Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Johanna's POV

Johanna squatted by the door and had her ear against the door trying to hear what her parents were talking about with her friend's mom. Her two friends sat beside her and did the same.

"Can you hear anything?" Olive asked and Johanna hushed her.

Then Johanna tried to figure out what mrs Collins could have involved with to be an interest for her parents' case. Then she remembered something that made her gasp. Collins? Wasn't the dead's last name Collins? What was it now again?

'Think Johanna, think!' she demanded on herself and thought back to the morning when she had snuck past that guard outside the apartment.

Aunt Lanie had told them what the name was when Johanna had gotten inside.

"Jacob Collins?" Johanna whispered with a facial expression that told her friends she was in deep thought.

"What about my dad?" Gale asked and Johanna looked at him with a terrified face.

She felt the tears water her eyes and she quickly wiped them away before they started running down her cheeks.

"Maybe we shouldn't be doing this, yeah, we should go to class" Johanna said and avoided the gaze her friends gave her.

She stood up and started to walk when she heard a gasp from Gale so she turned around. Her heart was in her throat when she saw the look on his face. He had his ears against the door and Johanna knew by the look on his face that he had heard the terrible news.

"I'm so sorry, Gale" she barely managed to whisper.

Olive looked at them with a confused look. She hadn't heard it and she understood nothing.

"Is my dad dead?" Gale asked and his voice broke.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't made the connection" Johanna tried to say.

Gale had tears in his eyes and so did Johanna. Johanna could see tears in Olive's eyes too, she had finally got it.

"Not your fault" Gale said and Johanna couldn't stand the sight of him so sad and not doing anything so she went up to him and hugged him.

He hugged her back and Johanna soon felt Olive's arms around the two of them. She heard Gale sobbing and also that he tried to hide it, tried not to cry.

"It's ok Gale, just let it out" Johanna whispered and so he did.

He cried. No too loud since they were in school plus the fact that they didn't want the grown-ups in the other room get to know that they were still there and had eavesdropped on them.

"How could this happen?" Gales whispered and none of the girls knew what to say.

They just hugged him tighter. Johanna froze when she heard steps coming from the office. She quickly removed her arms from her friends and took them by their arms. She dragged them around a corner and hold up her finger to her lips signaling them to keep quiet. Gale's eyes were filled with tears but he nodded and so did Olive. Johanna peeked out to see her parents leave the school, they didn't seem to know that the kids had figured out why they were here. Or the fact that they had been outside the room the whole time.

"Puh" Johanna sighed. "That was close" she looked at her friends and they didn't really know what to do.

"I promise you, Gale, they will find whoever did this. You know how my parents are, they won't stop look until the perp is behind bars" Johanna promised and looked into Gale's eyes. "Plus, I will keep an eye on this investigation and tell you everything I know".

Gale nodded.

"Thanks" he whispered and the all three of them hugged again.

"Hey! What are you kids doing?" a male teacher asked and they all froze.

They turned around. It wasn't one of the teachers they had but they all knew who it was. It was mr Hashlow, he was the most strict teacher you could find in this school.

"Uhm... we're just about to go back to class" Olive said and they got out of there as fast as they could.

They walked towards history class and were glad they had mr Uddas who were the one teacher that didn't really pay attention to who was late and who wasn't, as long as you came to the class.