The man spelt trouble in each step he took. The others that escorted close behind him almost meant nothing in the suffocating presence and authority that came off him. It was clear that he wasn’t a werewolf and yet...

“Meet Sir Anthony Richards... the head of the Hunter Agency,” Katie made the introduction as was required of her in a situation where the three wolves could easily get her into trouble.

“Thank you for the introduction, Chase. Report...” his commanding voice came out booming. Katie flinched a little. She would have expected to be used to his tone by now, but it was like he yelled louder the next time he did it.

“I only just arrived sir, but I will relay what I know of the situation. The werewolf that passed the evaluation yesterday was murdered by what seems to have been a blade laced with wolfsbane. I have not yet found the weapon that was used...” she froze up, unable to continue with the rest that was not confirmed.

“Well, considering you were the first to leave the Hunter’s Agency when you got the news, you should have seen more than that,” he said.

Katie clenched her fists in anger... “I was only gone an hour... How was I to know that the enemy would use a window that small to commit a murder?” she said, her voice low.

“Do you think you would have stopped this enemy if you had been around?” the man asked.

This was a question Katie could not answer... Her mind was a mess, anger trying to cloud her thoughts. The white wolf that faintly strained to act on her anger did not help soothe her anger at all. She had to figure out a way to figure this out.

When Anthony noticed he was not getting an answer to his question, he called one of the hunters that were behind him. “Tell Principal to check the cameras at the entrances and exits in a two-hour span of this incident. Make sure to make a detailed recording of the names of every student with a roughly suspicious movement during that time so that we can narrow down the suspects,” he said.

“Do you really think a student is the one that did something like this?”

“After what we witnessed yesterday with Shaemus creating a diversion that risked the lives of nearly five hundred civilians, I can even suspect a helpless baby,” he told the hunter. With that said, the hunter left, walking quickly to relay the order. “Chase... I want you to keep it together.”