Chapter 147 - He Knows The Culprit
"I feel better," she replied maintaining her smile.
"Yeah, I guessed so. You look better. I guess it was all my fault you had to miss school yesterday since I was a very incompetent apprentice who could not chose the right fabric without your supervision," Eric said in a dramatic manner she found funny. "I am very sorry. I promise to do my best in the future."
"It's okay. A little outing or exercise won't hurt me," she accepted his apology. "Have you started making it?"
"Yes although I made a serious mistake which I am very embarrassed to say," he said with his head bowed in both guilt and embarrassment.
"What mistake did you make?" She was a little alarmed. She heard a hint of joke in his tone but she was not sure of it. She decided to play along. If he was serious then she will have to take up the work herself and if he was not serious then she will laugh over his serious joke when he tells her, "I was joking".
"Hey, don't panic," Eric said happy he got her.
"Why shouldn't I? The graduation is only a week away and so is the ball," Rose complained making sure to sound worried. She already suspected fully that it was only a joke.
"I said you shouldn't panic because I was joking," he said smiling broadly satisfied.
"Oh goodness. You scared me. I thought I will have to do it myself," she said with just the perfect expression to show she felt relieved.
"No, don't you trust your apprentice?" he asked wriggling his brow.
"Yeah I trust you and that is because I trust my skill as your teacher," she told him with a triumphant smile.
He smiled at her answer and shook his head as he returned to his seat when the teacher walked into the class.
***
The private room Rose and her friends sat for lunch was quiet as they watched the red-haired guy who was visibly uncomfortable in their midst shifting on the seat he sat with his hands clasped on his laps. When Anna told them about everything, Wayne called a few boys from the robotics club and had them bring the red-haired guy to the room.
"We mean no harm, you can relax," Wayne said in a low tone which brought out the opposite of what he said. The boy froze when Wayne placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly.
"I have noticed the way you look at Anna," Debby informed the boy with a very serious tone and expression on her face. "I ignored it because I thought there was nothing wrong but I really think there is something wrong. You look at her like she killed your mother."
"She killed Claire," the boy replied in a confident manner that they found surprisingly different from the scared boy he looked like just few seconds ago. "She fought with Claire in front of the whole school."
"How does fighting with Claire in front of the whole school make her Claire's murderer?" Debby asked pissed off by his answer. "How could you say such a thing about Anna. I am sure you saw how your . . . I don't even know who she is to you. But I am sure you saw the inhuman manner her copse was exhibited? How could you say Anna did it?"
"She does not need to do it herself. She made Jace get hurt too. There are two possibilities, one perhaps Anna is not the innocent girl she pretends to be. Two, perhaps she is actually innocent but she is innocently implicating the people around her especially Claire and Jace. You never know who is next."
"We really don't care what you think. We don't care about all the ghost stories you have at the tip of your tongue to narrate but we want you to stay far away from Anna or we will find a way to send you out of this school just before your graduation," Wayne threatened very seriously. He meant every single word he said to the boy.
"Do you know how hard I tried to leave this school when I witnessed what happened to Jace?" the boy asked with a hint of sarcasm showing Wayne's threat had absolutely no effect on him.
"What did you witness?" Rose had to ask. She believed all that the boy said although she did not know the reason why he was saying it and who the culprit was but it was very clear that the culprit was someone who knows Anna well and perhaps was very close to her even at this moment.
She took in a deep breath and stared around at the faces of the people in the room. Will this boy be okay after saying all he just said? She was curious but she wished the boy will keep shut and hide the secret with him to save his head.
"I saw Jace get stabbed. It was dark and every one was busy with fashion show stuff. I saw who did. Please don't tell anyone I saw what happened, okay?" Fear became evident in the boys eyes. He was obviously very scared that the culprit will come after him.
Rose observed from the boy's unrestrained tale that the boy was not scared of speaking about what he witnessed that night in front of everyone in the room which meant the culprit was not among her friends. With this discovery she found it was actually weird that she actually suspected one of her friends.
"I don't think this can stay away from people's ears for long. I won't be able to keep it from Jace. I will tell him everything after all he was our friend and if someone was bold enough to attack him in school where his family made sure he will be safe in, then we have to warn him to prevent reoccurrence," Wayne said very serious about the whole matter.
"In conclusion," Debby said in a very dramatic manner. "We want you stay away from Anna."
"We won't see each other when we graduate."
"We had to stop you before you hurt Anna. We don't care about what happens as far as you don't hurt Anna."
Behind the door, a man frowning relaxed the muscles of his face and slowly lifted up the corners of his lips to form the type of smile that will do a good job of sending chills down your spine.