The Residents

LISA woke up the next day all sweaty from a nightmare. She had been dreaming, a scary one where she was talking with Sarah, encouraging her to visit Josh's parents and then Sarah left.

Lisa ventured towards Sarah's room, she was scared but she didn't know why then she walked in and saw blood but Sarah was sitting and looking at her.

"It's your fault, you should have come after Josh left, you shouldn't have waited for my killer to come and kill me. It's your fault", Sarah said maliciously and Lisa started hearing screams, her screams. Then she woke up.

Was it truly her fault? If she had come when Josh left would it be a different story? Of course, it would have, she thought. If she had been with Sarah, the killer might not have killed her and Sarah would obviously still be alive.

Tears threatened to fall as she stood up and headed to the bathroom to have a nice long wash. She came out and decided to call Robin and thank him for last night. She didn't know whether he came back home and she didn't want to venture around the house looking pointlessly for him.

She dialled his line and he picked on the second ring.

"Hey Lisa, how are you feeling now?", he asked.

"A bit better.", she paused. "Robin, thanks for helping me yesterday.", she said.

"Oh don't worry about that. What happened yesterday was... terrible and I can't imagine what you went through seeing... I'm sorry and I'm glad I could be there for you."

"So have you guys you know found any clues?", she asked.

"No, not yet. We've sent the... um... body to forensics and they're checking it for how she got the injuries and all. We're bringing Josh in for questioning today seeing that he was the last person known to have seen Sarah. I'll let you know of anything that we find out and if we would need your assistance for anything else.", Robin said.

"Thanks, Robin, that would be helpful.", she said sounding dull.

"I called Hugh to let him know and he's headed over to the house to pick you up. I hope that's alright?", Robin asked and at that moment she heard a familiar horn outside.

He was here. "Sure, thanks.",

"I was glad I could help. I have to go now.", he said. They exchanged goodbyes and hung up. The doorbell rang and she went to answer. She opened to see Hugh.

Hugh, her boyfriend, was a handsome young man with blonde hair. He was tall and had a good physique. They had met in high school like most of her friends. At that point, they didn't have any feelings towards each other but things changed when they started working.

She worked for the same construction company as he did. He was the accountant and she was in one of the administrative posts, meaning they both dealt with paperwork and not on the field.

The men at the office were being mean and disapproving since she was the only female on the team. She was not intimidated by them but they were very cruel. Once it got too much for her to take and Hugh found her crying. He heavily reprimanded the men that day and told them to treat her with much respect.

Since then, he was the only friend she had on the team and their friendship blossomed into something more. Of course, she always had the thought that she shouldn't be dating him since he was her colleague but she just couldn't bring herself to end it.

She looked deeply into his eyes before she hugged him. They stayed like that for a while. He knew what had happened.

"How are you feeling?", he asked as he entered the house and sat.

"I'm...better.", she said quietly.

"Robin told me what had happened. I... I can't believe you saw that.", Hugh said and took her hand in his causing her to look at him.

"Lisa, I want you to know that whatever you feel, you can talk to me. I'm here for you and I'm here to listen.", he said looking into her eyes.

At first, she considered telling him about her nightmare but she thought against it. She didn't want him feeling too sorry for her. Plus, it was just one nightmare.

"I'm fine but how are you?", she asked shifting the subject to him. She wasn't the only one who lost a friend. Hugh sighed and resigned in a chair.

"It was a huge one for me. Imagine my shock thinking I was gonna see Sarah today when Robin called me telling me what had happened. It took me a while before I could get myself.", he said then exhaled a deep breath and after a while he stood.

"C'mon. Let's go. I've called the rest and they're aware, so we're meeting at the diner.", Hugh said and with that, they left. The car ride was silent before Lisa asked.

"Did Robin tell you anything new?", she asked. She knew it was only just yesterday but she couldn't stop herself from asking.

"Only that he's bringing Josh for questioning and the...uh.. forensics are with...", he trailed on.

It was very awkward to refer to their friend as the body. She was well and alive up until yesterday evening.

