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5.24% The Moon Goddess' Chosen / Chapter 32: Chapter Thirty Two

Capítulo 32: Chapter Thirty Two

Anthony took a moment to think about it before he relaxed, pulling his phone out from his pocket and dialling in a number. "Hello, yeah, take down the traps. We'll let her walk for now," he said. Katie's eyes widened in shock at the revelation the Director had just made. She knew she could get away from him, but she hadn't expected him to put up that much of a resistance. There was a great possibility that the traps he spoke of would have got her.

"What happens now? A member of my pack has been killed," Cole spoke up.

"I'll find whoever did this, Cole," Katie spoke up, breaking from her mother's embrace.

"Don't make me wait too long," he grumbled, "This wolfsbane doesn't let me catch even the slightest of the killer's scent."

"Where is the hunter I sent to look at the cameras?" Anthony shouted.

"Right here, sir. I came when you were in the middle of the brawl with Katie and slipped my mind while I was waiting for you two," a female hunter replied timidly. Anthony's commanding presence kept most of those who worked under him to be scared whenever they were in his presence. Well, all of those who weren't well acquainted with him anyway.

"It slipped your mind," this irked the bulky man, but he wasn't in a mood to reprimand the hunter either, "Never mind, proceed with the report of what you found."

I checked the cameras and found that the room footage had been erased, so I checked through the footage of all the other classrooms looking for a sign of a missing student in the three-hour span of this incident. I was able to discover that the video of the two of the classrooms had been looped, probably to throw us off the trail of the class the culprit was supposed to be in. There is no telling if the killer was in the class of those videos that were looped or not at all.

"In that case, populate a suspect list of all the students in the classes that were looped and those of the students that did not attend those lessons. Check the library cameras and cross out the names of those that you find were instead studying in the library all that time. The rest of the students that remain on the list are to be put under strict surveillance and searched for any sort of motives or malicious intent," Anthony barked his orders.

"Yes, sir… Do you want me to suspect the werewolves and junior hunters alone, or humans as well," the lady asked him, unsure whether it was even possible for a human to overpower a werewolf if they had never had any training and were still only in high school.

"Do not leave anyone out even if they happen to be your family or in some way related to the Hunter's association. Work with Katie to solve this as soon as possible and leave no stone unturned. The sooner we catch the killer, the faster we can put an end to this mess and let the one we've lost rest in peace," he said.

His last phrase was all the werewolves needed to know that these heartless machines called Hunters still retained their humanity regardless of the way they worked. This somewhat soothed their rage and allowed them to look at the hunters in a new light… as helpers and not merely as people who were trying to keep the school's image and bring everything back to normal just because a student died. They also felt the anger and disgust that Cole and his friends did.

"What can we do to help out?" Cole asked.

"I'm glad you're with us again, Alpha Cole. What you can do is… take the day off. We'll handle this. You have nothing to be worried about. Take time off for your fallen comrade," Anthony said, his voice low again for the second time this day, rarity among rarities.

Cole was not as pleased with the answer he received as he might have wanted to be and turned to Katie who stared him right in the eye. Something glinted behind her beautiful deep blue orbs, an unspoken message that they would still have their evening as planned and everything was going to be okay. Regardless, it did not change the fact that an innocent boy of fifteen years had been killed and there was no reversing this. Until the killer was caught, Cole's hunger for his blood was not going to go down.

"Fine then, we'll take three days off and won't interfere with the investigation, but after that, we will find this killer using our own methods," he said before walking out of the room, sending one last glance in Katie's direction as he passed by her to the exit. Caden and Jason followed him quietly, their palms folding into fists and slowly unfolding in an effort to keep their emotions in check.

............

Katie was led to the camera room, Sandra in tow, to look at the footage for anything that could help her. She checked the footage of her locker and saw that it was not tampered with. Every hunter was issued a leather sleeveless jacket of a design of their liking but equipped with dagger, knives and darts laced with the poisons that were used to combat werewolves.

This was something that was not to be taken lightly and only two people in the entire school were allowed to touch this jacket without Katie's permission. These were Sandra and Kyle, however, none of them would have any interest in touching this jacket as it meant nothing to them. Katie also did not like using the thing and usually kept it with either Kyle or Sandra. It was unlikely for a werewolf to seek it since the poisons could affect it just by sniffing it.

