Chapter 88 – The Raven and the Ritual – Holly Hayfield

Raven Keyes was a midlevel judicial assistant at the county courthouse. According to the court’s website it looked like she was only recently raised to this position, although she had some work in law beforehand. It was hard to believe that she garnered so much experience straight out of college. It was tempting to think that she may have had connections in the district leadership beforehand. This showed that she had at least that much drive and intelligence.

“What’s she doing working at a court?” Erica asked. “Going by her performance the other day she doesn’t really feel like the ‘courtly’ type.”

“Her performance was just that.” I said. “Remember, she has literal theatrical experience. I think judging her solely by her career would be the wrong way to go about this. We need to look at the bigger picture here.”

Lilith walked up behind where Zoe was sitting to get a better look. Zoe subtly shifted her chair away from Lilith as if she were carrying a contagious disease.

“I’m seeing a lot of similarities between her, Angelica Morelli, and Ms. Sampson.” Lilith said.

“What do you mean by that? They seem nothing alike to me.” Erica said.

“Not alike in terms of personality,” Lilith explained, “Alike in terms of roles. Ms. Sampson got into the school and became vice principal in short order. Angelica Morelli became the police officer that works with our school. Now we find another member of the Ritual of Knives working at the main local court.”

“They’re all in positions of power to cover up Malorie’s death.” I said. “Raven’s role here is to stay on top of any developments in Malorie’s case from the inside.”

“That’s god damned sinister.” Zoe said. “They sidelined whatever goals they had after graduating from school just to make sure they got away with murder.”

“It seems to be working out for them so far.” I noted. “The only problems they’ve experienced are recent. All the problems so far have essentially stemmed from the school in the form of Ms. Logan. It’s because of Ms. Logan and Vivian that the police were able to place a connection to Malorie.”

“That’s why they’re having Ms. Sampson take the fall?” Zoe asked. “They’re essentially saying that she was the one that failed her duty.”

Erica hummed.

“Maybe that’s what they told her at the meeting she went to over the weekend.” Erica said. “They probably gave her some sort of ultimatum to take one for the team. When Jackie refused…”

“Raven took things into her own hands.” I said. “I think things are beginning to make more sense.”

“I feel like we should just begin searching the names of everyone on the Ritual of Knives list.” Lilith said.

“That’s essentially how I got my lead the other day. I wanted to talk to you about doing just that.” Zoe said. “I know you have some good research skills so I thought you could help me narrow down some searches.”

“Then you should’ve told me that.” Lilith said angrily. “I would’ve helped you. Instead, you went off tangent into an argument from like a year ago!”

Zoe spun her seat around to face Lilith.

“You didn’t have to be rude and hang up in my face like that!” Zoe said, starting to raise her voice, “I was just saying that I thought it was funny how you always…”

“Stop this right now.” I said. “We’re not here for this. You’re both going off tangent right now. You two are never going to work things out if you keep bringing up past offenses. At some point you two are going to have to let go of the past and look towards the future.”

Lilith and Zoe both looked at me as I spoke. Then they gave each other a considering look. They both turned away, refusing to compromise. Why were things this bad between them? They were like a grumpy old couple that couldn’t just let things go. This was the first time that I had ever seen such unforgiving behavior in people our age.

“Wasn’t there something you wanted to show everyone, Lilith?” I asked, trying to move things along.

“Oh yeah,” Lilith said and took off the book bag she brought with her, “I brought the yearbook from back then and an accompanying photo album I found. The school had some promotional photography done around the second semester of that school year.”

Lilith pulled out both books and sat them on the far end of Zoe’s computer table. Zoe moved her chair in closer to get a better look, but kept a cautious distance from Lilith. Seeing this type of nervous behavior from her was painful to watch. We all gathered around as Lilith flipped through the pages of the yearbook. When she found Raven’s school photo she stopped turning pages.

“Here she is,” Lilith said, “This is what she looked like 10 years ago.”

“She wears glasses? Maybe she had on contacts when we saw her at the meeting. Also, it looks like she dyed her hair.” Erica said.

