Debrief 4

The web continues to grow ever more complicated. I'm starting to see how articulate our culprit is being. Like putting the finest details on a grand masterpiece.

I left early Tuesday morning towards the school. I met little opposition from the police guards in front of the school gates. They directed me to the main office where I was able to convince the principal to interrogate some of the students on campus on the condition there was a member of the school staff with me. It was fair. The principal kindly asked me to wait until it was lunch break before I started asking around random students about my victim/accomplice. I did as instructed.

The lunch hour arrived and a staff member led me to a group of girls sitting together at a stone table outside. I broke it to them easy; told them she was killed by the mass murderer Singing Zero. After a few minutes of comforting and tears, I went down to business.

"What do you know about this girl?" I asked.

"She was always with her boyfriend," replied a girl to the farthest left. "But he left around the end of September."

"Do you know why he left?"

"No," piped in another girl. "He just stopped coming to school one day. We were told he transferred out." The staff member standing over me noticeably shifted away from me.

"Were you told where he transferred to?" I directed to the girls.

One shook her head. "But she left school a day or two after he did. Didn't even say where she was going; nothing. Not even a goodbye."

I sat there deliberating, massaging my temples. I didn't know what to make of it at that point. This could've all been a ploy; using the girl's disappearance as an excuse to shift the blame to her when in reality she may have not been involved at all. Maybe she was picked at random. But the question still remained as to how the killer knew of this girl's disappearance.

Unable to hold it in any longer, the one girl in the very middle exclaimed, "There was another girl."

"Please <name omitted>, you don't really think he was cheating on her, right?" snapped the girl on the left.

"No," she replied. "But she always hung out with the two of them the moment she transferred here."

"I'm sorry?" I jumped in. "Who is this girl?"

"I don't know her name," the girl quickly replied. "Or which school she came from. But she also went missing around the time our friend did."

Three students coincidentally missing at the same time? Highly unlikely. "Do you know what the girl looked like?" I prompted.

"Short black hair. Average height, I think. Always dressed in black or dark colors. Light green eyes, I wanna say?" Again, the girl shook her head. "That's all I remember."

I hit the jackpot. This was the same description we had gathered for the past year concerning Singing Zero. Although no one so far had been able to identify the killer's gender; he/she had never gotten into close contact with anyone before for people to discern his/her identity. Of course anyone else could have short black hair, green eyes, and dress morbidly. I couldn't go jumping to conclusions; Singing Zero may not even be involved with this and may not even be a woman. It was another lead, though, and I wasn't about to let it slide past me. I thanked them for their time and returned to the front office. I relayed to them my findings in order to convince them to let me look into their school records. I had them email me everything that happened in the month of September, including enrolled students. I have about 55 emails with a total of three thousand attached files. I've so far knocked out two hundred of those attachments. I found nothing. I really hate to think I have to go through all of them but if it must be done I will do it.

So now I have to put further investigation at a standstill until I can find that girl's file. Whether or not it's Singing Zero, I still have a lead. This is the only connection the killer would've had to our victim and her boyfriend. I have little to no doubt that this final search will lead me to the origins of our culprit.

I know I won't be able to get through all of these files before the start of Thanksgiving break, so investigating the second school will have to wait until after break is over. In the meantime, I will put several investigators to track down the boyfriend's disappearance. I have a feeling the school has not completely relayed everything they know to us about this matter.We could also very well have a hostage situation going unnoticed; bribery for compliance from the accomplice.

Oh, that's right. The officer who infiltrated Singing Zero's hideout is going to be released from the hospital today. Unfortunately, I cannot personally debrief the officer until I got a hold on Singing Zero's whereabouts concerning his/her little accomplice. Strike the iron while it's hot. And once I do have this little mess unscrambled, I will piece together the killer's little masquerade.

And I will unveil you yet, Zero.