Chapter 47

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Chapter Forty-seven

Confession and Confusion

Three weeks later, everything in Mapleton went back to normal. Well, almost normal.

Louis Lockwood, Richard Grayson, Ismail Ambani, and Travis Becker, people look at them like they were the reason why the murders had occurred. All the judgmental looks made them popular in a bad way. The scrutiny of the people was hard to endure. At school, whenever they walk down the hallway, their schoolmates would gaze at them and would whisper and murmur.

Right after the events of the Friday night massacre, the boys along with Brittany Schoenfield were brought to the police station to be questioned one-at-a-time. The boys told the authorities that what they did at the O'Brien cabin and the lake house was purely self-defense and that they were all victims of circumstance. The boys never told the police O'Brien's deep motives which made the authorities infer that he along with Sylvester were just merely psychopaths killing for attention.

That Monday, classes were ordered for suspension for thorough investigation in the school. Mapleton Police Department investigated the school for evidences because weapons and clues relating to the killers might be hidden in the lockers of both men. They reexamined both the cabin and the lake house. Also, the police department summoned some students and teachers, who were closely related to the killers, in the station for questioning.

For weeks, Mapleton was always the top story in some news channels. And the four boys had been featured to be asked about their survival.

Although the killers were dead, investigation for their motives was still a must to be solved and who were still involved.

Feeling guilty inside, Travis Becker planned to talk to his soon-to-be-step-dad, Officer Adam Shay, that Saturday morning. He was suffering with posttraumatic stress disorder and was still mourning for the death of his secret boyfriend-slash-English teacher, Brent Jones. But that wasn't his plan in talking with him, it was something else.

Travis never really talked with Officer Shay alone, so he took the courage to walk through but he felt cold feet. He saw him in the master's bedroom with Marnie Becker who were both getting ready for work.

Travis's room was just next door to his mom's, so he inched closer to the door wall and waited for his mom to come out. He could barely hear them since the door was nearly closed. He tried harder in listening. He heard Officer Shay mentioning his deceased friend's name.

"...did not killed EdwardLawson," Officer Shay said.

"None of them?" Marnie clarified. "Then who did?"

Travis continued eavesdropping and tried to inch more closely. He wanted to rip his ears off and place them near the door so that he could hear clearly.

Out from nowhere, his brother, Leonard Becker, poked him. Travis almost screamed as it scared the life out of him. Luckily, he quickly covered his mouth and did not make any loud sounds.

"What the hell, Leo?" Travis whispered. Then, he pulled him into his room.

"Chill, dude!" Leonard quizzically glared at him.

Travis shut his door.

"What exactly are you doing?" Leonard suspected. "Eavesdropping on mom and her boyfriend?"

"No," Travis cried. "I just heard something."

"Still eavesdropping," Leonard insisted.

"No!" Travis defensively said.

"Whatever, bro." Leonard rolled his eyes and stormed out the room. "Later, dude!"

Travis gave his brother a piercing glare. Then, he resumed. He decided to get close to his mom's bedroom, but when he was about to come out his room, he saw his mom coming out from their room as well. Luckily, Marnie did not see him. She quickly raced her way downstairs.

From the door, he watched his mom heading downstairs and when everything was clear, he breathed in and tiptoed his way to his mom's room.

Officer Shay was still inside grooming himself: wearing his uniform, applying gel in his golden hair, pulling his extended hair nose, and checking how white his teeth were.

Travis knocked in.

Officer Shay's attention was caught. "Oh, Travis. Come in!"

Travis entered shyly. He pressed his lip. He stood up there awkwardly.

"Is there anything that I can do for you?" Officer Shay asked while buttoning his police uniform.

"I just wanted to say thank you," Travis sincerely said.

Officer Shay was looking at him through the mirror.

Travis felt guilty with his attitude towards Officer Shay. "Thank you for being there for my friends and for... me."

"Oh, it's nothing. You've already said your 'thank you' after that." Officer Shay humbly responded. "And that is my job as a Police Officer. And as a Father." He smiled and got misty-eyed.

Travis not looking at him in the eye went to Officer Shay and hugged him. He felt a bit awkward but he hugged him tight. He could smell his scent: a strong Calvin Klein perfume. Then, he thought of 'maybe it's time to really accept him'.

Officer Shay hugged him back. He could feel the sincerity of Travis.

"There's something I need to say," Travis pulled back. He breathed in and breathed out as he headed back to the bed. Was he ready to confess something?

Officer Shay sat beside him. "What is it, son?"