That meant there was either a human that had committed this atrocity or there was another rogue in the school that was suppressing their wolves in the name of being a spy. The room's whose footage had been looped turned out to be Katie's room and another of the same taking a different subject from the one they were learning at that time. It was impossible to miss the moment of Katie's room being looped because it did not show her leaving the room with the principal.

However, it did show the principal coming to pick her and then vanishing. The killer probably made this obvious so that they would suspect that class to be the one that had the culprit, but then again, another camera had been looked at just as well, its timer restarting after two hours to show the footage of the hallway seamlessly, but for a time that did not match.

Discussions on which room the killer belonged to were pointless since a lot of different opinions could be thought of without knowing what it was that the killer was trying to hide by looping two classes. Maybe they didn't have enough time to tamper with the footage and just tampered with the classes they were from to by some time at least, but it didn't make sense. If that was the case, then they only needed to question all the students from those two classes and the ones that were absent on that day to verify their whereabouts.

It soon came to light that the cameras had been left unattended for nearly an hour which would have been enough time to have all the footage tampered with. The computer experts were also able to find out the time it took for the footage to be altered and proved that it was done at leisure as the person who altered had been at the computers for twenty whole minutes. More than enough time to deal with everything.

It was even possible that this person had watched them from the cameras as they walked into the room they had left the body in. This was frustrating. The number of students that were in question easily numbered up to seventy, but that was a small group for someone who was trying to be inconspicuous. 'What was your plan this whole time?' Katie thought, puzzled by the killer's boldness.

At the end of the day, after having questioned all seventy students that were being suspected with no one turning up anything suspicious, they called it a day. Katie put her head on the desk and sighed in exasperation as the last suspect walked out of the room. "This is getting us nowhere," she groaned.

"We'll find the culprit soon enough. We just have to keep looking," Sandra tried to comfort her.

"I'm not disobeying my gut ever again," Katie yelled into her palms.

"What do you mean?"

"When the principal called me out to go with him, I felt something was about to go very wrong, but I thought that was because I was not going to like what Shaemus had to say to me. Now I see that was not the issue," she explained.


Capítulo 33: Chapter Thirty Three

The investigation finally came to a disappointing halt and the hunters that aided Katie left at the end of the school day. The two friends had had to eat their lunch from the classroom that had been transformed into an interrogation room. Katie walked with Sandra to the clearing that had now been labelled 'out of bounds' to civilians due to the incident that had occurred the day before.

"That was a total bust. There was no one in those entire classes that acted the least bit like a killer. And yet I was sure we were going to find that person among them," Katie groaned as they left the school grounds.

"We both knew this was not going to be an easy investigation. Just stay patient, we'll find the person responsible for this crown," she said.

"I just don't understand why the surveillance room would be left unattended for an entire hour. Not to mention it was the same hour that I was not present in the school," Katie complained some more. She was feeling the need to rant a bit more at how many holes the school had allowed getting into the system.

"Do you think it was planned that Shaemus would want to see you at that exact moment? Could it have been a coincidence?" Sandra asked.

"I sent a hunter to check on that hunch. Shaemus knew nothing of the sort… Besides, he has some other things to worry about than that. He called me there strictly to ask my assistance," Katie confirmed.

"Have you seen Kyle?" Sandra asked, looking around for the boy who usually found his way to them when he was free.

"Not really, he said something about diving into more books so that he could pass a test that they were going to be given some time soon. He vanished after that… it was right after we were done interrogating him," she said.

The clearing started coming into view and soon enough the presence of a lone Royal became known to them. Katie stopped to bid Sandra farewell, "I guess this is where I say goodnight," she said.

"Yeah, this is where you do that. Do be careful on your way home. There is no telling if there are more rogues lurking around," Katie said. Sandra gave her friend and master one last hug before jogging away from her and into the woods. A shortcut that would get her home in a straight line rather than the meandering road she loathed to follow.

Cole stood at the edge of the clearing leaning with his back against a tree that bordered the near-circular field that the junior hunters used in their free time. His gaze was fixed to the ground, but his eyes told a different story about where his mind was. "Hey," Katie called when she got close to him.

"I wasn't sure you would make it…."

"Why wouldn't I?" was an odd way to start the conversation.

"Considering you are still a suspect of a murder of my newest pack member," he said.

