Justice For Sheila: Part Two

It was none other than Calvin.

There he was, struggling to free himself from the intense grip of the two cops holding him. It seemed like he had been roughed up, his fair face nursing bruises. Something was entirely different with him. Suddenly he wasn't the jovial man Marcus and his friends had met. Instead, the jolly face had been replaced by one which screamed pure evil. The Calvin that stood there was a different person; a darker alter ego to what they had originally thought of him. He was being oddly confident, an uncomfortable smirk plastered on his face. It was almost as if he was pleased with being caught. Michelle, Jeff and Luis found themselves sprung to their feet as they finally came face-to-face with the man who murdered Sheila.

"You...you mean to tell me that all this time we have been friends with the one who actually killed Sheila?" Jeff exclaimed, his mind completely blown away.

Marcus was about to answer him when suddenly Sheila's mother jumped out of her seat and went at Calvin. Sheldon was forced to carry her away from the stage as she screamed and leapt on Calvin, but not after she had dug her nails on his face, leaving behind a good chunk of scratches.

"But how? How was he able to kill her? What connection does he have to her?" Michelle questioned, trying not to remember that she had once stood next to Calvin. Marcus took the stage.

"That's easy. You see, Calvin wasn't the one who killed Sheila, Joel did."

"Wait," Luis interrupted. "If Calvin didn't kill Sheila, then why did you arrest him?"

Marcus smiled.

"Because he's the one who killed Sheila."

Everyone in the auditorium gave him quizzical stares. Marcus wondered why they hadn't figured it out yet.

"Catch up people! Calvin was just a false identity he created to manoeuvre his way around Middletown. His real name is Joel, Joel Smith,"

"Oh no!" Michelle gasped. Sheila's mother was still crying at her husband's hand, and the teens were still standing. William and Luis' grandmother were seating quietly, observing the drama unfold.

"Okay, Marcus. You need to really explain how the hell you did all of this, because I think I speak for everyone when I say that our heads are literally spinning right now," said Jeff, sitting down to take a huge breath. The others turned their attention to him and he let out a sigh, moving towards the centre of the stage.

"Okay then. So our investigation begins when Michelle called us to Old Bob's and then played us a voice note."

"A voice note in which Sheila mentions Mr Stevens' name," Jeff finished the statement.

"Hold on," William interrupted and stood up, petrified. "Stevens, as in, the deputy principal?"

He watched in horror as the four teens slowly nodded their heads. William went back to his seat, his mind drifting away as Marcus got back to the story.

"Right. Which then made us sure that Stevens was the one who killed Sheila, but then some coincidence struck by and Detective Timothy made his way into the Garage, together with Rocco and Tyron, who had a different story that a guy named Redhound was the one who killed the girl," Marcus paused, dropping his head slightly at the mention of Maxwell. He finally got a hold of himself and continued.

"This caused us to be at crossroads. However, Rocco had let out a crucial piece of information—the Dragon Pearl Necklace."

"The Dragon Pearl? But I thought it was just a myth?!" Sheila's mother asked.

"Turns out it wasn't. And apparently, documents related to it were at Middlewood's Police Department, inside Timothy's office. And that is where we met Stevens," Marcus answered.

"What was he doing there? Looking for that file too?" William asked, shocked at his deputy's double life.

"He had been called to be questioned, or rather, to be asked whether he had seen anything suspicious so that he would land a bullet to his head like the dead school watchman. Luckily he caught us and we were able to escape before Timothy found us, but instead, we ended up going from the frying pan into the fire when Stevens and his bunch of miscreants abducted us and led us to their secret lair under a closed bar, then proceeded to tell us about some half-cooked lie about them being in a secret organisation, which we believed at the time."

"I don't understand," Sheila's mother interjected. "How was all this stuff about a necklace connected to my daughter?"

"At first we thought it was, then we thought it wasn't," Marcus responded. "However, our suspicions were back on when we found out about a man named Joel, who was Sheila's so-called boyfriend around the time of her death. They had planned to run away after they had found the necklace, and things would have probably gone that way if Michelle hadn't decided to end things with him, which, in my opinion, is what caused this Joel man here to go berserk and actually murder her."

"So what?" Calvin, or rather Joel, finally spoke. He was not his jovial self. Something dark had taken control over him, something evil. He gave Marcus a stare that would have probably chopped the boy's flesh into tiny pieces. "You don't have anything against me."

"You want to know how I finally caught you?" Marcus asked him then proceeded to answer the question even before Calvin had the chance to put a word in. "It was because of that one mistake you did in your overconfidence. You had finally got what you wanted and thus you were such in a hurry to leave Middlewood that you actually forgot to cover your tracks."

"What tracks?" questioned Calvin.

"The leather jacket that you wore at Maxwell's funeral, it was the same one I had seen at the motel room where we found another dead body, one in which you had set there on purpose," Marcus replied.

"That doesn't mean anything," Calvin bravely spoke. "Anyone can own a similar leather jacket."

"But not one where they have the exact bleach stain on the sleeve of the jacket," Marcus told him.

"So why do you think I killed an innocent man and lead you to where he was?" Calvin had the audacity to ask.

"To get Luis to see the picture of his abuelita," Marcus said to the shock of everyone present. Luis suddenly was on high alert.

"Why would he want me to see that picture?" Luis tensed up, worried that Calvin may have done something to harm his family.

"It's not what he wanted you to see, it was what he wanted you to do after seeing that picture," Marcus answered.

