Fourty Five

CHAPTER 45

Golden High School parking lot

"Why are you calling me?"

Nicholas immediately approached Alicia who was standing nervously beside his silver sports car. He also seemed to be in a hurry to get out of his car when he found her waiting for him there. A while ago, Alicia had called and said something was so urgent that the detective had immediately turned his car around and headed back to the dormitory.

Alicia looked up in surprise. "Nic, there's something you should know," she said quickly.

Nicholas muttered under his breath as he gave a quick shrug of his shoulders. "Yeah, I guess so. Considering you never engage me in conversation in the parking lot," he teased. "This must be very urgent and confidential, right?"

"I'm being serious, Nic," Alicia interrupted anxiously.

And the young detective just chuckled amusedly before chuckling. "Well, what did you want to talk to me about here?"

The black-haired girl leaned towards Nicholas after taking in the surroundings. The situation and conditions in the parking lot felt safe to Alicia. "Jake just made a confession," she whispered.

"Jake?" Nicholas raised one eyebrow. "What confession are you talking about? The boy didn't make a confession of love and intend to make you his girlfriend, did he?"

Alicia just rolled her eyes lazily and scowled. "He did make a confession, Nic." Alicia looked straight at Nicholas' bead at that moment. "Jake was the one who tried to harm me in hallway three. Do you remember when I told you that I thought it was a man from his physical appearance? That person was Jake, Nic!"

Nicholas was suddenly confused and bent his forehead deeply. "You mean, she said that he was the one who strangled you that time?"

Alicia nodded quickly. "He even showed me the back of his neck. Jake has claw marks in the same place as the culprit, Nic." The ash-eyed girl muttered softly. "I still remember very well, I put up a fight before I lost consciousness."

But the twenty-two-year-old detective hurriedly snorted in amusement and shook his head in disbelief. "Then you're just going to believe him?! Maybe this is another trap, Alicia. Haven't you learned anything from this whole series of cases?" Nicholas took a short breath before continuing his sentence, "This asshole tried to play me. He set you up, trapped Ace and hurt Brittany. You think Jake, is that kind of person? His body even trembled when he saw James' corpse."

A few seconds later, there was silence. What Nicholas had just said was true. The girl named Alicia Perth looked up slowly, looking at Nicholas' brown bead seriously. "Then who do you think is setting Jake up this time?" she asked curiously.

Nicholas shook his head weakly. "Maybe we should go see Jake to get more information. Pressuring him might be the only option to catch the perpetrator himself," Nicholas suggested.

Alicia and Nicholas quickly left the parking lot to head inside the dormitory. The two walked hand in hand through the main hallway. There were only a few other students passing by at that time, so the atmosphere of the main hallway could be said to be quite quiet for the two of them. But that quietness suddenly changed instantly as Ace appeared before them with his sharp gaze. He stood tall in the middle of the hallway, blocking the path of both Alicia and Nicholas in the main hallway.

Ace looked at Alicia and Nicholas in turn. "What are you doing here?" Ace's dark brown irises were drawn to look at Alicia at last. "I saw you out with Jake, but now... you're with him. Are you really that easy, Miss Perth?"

Alicia let out a bored breath and made a flat expression. "Will you stop meddling in my business? I don't want anything to do with you."

The dark-haired man chuckled amusedly and girded his loins. "Are you going to end things now?"

"I never even started anything with you, Mr. Blake," he snapped. Alicia continued on her way, ignoring Ace. She passed by Ace like she passed by her dark past. It was like...

"Well then, when are you going to start?!" snapped Ace as Alicia stood right behind him.

"Ace, never mind," Nicholas cut in.

"No," Ace retorted in a harsh tone. "I want to make things clear now. Whether you want to start a relationship with me or not. I want to know, everything, from you directly." The well-proportioned man turned around, looking at Alicia's back who didn't move at all. "Alicia, can you answer my question?"

"Stop pushing her, Ace!" ordered Nicholas sternly. He even pushed the seventeen-year-old's shoulder with his own as he passed Ace while saying, "Because people like you don't deserve it." Nicholas immediately pulled Alicia's wrist. "Come on, Alicia! We need to get to Jake before something bad happens."

Just as Alicia and Nicholas were about to leave the main hallway, the dormitory's fire alarm suddenly went off. Its shrill sound echoed throughout the dormitory and horrified everyone.

"What's going on?!" exclaimed Ace in shock.

"Jake!" Without thinking, Alicia rushed out of the main hallway with Nicholas and Ace close behind.

The three of them suddenly ran towards hallway 002, or more precisely towards Jake's room. Meanwhile, other students who were in class or in dorm rooms ran in the opposite direction towards the exit. The entire dormitory panicked because they thought there had been a fire in the large building.

Once Alicia, Ace and Nicholas reached hallway 002, they immediately accelerated their steps towards the room with Jake's name on the door.

"The door is locked," Alicia informed them.

Nicholas acted quickly by kicking the door with Jake and Julian's names on it to open it. Finally, on the third kick, the door swung open and to their surprise, the three of them found Jake's body on the floor.

"Jake!" called Alicia. She immediately aligned herself with Jake's body, whose head was covered in blood, and tried to turn him over with all her might. "Oh my God!" Alicia squealed in shock and reflexively walked backwards when she saw Jake's condition.

Acepun stepped closer out of curiosity, even though he was walking with his body half trembling and his mouth open in disbelief. She looked Jake over from top to bottom, which looked awful, and then said,

.

.

.

"Ja... Jake, why, gosh, why is he... dead?!"