"That's not something I am worried about. I'll get my name cleared soon enough," Katie said, moving up to him so that she could try to capture his gaze.

"Your confidence is astounding. Sometimes it makes me wonder if at all you take this seriously," his mood was starting to lighten up a bit since she had seen him at the crime scene.

"How are you holding up?" I asked him.

"Not too bad actually… How's your investigation going?"

"It's annoying. Everyone seems to be innocent. I don't understand it. What was the purpose of doing that to the cameras if there is no one in the suspects that is the killer? Was the killer trying to throw us off their trail?" he asked.

"You might be overthinking the situation that you are in… anyway, I do have a question for you. Would you really have been able to catch the culprit if you were still in the building or at least on the premises?" he asked.

"Yes, that is true. I would have caught them without a problem. I probably would have been fast enough to save Ash altogether… they say it's not good to think back on the what-ifs in a situation like this one… they get to you in a bad way," Katie tried.

"Yeah, I know that. I don't know why, but I trust that you will find who is responsible for this as well. So I am not very worried about this. When you do find them, however, do not hesitate to let me know. It was the life of one of my own that they took, so make sure that I am the first one who gets this information," he said.

"I will tell you immediately then… I don't have your number though," Katie said, smiling at the oblivious royal.

"Oh, sorry, let me just put that in there," he said, getting her phone from her hands and typing in the number, "So do you know somewhere we can go for a walk that is more scenic than this plot of barren land that does not seem to have a purpose for the time being."

"That is a monumental insult for the land that the hunters used to train on… I do know a place, however. Just follow me," with the number in her phone, she got the phone from him and led the somewhat short walk that would find them at the tallest hill in the town.

"So where is it you are taking me?" he asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you ran most of the town's forested area yesterday, but there is a piece of land in no man's territory that you did not see. A meeting spot, if you may, where hunters and pack leaders meet to discuss issues in private. It's currently unoccupied, so we can go there and relax for a bit.

"You just said, no man's land…"

"Yes, I did. Is the big bad alpha scared?" Katie spoke in a childish voice, taunting the Royal.

"No, I said nothing of the sort. How did you even make such an assumption?" narrowing his eyes at the hunter.

"I was only looking out for one of the werewolves under my protection," she said boastfully, as though it were obvious.

"You're really full of it, Chase," Cole laughed at her.

"Don't call me Chase… Call me Katie," the sudden change in mood got Cole to stop laughing immediately.

"Does it bother you when I do so?" he asked her.

"It's too formal. I'd prefer it if you would just call me Katie," she explained keeping her eyes down to the floor. 'What am I thinking? Since when did I start caring about what name was being used to address me?' thoughts ran through Katie's mind trying to make sense of the odd behaviour that seemed to be taking over her.

"Then Katie it is. From now on, I shall call you so…" something about what he said set her heart at ease along with the weakened wolf within her. This was not to be interpreted by her lest she risked losing time mulling over something that she was not bound to find an answer to. The presence of her wolf had become one she was now good at noticing, no matter how faint the drugs made it, it was now clear as daylight to her that something did in fact live within her and longed to be free.

She looked back at Cole and saw that something had distracted him. The hill had finally come into view. Trees surrounded the summit ending halfway and leaving a clearing of scanty grass that was kept short at the top. At the very top of the hill was a stone table that was capable of housing ten people. Chairs surrounded the table as well. This hill was known as a meeting spot whenever the packs in the surrounding areas wanted to discuss something with the hunters. It was therefore respected by many that knew it.

As far as hills go, this one was not all that big and what made it even more peculiar was that it stood solely alone in the vast forest instead of standing in a group of ranges of hills. This made it a great spot to look down at everything that existed in the forest. The town of Brigadia was located far from where all the action took place on the outskirts of the continent. Forests thrived in the wonderful tropical climate.

It never snowed in this place and was always either rainy or sunny. The place screamed green more than any other city that Cole had ever visited. Werewolves were fond of living in places such as this one and it was indeed what was the case even where the palace of Lycaon was situated, but the one difference was that this place was almost a part of the forest just as the forest was a part of them.

Life here was slow and caused no need for attention to be focused this way. That was until the Brigade High School rose to the rank of safest high school in the world. This was what caused the place to become more recognized and evidently, the coming of the Royals.


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