A R T H U R

Getting two separate cabs, the five boys got themselves to the closest police station in town. The atmosphere inside the building was even busier than outside, crowded and loud, everyone rushing around, telephones ringing constantly, hundreds of papers piled up on top of each other on the desks. As the officer led them up to the second floor, Arthur had to pull himself aside to avoid bumping into others or crashing into a desk.

"Wait here. Constable Williams will be with you momentarily," said the officer, gesturing at a few chairs which were set in front of a large desk.

Soon, a tall man in his 30s walked toward them with a cup of hot tea in his hand.

"All right, gentlemen," he began as he sat behind his desk, setting down his tea before pulling his chair forward, "I understand you want to report a crime? Have you filled the forms they gave you?"

"Yes, sir," Nicholas said. Even he seemed a little nervous to be here. Everything suddenly felt real. "We — we wanted to report a murder."

The constable looked up at him, his dark eyes darting from one of them to the other, his expression steady and forward. At last, he took his eyes off them and opened his desk drawer, taking out a blank piece of parchment. He grabbed his pen in hand and took a large sip of his tea, before saying, "Go on."

"It's about Nancy Green," Nicholas went on. "We think that she was murdered, and we have the evidence with us. It's not much, of course, and we know that there's a possibility that we might be completely wrong about this, but we wanted to look more into —"

"Cullen! Bring me Nancy Green's file!" The constable yelled out to one of the officers.

He then placed down his pen and laced his fingers together on the desk, looking back at Nicholas. "I was there on the night Nancy Green was found dead. We ran an investigation. We searched her dormitory, but there was no sign of violence, attack... nothing. No sign of murder was discovered. No one was found to have a past quarrel with Miss Green either. Her death was declared as suicide. So now, what makes you suspect that she was murdered?"

Nicholas looked over at Arthur. Understanding what he had to do, Arthur opened his briefcase with his gloves on. He took out the book Nancy had borrowed from Eve and placed it in front of the constable.

"Before her death, Nancy had this book in her possession, and she wrote many notes in it in Latin," Arthur began to explain while the constable wore a pair of plastic gloves and started flipping through the book.

After explaining the meanings behind the Latin notes, Arthur took out the red envelopes from his bag and handed them to the constable, telling him every detail they had found about Nancy's relationship with John Carter.

At last, Arthur showed him the pictures he had managed to capture of the music teacher in his long tuxedo, walking into the residency building around the same time that Nancy died.

They then explained everything that they had found out so far, though they all deliberately left out the part that Shawn had received a letter as well.

"Thank you, Cullen," said the constable when his colleague placed the file on the desk in front of him.

The boys waited as he examined the report on Nancy's death carefully and questioned them further on how they had gotten their hands on this evidence, before looking up at them again.

"Well, gentlemen, you should know that this evidence is certainly not enough to get a warrant and arrest Mr. Carter, and we cannot hold him in custody for long either. What we can do, is to open Nancy Green's case for more investigation. We will hold on to this evidence you have brought, and do more research. Now, do any of you have any more information of John Carter? For instance, where was he before teaching at Berrington?"

"He used to live in New York. He studied at Julliard School," said Luca, his voice weak in guilt. He felt as though he were betraying his mentor by being here, sitting on this chair and accusing him of murder.

"Does he have any past criminal record?"

Luca shook his head unsurely. "None that I know of."

"Very well." The constable sighed, finishing his notes on the parchment and placing down his pen. "Thank you for your report. In case of more investigation, you might be called to the police station, and you are expected to be here if asked. You may go now."

***

The next two weeks commenced as before; classes, studies, exams, the university newspaper, the Scriptores Club. It felt like a life before knowing Nancy. But no matter how hard they all tried to distract themselves from the truth, thy could never forget it. Even Luca had stopped going to the music room to practice, not wanting to run into his teacher there.

It was Friday night, and yet the five boys didn't go to town like the usually did. The sky was clear, but the weather was cold, and so they decided to spend their time in their residency building's common room for hours, catching up with their studies.

Nicholas was sharing his notes with Shawn who never bothered to write his own, and Isaac was preparing himself for an upcoming exam. Luca was studying their newest lesson, meanwhile Arthur was writing his essay which was due on Monday.

"Ugh, I've had enough of this." Shawn groaned, leaning his head back against the couch. "Let's rest for a bit. How about a game of pool?"

"Not me. I have to finish this," Arthur said without looking up from his book.

"But it's Friday!"

"You say that for every day of the week," said Nicholas, smiling at him playfully. "Just finish memorizing the notes for these last three chapters, and we'll have tomorrow all to ourselves."

"Well, don't forget that we have to write a new draft for the Scriptores paper tomorrow," Isaac reminded them.

But then, everybody in the common room fell quiet as they heard someone yelling outside. One by one, they all got to their feet and rushed toward the windows, watching the scene before them unravel.

Many police cars had pulled over outside, and two officers and put handcuffs on someone, dragging him with themselves into the black car as he tried to resist them.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! IT WASN'T ME! PLEASE! IT WASN'T ME!" the yells got louder and louder, and then, in a rush of horror, Arthur recognized the man.

John Carter.