“Any questions?”

Stella said as she looks from the tablet she is holding.

“I’ll go to the victim, Michael, to ask some questions and figure out where the backpack is. Am I correct?”

Affirming the task given to me will help to make sure I have it correctly and to communicate that I have understood it.

“Simple enough, right? We do have some teachers working on this alongside us, but it’s not like we can search every nook and cranny of the school. The GPS didn’t work, so they handed this problem to us.”

She sighs.

That’s true. Our school has four stories, and enough rooms to accommodate 2,000 students. Searching through the entire school would require a significant amount of people.

“I sent a message telling him to meet you at the room where it happened, but looks like he never even left.”

So, after he found out his backpack is not in the room, he sent the help request to the student forum and waited for other people to find it for him.

“I’ll get to it then.”

I get up to leave.

“Have fun.”, she says as she looks back to her tablet.

---

I enter the classroom where the victim was waiting.

The victim is a boy, with styled hair and stylish clothes. I only say stylish because he seems to be following the recent trends shown in fashion magazines. He seems to be chatting with two girls while leaning on a desk.

The two girls were also sporting stylish clothes and you can tell they spent too much time in front of the mirror this morning.

I approach them with a smile on my face, “Hello. I’m Kastille. I was sent from the student council regarding the missing backpack. Is Michael here?”

The three stopped their little conversation and turned to face me.

For some reason, the boy’s face pisses me off. He opens his mouth,

“No way. The Kastille!? You’re gonna look for my bag too?”

“Yes, I will. I’d like to ask a few questions also.”

Such as ‘why were you here talking with girls and not looking for your missing backpack?’.

“Oh. Sure, man. Shoot.”

He crosses his arms in front of chest. A gesture meant to exert dominance and to act as a barrier. Of course, it could also be a defensive gesture that shows the insecurity and uneasiness of the person.

“Where and when did you last see the backpack?”

“It was right here under my desk. I went to the bathroom after the bell rang. When I came back, it was gone.”

He didn’t take it with him, so it wouldn’t mean he misplaced it. It’s highly probably that it was stolen. Why is it his backpack specifically that was stolen, though? Why weren’t the girls’ backpacks stolen?

“Were you carrying any valuables in it?”

“No. The only things I put in it is the tablet and flash drive.”

So, he only brings the school-issued supplies. Well, most people only bring those and their phone to school. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“How about your phone?”

“I got it here with me. Who puts their phone in their bags anyway?”

Most, if not all, people do have their phones in their pockets. The phones are used for everything you need. It is used for purchasing and identification purposes. It is an indispensable tool.

School-issued tablets and flash-drives aren’t worth a lot of money. They also don’t allow you to put your digital wallet on it for security purposes. You can only use them for school-related work and as an ID.

“Man, I thought those things have a GPS tracking thing on them. I tried looking for it in my phone, but it didn’t pop up anywhere.”

“The teachers have already tried using the GPS locator. The tablet has either run out of battery or somebody purposefully turned it off.”

“I thought you can’t turn that off?”

The school locks the GPS locator to the ‘on’ position. They say it’s to prevent it from being lost or stolen. But, most people know it’s so that the school can track our location. Good thing the government set laws against the use of the cameras and microphones.

“You’re right. That means someone has to bypass the security software on the tablet.”

Someone with considerable skills with a computer. A person like that would be very useful to me.

“Can you think of any reason why someone would want to take your backpack specifically?”

“Uhhh. No, not really. I’m a popular guy. I can’t even believe someone would do something to me.”

One of the girls chimes in, “Yeah! Everybody likes Michael. Why would anyone do something so horrible to him!”

The other girl agrees vigorously.

“Aw, you girls are just the sweetest! How about we go to a café after this is all over?”

“Really? You’re the best, Michael!”

Looks like there’s not much else I can get from him…

---

I asked the two girls some questions. Looks like they went to the bathroom at the same time as Michael did. Like sheep following the shepherd. I didn’t get any new information from them other than some tips on how to do my hair.

Since it’s the last class of the day, there’d be a lot of people moving around the school after the bell rings. There were also a few students that stayed in the classroom either to chat or to finish up some classwork. They said they were chatting with two other friends for a few minutes. The trio then went to the bathroom after their two friends had left to go home.

There are no backpacks in the room now other than the girls’ and there are no other reports of missing backpacks. Michael only went to the bathroom for a few seconds. To check on his hair and clothes, I suppose.

The bathroom is right across from the classroom, too. The culprit would have had very little time to take the backpack.

Thus, it is likely that the culprit is a student from the same class as Michael. After Michael left, the culprit possibly saw their moment and took the backpack.

I look outside the classroom and out in the hallway. The class is in the corner of the hallway. It is the farthest room from the main hallway that would lead to the main entrances of the school. The foot traffic in this area would mostly be limited to the students that are leaving or entering this classroom.

Hmm? Is that the janitor in the hallway?

I approach the janitor.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“Oh? Sure, I don’ mind. Whaddaya need, young man?”

“Did you see anyone that could be running or rushing?”

“Huhu. At the end o’ the day, everybody’s rushin’ to get home.”

“Even after the usual bulk of the students? When the hallways are mostly empty now?”

“Sorry, young man. But, if I did see someone runnin’, I’d yell at ‘em to not run in the halls!.”

There must be something else that would make the culprit appear out of the ordinary. If the culprit is a student from the same classroom, then…

“How about someone carrying two backpacks on them?”

If there are no other backpacks in the room and the culprit is a student from the same class, then he’d have to have taken his backpack with him as well.

“Oh! There was someone like that! A young man with two backpacks.”

“Which direction did he go?”

“Towards the main entrance. But, that was almost an hour ago.”

Well, there’s no helping that. Quite some time has already passed since Michael posted the help request. Half an hour had already passed when the teachers gave up and decided to dump this problem on the student council.

“Could you tell me what he looks like?”

“Mmm... If I ‘member right, he has a brownish hair. Sorta long. Covering over his eyes, they were. He also wore glasses. Mmm... Sorry, s’all I can do, young man.”

I thank the janitor.

This is good. I know what the culprit looks like now. The janitor has helped me immensely.

The culprit went towards the front entrance. So, the front entrance I go.