Tangled With A Priest

 Ivie tried to tail Sister Gabriel all day, ditching class to lean by the wall waiting for when she would arrive. It yielded nothing, the Sister went about her daily task, not looking like a potential suspect to the crime Ivie was accusing her of. And so the next day, Ivie decided to visit her office. What better way to hide evidence than in your comfort zone?

 She waited until they had Sister Gabriel's class, calculated the two hours the boring lecture would span, and slip out of the class after thirty minutes. Sister Gabriel would notice her absence, would shake her head and said she wondered how some people would go o heaven, she always made crude statements like that. But for now, Ivie didn't worry. 

 The corridor was empty as the students were in class session and the staff assigned to parade the ground looked at her in surprise. One of them asked, "What are you doing?"

 "Walking," she answered. She could pretend she was going to the counselor's office, or the restroom, anything that meant she wasn't standing at a place and staring into space. She knew enough of the school to know what works. 

 Ivie had never been to Sister Gabriel's office, mostly because it was in the teacher's wing, a lot of teachers had offices around the place, it would be hard to trespass, except she came in through the window. 

 She turned around as immediately as she dropped her last foot and walked up the stairs above her office to find a window. She looked down, Sister Gabriel's window was just one jump away. The staff there dashed her curious glances, but she didn't give them the benefit of catching her off guard. Except when she wanted to jump, of course. 

 They were three, watching her hawk like. She groaned internally. Then she looked at one of them, narrowed her eyes slightly to the wall behind him and gasped, her hands coming to cover her mouth in a feigned shock. They looked back, all three of them. Foolish! She jumped. 

 Her foot landed by the side of Sister Gabriel's window and as she bent to check the pane, it was already open. Great. She slipped in effortlessly and landed with a soft thud. 

 "A lady with book sense, street sense and common sense is unbeatable, me." A smug smile spread across her lips. Now, she would get to business and finish as quickly as possible. 

 She checked the drawers first, sure enough Sister Gabriel should have hidden the note here, suppose she still had it. Even if she didn't, there must be a linking somewhere, a slip she didn't consider would give her away. 

 The drawers were nothing but school work, papers sacked neatly side by side. She through each of them, after all, they could fit a small note. She found nothing there. 

 On her desks was a table frame of Sister Gabriel and some other staff, the Dean included. She picked it up and stared at it, nothing out of the ordinary. She placed it back and flipped through the textbooks by the side, sitting by the edge of the table. Some notes were in between the pages and she would stop to read each one of them, nothing she was looking for. 

 By the wall what looked like the Sister's todo list were written on small sheets, in company of the huge picture frame of the priestess. Ivie had to agree, Sister Gabriel was organized. She moved to the shelf. The door opened. 

 "Breaking more rules, are we?" Father Chibuike left the door open a little longer than necessary. 

 He had seen her the moment she slipped out of the class. What a pleasant surprise, things were falling in pleasant places for him. He followed her, keeping a good distance. When she got to one of the offices, he noticed how hesitant she was in enter, when she climbed one step above it, he followed her. When she jumped out of the window, he grinned and hurried to the spot so he could watch her entering a staff's office. Indeed, Ivie would come in handy. 

 He went back, one step below, to the office she was stood in front of. She was inside, committing another sin he would use to his advantage. He waited for a while, and when the corridor was empty, opened the door. "Breaking more rules, are we?"

 Ivie gaped at the half closed door and dashed towards him, yanking the door shut. "What do you think you're doing?"

 "I thought I was supposed to be the one asking?"

 Ivie stepped back, realizing her situation, he had caught her. "Father…I…no..good morning."

 "Splendid morning, how your night?"

 This wasn't the time to exchange pleasantries! "What are you doing here?"

 "You're one to ask."

 "Did you follow me?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. 

 "Of course, what else would I be doing?"

 "Why?" She felt sickened. 

 "Silly, so I can catch you breaking the rules." He grinned, then scanned the office. "That's—" he pointed at the frame, "—that Sister, the one you told you were sleepwalking, what was her name?"

 "It's doesn't matter."

 "Oh yes, it does, considering how you're paying her a good visit in her absence. I want to know something, did you lie to me about seeing the cat or to her about sleepwalking?"

 "Father, this is not the appropriate time to ask about that." She wanted him to lower his voice. She looked at the door wondering who might be passing and who might hear. 

 "Why?" He took a step away from her and walked around the office. 

 "What do you mean why? Do you know the kind of trouble this would get us into?"

 "Us?" He crooked a brow at her. "I caught you, young lady."

 "If you knew I was here then why didn't you inform the others?"

 "Because I need your debts to me to pile up. There's something I need you to do for me, but I know you won't cooperate, so I need a leverage against you."

 She stared at him, her mouth agape. "How did you become a priest?"

 "Beats me too." 

 "What is it you want from me that you need to blackmail me first?"

 "When you put it like that, you make me sound like a bad person, but not now, soon you'll know. So keep breaking 'em rules." He turned to her. "Now, I do not believe you came here to help the priestess wipe dust from her table, especially after going through the trouble, slipping out of class, jumping out of the window, and all. So what's this about?"

 The priest should leave! "It's none of your business," she responded. 

 "I know, but since I'm here, and not out there telling everybody you broke into a staff's office, you could use my help. So spill?"

 "Are you not even afraid somebody would walk in here and see the both of us?" He appeared too calm. 

 He walked up to where she stood and flicked her forehead. "I caught you already, there's no other catching. So, go on, how can I be of service to you?"

 She glared at him, rubbing her forehead. "I wish you can go back to where you came from."

 "Time is what you and I lack," Father Chibuike stressed. "You went through trouble to get here, are you going to leave her empty handed? Even if you're going to get caught, achieve what you came here for first."

 She exhaled, this was no priest of God. "You won't even know what I'm looking for."

 "Not if you give me a good description."

 "It's a small white note with the word Sorry on it."

 Father Chibuike squinted his eyes at her. The description was simple and straight to the point, and it rang a bell in his head. It was the girl's suicide note, Ivie was looking for the note? Just what he needed. Of course, she was very handy. 

 "It doesn't seem like anything extraordinary, why do you think it'd be here?" He played dumb. 

 "Don't ask, just find it."

 He folded his hand across his chest. "I never said anything about helping you."

 She looked at him in shock. "You did."

 "Really? Care to remind me?"

 She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down, annoyance trickling in her blood. When she opened them back, the priest's gaze was fixated on her. She turned away from him and resumed her search. She focused on the spaces on the shelf, flipped through the quickly, her eyes alert. 

 When she heard Father Chibuike's footsteps behind her, she assumed he had finally agreed to help, but he grabbed her hand with a great forced and hauled her to the back of the shelf, his hand covering her mouth.