-1Am I Really That Stupid?

It had been quite the afternoon, as Fishy explained. Aside from the fear that I was dead, Ni had also gone missing. And no one had found her yet. On top of that, another attempt had been made on Py’s life. Everyone was on edge, even Lamp and Nathan who tended to be the more rational ones.

“Sounds like I missed a lot. Jeebus, I hope Ni’s alright.”

“By alright, you mean alive, right?”

“Yeah. Wow that’s really sad when you have to hope for that.”

“I know.”

“Anybody checked her house yet?”

“No. You want to go check?”

I cringed. I didn’t want to, no. But I knew we had to. I explained this to Fishy.

“All right then.” She turned the car around and headed for Ni’ house.

My stomach felt sick, my head hurt, and every single nerve in my body was screaming at me to go the other way. To run and never come back. I had a really bad feeling something awful was going to happen. Or maybe it already had.

We unlocked Ni’s house, surprised that she hadn’t changed her locks, and went upstairs, straight to her room.

We found Ni. Or, more accurately, Ni’s body. Her eyes were still open. She’d been stabbed in the back. I stood there gaping, because:

It was my knife. One of my favorite ones, too. Fairly recognizable. The wooden handle on it had been stained blue and my initials were carved into it on both sides.

I didn’t stab her.

I don’t give out my knives.

I changed my locks.

How the hell did my knife end up in her back?

Fishy was staring, too. She recognized the knife as well.

“Why…?” she asked, looking at me.

“I didn’t do it, Fishy. Think about it. Am I dumb enough to leave my knife behind when the thing is one of a kind and would probably have my prints all over it?”

She thought it over. “No. You wouldn’t be that stupid. No. I’d have to have been someone smart enough to frame you and, well, all of you are smart.”

“Damn. This is just awful. I bet she didn’t see it coming, either. She probably has no idea who killed her, and had no idea she was going to die. Jeebus, we didn’t even make it to Kalene’s funeral. Now we have another friend to bury.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Call the police,” I answered, knowing that’s not what she meant. But I didn’t have an answer to what she was asking.

She wanted to know what we were going to do about the killer. Or about staying alive. Or who to trust. But I just didn’t know.

Before going downstairs, I leaned over and close Ni’s eyes. She was still warm, she hadn’t been dead long.

We went downstairs to the kitchen to use Ni’s house phone. Sometime on the way downstairs, Fishy started crying.

In the kitchen, I called the cops and made tea for Fishy, a habit I had picked up from Lamp.

I finished the phone call and the tea was done. I gave it to Fishy and we sat on the couch. She cried and, not knowing what else to do, I hugged her, in my best attempt at comfort.

We just sat there hugging, while she cried. I must have been doing something right, because, eventually, she stopped crying. Or maybe she just ran out of tears.

Sitting there, looking at the pain this was causing Fishy, and feeling my own pain, I made a decision.

Nobody, friend or not, gets to hurt my friends like this and they definitely don’t get to get away with it.