Soon, they arrived at the diner and they walked in to see their clique at their usual table. They arrived and greeted each other with gloomy expressions even Raven and Lisa shared a hug. They all knew what had happened.

Before they could start discussing a young lady in an apron arrived at their table. Her hair was in a bun and she was holding a notepad and a pen.

"Hi guys.", she started.

"Hi Ana.", Miles said, the only one who replied to her greeting.

"What would you guys like to have?", she asked.

"Just soft drinks, you know, the ones we usually take.", Miles said and she left.

Ana Matthews was one of the waitresses at The Dinning Diner. She had been to the same high school but was years ahead of them. After she graduated it was hard for her to get into university so with the help of her uncle she started working for the diner. But before she got this job, she had resorted to questionable means to raise money for her little sister, Antoine's further education. Means that got her into jail more than once. It wasn't until she had a near death experience with some hard drugs did she take a step back and realise this wasn't how she wanted her life to go. Her sister was able to get a scholarship and because of this she dedicated her time to get her life on the right track.

Even though, Ana was trying so hard to work on herself, her former reputation was ingrained in the minds of many residents of Liddenville and after months, she gave up trying to get back in their good books.

Because of this, most people didn't treat her with much respect and she had a hard time finding or having friends. There were just few people she interacted with, Miles, The Sheriff and Sarah being part of those people.

She later came back with their usual preferred soft drinks and left, but after casting each of them cautious looks.

Pablo who was on a phone hung up with an angry face and he was the first to speak.

"Josh just arrived at the station. I hope they end up arresting him 'cause I'm sure he did it.", Pablo said.

"Woah! First off, calm down. He couldn't have been the one....", Lisa started but Pablo cut her off.

"Think of it. We know the lunch with Sarah and his parents at their house was bullshit and he could have been angry and probably didn't come with his car when he came back to...", Pablo said.

"There's no way bro. Plus, his parents would do something about it, especially his dad, Carter. There's no way they would let their precious son do such a thing when he could easily become a suspect.", Hugh said with a tone of disgust.

Carter Winter was Liddenville's mayor. He was the richest man and had so many important connections making it easy for him to win the election. He was very egotistical and was married to a snobbish lady, Maria Winter. The clique never liked the family as a whole thus the reason they didn't approve of Sarah and Josh's relationship.

"But I have a feeling it could have been Gwendolyn.", Miles started.

Gwendolyn Martins was a young lady in her early thirties. She was single and not so much respected in the town. This was because she was the manager of the Liddenville register and always published news that made someone the talk of the town. The news always painted someone in the wrong light thus only damaging one's reputation. Some likened it to a gossip mill.

She had two people working for her, Sandra Ruben and Erik Luther. Since it wasn't a huge town they were the only ones working in the register. Sandra was the journalist going around getting information and having recordings while Erik was the cameraman and driver covering events.

Gwendolyn had once published in the papers that Harry, a fellow construction worker and Miles were involved in a homosexual relationship. This made Eugene Peters, Miles's uncle, very angry with him. It took Miles weeks before he could finally clear his name. This made Gwendolyn a permanent enemy to Miles.

"How?", Hugh asked.

"We all know since the issue of Sarah's relationship in the papers they never got along. And when Sarah publicly embarrassed Gwendolyn which was last week, Gwendolyn had also been very angry.", Miles said.

"So your theory is Gwendolyn killed Sarah because Sarah embarrassed her.", Pablo said in a condescending tone.

"It's possible. Plus, I recall that incident very well and from the way Sarah spoke to her, she sounded like she knew something personal about Gwendolyn, something Gwendolyn might not have wanted anyone to know about.", Miles said, standing his ground.

"That could be possible, that Sarah found out a secret of Miss Martins, one that would be detrimental to her in some way but then again how do we know it's not your vendetta against her that's making her your prime suspect?", Lisa asked.

"It's not just some vendetta, it's the fact that she has a motive.", Miles said and wanted to continue when Hugh spoke up.

"I think it might be Sidney.", Hugh said.

