“They know it was planted overnight. When pretty much nobody has an actual alibi.” I sighed and settled back into the chair. Me and Kanesha were in my room, which was rather less barren than it had been.

“Which means they’re never going to narrow down the suspect pool. Unless it’s true that Kevin Poole’s parents lock him up all night.”

I rolled my eyes. “If Kevin Poole’s parents did half of what Kevin claims they do, CPS would have been on them years ago. But yeah. Who can have somebody swear to their whereabouts between 2 and 4 am. Brilliant move.”

Kanesha rolled her eyes. “They can’t arrest…or expel…all of us. They’ll probably catch them because of something they left in their locker.”

“Assuming they don’t plant the evidence.” I wasn’t convinced they wouldn’t. They weren’t letting any of us get to them, either. Who knew when I’d see my jacket again. “Although there’s one thing. It was set off using a cell phone. So everyone who left their phone in their locker is out.”

“And they’re not letting people get them. Brilliant.” Kanesha sighed. “And hopefully obvious enough even for that pair.”

“The guy didn’t seem so bad.” I leaned back further. “Unfortunately, I had mine in my pocket.”

Which I had thought was fortunate until I’d thought of that. Not having my phone would suck, but being able to not worry about being arrested for something I didn’t do as opposed to something I did? That would be worth it.

“So did I. Although after this they’ll probably make us leave them in our lockers.”

I nodded. “They probably will. They’ve been looking for an excuse anyway, but some of the parents have made serious noise about how they need to be able to call us if there’s an actual emergency.”
The middle school kids had to hand theirs in to the office. We had more freedom. Until now, anyway. Nothing good could come of this. I closed my eyes.

“Pipe bombs aren’t hard to make,” Kanesha mused. “The recipes are all on the internet. And the cops aren’t revealing exactly what it was. They must be hoping the bomber will say something that indicates they know…”

“Knowing the exact design would rather indicate that you built it.” Which meant I probably shouldn’t do any research on the matter. “It was pretty potent, though. They meant to do damage.”

“But only to that classroom. Maybe they were trying to destroy everyone’s homework so the teacher would forget they didn’t hand theirs in.”

I laughed. Of course, for us, homework excuses…then again, Kanesha somehow managed to still get hers in. She was definitely the Hermione Granger around here. Probably had a time turner, too. “Maybe. Seems a bit excessive, though. Maybe we should eliminate everyone who has a dog.”

“Do you remember when Mr. Lowrie set fire to Helena’s homework with a bunsen burner?”

Laughter burst from me. “I do remember that. And she was just sitting there grinning, too. Letting him put it out.”

“Probably hoping it was destroyed. Let’s talk about something else for a bit?”

I could definitely go for that.