“She has very pronounced freckles as well.” I said. “She must’ve been using makeup to hide them. These changes could just be an attempt to appear slightly older and mature. Or…”

“Or she could be hiding her actual physical traits in case she had to go on the run!” Lilith said.

“It may be too early to jump to that conclusion, but yes, it’s possible.” I said.

Erica picked up the photo album from the table.

“Well now that we know what she looked like back then we at least have a place to start.” Erica said. “Search through the yearbook for more images of her. I’ll look through this.”

Zoe went back towards her computer monitor.

“Lily and Holly can take care of that. I’ll…”

Zoe caught herself and shook her head like she was trying to dismiss the idea. She turned to me and Lilith.

“I’ll see if I can find anything else about her on the web. You two search through the yearbook.”

“We’ll do that.” I said.

It seemed like Lilith was just going to overlook the fact that Zoe used her nickname. Lilith and I did as we were asked. There wasn’t much for me to do but watch as Lilith took over the search for herself. Erica was completely absorbed looking through the photo album. I decided to go watch Zoe as she explored more web searches related to the name ‘Raven Keyes’. There were so many people with the same or similar names that it was hard to narrow down through web searches alone.

“It seems her presence on the internet is limited to the court site and an old public résumé.” Zoe said. “The only thing interesting on it is the fact that she went to college out of state before coming back. She could’ve just stayed out of state and literally distanced herself from the area of Malorie’s death.”

“That would’ve been risky.” I said. “She came back to make sure it stayed buried. If they all simply tried to ignore it and run then the chances are that Malorie’s body would’ve been discovered are quite high. It’s their handling of the situation that has kept things quiet for so long.”

“Speaking of which, we still don’t know where Malorie’s body is.” Lilith noted. “We know that it was in the basement before which was why Ms. Sampson had it sealed off. Now we have no idea what she did with it.”

I shrugged.

“It’s possible that they buried it somewhere. That was what they should’ve done long ago. They were probably too apprehensive about moving it from where it was. It was only the fact that we stumbled upon a way into the basement that made them move it.” I said.

"About that," Zoe said, "I wish you would've said something about it to me sooner. Erica and I had to figure things out by ourselves."

Lilith huffed a little upon hearing this.

"You aren't our friend. Why would we-..."

"What Lilith means," I said to cut her off, "The vice principal made us swear up and down that we wouldn't tell anyone about what we saw. She kept an eye on us shortly after this all happened. For obvious reasons we had to limit the number of people in the loop."

Zoe leaned back in her chair and brushed the tips of her hair with her hands.

"You know, I'm surprised that you were just willing to accept the fact that there was a corpse in the school basement and go on with your life." Zoe said. "I mean, I can see Lilith doing that, but you...?"

Lilith gave Zoe an annoyed glare.

"We didn't know for a fact that it was a corpse we saw in the basement."

"I knew." Lilith said coyly.

"It was only once we had more information that we came to a solid conclusion about what happened. It was Lilith and Val that managed to convince me that the entire thing was worth pursuing. I know you two don't get along, but Lilith was crucial in all this." I said.

"Exactly," Lilith said proudly.

"Hmph," Zoe said and turned back to her computer monitor.

"Everyone, I think I've found something!" Erica said suddenly, "Actually, I've found a few things! Holy hell, this girl was popular!"

Erica put the photo album onto the table and showed us what she was looking at. There were multiple photos between several pages that all involved Raven Keyes in one way or another. Like Erica suggested, she was popular. I knew thanks to Malorie's diary that clique culture in our school was a thing even back then. That's why it was impressive to see Raven mingling with so many different groups in the photo album. It wasn't like she was just off to the side posing for the camera either. Almost every single photo had her as the center of attention, in friendly contact with multiple girls in each photo, laughing or smiling at the camera.

"It looks like she was loved." I said.

"That isn't all," Erica said, "Look at the photo on this page over here."

Erica turned a few pages and pointed out a new image. This photograph was dark and eerie, taken deep within the woods. The foggy silhouette of the school could be seen in the distance so I could tell the people in the image were students. The image had several gothic looking girls in black dresses posing around what seemed to be some sort of cross. Given their laughing expressions this seemed to be some playful teenage photograph and not a serious attempt at a paranormal ritual. It was the implication that Raven Keyes had experience with this type of group that was interesting. Not only was she in a group like this, she was front and center.

