Chapter 3: The Evidence Disappears

3

When I finished telling my story, Officer Martinez’s face was ice cold.

"So that’s why you called the police?" Officer Martinez’s eyes drilled into me.

I nodded hard.

"Where’s the finger?" He pointed to the now-empty toilet stall.

"Flushed away."

"Flushed away? That’s crucial evidence!" Officer Martinez’s tone was sharp.

I panicked, waving my hands. "I didn’t mean to! The school must have changed to sensor toilets. The second I stood up, it flushed by itself!"

Officer Martinez eyed the toilet behind me, clearly skeptical.

I hurried to show him. "Look, it works like this..."

I stopped mid-sentence. I squatted and stood up several times, but nothing happened. The toilet didn’t react at all.

Officer Martinez sneered, came over, and pressed the button on the tank.

Whoosh—water roared down.

"Chris, you realize this isn’t a game, right? Filing a false report is a serious offense. You want to spend April Fool’s in a cell?"

His words sent a chill down my spine.

All I’d thought about was calling for help—I hadn’t considered what would happen if I couldn’t prove anything.

Right then, my phone dinged.

I suddenly remembered—I could use the chat records from Derek as evidence!

But as soon as I opened my phone, my blood ran cold.

That so-called Derek’s chat window popped up with an animated emoji—a clown pulling a grotesque face, next to two huge flashing words: "Fun."

My head spun, my ears rang, and I felt like I was about to pass out.

In that moment, I realized—it was all Derek’s prank.

But I’d already called the police. How was I supposed to fix this?

He’d gone way too far.

But if things had come to this, I wasn’t taking the fall alone.

Even though I’d called the police, it all started with Derek’s prank.

If anyone was to blame, it was him.

I shoved my phone toward Officer Martinez. "Officer, it’s all because of him! He led me on with these messages. He’s the real culprit."

Officer Martinez took my phone, glanced at it, and his brow furrowed. "Chris, you think it’s funny to mess with the police?"

He slammed the phone back into my hands.

I quickly checked the screen—every chat record with Derek had vanished. Only the clown face remained.

And even that slowly faded away as I watched.