Page 313 of A University of Betrayal

“There’s no one I hate more,” I and Miles said at the same time, and our gazes darkened.

“Don’t do that,” I hissed, and he just snorted in annoyance.

Talking with him at the same time felthorrible.

“Anyway, we think their deaths are connected. It’s the same day, and I don’t believe in coincidences like that,” commented Bayla, who seemed to care a lot about all this drama concerning Alice Blair.

She had gone through so much trouble to investigate, even though it was just some rebellious Quatura girl that everyone here was now chasing after.

“Then why wasn’t he in the morgue? This newspaper only says something about the witch,” I questioned critically.

“You’re clever. I’ll give you that,” Miles replied with audible condescension.

I looked at him angrily. “I don’t need your compliments.”

“She’s right. Where was his body?” Julie said contritely.

It was about her father. She was the only person who was actually allowed to be interested in the events of that time.

“Buried earlier?” Julian asked and I just nodded. That sounded plausible, even though the funeral must have taken place within two days then.

“Hmm...” Larissa began unsatisfied. “I don’t know. There’s something strange about it.”

“Did at least going through my uncle’s files help?”

Everyone looked at me.

Bayla grimaced guiltily. “No, unfortunately not. Thanks anyway.”

I turned my gaze away from her to another person. “That’s strange, even though Julie took something?”

Everyone suddenly looked at her, and she looked up from the newspaper article.

“I...” she began, her cheeks reddening abnormally quickly. “That was just Alaister’s file.”

Larissa put her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because there was nothing important in there... There was just a picture and his student ID. And his studies weren’t considered finished because he had previously...” She broke off and looked briefly at the newspaper article. It was written all over her face. She had expected something else. Perhaps a more satisfying answer as to what had happened to her father? Maybe a cause of death? “Anyway, he never started his third semester.”

Larissa looked troubled. “That’s even stranger now.”

“What if he was ill, both of them maybe?” thought Julian aloud, and I wasn’t the only one looking at him in frustration.

He raised his hands apologetically and looked at me and Bayla. “What? I’m just trying to find plausible explanations.”

“There aren’t any in this town,” Bayla sighed, staring at the newspaper entries, lost in thought.

“We can’t get any further without more information about Alice.”

Larissa looked not only dissatisfied, but also disappointed. As if she had expected more.

Bayla turned to Larissa. “And where are we going to get that from? The diary ended just like that. She was only in her first semester then.”

“I think there are still entries somewhere,” Larissa replied with confidence. And even if this hope sounded all too idealistic to me, it didn’t make sense that the diaries just stopped. Just the fact that they had already found two parts of the diary at two different places. As if this Alice had wanted to hide them.

“I have to tell you something,” Bayla admitted, and everyone looked at her. “The day we found the diary, someone broke into our house and the diary was on the floor of Alice’s room.”

We?