They Said They're The Murderers

Officer King looked bewildered.

He suddenly stood up from his chair and took the expulsion letter that Fiona handed over. The official stamp on the letter was blood red. It indicated that due to Fiona cheating in an examination, the university was expelling her.

Fiona was mocking Mandy in the interrogation room.

“I killed Mandy because she reported me for cheating. Actually, Mandy is a horrible human being. I’m delighted that she’s dead! I didn’t cheat at all. She’s the one who cheated. She didn’t know anything about working hard; she just enjoyed life, so she wanted to cheat.

“A day before the exams, she begged me to let her copy my answers. I didn’t agree to that. In the end, because she couldn’t answer the papers, she reported me for cheating. She placed a cheat sheet in my pocket in advance.

“Tell me, wasn’t she horrible? If that witch hadn’t died, I wouldn’t be happy. I stole Fiona’s cyanide and put it in Mandy’s water cup. When she fell, I took my sweet time stabbing her eighteen times. She belonged to the depths of hell!”

I was affected by Fiona’s insane laugh and could barely control my expression.

Officer King watched Fiona’s recording, then he placed all three statements on the table. He kept comparing all of our statements as he got more and more serious. The police officers nearby also realized that this murder case could not be easily solved.

Time passed, but Officer King still could not solve it.

Angry and frustrated, he yelled, “Rosalie, what are the three of you doing? All three of you claim that you’re the murderer, and the ways you describe it all sound similar!”

The other police officers were also trying to get me to tell the truth. “Rosalie, do you know you can get the death penalty for murder? You better think before you speak!”

When I looked at their intense gazes, I still calmly said, “I’ve told you that I’m the murderer, and I’m the only one.”

Officer King was enraged by my calm facade. He slammed the evidence onto the table.

He pointed at the love letter, the receipt, and the expulsion letter. “We’ll investigate these items. Once the autopsy results come out, we’ll see what else the three of you can say!”

Anna, Fiona, and I were detained as suspects. All three of us bumped into each other when we left the interrogation room. I was still calm. Anna was still pissed off, and Fiona’s face was still twisted in happiness.

We stopped in our tracks and met each other’s gazes.

Our eyes looked guarded and hesitant, and we all had a sense of camaraderie since we were all claiming to be the murderer.

However, three days later, Officer King let us go.

In the lobby, Officer King pulled out our alibis.

“We’ve confirmed that Mandy died between one and two in the morning from the autopsy report. None of you were at the dorm when it happened.”

The police managed to locate from the school’s surveillance cameras and our phones’ locations that, when Mandy was killed, I was watching a movie with my ex-boyfriend in the city and that I was out all night. Fiona was doing an experiment in the lab until the morning. Anna was working the night shift at a 24-hour convenience store.

All of us only showed up after we found out that Mandy had died.

The counselor who came over to bail us out also advised us not to fool around anymore. “Officer King looked into this. You are good kids; I also believe you aren’t capable of doing such a thing. But you can’t simply admit to a crime like this! Murder is no joke! Go back and write a self-reflection report of at least a thousand words!”

Officer King probed, “Who are you trying to protect?”

All of us sneered, “It doesn’t matter whether you believe it or not, one of us is the murderer!”