Actually, the next murder didn't occur for another twenty-four hours. Though school had been called off, Mrs. Bailey was determined to have rehearsal, since only two days remained till the first night of the play. Therefore, the cast dragged themselves to school, apprehensive about what might happen next.
Nobody had any homework to do, since school was canceled, so they sat in the hallway, not talking. They would've crowded into Mrs. Bailey's room, because it felt safer, but the temperature was already around 90, and the classroom was, like the rest of the school, boiling hot. A few of the braver seniors who weren't on at the moment wandered around in clusters, glancing nervously around every few seconds, but most people stayed put. Although none of them would admit it, they were actually waiting for the next loud scream so that a little excitement would be added to what would normally be another long, boring, hot rehearsal.
At around four, Lindsay ran back to the room. She looked panicked and scared, as if she had just seen a dead body.
"It's Jacob!" she exclaimed, panting. "I was down by the snack machine, getting some animal crackers, and I thought he was just standing there, so I went over to say hi to him, and he fell forward into another pool of blood! Somebody must've stabbed him in the back when I wasn't looking."
"Did you get the animal crackers?" Jenny asked.
Lindsay gave her a weird look. "Uh, no."
"The serial killer strikes again! Dun, dun, duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" Christina exclaimed. "Sorry. Susan's not here, and I couldn't resist."
"And the plot thickens," Megan muttered. "There's still no pattern, or at least not one that I see. Where's Mr. Livengood when you need him?"
"You mean Mr. 'Mathematics is the science of patterns'?" Derek asked her.
"Actually, I was thinking that we could use him as bait for the killer. But that works, too."
"It still doesn't make any sense," Melissa mused. "We can't even predict who will be next, and if we knew that, we could catch the murderer."
"But why Jacob?" Katy wondered.
"Maybe," Lindsay said slowly, "the killer's pattern is to not have a pattern. Therefore, any one of us could be next. Nobody's safe, not even the freshmen."
After play rehearsal ended, almost everybody left, thoroughly freaked out by the fourth death. Katy, Lindsay, Darrell, James, Amanda, Kyle, Rosie, Shadow, Megan, and Kristy had to go to concert choir, though, so they slowly walked down to the chorus room and joined the small crowd already there and waiting for Miss Boedges.
"Not another pool of blood," Rosie groaned as Miss Boedges opened the door and turned on the lights.
"Who's the lucky stiff this time?" Kyle wondered.
There were splotches of blood on the floor, leading from the large puddle to the robe cabinet. Shadow walked over there, pulled the door open, and Alex fell out, looking rather dead.
"Go figure," said Dusty. "The one time Welsch actually shows up, he gets killed. Weird."
The entire concert choir sat down, carefully avoiding the blood, and tried to figure out what to do.
"We really need to practice," Katy pointed out. "Our concert's in a few weeks."
"But we should go home," Adam said. "It's not really safe to be here if there's a serial killer roaming around."
"Nobody's going to attack us if we're all in here, though," said Laura. "There's safety in numbers."
"I agree with Laura," Elizabeth said.
"Let's take a vote," Amber suggested.
So, they voted. Oddly enough, the majority wanted to stay and sing.
During a break, Megan, Courtney, and Rosie discussed the killer's pattern (or lack of one).
"We have Erica, Mr. Lohman, Mr. Mullins, Jacob, and Alex," Megan said, restating the obvious. "It just doesn't make sense."
"Jacob?" Courtney, not being in the play, hadn't heard about the second-most recent murder.
"If you don't include Erica," said Rosie, "the victims are all guys."
"Yeah, and if you don't include Mr. Lohman, they all play musical instruments."
"So basically, there's still no common thread linking them all together," Courtney said.
"Pretty much, yeah," Megan replied.
"I wonder who'll be next?" Rosie asked rhetorically.
"I don't know, but I think Megan's the serial killer," Courtney joked.
"Me?" Megan said innocently.
"Yeah. Who else would want to kill Alex and Mr. Mullins?"
"Obviously, whoever did kill them."
"Well, see, if I had just said Mr. Mullins, then that could be almost anybody. However, I think you're one of the few people who wants to kill Alex."
"What about Lindsay?"
"Hey, it could be her. That's a good idea."
"What?" Lindsay said in surprise, having overheard their conversation. "Why would I want to kill my brother? I think Megan would, though."
"Okay, where do you all get 'wants to kill him' out of 'likes him'?" Megan asked. "That doesn't make any sense whatsoever."
"Neither does your so-called logical reasoning," said Courtney. "Let's see...you killed him because...umm..."
"See? There's no motive, therefore I'm innocent."
"Everybody's innocent till proven guilty," Lindsay said. "I learned that in Mr. Stellhorn's class."
"You mean you actually learned something between naps?"
"Very funny. Well, I'll see you all tomorrow, since we'll probably have play practice."
"Adios," Megan said as she left.
***