Chapter 50 – Murder to hide a Murder – Holly Hayfield

Lilith took the unlabeled tape out and put the next one in. We both awaited something from the tape. The audio was pure static until we heard what sounded like scratching and whirring. Those odd sounds seemed to be someone changing the settings on the cassette tape recording device. Once the person had finished toggling the settings on the device we heard footsteps of the person running away from the device. Then there was an easily identifiable sound of a curtain being drawn in the distance. After that there was nothing but silence.

“What’s going on?” Lilith asked me.

“I don’t know.” I said.

“Did the recording stop? I don’t hear anything going on.” She said.

“It isn’t that.” I said. “The person turned up the recording volume I think. Then they walked away behind a curtain.”

“They probably just forgot that they left it on.” Lilith said.

“I don’t think that’s the case. Let’s give it another few minutes.” I said.

For a couple of minutes there was nothing but silence. Then we heard the distant sounds of muffled voices from somewhere outside of the recording room. Then there were creaking sounds of a door opening and excited footsteps rushing in. The voices that were outside the room were suddenly loud and now in focus. It was hard to get an understanding of the conversation as multiple girls where talking at once. Then there was the massive slam of the door behind them.

“Alright, everyone shut up!” A very aggravated girl shouted.

Everyone did as she said. Just by the demeanor of this person’s attitude and the affect she had on the group it sounded like she was their leader.

“Is anyone following us?” Another girl asked.

“No.” The group’s leader said. “No one has any idea that we were even involved. Mrs. Duluth looked straight at me when she was being wheeled off by the paramedics. Even she didn’t know.”

“Haha!” One of the girls laughed, “Did you see her face? Her tongue was sticking out like a frog and she had drool all over her!”

“That’s what she gets for shutting us down.” Another girl said. “If she had just stayed in her lane and kept her nose out of our business then she wouldn’t be on her way to the morgue.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.” One of the girls said. “She was out of it but she wasn’t dead. What if she comes around? If they get her to talk about the things leading up to her hospitalization then they could realize that she drank the poison we gave her.”

“Relax. She won’t even survive the ambulance ride over to the hospital. The secret will die with her.” The leader girl said. “Even if she did she wouldn’t be in any state to start an investigation. She’s going to die no matter what. You can’t ingest that much poison and live. She’s done for.”

“Then we’re in the clear…?” One girl said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“It looks like it.” The leader girl said. “Vivian, did you get rid of that coffee cup we used like I asked you to?”

“I did.” Vivian said. “I burnt it back in the woods. The ashes are probably scattered to the wind by now.”

“Good. Then we just need to go on and act like nothing happened. If we’re lucky Ms. Hoffman will be able to get through to the principal soon and our official status as a school elective can be revived.”

“Unlike Mrs. Duluth!” One girl said and laughed.

All the girls laughed with her.

“Shut up.” The leader girl said. “Not another word of any of this, I’m serious. If they caught wind of what happened then we’d be looking at jail time, forget the club going down. We’re in the clear for now but don’t ruin it.”

“Has anyone seen Malorie? She’s the only one not with us right now.” One girl asked.

The identity of that speaker dawned on me the moment I heard it.

“That’s Ms. Logan!” I whispered to Lilith.

The recording continued.

“Don’t worry about her, Abby.” The leader said. “She cowered out of the plan like a little scaredy-cat. I don’t want to see her face right now.”

“She was supposed to be working on writing the play for us right now.” Ms. Logan said in Malorie’s defense. “If we’re going to get the principal to take the Art and Theater club seriously then the play has to knock his shoes off. Didn’t you say that yourself, Jackie?”

Lilith looked at me questioningly.

“Jackie…? Is she talking about Ms. Sampson? Is that their ringleader?”

“I think so.” I said.

The voices on the recording began whispering. It seemed like they all had own their ideas about the upcoming play.

“You’re right.” Ms. Sampson said. “I did say that, and I think Malorie’s story is too boring. I know a lot of people are interested in that school legend and all, but it’s outdated. We need a more modern story.”

“That’s what I was saying before.” Another girl on the recording said.

