Chapter 137 – Beneath the Ash – Holly Hayfield

I received a frantic emergency call from Valentina moments after first period began. The discipline hall was on fire. She hung up without providing any additional details or commentary. Her tone was one of suppressed panic. I assumed she meant to call me over, but didn’t have time to spare.

I saw the plumes of black smoke billowing up before I even rounded the corner to the discipline hall. The situation was worse than I anticipated. A dozen or so members of the SCA were shuffling around with buckets of water, heavy blankets, and fire extinguishers, acting like an impromptu fire brigade.

Just by examining the situation I could see why Valentina didn’t have any time to explain things to me in detail. She was at the center of this response to the fire. She was shouting out orders and reprimanding girls that were being too careless around the burning area. The situation was coming under control with her at the helm.

It took a few stressful minutes, but all of the fires were put out. The next part of this was a full damage assessment and a search for the cause of the fire. That’s when Ms. Sampson and Angel joined us in the discipline hall. They were surprised by the fire, but glad that the SCA was on hand to take care of it.

The entire situation was handled before the two of them arrived. A few members of the janitorial staff arrived soon after them to try doing what they could to clear up the damaged hallway. Some of the SCA assisted them in dragging burnt ceiling panels and wooden boards out to the back of the school.

“Unbelievable…” Ms. Sampson said irritably. “There had to be a fire now of all times? This happens at the same time I was on the phone with the district superintendent. I’m going to get an earful about this later…”

“At least no one was hurt.” I said as I walked up beside her. “From what I can tell no one was around when the fire started. It may have had something to do with these candles here.”

I gestured to some of the candle holders that looked like they were knocked down on the floor. We were inside one of the classrooms that had obviously been converted since the last time I was here. The room was now designed like a lounging area instead of an actual classroom. However the place was wrecked, and not just because of the fire.

“Someone intentionally threw this candle holder into the furniture here.” Valentina said, pointing out the scorched couch. “This had to be deliberate.”

“But why…?” Riley asked from Val’s side. “What was even going on in here?”

Angel walked around Valentina and the members of the SCA to check out the grandfather clock that was lying on the ground. Its clock face was busted open and its mechanical parts were sprawled out in front of it.

“It’s not just the candle holders that were thrown around.” Angel said. “It looks like there was a skirmish or attack here. It’s hard to say without more information. I don’t remember any of this stuff being here the last time I came to check out the place.”

“That’s because it wasn’t.” Ms. Sampson said with a sigh. “It must’ve come from downstairs, which means…”

“Someone went into the basement again.” Angel said with a shake of her head. “I’ll have to change the locks on that cellar door. Whoever moved this furniture here must’ve been able to pick it, along with the locks on the discipline hall itself.”

Valentina gave me a grave look.

“That gives me an idea about who might’ve had a hand in this.” She said.

“Who…?” Ms. Sampson and Angel asked at the same time.

Val shrugged indecisively.

“It isn’t conclusive evidence, but I know that Perri is good at picking locks. Just recently she picked the lock on one of the cafeteria doors to steal tons of pudding from the fridge. One of the lunch ladies asked me to bring it up to you but I dismissed it as unimportant at the time.”

Riley pointed a finger at Val in agreement.

“Also there was that whole thing with them trying to take over the jazz club’s music room!” Riley said. “They might’ve come here after we kicked them out.”

Ms. Sampson’s eyes widened as she recalled the conflict.

“Now I remember! The jazz club came to me about that too and I sent them to you two.” She said. “If Perri did this…”

“She may not have caused the fire, but she probably used this as a hang out.” I said. “Look here.”

I pointed to a burnt piece of fabric left barely hanging from the wall after all the fire damage to it.

“This looks like the graffiti that they normally paint. They were using it as decoration here.”

“Then I’ll summon her to my office.” Ms. Sampson growled in a low voice. “I’ll suspend her and have a chat with-…”

“No,” I said as I turned to face her. “We need a more comprehensive investigation into this, not a quick solution. I want to get down to the bottom of how this fire was caused and why.”

“What did you have in mind?” Ms. Sampson asked.

“You can still call Perri into your office, but not her alone. I’d like to summon a number of girls that were potentially involved in this. We’ll take a few accounts and decide how to handle things after we’ve heard their testimonies.”

“Fine,” Ms. Sampson said. “But you’re doing the work. I’ll dish out the punishments for the people involved.”

