Chapter 5

December 10th, 2020:

We all talked to the police yesterday, and they left a couple of hours later with the body. Christopher brought Harold to his place last night, since he hadn't woken up for the rest of the day. Fortunately, he woke up in the morning and was alright to come in to work. I could tell that everyone seemed to appear ruffled this morning upon checking in. It's understandable, given the situation. Our boss is still in another country, and won't be coming back until another month... We're alone in this place with a killer. I've come to see another issue, too. Everyone is always so worked up on establishing alibis, but no one has questioned the motives yet. I think Ashley has, though. Except she hasn't said anything to the others about it. Being a good friend of hers, I can usually tell when something's on her mind. Especially after her close friend dying, it must be getting harder to keep things in. I just hope she doesn't bottle things up to a breaking point. At least she'll be able to write things down, now that we're starting journal entries again. This time however, it's for two murders instead of one.

Christopher told all of us during break that he would be checking in on Harold every now and then. He's a good friend, I can tell Harold appreciates his recurring visits. I'm not entirely sure how long Christopher will be checking up on him, probably for the next couple of days or so. Speaking of friendships, me and Ashley haven't been hanging out as much, lately. It's not due to any disagreements of any sort, we just haven't had much time to spend together recently. With everything going on, almost all of us had become more distant with each other. Honestly, it's a good thing that two of the people in our group are still close with each other. I know this whole situation has been hard on all of us. Neither Ashley or Jolene have left their work rooms, same with Harold and Christopher, who have been sticking together ever since what happened yesterday. If another murder were to happen, I believe they really wouldn't let each other out of the other's sights. They have some clever thinking with that buddy system of theirs.

I can't really think of anything else I could say that would be of use to the cases. The second body was just discovered yesterday, and not much happened after that. As far as I can tell, Jolene probably has more information than I do. She's observant when it comes to asking questions and figuring out answers to solutions.

December 11th, 2020:

I'm glad that I only have to get the newspaper on Tuesdays. Although I do take charge of grabbing the mail on Sundays, as well. Honestly, the least amount of times that I need to leave the kitchen, the better. I still wish I could turn back time and check if any knives were missing before I had left to grab the mail that morning. That's certainly a vital piece of unknown information that would have been useful for Tara's murder. Lucinda's too, if there��s one murderer. It's unlikely that someone else would have been able to sneak past Christopher though, since his headphones were off when I came back. He must have not even known what day it was, considering he looked confused for a moment as to why I left before spotting the bundled-up newspaper. I don't believe he could be guilty. Harold has been proven innocent with his solid alibi, too. Which means all three of us are cleared for both of the murders, hence our hard alibis for each case's timeframe. That only leaves Ashley and William…

There's two questions that are still unanswered, though. Even though Lucinda is dead, that doesn't mean she's innocent for the first murder. As much as I dislike the thought of it, I can't disregard the possibility. Although if that were the case, then whoever the second murderer is must have known she was guilty. Not to mention, I can hardly imagine that even one of us is a killer, let alone two. There's only six of us that could have murdered Tara, and five of us that could have murdered Lucinda. I highly doubt that Lucinda would kill or harm anyone, and I know that Christopher, Harold, and myself, all have solid alibis for both of the murders. Lucinda was a very good friend of Ashley's, so I find myself doubting it could be her. That only leaves William, but with how honest he always is… I'm not even sure, anymore. Could someone in his nature really hold back from spilling the truth, for all this time? He's known for being brutally honest without even trying to be. Then there's Ashley, who's often called an angel, pure of heart. She has good relationships with everyone. Could either one of them, or even both, be capable of doing something like this and keeping it hidden from everyone?

Alright, I'm going to stop now. I've done enough questioning… I just hope that I managed to bring some aspects of the cases to light.

December 12th, 2020:

It's my mother's birthday, today. So I decided to offer her dinner at a local restaurant. I kept quiet about what happened at work, since there's no reason for her to be worrying on her birthday. I've been continuing to check up on Harold every now and then at work. He's still a bit jumpy, and averts his gaze quickly whenever he passes by the delivery room. Everyone needs someone to stick with during a time like this. I've come to realize this, and thought about mentioning a buddy-system idea to the others. Perhaps William and Ashley could stick together, since they're both good friends and the only two without alibis. Or Jolene could take up painting with Ashley, if she's up to it... Come to think of it, William and Ashley sticking together would be the most beneficial. Without alibis, they're the top two suspects. If one of them tried to kill the other, then we would automatically know who the killer is. Sounds like a decent plan, actually. I'll have to tell the others about it when the meeting comes.

Despite us all agreeing to compile our gathered evidence during the meeting for both murders, Harold and I have been sharing our information. I'd say it's safe, considering both of us are innocent. I would rather tell at least one innocent person, then perhaps I'd be able to say I'm keeping someone safe. We both have each other's backs, after all. I'm certainly glad that tomorrow's our last day of work before our weekly day off. It'll be good for everyone to get a break from working in this place, even if it's just a single day. I was actually thinking about asking Harold if he had wanted to hang out on Monday, since I know our schedules are both free. The winter chill has been rather harsh as of late, so a hike wouldn't be so pleasant in this frigid air. Perhaps an arcade or a simple movie to get our minds off of everything at the workplace. Maybe I could mention some ideas to everyone else to put their minds more at ease. It'll be good to help them out.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be less skittish and have sorted things out some more.