They all took to talking about their ideas for a school play. It got so energetic that they were all pitching ideas and talking at once. An argument broke out about rather if they should come up with a completely new story or try to salvage what Malorie has come up with so far. The discussion ended when the door to this room came open. Everyone in the recording went silent.

“Girls, what are you all doing in here?” A woman’s voice asked.

“We were talking about ideas for the school play.” Someone said.

“What’s wrong, Ms. Hoffman?” Another girl asked.

“Mrs. Duluth is being taken away by an ambulance right now. It looks like she may have had a heart attack.” Ms. Hoffman said. “I know you all may have had mixed feelings about her, but we’re gathering everyone in the gym right now to explain what happened. She’s in critical condition. I’d like for you all to come and show your support. Come on.”

What followed was a stampede of footsteps following Ms. Hoffman out of the room. Then the door softly clicked shut behind them. There was more silence and static on the recording for another full minute. Then there was the sound of a curtain being pulled once more. A single person walked up to the recording device to press something. That marked the end of the recording.

Lilith pressed the ejection button on the boom box and looked at me with a harrowing expression.

“Holy shit.” She said.

Neither one of us had words to describe the situation at the moment. Lilith’s exclamation was the only thing I had on mind to say as well. My brain was still trying to process all this new information. Lilith took the tape out of the boom box and gently set it down. We both looked at it like we were staring at a giant nugget of gold. We had just come across massive evidence of a serious crime.

“Did we…” Lilith started to say, “Did we just stumble across another murder.”

“More than that…” I realized something as Lilith spoke. “We came across the reason for Malorie’s murder! Those footsteps of someone hiding behind a curtain while the recording happened weren’t random! That was Malorie recording this evidence!”

“Holy shit!” Lilith said again. “Remember what she said on that other unlabeled tape? She said that Ms. Hoffman told her the club would be ending after Malorie said something to her! The first tape we heard was Vivian confronting Malorie after she told on them!”

“You’re right! Malorie completed her mission! She must’ve shown Ms. Hoffman the evidence. What the hell went wrong after that?”

Lilith rubbed her chin inquisitively.

“Ms. Hoffman changed schools before that school year even ended. Once the Art and Theater club was officially shut down she left. If Malorie showed her the evidence and she didn’t act on it, but the club members found out and punished Malorie…”

Lilith couldn’t bring herself to finish that sentence. We both understood what had happened though. Ms. Hoffman failed to bring any justice for Mrs. Duluth’s murder. Then she failed to bring any justice for Malorie’s murder. She knew exactly what happened to Malorie and why. Instead of acting on it she fled the situation by changing schools. She let the mystery go on for a decade because, why?

It pained Lilith to learn this. She must’ve had the same thoughts on her mind as I did because I watched as her facial expression changed dramatically. She went from being an excited self-made detective, to being a demoralized student. A tear rolled down her cheek and she shook her head in disappointment. I put one hand on her face to try to comfort her. She hardly responded. She was difficult to console when she was upset.

“I can’t believe it…” Lilith said. “I mean, I completely believe the story we’ve worked out, but I hate it. These people… How could someone be so heartless?”

I wrapped my arms around her and she let herself lean into me.

“I know what you mean.” I said. “Malorie tried to stand up for what was right and ended up dead because of it. The Art and Theater club must’ve dealt with her the same way they dealt with Mrs. Duluth.”

“It’s just like Val was saying.” Lilith said. “It was their clique culture that drove them to act like that.”

“Val may have had a point with the speech she gave us in the student council room, but I don’t know if her solution will solve anything.” I said.

“I didn’t believe in Val’s student council group before, but now I think our school needs it. Think about it, the very person that helped orchestrate the murder of the former vice principal is now serving as the new vice principal. Isn’t that messed up? I always thought Val was psychotic, but now I believe she’s psychotic with reason.”

“Is that a good thing or bad thing?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” Lilith admitted. “If Val is able to help change the school’s corrupt culture then I think it’s a good thing.”

Lilith pulled away from me. She picked up both of the unlabeled tapes and held them up to me.