"What did he want me to do? What did I do?" questions were raiding Luis' mind, and he occasionally glanced at his grandmother, wondering how she was coping with all that revelation.

Marcus took a deep breath.

"He wanted you to take him to the place where the Dragon Pearl Necklace was being kept—La Luz Del Sol."

Luis stared at his grandmother in complete shock.

"Abuelita, is that true, was the necklace hidden in our farm?" he asked her. Abuelita just gazed at them for a moment, but then tears started forming as she narrated her story.

"I don't know mijo. All I know is that it was hidden somewhere in the ranch after Macarena's death. That thing is cursed kids! William, didn't you tell them?" she turned to William, who shrugged in reply. He had already tried.

"Explains why Calvin's clothes were so dirty after we came out of Abuelita's house," spoke Michelle. "He didn't want to come with us because he wanted to find that necklace as we distracted Luis' grandmother. You sneaky little bitch!"

"Where was it hidden?" the Sheriff asked Calvin, but Calvin sneered at him instead.

"I at least deserve to keep that one secret to myself. After all, you are revealing all of them, aren't you?" he answered back.

"So where's the necklace now? Did you find it?" William suddenly included himself in the conversation. The necklace was his last memory of the good times he once had, seeing that he might as well forget about looking for his troubled son.

The sheriff gazed at him earnestly and shook his head.

"We've unfortunately searched his belongings but it wasn't there. Seems like he had already sold it," Sheldon replied.

"Just forget it. It's already lost. It was in one of my suitcases, so either you dimwits lost it, or someone else took it. Not that I care you'll find it. I've already been caught anyway," Calvin interrupted in what seemed to be his rudest tone ever.

"What about Mr Stevens and the others? What happened to them,?" Michelle remembered. Her dad responded to her question.

"We found out them buried at the far corner of the school, beyond the soccer field. They were butchered, the same way Sheila was."

It was at that point when Sheila's mother stood up. She eyed Calvin contemptuously before asking.

"Why? Why did you kill her?"

Calvin glared at her and kept quiet. He looked down, ashamed of facing her. However, Marcus had found the right answer.

"It's because he's a sociopath. He couldn't handle the rejection Sheila had done to him and decided to go berserk on her, the same way he did to Stevens and the others once he found out they were using him. Tell me, Calvin, were you ever hurt by someone you loved in your childhood.?"

Calvin laughed sardonically. He tried to move closer to Marcus, but the cops holding him increased their grip, restraining him.

"They all betray you child. You look at your friends and family and you'll think that they will always be there for you. Well, guess what? The minute you are no longer of benefit to them they will throw you out like a piece of garbage. So don't think that what I did was wrong. They all deserved their deaths. One day it'll happen to you, and you will feel that pain and anger course through your blood faster than a bolt of lightning."

Marcus stepped closer to him, so that they were now eye-to-eye. He fixed his stare upon him, seeing through all that madness and hatred Calvin harboured inside.

"Too bad Calvin," he was almost whispering. "My father already did it to me, but guess I turned out okay. But you? You're gonna spend the rest of your life in a prison cell, with no friends to keep you company. I almost feel sorry for you, because now you'll never be able to feel the power of the love of those closest to you. My advice, better start learning how to drop the soap if you're going to need company there."

He had hardly finished his last statement when Calvin almost pounced on him like a hungry lion. He was stark mad; he had just been told the bitter truth. Sheldon gave the order for Calvin to be hauled away into a police car waiting outside. Once everything had been back to a state of calm, he addressed Marcus.

"I cannot even begin to say how much I want to thank you for helping us. It was really brave of you to come to me and say the whole story. God knows that it would've turned into something worse if you hadn't spoken. Thank you so much, young man. I assure you that that man will be spending a lot of time in prison," he said as he extended his arm to Marcus.

"Thank you, sir, for catching that man," Marcus replied as he took the sheriff's hand. He glanced at his friends. "I couldn't have done it without my friends."

Jeff, Michelle and Luis smiled at the mention of their names. Marcus then thought back to something important.

"Have you caught any news about my father yet?" he asked, feeling a lump in his throat as the words came out. The sheriff shook his head.

"Unfortunately not yet. It seems like he may have caught wind of what was going down and decided to skip town. But I've got authorities everywhere looking for him. I'll let you know as soon as I catch him," Sheldon answered and excused himself, saying that he had paperwork to fill and a fugitive to find, but not after telling Michelle that she was in for an important talk back at the house.

Jeff, Michelle and Luis ran over to Marcus as soon as the sheriff left, and together they fell into one group hug. They checked on Marcus, with Jeff's sarcastic remarks on how Marcus would be a perfect fit for Goliath's toothpick. Jeff always knew to light up any moment, and whatever mood his best friend was in he always managed to sneak in a few scornful comments. They had just broken up the hug when Marcus spoke to them.

"I need to get out of here because Child Services wants to come and take me to a goddamn orphanage, but I want you guys to meet me today evening at Saviour's Cliff, the one just above Boswell lake. I have one last thing we must do together."

"Count us in," Jeff replied hurriedly. "Now, get lost before a nasty woman shows up here and demands that you need to follow her."

Marcus smiled at them and made a run for it. He was indeed grateful that he had been blessed with such friends. They had stuck by him through everything that had happened, assisting him and having fun along the way. He didn't care about whatever rant Calvin had gone off with about betrayal.

He had true friends.

And that was something Calvin would never get to have.