My expression turned frigid. I was no longer trying to reason with them. As for Mrs. Bass, she went completely red in the face, stifled by my retort.
Finally, one of the school administrators spoke up and put a stop to this chaos, "Alright, that's enough, all of you. The most important thing for us to do right now is to find the missing students, not fight among ourselves here!"
Then, he turned toward Ms. Watts. "Ms. Watts, I want you to lead the parents in another thorough examination of the students' beds and personal belongings. See if the students left any clues behind.
"Bradley, I want you to go along with them. As someone who lives with them, you might be more familiar with their habits."
In other words, they were going to perform a search on my roommates' belongings.
Displeased, Mrs. Lawson refused instantly, asking, "Who gave you the right to go through my son's belongings? That is his privacy!"
"He has already gone missing without a trace. Why are you still concerned about his privacy?" Ms. Watts questioned, her tone becoming stern as her blood began to boil.
"Please understand the gravity of the situation. We are now getting you to cooperate with the school and the authorities in our investigation!"
Only then did Mrs. Lawson shut her mouth, albeit indignantly.
Once again, the dormitory fell into an eerie silence. All that could be heard were ruffling sounds of people rummaging through things. The parents were very thorough in their inspection, going through every drawer and every book belonging to their own son.
Meanwhile, I stood aside, glancing across their messy tables. Lastly, I looked toward the trash can next to Zane's bed. It was a small, desktop trash can meant for throwing scrap paper, cigarette butts, and the like.
At that moment, other than a few pieces of crumpled-up papers, there was also a ball of crumpled white paper, looking quite out of place from the rest of the trash.
My heart skipped a beat. I walked over and slipped on a pair of disposable gloves that were on the table. Under everyone else's suspicious and disdainful gazes, I fished the said ball of paper out of the trash can.
Carefully, I smoothed out the piece of paper, which was now covered in creases.
My eyes widened the moment I realized what the words read. It was a test report from a hospital. Specifically, it was a hCG blood test report.
The hospital's name and logo were clearly printed at the top of the report, and two words were printed as the patient's name—"Stella Baird".
Stella was Zane's girlfriend, and the testing date was three days ago. And in the bottom-most section where the results were printed, an arrow indicated a reading way above normal levels, followed by a conclusive result that read, "Possibility of early-stage pregnancy".
With the thin piece of paper in my hands, I snapped my head up, my eyes darting nervously toward Mrs. Lawson, who was going through Zane's closet. At that moment, all the noise in the dorm room seemed to vanish into the distance. All I could hear was the pounding of my own heart.
As it turned out, this was what they were running away from.
I lifted the test report in my hand and announced, "Everyone, I might have found the reason for their disappearance."