“The first thing we should do is make digital versions of these. We could use our phones to record them as a regular MP3 file.” Lilith said. “This evidence proves that Mrs. Duluth was murdered and that Malorie was on to the murderers.”

“You’re right, they’re valuable. What should we do with them though? We could go to the police but it might not be enough. It’s also pretty far-fetched without the other evidence. If Malorie’s body was still in the basement then these recordings would be the coup-de-grâce for the former Art and Theater club members. Without that it would be a longshot.”

“We need something else.” Lilith said. “We need something that can accompany these cassette tapes. We can’t make Malorie’s same mistake by making ourselves known the wrong way.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that.” I said. “I would’ve thought that you’d be more interested in making the MP3 files public immediately.”

“I want to eventually, but not yet.” Lilith said. “I guess I’ve learned from you the past few weeks. When we play our cards we have to play them wisely.”

I smiled.

“I agree. Let’s go ahead and get to work turning them into digital files.” I said.

“Should we send them to Val, Sam, and Jay through ChatCat?” Lilith asked.

“No, I want to hear their responses to this in person at school on Monday.”

“Okay. Let’s get started.”

We didn’t waste any time getting to work. Now that we knew what needed to be done we got straight to it. This was how we would continue Malorie’s case. This was the path forward. We didn’t know where to go from here now that the body was missing-in-action, but we felt that this step was right. Malorie’s sacrifice couldn’t be in vain. By upgrading the recordings into a modern format we’d ensure their survival.

At school the following Monday Val, Sam, Jay, Lilith and I skipped first period to hold an emergency meeting. Naomi joined us in the student council room as well. Val was apprehensive at first but once we explained Naomi’s critical role in gathering this new evidence she decided to show tolerance. Naomi herself was happy to know that our late night weekend raid hadn’t been for nothing. We actually came away from that with something worth all that work.

We presented the two unlabeled tapes without comment. This time we played the two tapes in the proper order. It was fascinating to watch their facial expressions change as they came to the same realizations that Lilith and I did over the weekend. Lilith and I spent even more time over that previous weekend listening to the tapes again and again, trying to find every noteworthy detail we could. The only evidence was on the two unlabeled tapes.

“So what do you think?” I asked everyone once they had some time to think about the two tapes.

“I think…” Val said as she stood up. “I think that’s a lot to take in.”

Val began pacing the length of the windows in deep thought.

“This whole thing is mental.” Jay said. “I didn’t want to believe any of this Malorie stuff, but holy shit. I’ve come across some of Mrs. Duluth’s old stuff back in the main office. I asked who that was before and I was just told that she didn’t work here anymore. I never imagined all this.”

Val put a hand on Jay’s shoulder as she finished speaking.

“I’ve had a similar experience.” Val said. “I’ve seen her stuff in the main office while cleaning out one of the filing cabinets. Ms. Sampson had me throw all of it away saying that it was no longer useful.”

Naomi put her legs up on the couch on the side of the room and laid her head back.

“When Holly found all those tapes I just thought they’d be more Art and Theater club supplies. It’s amazing that Malorie caught all that on tape. She’s a hero.” Naomi said.

“No one even knows what she did.” Sam said. “She isn’t a hero. She’s a martyr. She died for her cause and no one knows other than those of us in this room.”

“No, there’s someone else.” Lilith said.

“Who…?” Val asked.

“Ms. Hoffman,” I said. “Ms. Hoffman was the teacher that managed the Art and Theater club. She changed schools shortly after Malorie’s death.”

“I did some research over the weekend.” Lilith said. “It turns out she retired from teaching altogether just a couple of years ago. Now she lives in a different town not too far from here.”

“We’ve got to talk to her somehow.” Sam said. “Only then will we know the full truth.”

Val shook her head and took her seat at the table.

“Not yet. The student council vote is finalized this Friday, but early voting will start tomorrow. Naomi, since you’re here I want to tell you that I’m still counting on your votes.” Val said.

“You’ve got them.” Naomi said.

“Good. First we’ll focus on winning the student council election.” Val said, and then looked at Sam. “Then we’ll get our answers.”