12. Innocent bad boy

At those words, my eyes widened impossibly. Who was investigating beside me? Did Daniel actually think that I was not being serious about it? I folded my lips together, staring at the desk with a blank look on my face. It was stupid to even hide that I was trying to get those papers. Maybe she can help me if I am more specific and I would get my work done as soon as I can.



"Miss?" Mrs Pierce cleared her throat loud enough to break me out of my thoughts. I noticed that the two of them in the corner were silent as if they were observing me.




"Uhh...yeah. It's nothing really... I am just curious about it that's all"



Mrs Pierce sighed, "I have heard this before. Hold on"





"What did you mean by too? Did someone else ask about the case as well?"




"Yes"



"Who?" I questioned




Mrs Pierce pressed her lips together, "I don't think I am allowed to tell you that information"





My face fell at that. I was actually hoping that I could find out who was working the case behind my back. Maybe talking to Daniel would help me figure out if someone was interested. He did say it was mine to work and I was not going to give up.




"That's alright...Can I get those papers then?"




"Hold on"





A sigh of relief escaped my lungs and I hunched down a bit. Maybe it was not going to be as difficult as I thought. Mrs Pierce got out of her chair, her heels clinking against the floor as she marched towards the back door. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked around hoping to find someone. Kay was still not back which meant that their argument lasted longer than I anticipated.




It was kind of funny how they always argued with each other and claimed to hate each other. As soon as Sam was injured last year Kay was ready to beat up the guy from the opponent team. The same thing happened with Sam as well. Bryce tried to trip Kay but Sam pulled his arm and twisted it back before he could do anything of that sort. Sometimes I felt like I was watching some sort of long foreplay. At one point they have to confess and stop fooling around.




I heard the shuffling sound from the back door. My eyes shifted towards the both of them standing and whispering to each other.




"Uhh...are you going to check on Mrs Pierce?"




The one with strawberry hair made a face and glared at me. It felt like I might have offended her by asking a simple question. She seemed too scary for someone to be working in a library.





"I think I am good here. Besides Mrs Pierce doesn't appreciate someone entering the room without permission."




The guy in short dark hair chuckled, shaking his head, "Remember how she freaked out last time we tried to clean up the backroom?"




The strawberry blonde scoffed, "How can I ever forget?"




I shifted awkwardly on my feet at their conversation. for once I felt relieved that I did not apply to work in the library. As tempting as it sounded to work in a school library for money I had too many activities lined up last year so I turned it down.




"Ahh...found them!" Mrs Pierce voice cut through.




I noticed that she was holding a bunch of newspapers in her left room. My legs moved on their own accord towards her but she retreated to her desk.




"You are not allowed to take them home" She croaked as she adjusted her glasses. My eyes shifted at the newspapers before I looked up.




"I am not going to take them home. In fact, I am going to sit here for a while"




Mrs Pierce sighed handing them over and pointed her finger at the board. It had a set of rules displayed on them.




"You know the rules"



"Yes Mrs Pierce"




"Great" With that, she bent her head down and I peeked at the paper she was holding. It was a puzzle.




"Anya!" Kay's loud voice pierced through the silence in the library. It was sharp enough for Mrs Pierce to look up and glare at both of us. I looked over my shoulder only two notice that Kay was standing in the door.




"Sorry" I made an apologetic face to Mrs Pierce before rushing towards Kay. She didn't look the least bit concerned about yelling in the library.




"Kay, will you keep it down?"




She scrunched her nose as her eyes roamed around the library, "But there's no one here"




"It doesn't matter. Come inside"



She followed my lead and we sat in the corner of the library. I hurriedly took the newspapers and slammed them on the table. They were only a few of them as I expected because the story was obviously hushed up. The first one had details about Arcuri estate in the corner of the paper. Almost invisible if you skim quickly. First few paragraphs where just about the history of the family and lastly they mentioned about the murder of Arcuri. Apparently three of them- Mr and Mrs Arcuri along with the elder son, Dean was found murdered and then burned in their own house.





A shiver ran down my spine at the mention of their younger son being the suspect in the entire doing. Damon Arcuri was fourteen years old when everything went down and was convicted as the murderer. Kay was trying to find something relevant in the other newspapers.




"Read this!" Kay pushed the paper towards me. I narrowed my eyes at her but accepted the newspaper. There was a huge article on the front page which was pretty detail and in-depth.





I bent down and whispered, "This has got to be the first one that doesn't seem like a listing of the Arcuri house"




Kay giggled but quickly slapped her hand over her mouth when she noticed that Mrs Pierce was glaring at us. I sighed. It felt impossible to talk in her presence but the thing was we couldn't take the newspaper home.




"Tell me about it! There are only like six papers here and one school magazine which is obviously unreliable. What are we looking here?"




I released a breath, "I don't know..."




I wanted to cover a full story of what went down and why Damon had to face punishment. Maybe he did do it or he didn't there was no actual proof of anything. The Sheriff who was investigating the case might help us look into it.





"We can talk to the Sheriff... Maybe there is a mention of him in this article"




Kay hummed as I averted my eyes towards the newspaper. The journalist seemed pretty passionate about the peace as they dwelled into as much as detailed they could. It was interesting to note that Damon's aunt and uncle were present on the scene under one hour. Almost like they were the one who knew everything went down.




Apparently, neighbours smelled the smoke and were the first one to call the police department. The ambulance arrived too much later, after Damon's uncle and aunt. Damon was found with a silver lighter in his hand which was easy for them to make the connection.




As much as I wanted to believe the entire article and Damon's side of the story it felt unreal. How can he burn his own parents and his brother? Just the thought of talking to him again made me shiver in a bad way.




"You know what's weird?" Kay started softly as she began flipping the magazine in her hand.




"Hmm?"



"Every article in these... I mean the most of them are return after the fire. The very next day and they are pretty much accusing Damon. There is no update of the case. It's like they have not even considered someone else doing it"




Her words made me still. I looked up to meet her eyes and we exchanged a look. Kay's theory was interesting because even the journalist who seemed pretty passionate in the beginning sounded biased in the second half and pinned it on Damon based on the lighter he was holding. It sounded very fishy. He was only 14 years old and definitely not something that seemed plausible.




Just then we heard the scrapping of the chair from behind. I did not pay attention to the sound.




"You are right something doesn't feel right about this one"




"Need some help ladies?" Mrs Pierce interrupted




Flustered I shook my head, "Sorry we were just-"




"You both do know that the boy didn't do it, right?"




My mouth fell open at that and I stared at Kay who had the same expression as mine. Somewhere I was hesitant to think that Damon could do something like that but hearing from the library that he did not do it made it real.





"How do you know?" Kay questioned




"Because I saw him that night"
***