"Oh my god…" Lilith said emphatically. "Look at who else is in this image."

Lilith pointed out a girl on the far side of the image. The girl on the far side of the image was wearing slightly different clothing from the others. She was wearing a hooded black robe, holding a bouquet of flowers of some sort. It was difficult to tell who she was because of the way that the hood shaded her face. Then I realized what Lilith was noticing. It was Malorie. Malorie was in this same occult group as Raven.

"What?" Erica asked obliviously, "Who is that? What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"That's Malorie Noelle," I said, "That's the girl that the art an theater club murdered."

"This is huge!" Lilith said. "I'm seriously glad you talked me into coming here, Holly!"

I took out my phone to take a picture.

"Val's going to want to see this..." I said. "Do you recognize anyone else in this image, Lilith?"

"I don't... but this is an interesting photo. It's like a little proto-occult club."

"I wonder what they called themselves." Zoe said. "I don't think the occult club was actually a thing back then."

Erica took the photo from out of the picture holder. She flipped the image around and looked on the back.

"The S..." Erica started to read.

She stopped before she even got a second word out and dropped the image, letting it flutter back to the table. She gave all of us a blank look like she was completely dumbfounded. I picked the image up and flipped it around to read for myself.

"The Society of Sisters," I read out loud.

"You've got to be kidding." Zoe said. "She wasn't wise enough to use a different name for this new group? She has to understand that Ms. Sampson will trace this new group's origins straight back to her the moment she learns its name."

"Unless..." Lilith said, "Unless that's exactly what she wanted. She wants Ms. Sampson to know that she has her claws in this situation. What could Ms. Sampson even do about it? It's not like she could try turning her in to the police. They are accomplices in the same crime."

"Only, Ms. Sampson is in a more vulnerable position given preexisting police suspicion of her." Zoe said. "This whole thing seems like a massive gamble. Raven Keyes is gambling that she can put out enough influence and information to have Ms. Sampson arrested, but not herself."

"Maybe it doesn't even have to go that far," Lilith said. "Maybe it just has to get to the point where Ms. Sampson willingly turns herself in after dealing with the pressure."

"That could be their play." Zoe said. "It would essentially have the same outcome as her being arrested. That's genius."

I clapped slowly.

"See," I said to Zoe and Lilith, "I knew you two could work together without tearing each other apart."

The two of them shared another quick glance between each other but didn’t acknowledge my support any further.

"I feel like this is a bad thing." Erica said. "I know I'm bias here, but I don't think things should happen like this. I know she may seriously be a killer but you have to understand. Jackie has helped me ever since I got kicked out. I don't want her to be their sacrificial lamb. It isn't right."

Lilith sighed.

"She's guilty of the crime of murdering an innocent girl and hiding her death for years. Malorie's own brother still thinks she ran away or something."

"No," I said, "Erica is right. This isn't a good thing. It's like you said before. Everyone on that Ritual of Knives list is guilty. Think about it, if Raven's plan works out and Malorie's case is legally wrapped up..."

"Then the others walk away scott free." Zoe said. "That is a pretty massive fact to overlook."

"True..." Lilith said. "But how do we remedy this? How do we even get legal justice now that Ms. Hoffman is dead? Is it even still possible?"

"I don't know." I said. "I just think it would be inappropriate for Ms. Sampson to take the fall now. She seemed to be the ringleader of the art and theater club but she by no means acted alone. I don’t think Val, Sam, and Jay would be satisfied with just focusing on Ms. Sampson either."

“Maybe we should just tell Jackie about Raven Keyes.” Erica said bluntly. “Tell her that this Society of Sisters has been renewed again by someone working for her. I could tell her today after school.”

I hummed in thought.

“No, I’ll be the one to tell her.” I said. “I’ve got to make sure she understands that Sofi is being manipulated into this. I don’t want her to take all this out on Sofi. I don’t know what Alyssa would do.”