CHAPTER 5
THE LOCKER ROOM

ROYAL WOODS MIDDLE SCHOOL, ROYAL WOODS, MICHIGAN
March 13th, 3:05 pm

We arrived back at Royal Woods Middle School, the place where Lincoln Loud was last seen alive. Me, Hartmann, and Bowie parked the patrol car in the school parking lot and walked over to Principal Ramirez. "I see you are back", he said. "We have reason to believe that the school Locker Room was the last place Lincoln Loud was seen alive.", I said. "The Locker Room? Well you better get over there, the janitors are about to start cleaning the place!" "Oh sonna va-" We ran like hell towards the locker room. We got there just as the janitor was about to open the door with his cleaning supplies. "What's goin' on?" "Sheriff John Hughes of the Royal Woods County Sheriff's Department, we need to look over the locker room so I'm afraid you can't clean up this place until we say so". "Well shoot", said the janitor. What am I gonna do now?"

The janitor left as me, Hartmann, and Bowie went inside. We found the place to be a little messy but then again, since when was there ever a locker room that was tidy? We began to look over the place. We opened lockers but mostly found dirty laundry, worn out baseball equipment such as helmets, bats, and gloves. But nothing much. As we were wraping it up... "Hey Sheriff", said Hartmann, "Take a look at this". We looked over to where Hartmann was pointing. His finger pointed at the edge of a locker room bench and there was a red stain on it, along with a few red dots on the floor with some white hairs mixed in it. The red dots could be only one thing...blood!

We found Coach Keck in her office and asked her about it. "Blood?" she said, "Weird. I'e hadn't heard about any brawls in the locker room. If there was, the security camera would catch the guilty party." We walked over to her security monitor, but was surprised. "Now what the h*** is goin' on?!" We looked over and saw an empty VHS tape box. "Someone's taken the security tape from yesterday." I looked at her. "Who had access to your security footage?" "Only me. But I told my students about it in case some rebel rouser wanted to start something in the locker room".

"I think whoever murdered the Loud kid knew about the tape and took it to prevent it from being found it", said Bowie. "But we didn't find any tape at the crime scene", said Hartmann. "Okay, here's what I think happened", I said, "The murderer hit Lincoln with the baseball bat, thus causing him to fail and hit his temple on the edge of the bench. Thus killing him". "Okay, but we're going to need a murder weapon", said Bowie. Suddenly, Hartmann's phone rang. "Hello?...yeah?...uh-hun...I see...okay, we'll be there. Bye", said Hartmann before putting away the phone, "That was Jenny, she wants to talk to us". "About what?" "Search me? But I think we'd better get there quickly." "Alright, but first, let's get a sample of that blood from the locker room. If my suspicious are right, that could be Lincoln Loud's blood".

ROYAL WOODS MORGUE, ROYAL WOODS, MICHIGAN
March 13th, 3:24 pm

We collected the hair and blood samples and headed over to the morgue where we found Jenny. She had the shoes we found at the crime scene in her pocession. "What's goin' on Jenny?" I asked. "One of the officers brought these in. He found blood inside 'em". "Blood?" "Yep. Aparently whoever wore these, their feet were too big thus whenever they walked, their feet rubbed against the insides of the shoes, making them bleed." Then I remember something from interrogating Lynn Loud Jr.

"What happened to your feet?" "They...er...I stepped in some thorns and scraped by feet against them".

"I think we should take a look at Lynn Jr.'s alibi", I said before turning to Hartmann and Bowie. "Hartmann, I need you to go to Laura Leighton's residence and ask her about what size of show she wears. Bowie, I need you to check the Burpin' Burger and ask if Lynn Jr. and her beau Francisco were there. I'm going to see Francisco myself and interrogate him privately". I then turned to Jenny. "Jenny, where are those wooden splinters you found in Lincoln's head?" "Right here", she gave me the bag of splinters. "What's the plan Sheriff?" "When I give the order, we'll head over to the Loud Family residence", I said. We all went our seperate ways. Hartmann went to Laura Leighton's, Bowie went to check the Burpin' Burger, and I went straight to Francisco's place.