“That’s fair enough.” I said. “I want to see about getting her group under control. They’ve been acting out more aggressively recently.”

“Do you mind if I join you, Holly?” Angel asked. “I’ve never seen your counseling skills in action here. I’d like to see things for myself.”

“Sure.” I shrugged. “The fact that a police officer is sitting in on an arson investigation won’t be lost on them. With you in the room they’ll probably take the meeting more seriously.”

“Then let’s get this over with as soon as possible. I have other work to attend to.” Ms. Sampson said and turned to face the members of the SCA. “Girls, thank you for your service. I’ll have to find some way to reward you later. For now you’re free to go to your first period class.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ms. Sampson, Angel, Valentina, and I lingered behind as the SCA shuffled out. Valentina wanted to get a few images for a record book that the SCA was keeping. Angel decided to do the same thing for her own purposes. The fire damage was mostly only surface level, although the ceiling came out much worse for it.

The ceiling was already weak before. Now it was completely collapsing in some areas due to the fire damage. A few ceiling panels hung loosely and charred insulation was spread across the floor of the hallway. There were a few torn wires here and there that were also dangling from the ceiling.

We had to be careful about where we stepped. Ms. Sampson gave a casual tap against one of the dangling ceiling panels and a whole section soon came falling down. After that we decided to vacate the discipline hall entirely. Valentina returned to class. The rest of us went to the front office where the investigation into how this happened would be held.

The principal was given a brief explanation of what happened and agreed with my plan of launching an investigation. He offered to sit in on the meetings himself, but Ms. Sampson vetoed that idea. The principal was notoriously known for being soft and forgiving. According to Ms. Sampson that was the opposite of what we needed right now.

Things began by rearranging things in Ms. Sampson's office. The three of us were all sitting on her side of her office desk with me at the center. I'd be the one asking the questions, for the most part. I doubted Ms. Sampson's resolve to let me do all the talking would last long.

At Ms. Sampson's request we'd be interviewing people in a slightly different order than originally planned. She wanted to talk to Naomi and Brittney first since her new theory involved them. She believed that since Perri was involved with Naomi then this was obviously an act of sabotage by Brittney.

Her logic wasn't bad, but she was unaware of Naomi's recent change. Instead of trying to argue against her, I decided to go through with it and let Ms. Sampson see for herself. She wasn't impressed. She took Naomi's makeover largely in stride, believing that this was just another act.

It was only after talking to Naomi for a while that she started to change her mind.

"So let me get this straight," Ms. Sampson said after hearing out Naomi's story. "You're saying that you know for a fact that members of your gang were using the discipline hall as a hang out spot but somehow you had nothing to do with that?"

"Yes." Naomi said.

"You expect me to believe that, Naomi, after all the times I've called you hear to this office?"

Naomi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She was sitting more girlishly than usual with her legs closed together and her hands folded in her lap. Her sitting posture was strictly upright and firm. Her eyes were pleadingly shifting between the three of us on this side of the desk.

"They aren’t 'my gang' anymore." Naomi said. "Whatever they're involved in, I had nothing to do with it. My parents gave me one last chance to remake myself and I took it. I planned to cruise by steadily until graduation."

"Hmm..." Ms. Sampson hummed in disinterest. "Tell me, where were you this morning before classes began?"

"I ate breakfast with a classmate in the cafeteria before going to help the event committee decorate."

"I don't know about that first part but I can attest to the second half." I said. "She was helping decorate with me in the hall outside of the library."

“That’s right.” Naomi said.

"Hmm..." Ms. Sampson hummed again. “It was your gang who-…”

"How can I be responsible for them if I wasn’t involved?" Naomi snapped. "I did my time quietly while I was suspended! You think I'm interested in going back to that?"

Naomi stood up from the chair and stormed out of the room.

"Should I bring her back?" Angel asked.

"No," Ms. Sampson said. "I'll give her the benefit of the doubt this time. It looks like her parents finally managed to grow a spine. Holly, please call Brittney from class."

Brittney slowly came into the office and stubbornly refused to sit down when she realized that something was going on.

"Please have a seat." I said.

"No."

"It shouldn't take much of your time." I explained. "We just need to-..."

"I didn't do anything wrong." Brittney said.

"Of course you didn't..." Ms. Sampson said in a sarcastic mumble.

Brittney glared at her. I tried to steer the conversation to something constructive.

"There was a fire this morning and we had a few questions about-..."

