When the Detective Work is Done, I'll Die

Chapter 33

I had been wondering what he wanted with me. It seems Vice-Principal Kanou simply needed to pass along a student's status to Kitsunesaki the guidance counselor.

"The students who haven't been interviewed yet... we've sent most of them home. And... there seems to have been some kind of commotion..."

At first Kitsunesaki the guidance counselor hung his head, looking as though the words were painful to say. Yet once Vice-Principal Kanou stepped closer, refusal became impossible. In a hushed voice he relayed the student's knife incident.

Yet once again the vice-principal's head flushed scarlet at the unforeseen development. For him, any scandal inside the school had to be concealed at all costs.

He seized her shoulders, shaking her as he spoke.

"Got it? Tell no one about this! And the attack was just stress from exams and studying..."

"N-no, but..."

I already knew what he wanted to hide; so did Detective Chikage, who was with the police. His rampage could no longer be stopped.

A head steaming with rage approached me, denying my very existence.

"Keep your nose out of incidents at other schools! Go home, now!"

At the same moment he grabbed his flip phone. Was he planning to summon that fearsome P.E. teacher to drag us out by force?

I considered how to dodge that man and continue the investigation.

"Hyoga-kun Toragawa. Come to the principal's office at once."

The announcement rang out, and I was summoned—by the police. They had finally realized that I too was one of the suspects.

Because I was required to be here, no teacher could force me to leave.

I felt a small flicker of joy.

The call Vice-Principal Kanou was making turned out to be an order for take-out.

"Ah... yes, hello? One plate of dumplings, plus ramen and stir-fried leek and liver—oh, no leek and liver? Then spring rolls. Uh, write that down, sensei. Spring rolls added. Have the grade head pay for it."

Take-out? I was so startled I nearly tripped as I started walking. Kitsunesaki the guidance counselor seemed to think this was business as usual; giving a wry smile, he jotted it down in the notebook he'd pulled from his pocket.

Come to think of it, I had the memo pad Senior Urakawa had given me. I opened it as I headed for the principal's office.

I opened the door. Inside waited the female detective. Just as during the interview, I bowed from the doorway and remained standing until she told me I could sit on the sofa to the side.

"You can sit right down, it's fine..."

"S-sorry. I just... got nervous."

"Didn't seem nervous earlier...?"

"Ah... right, I guess not. Well, never mind nerves. I might have an alibi. When was the time of death?"

Bit by bit I advanced the investigation, gathering information. The timid female detective let herself be led along quite nicely.

"Um, between seven and eight..."

"Between seven and eight, you said..."

As I took notes, the detective narrowed her eyes and stared at my hands.

"Hey, isn't our dynamic reversed here?"

"Not at all. I do have an alibi. At that time I was at the bookstore in the department store near the station. Verification should be easy."

At that time I'd had my eye on Kanbara-senpai, terrified that one of her assassins might attack me. That's why I'd walked only through areas covered by security cameras. You can't recklessly resort to violence where evidence is being recorded.

"All right, all right. We'll check it properly."

The detective gave instructions to a nearby officer. When she finished, I asked her to share information in return.

"So, what was the cause of death? To confirm whether my alibi holds, I need to know."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, the alibi changes depending on the cause, right? If the victim pulled out the knife after being stabbed and bled out, the time of death could differ from the time the killer struck. The incident might have happened before six."

"Ah, I see. No, that's not the case. There was massive bleeding, but the killer stabbed the abdomen several times. The victim wouldn't have pulled the knife out... that's too dangerous... The killer definitely removed the blade at least once and stabbed again."

I see. The victim was stabbed multiple times.

Wait. The way she phrased it leaves a sliver of possibility that the victim pulled the knife out. Otherwise she wouldn't have added that confirmation about not doing anything dangerous.

But thinking normally, there's no way the victim actually pulled the knife out. It would only cause pain and serve no purpose.

The truth that can be inferred from the detective's phrase "stabbed and pulled out" is that the victim was still alive long enough after the stabbing to have pulled the knife out.

In other words, while the killer was setting up the werewolf scenario, the victim might have left something behind.

"Um! Did you check the soil at all?"

"The soil?"

"The soil on the field... if the victim was still alive, maybe he tried to get back at the killer and left a dying message!"

"Hmm... I see. So that's your theory."

"Huh...?"

At my suggestion she shook her head in disappointment. The next words were a blow.

"There wasn't any. The ground was badly disturbed, but no one's name had been left."

"...Then in the end we still don't know. If the ground was disturbed, maybe the culprit erased it..."

"That seems most likely."

"Damn it..."

Scratching my scalp, I glared at empty space in the room. Yet just as I was about to give up for lack of clues, the female detective volunteered information.

"But... well. Just talking to myself, okay? I'm going to speak aloud. Don't take notes, but if you overhear my monologue... there's nothing I can do."

"Th-thank you very much!"

"After the interviews, the police think the most suspicious person isn't Urakawa-kun or Murayama-kun, but Vice-Principal Kanou. The other two don't have alibis either... but yesterday he was the last one in the school. He claims he was in the faculty room and didn't notice anything until after the incident... maybe..."

I immediately began taking notes.

He was in the faculty room and noticed nothing. Yet that's a contradiction. Aren't the keys to the gym kept in the faculty room?

"That's strange."

She'd apparently asked about that too.

"About that, he says he was making rounds and so didn't notice..."

"I see... if it wasn't the vice-principal, the culprit might be someone who knew exactly when he'd make his rounds..."

"There's another suspicious point. Something belonging to the vice-principal was found in the victim's pocket... can anyone identify this?"

The evidence the detective nonchalantly showed me was a rectangular piece of paper sealed in a clear bag for investigation. Only the right edge was blood-stained. Tiny, distorted characters were written on it. Straining my eyes, I read: "Fried rice and five-ingredient ramen."

Take-out.

"Huh..."

"Only the vice-principal orders take-out from the nearby Chinese restaurant 'Nazonazo-tei'... and this order slip was found at the scene... Maybe the victim, with his last strength, picked up what the murderer dropped...?"