(Completely forgot about this lmao)
Ayra sat down, a bit awkwardly at first, it was probably the first time she'd been to his house and ut was a little…strange. "That might be for the best. I think ita better if we keep our discussions and plans secret, at least for now. That way if we do know the actual killer, they can't know what we planned." She responded
(lmao)
He raised an eyebrow. "Unless the killer is me, don't forget about that." he thought for a moment. "Oh, uh, do you want water? Tea? Soda?" he was going to try to be a good host, even though he didn't often have people over.
"If you were the killer, I'd be gone by now. Besides, you don't seem like the killer type." She laughed. "Usually I just ask for water but im going to be adventurous and ask for tea."
"Oh, what kind of tea? We have some, uh, sun tea, hot tea, iced tea?" he headed over to the kitchen, waiting for an answer as he got himself a Dr Pepper, pouring it into a glass with ice.
"Hmmm." Said Ayra, someone who simply drank steeped tea at home and may have made a mistake asking for something she had no previous knowledge of. "Surprise me?" She said uncertainly, floding her legs onto the sofa and getting comfortable
He nodded, and made her some sun tea. Sun tea was basically just tea that had been brewed in a pitcher in the sun, and he poured it over ice, along with some mint, then brought it over to her. "Here. I uh, made it the way my mom does." He sat down, putting his own drink on the small side table.
"Thanks!" She smiled and took a hesitant sip. "That's refreshing." Ayra shifted her weight and got more comfortable, took a few more sips, then looked at him. "How are we going to do this? We can't exactly tell anyone what we're doing but people will get suspicious if they see us hanging together a lot. We also need a plan or a list to follow so we don't lose track of what he did and what we need to do, and lastly, we need a place to store evidence. Some place the cops can't get to if they get a warrant to search either of our houses."
Steve was quiet for a long moment, considering everything she had said. "Well, we should probably try and get a look at the crime scene, see if there's anything. Uhm, you're family of the victim, so you might be able to get ahold of police records. You might need parental permission, as a minor, but you should be able to." He ran his hands through his hair, thinking. "If you do that, I understand if you don't share the files. But the crime scene is probably the best place to start. And finding out who was at the party, and who left when. If anyone left with her or around the same time as her. I know a little bit about who was there, but like I said last time we talked, I left pretty early." He frowned a little. "I'm not sure where to store things, though. Sorry."
"I know my parents won't want me to do anything that would upset them. They lost a child and don't want to lose another one so I believe if I pretend that I want to know the details of her case for a class presentation, they may be willing to let me see the files."
He nodded a little. "Right. Makes sense. Although I'm not sure a class presentation is…realistic." he said slowly. "It's…the details of the case are classified. Like how exactly she was killed. Nobody knows but the police and the killer, and neither one of them is telling."
"Well, I could always get my…tech inclined…friend to…take the information from their computer." She said, biting her lip sheepishly. Though Ayra was the 'calmer' of the two, she definitely wasn't the naive, innocent girl everyone thought she was. She chose her friends based on skills, she was skilled in chemistry and liked puzzles. Her friends were people who liked things like computer science, physics, math/probability, and mechanics, people she would love to have by her side if she ever got into any kind of trouble.
He shook his head quickly. "Oh, fuck no Ayra." she replied. "Bad idea. You and your friend could and would get arrested for hacking and…shit, I don't know what exactly but it wouldn't be good." he looked at her. "Really. Try and get the files legally, okay? Illegally…you could go to jail for a long fucking time, Ayra." he took a sip of his drink, studying her carefully. "You'd probably get tried as an adult for that shit. Seriously. It's like…" he squinted. "A felony or something? I don't know. I've only ever been tried as a minor, but if I reoffend I'll get tried as an adult. If I committed a felony, I'd get tried as an adult. You would too."
"I mean he's done it before but whatever, I won't ask him for help." She finished her tea and set the cup on the table. Ayra reached in her bag and grabbed a green pen and a thick notepad. She flipped open the cover and put a few bullet points down and looked back at Steven. "What's first on the list?"
"Examine the crime scene." he replied with a faint laugh. "But, yeah, I don't know other than that. Talk to people from the party?" he sighed, rubbing his face with a hand for a moment. "I mean, we need a good sequence of events. Who left when, stuff like that."
"We can't ask too many questions because then people will get suspicious and won't respond truthfully. Should we head to the crime scene right now?"
He blinked, taking another sip of his drink. "Uh, in a minute? Gotta finish the drinks first, because we can't take the glasses out of the house."
"Sorry…can you tell im a little excited?" She awkwardly laughed and turned her face away from him. It was silent and Ayra didnt know how to break the silence, it wasnt like the two of them were close. Not wanting to be rude, Ayra looked around the room and hummed to herself.
He laughed, taking a sip. "You're fine. Uh, while we have time, we really should…plan." he considered. "We should probably consider the fact that it could be random, y'know? She might not have known the killer. Could have been a crime of opportunity. Some creep saw a girl walking alone and…" He trailed off, shrugging his shoulders.
"They found her body in the forest though, even drunk Lauren stays away from the forest." Ayra sighed. It was the one thing that was bugging her about the whole thing. Who could have lured her to the forest and killed her?
"Not too far in. And, just because her body was found there doesn't mean she was killed there." he pointed out. He ran his hand through his dark hair, frowning a little bit.
"Thats true too. We still need to walk the path to the forest from the house the party was in. It might give us an idea of how long it might have taken her to get tk the forest if she was killed there. If not, we need to create a radius with the party in the centre and a time limit, it would have taken maybe 3 hours after she left the party for her to die if she went with someone she trusted, quicker if it was someone she didn't know."
"Depends on what time the coroner has decided on death, and what time she left the party. If she left at midnight and died at one, then that's different than if she left at nine but still died at one." He replied. "I dunno. It's just…" He shook his head.
(bump?)
(I'm very sorry but I don't think I'm in the right mindset to do this, combined with my lack of time organization and busy schedule, im not having the very best time right now 😭 im really sorry Ice!)
(it's fine, I get it! Good luck!)
