Chapter 22

                                    

                                          
"Eliza, take a  look at this. I found it in my jumper since the Alley."
                          
I placed the scarp of fabric beside her. She watched me vacantly.
                          
"Did a piece of your shirt tear off?"
                          
"No. Well, yes, but this isn't it. I tried fitting it to my shirt but it didn't fit and it was the wrong colour. It's dirtier and slightly lighter than my shirt."
                          
She sat up straight, intrigued.
                          
"I fell back into the shrubbery in the Alley and my hood was out. It must have caught on to it. And it was near the place we found North's body."
                          
She took the fabric from my hands and examined it. "It looked old, but at the same time new."
                          
"That's what I thought. Like it's only been there for a few weeks."
                          
Eliza's face gleamed with excitement. "What if it's Jane-Rose's?"
                          
"Yeah, but how will we know?"
                          
"I don't know. She has a lot of clothes, so even if we get a chance to look, it will take a long time to find anything that might match."
                          
"But how would we even get into her house to look?"
                          
Eliza harrumphed. "We can't. Unless..."
                          
I took the fabric back. "I have to check if it belongs to any of the guys, and then I'll check with everyone else here."
                          
 "Except Ms Hartley."
                          
"Except her," I agreed.
                          
As I left the room, I saw Dylan scamper into ours. Hastily, I followed him, tapping him on the shoulders before he could put his headphones on. He snapped his head back. "What?"
                          
"Do you own anything of this colour?" I asked, holding the piece of fabric to his eyes. He yanked his head back and wrinkled his nose.
                          
"What is with you and disgusting clothes? Get it away from me."
                          
"OK. But do you own anything like this?"
                          
He thought about it for a while. "I think so..."
                          
"Can you show me?"
                          
"Yeah." 
                          
He walked to his drawer and pulled out a pair of faded jeans. The cloth in my hands was definitely not denim.
                          
"Uh, OK," I sighed. "Do you know if John or Henry own anything like it?"
                          
"Dunno, you gotta ask them. I know that John's uniform looks kinda like that, though."
                          
"Where are they?"
                          
"Henry's at a friend's place and John's... I dunno what he does on his weekends. Like, bird watching or something dumb like that," he murmured. 
                          
"He does chess club."
                          
"Same difference."
                          
I rolled my eyes. "Well, when you see them, can you tell them I need to speak to them?"
                          
"Yeah. What's the deal, anyway? You leave at like eight o'clock, and you suddenly show up smelling like shit."
                          
"I fell over."
                          
"And what's that thing got to do with it?" he asked pointing to the fabric.
                          
"I'm trying to solve a case, remember? A classmate-"
                          
"Oh yeah. East-West-North-South-whatever."
                          
"Her name was North."
                          
"Whatever dude, just don't stick your nose in places it shouldn't be. You're going to be smelling something a lot worse than what you just made me smell if you keep it up. So just chill, yeah?"