4567 COLONEL STREET, ROYAL WOODS, MICHIGAN
March 13th, 3:44 pm

I arrived at the Garcia residence. I knocked on the door and a Cuban woman in her late 30s - early 40s opened the door. "Mrs. Garcia I presume?" "Yes? What do you want?" "I'm Sheriff John Hughes of the Royal Woods County Sheriff's Department. I'm here to talk to your son about a friend of his". "I see", she said, "Francisco! Come down please". Soon the young Cuban boy came down the stairs. "Yes mom?" "The Sheriff here wants to talk to you". "Uh okay", he said. "Is it okay if we talk in the living room?" I asked. He and his mother nodded.

We sat down in the living room and I pulled out my notebook. "I'm certain you're aware of the death of Lincoln Loud?" "Yes, it's shocking", Francisco said. "Well, we're doing an investigation on the Loud Family. Can you tell me about Lynn Jr's wherabout's yesterday?" "Uhhhh sure. We...we went to Gus' Games n' Grub", the young Cuban boy said. "Gus' Games n' Grub? Funny, Lynn Jr. said you guys went to the Burpin' Burger?" "Oh crud!", Francisco muttered before saying, "Ah that's it! Yeah, I...I meant the Burpin' Burger." The Garcia kid was starting to look nervous. "Son, I have a feeling you're not telling the truth. If I send one of my detectives down to Gus', is Gus gonna tell him that you and Lynn were there?" The boy looked at his mother. "Just tell the truth sweetie", she said. Francisco sighed. "No, we didn't go to any of those places", he said. "Then tell me what happened?" "Last night, Lynn Jr. came here and asked me to vouch for her". "Vouch for what son? If there's anything you know that's important to this case, it's best you tell me". The young Cuban boy sighed and began to explain.

Last night, Lynn came to the back door of my house. I was in the kitchen making a tuna sandwich when I saw her outside and signaled me to meet her in the backyard. I went to the backyard and found Lynn Jr. I asked what was going on and she said she just did something real bad and asked me if I could make up an alibi for her. She also said she took Laura Leighton's shoes in order to cover her tracks.

"And after that, she left", he said. "Intersting to note". "Also as she left, I noticed that her feet were covered in mud and were were cuts on her feet as if she rubbed them against something". "Hmmmmmmmmmm, I see. Thank you very much son", I said, "That's all I need to hear". As got up and prepared to leave. "Oh Sheriff". I turned to the Garcia boy. "Yes?" "Lynn also wanted me to dispose of something. I tried to, but doubt was playing on my mind and I didn't. It looked suspicious". "What is it?" "Be right back", said the boy. He went upstairs and later came back down with something in his hand. It was a black VHS Tape with a label that said "ROYAL WOODS MIDDLE SCHOOL LOCKER ROOM, MARCH 12TH". "Interesting", I said as I took the tape and left.

I walked over to the patrol car and pulled out the CB Radio. "Hartmann, Bowie? You guys there?" "10-4 Sheriff, this is Hartmann. I've checked the Burpin' Burger, neither Francisco Garcia nor Lynn Jr. have been there yesterday." "I know, Garcia told me everything. Aparently Lynn Jr. told him to make up an alibi. Plus He gave me the missing security tape". "This is Bowie, Sheriff. I got back from the Leighton residence. Ms. Laura says that she didn't notive she got the wrong shows until she got home. She said they were too big for her feet." "Okay, everyone meet me at the station. We got a security tape to look at".

ROYAL WOODS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, ROYAL WOODS, MICHIGAN
MARCH 13th, 4:01 pm

We arrived at the station and pulled out an old VHS TV. "Alright, If I'm correct, this tape should show us who the murderer is", I said. Bowie put the tape in and after fast forwarding a bit, we reached the time the victum was killed. And that's when we saw the culprit. "Alright, we got our evidence", I said before turning to the detectives, "Hartmann, Bowie, you guys are coming with me. I'm also going to need some backup for this job. Have a couple of patrol cars surrounding the area". "Yes sir", said Bowie. "Gentlemen, we are going to the Loud Family residence!".

EVIDENCE SO FAR:

- Blood and White Hair stands were found in the Middle School locker room on the edge of one of the locker room benches and a security tape was stolen from the coach's office.

- Coroner said that the inside of Laura's shoes were covered in blood, as if the person's feet were too big for them and the feet rubbed against them, making them bleed.

- Francisco Garcia (Boyfriend of Lynn Jr.) said that Lynn came to his backyard last night and asked him to make up an alibi for her. Garcia also said that her feet were covered in mud and blood. Lynn said that she took Laura Leighton's shoes to cover her tracks. She also asked Garcia to dispose of a security tape.

- Security tape has been found (Murderer will be revealed in next chapter)