"So what…?" Brittney asked. "I had nothing to do with that! I was in class."

"The fire began before morning classes started." Angel said. "Whoever did this was able to do it in a way to elude detection before slipping into class."

"That's not my problem." Brittney said. "Do you have any sort of evidence at all that I caused a fire?"

"Well no, but..."

"Then why am I here?" She asked me. "Or is this a personal vendetta?"

"You're here because I know about the fighting between you and Naomi's group." Ms. Sampson said. "You're here because I'm sick of putting up with all of you and I want to deal with this once and for all."

"What does any of that got to do with this?" Brittney asked impatiently.

"So you're saying that you didn’t know that Perri and her friends were using the discipline hall as a hangout?" I asked.

Brittney rolled her eyes and finally sat down.

"Why would I care about the place they use as their love nest?" Brittney asked with disgust in her voice. "The only unfortunate thing is that they didn't burn down with their hideout."

"It's no secret that you don't like them." I said.

"No shit!" Brittney said heatedly. "It's just like I told you when you were visiting Candace in the hospital. They killed one of my own. I'll never forgive that for as long as I live."

"You sound sure that it was one of them that killed Leigha." Angel noted.

"Who else...?" Brittney asked. "When we went to go jump them at the warehouse that night, Leigha..."

"So you admit to starting that brawl?" Ms. Sampson asked angrily.

Brittney looked between us and sighed. She stood back up.

"I didn't cause a fire. Suspend me again if you want, but I didn't cause a fire and my parents will believe me. I'm not an arsonist. I don't care about suspension anymore."

Brittney turned to walk away.

"Wait!" I said. "You can leave, but I have one more question before you go. If no one from your gang was involved in this, who do you believe caused the fire?"

Brittney turned back towards me and stuck her hands in her jacket pockets. She looked away for a moment as she considered my question seriously.

"Maybe one of the girls from the SCA…?" Brittney suggested.

"The SCA..." Angel said in disbelief. "They helped put out the fire."

Brittney shrugged.

"They hate Naomi's group just as much as my friends do. They're always getting into arguments and whatnot in the halls between classes. They just never escalate things into a fight because they're cowards."

This was really something coming from Brittney, but I actually believed her.

"Thank you for your help." I said. "You're free to return to class."

Brittney gave me an irritated look before turning to walk out of the office. I leaned back in my seat as she left. Angel gave me a curious look.

"The SCA...?" She asked once again.

"Brittney wasn't wrong about her assessment." I said. "Jin and Violet regularly butt heads with the SCA they come across without good reason. A few others act the same way but those two are the worst about it."

"Still, the SCA...?" Angel said. "They responded to the fire before anyone. I'm pretty sure it was one of the SCA that discovered the fire in the first place."

Ms. Sampson folded her hands together on her desk and nodded.

"It begs the question of why they were over there to begin with. That's pretty far from the main section of the school." Ms. Sampson said. "Holly, did Val say who it was specifically that called it in?"

"It was Gayla O'Brien." I said.

"Great, call her in. We'll ask her about how she learned about the fire."

“I’ll see which class she’s in and contact her.” I said.

It turned out that Gayla never even went back to class. It took some calling around but apparently she was still helping the janitors bring some of the charred debris from the discipline hall outside. A few of the SCA were still helping throw all the burnt junk away. Valentina was the one that forwarded my message for Gayla.

Gayla arrived in the main office soon after. She was expecting to be rewarded, rather than questioned. It was evident by the confident smile on her face. When she sat down and stared at us in silence this smile began to fade. Perhaps she had come to realize why the three of us were studying her so silently.

“Gayla, we were wondering if we could ask you about how you discovered the fire?” I said. “Did you smell the smoke and go in that direction?”

Gayla shrunk into her seat.

“Well… Not exactly…”

“How did you discover it?” I asked.

“I was already there when the fire was just starting out.”

Ms. Sampson moved to the edge of her seat and Gayla sat up straight.

“You’re going to have to explain in a hell of a lot more detail than that.” Ms. Sampson said.

“The story is longer than you might suspect…”

“We’ve got time.” Ms. Sampson said.

Gayla carefully looked between the three of us and then nodded.

“Well, this all started out when I was spying on Perri, Jin, and the others. While I was hidden around a hallway corner I noticed when Casper and a few others came to Perri about something. That’s when I moved in closer to hear what they were saying…”