Travis flinched when he heard him say "son." "We, uh..." Travis looked at Adam in his eyes "My friends... my friends and I," he swallowed a huge gob of saliva and exhaled. "...lied to you."

Officer Shay's face turned clueless but he still maintained a straight face. "That's vague. Lied about what?"

Then, Marnie yelled from downstairs, "breakfast is ready!"

"I'll be there in a moment, sweetheart!" Adam yelled back. He turned back to Travis. "What did you lie about?"

Travis was freaking out to spill the beans but he needed to. Well, he was sort of confident enough because the two E's were buried six feet under and were surely out of their lives. No more threats. However, his conscience was still bothering him.

"Travis," Officer Shay said softly. "What is it?"

"That July night when Edward went missing," Travis narrated, "we were with him. He did not go home early."

Officer Shay was just listening. Straight face maintained. That is what Travis was afraid of: no facial expression.

"I'm sorry that we lied because we don't want to get blamed."

"What happened that night?" Officer Shay asked.

"Ismail and I were... drunk," Travis recalled, "I think we passed out. Last thing I know was Edward was distracting Richard while he was driving. Then... they saw a man on the road standing just like the killer. We almost hit the man, but Richard was fast. We did manage to not hit him but we did find ourselves hitting a huge rock. Then, when we woke up, Edward was already gone."

Officer Shay nodded and did not utter a word for a moment. He seemed to be analyzing. "Well, were you friends with Jude and Furon?"

"Hell no!" Travis quickly responded. "Ever since, I find them very devious and treacherous. I ain't though that they are capable of such things."

"Well, neither Jude O'Brien nor Furon Sylvester killed your friend."

"I'm sorry, what?" Travis cleared.

"Well, all the murders matched to them: their fingerprints, weapons and etcetera, as explained by the forensics," Officer Shay explained, "but for your friend, Edward Lawson, none of them matches."

Travis went speechless and started to go back to what happened to them after hearing that big news. "That's... impossible," Travis snapped looking really confused.

Officer Shay quizzically looked at him. "How would you know? Those are autopsy reports. Evidence doesn't lie."

Travis was so impressed on how the forensics do their works but he was so confused. But it made a point. Killers could be so clever and manipulating weapons or plotting their murders. He realized that Officer Shay might be right because Jude and Furon were still at their party that night, so it is impossible for them to pop out of nowhere and be ahead of them since there was no shortcut in the road that they had taken. And he and his friends were pretty much driving alone that night. Not a single vehicle showed up. Although he was intoxicated, he was still aware that they were alone in that road. Louis also mentioned that to them too.

"So you're saying that another person had killed Edward?" Travis clarified.

Officer Shay nodded. "Possibly."

"Then why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because it was not yet definite, son," Officer Shay explained. "The killings were in succession, so we presumed that they had the same killer."

"But there's another killer on the loose, right?" Travis clarified.

"I didn't say that a killer is on the loose," Officer Shay replied. "Edward Lawson's death might be an isolated case."

"How could it be isolated?" Travis rhetorically asked. "When Edward got killed, people started to get killed too, so I don't think it's isolated."

Officer Shay leaned back on the table and crossed his arms.

"Jude and Furon killed him!" Travis insisted. He almost turned red and ready to panic.

"What do you know that you still haven't told us?" Officer Shay asked.

Travis froze. He wasn't if it was safe to drop the E bomb, but he just shook his head no.

Unbeknownst to Travis and his friends, they were unconscious when Edward went missing-in-action. And he wasn't killed until September. Who could have killed Edward if it weren't between Jude and Furon? And, why was it that Jude and Furon had not said anything about this. Logically, killers would not reveal anything about who-killed-who unless they are dumb enough to reveal it.

"Son, I know it's hard for you, to hear all of these now. You are all screaming for justice and that's what we will give you. But my theory at the moment is that it could be none of them," Officer Shay said, "Or still could be them."

Travis was getting used to Officer Shay calling him "son". Yet it was awkward, he just thought of it as an elderly expression. But listening to him, the information were hard to process. He does not know what to say, so he just looked at Officer Shay as if he was a college professor lecturing.

"Killers are geniuses," Officer Shay added, "They pretty much had gotten away with all those murders before, so they sure had an elaborate and intricate plan. But why go after you four?"

Travis quickly looked away from Officer Shay. Will they get busted with all the craziness that they did?

Officer Shay seemed to understand Travis' body language. He then glanced on his wristwatch. "I better be going. If there's anything that you need to tell, don't hesitate. And I will also not hesitate to keep you in touch, Travis."

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