"Callister the principal, what would she gain from this?", Pablo asked.

"Remember the Sidney-Sarah-Betty issue.", Hugh said smiling while Pablo and Miles laughed, Lisa just made a face.

The said issue that elicited such reaction from the group of friends happened less that two months ago, about a month or more after Sarah's arrival. Sarah had gotten close to Robin and his daughter, Betty that the five year old saw her as an aunt and was very comfortable with her. Robin noting the relationship between his daughter and their latest guest, he allowed Sarah to be dropping Betty off at school whenever he was ill or busy with work.

Sarah hd found out that little Betty was being bullied and when she was brave enough to take it up, along with her teacher, to the principal, Sidney had dismissed them stating that the bully was a child to one of the influential people in their town and there was not much she could do.

When Sarah found out about this she marched straight to the principal's office but she didn't have to reach there as she encountered the said principal she was eager to meet in the hallway of the school. Sarah, filled with rage lashed out at Sidney in the midst of many student, of elementary and high school.

Videos circulated of Sarah putting Sidney in her place and it was a very embarrassing incident for Sidney in particular, while Sarah gained a 'cool' status amongst the students and children.

The group of four friends had found that hilarious but after that, Sidney and Sarah didn't get along. Of course, Sarah being herself, tried being the bigger person and burying the hatchet with some cookies but Sidney refused them. Sarah later realised that maybe her approach to the matter wasn't so justified and she should have taken it to the office instead of making it so public.

Thus, Sarah made it her mission to apologise and get Sidney to accept her as a friend. She became extremely nice and according to their clique, tortured Sidney with niceness she just couldn't resist the friendship. The matter was finally buried and forgotten and though they weren't so close, they had respect for each other.

"Please. That was around the time Sarah just arrived, if I remember correctly, which was what, three months ago.", Miles said recovering from his fit of laughter.

"What do you think Raves, have anyone in mind?", Pablo asked Raven who had been quietly looking outside and hadn't said a word since they all arrived. She looked at them.

"I think we should just leave it to the Sheriff.", she said quietly. "Sarah was a good person and we can't sit here doing table detectives, we should just let them do what they can to get the person so she can get the justice she deserves.", she said and that silenced the table for a while.

Until Miles spoke. "Yeah, she's right. We can't sit here doing table detectives, we gotta get out there and find something, we have to do our part, there might be clues the police might miss.", Miles said enthusiastically and Raven looked outside again.

"You know what, I'll call my uncle.", Miles said.

"What would he do?", Lisa asked.

Eugene Peters, Miles's uncle was the advisor to Carter Winter. He was, in the eyes of the residents, like a lost puppy following his master who happened to be Carter. It was a wonder how he happened to be the advisor. Eugene was married but everyone knew his wife Irene wasn't happy. She openly had affairs with other men while Eugene seemed to be unbothered by this.

People thought, why couldn't they just get a divorce, it was obvious they weren't happy with one another, but nobody said anything to them 'cause they knew the couple had something apart from love and children that was keeping them together seeing as the had neither.

If it was money, people wondered why Eugene had not divorced her as they were both capable of being financially stable independently, but there was the issue of acrimony. The people got used to their type of relationship and nobody bothered about them. Anytime it was published in the news, it was looked over as some irrelevant news and not a shock to anyone.

"He's well connected and could get some highly ranked detectives to be transferred here. That way we have a better chance.", Miles said.

The group was quiet for a while, all seeming to be thinking of his suggestion.

"I guess that would be good.", Pablo said first.

"Nice thinking man.", Hugh added.

"Yeah give him a call.", Lisa supported and Miles looked at Raven who nodded in approval.

So Miles excused himself to make the call and with Hugh, their conversation stirred to something lighter though once in a while they would mention Sarah and they would be quiet until another would clear their throat and move on delicately.

And that's it for chapter two. Now you all have heard a little or two about most residents of Liddenville. I won't ask who you have as suspect 'cause after reading two chapters, I don't know if I would even have any. But I would like to know what you think of Miles, Hugh and Pablo's various suspects.

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SJ💝