Searching for Answers in all the Wrong Places*

[Megami†]

Jessica DeVlure, Detective Extraordinaire, at least, that's what she wanted to become one day, stood over the corpse of one Kimberly Jones-Larame, eying it suspiciously.  News of the girl's murder had, as one could imagine, spread rather rampantly throughout Hobbsborough High School, and the faculty had wasted no time in getting the police on the scene.  The short, spunky brunette suddenly turned on her heels, her eyes traveling from the corpse of the girl to the tall and bulky man leaning on the bathroom sink: her partner in crime--er--justice, Donnie Peters.

Donnie, like Jessica, was a new recruit to the small town police department.  So, why had two newbs been sent to do a murder case surrounding a school girl?  Call it another form of budgeting the town was undergoing, cheap as though they were.  Jessica DeVlure had something to prove on this case.  After all, it was her father who had put in a good word for her to get this detective job at the P.D.  Now was her chance to shine, and as such, she was beaming as she turned toward her partner.

Before she could get a word in edgewise, the door to the girl's restroom squealed open and another man-in-uniform stepped through, only long enough to hand the results of Kim's stomach contents to Jessica.  Beaming with confidence, Jessica snatched the results of the test from the police officer's hand, casting a side-long glance at Donnie before turning to once again stare at the officer.

"Alright alright alright!  Out!  Let the master do her job!"

With a roll of the eyes, the police officer obliged the girl's request and exited the bathroom area, leaving the duo alone to finish up the investigation.  Jessica brought the paper up to her eyes, scanning over the list of the contents of Kim Jones-Larame's stomach.  At once, she noticed the two pills that Kim had apparently taken, but before she could even read the names of them...

CRASH!

The noise echoed throughout the bathroom as Detective Jessica DeVlure went flying through the air after tripping over the corpse of Kim.  Jessica looked on helplessly as the test results went flying out of her hand and landed in the still wet blood covering the majority of the bathroom floor.  Looking on in panic, the bumbling Donnie rushed over to help Jessica, and his foot came into contact with the test results, smearing them in the sticky red substance and tearing them to pieces in the process.  Jessica could only look on in sheer horror as Donnie realized what had happened.

"Oh shit, OH SHIT!"

The cry from the brunette echoed throughout the bathroom stall walls as their evidence was abruptly destroyed.  Forcing herself to her feet, Jessica cast a forelorn look the corpse of the girl, shaking her head as tears formed in her eyes.  This was her first job, it wasn't supposed to go like this.  She supposed she could always just ask for another print-out, but how would she ever explain that to everyone else?  Sighing in an exasperated manner, her attention turned to her companion, who seemed to be eyeing an area near the dead girl.

"Hey, Jess, did you drop something?"

A puzzled expression crossed the woman's face as she looked down to see the same plain white bottle lying on the ground near Kim's prone form.  Shrugging her shoulders lightly, Jessica shook her head.  How the hell was she supposed to know if she'd dropped the bottle or not?  Part of their evidence had just been destroyed, and now she had nothing to go on, no way to solve this case.

"I don't know," she muttered in annoyance, "Probably.  Oh shit Donnie, what're we gonna do?  I've gotta do good on this thing, I can't disappoint Daddy!  He worked so hard to get me on, we've gotta do something, we've gotta... gotta... I'VE GOT IT!"

Donnie looked on in a puzzled manner as Jessica stared directly at the corpse of Kim, a big smile suddenly spreading across her lips.  Who cared if what happened to Kim Jones-Larame was ever officially solved, so long as the case was closed and Jessica looked good on her evaluation, right?  Her eyebrows raised as she looked slyly toward her companion.

"I've got a great idea.  She was a pill popper, Donnie.  Just go with it, okay?  There were pills in her system, I gathered that much before the test results bit the dirt.  So... all we've gotta do is interview the kids, make sure blondie here took those pills of her own accord, murder solved, we're off scott-free, we do good on our evals and these kids get back to normal life.  Easy as pie!"

"Jessica, I don't think that's a good idea," Donnie tried to intervene.  However, it was too little, too late.

"And why not?  OBVIOUSLY she wasn't murdered, Donnie!  There'd be clues, evidence!  See?  She's not shot, she's not stabbed, nobody killed her.  So just go with me on this, alright?"

"A-alright," the bumbling boy replied warily.

Wheeling around in a 180, Jessica headed toward the door and pulled it open with another squeal, much to the confusion of her counterpart.  Watching on in nervousness, he chased after Jessica DeVlure as she paraded down the hallway toward the nearest classroom, which just happened to be that of one, Mrs. Saranna.  She'd interview these kids about Kim, pull what she wanted to hear from each of the students' stories, she'd make up her own conclusion about Kim's death, keep her job, get out of these kids' hair, and make Daddy proud.  It was perfect!  Knocking on the door with repetitive loud thuds, Jessica placed her hands on her hips in what she assumed to be an intimidating manner and prepared to interrogate the students of Mrs. Saranna's room.

Easy as pie, right?

(Continued in: Just Another Day in Homeroom....)