March 13 went a little something like this.

At 8:30 A.M., Miki Star wakes up for the last time. Her roommate and friend from college, Lily, wakes up fifteen minutes later. They eat breakfast together. Len Kagamine wakes up at around the same time. His schedule for the day is simply to work and edit.

9:10. Miki leaves to go to the office. 9:30. She arrived. There's nothing especially abnormal about her that day, but for the past few weeks she has been acting jumpy.

9:45. Lily leaves for nursing school.

12:15. Lunch break with co-workers. Josephine still hasn't broken up with her good-for-nothing boyfriend. Get it together, Josephine. Get it together.

3:15. Miki leaves work.

3:35. Miki presumably arrives back at apartment.

3:45. Lily arrives back at apartment. They have a conversation about their days, and Miki tells Lily that she is meeting with Len Kagamine that night over dinner to discuss his new manuscript. She does not specify which restaurant.

5:20. Miki leaves the apartment again to run some errands and then theoretically meet Len.

6:00. Miki Star is seen for the last time alive. Officer Gakupo Kamui sees her fidgeting around his department. When he goes to ask her if there was a problem, she stumbles away.

6:30. Len eats dinner alone in his apartment.

7:00. Len goes out for a walk. It is between this time and 8 P.M. when Miki is killed. Her body is thrown into the river shortly after that.

7:30. Len arrives back home.

9:15. Len arrives at Rin's. He plans to stay the night in her guest bedroom.

11:30. Len and Rin go to sleep.

Midnight. Lily calls the police.

"They wouldn't find the body until the next day," I finished and slammed my finger against the stop record button while simultaneously making a left turn. My wheels as well as the woman in the SUV behind me screeched. What a day to be alive.

Some anti-war protest was going on in the city that day. I thought for sure I was steering clear of it, but even all the way on the outskirts, drifters with pickets were scurrying about. Politics never interested me, but one thing I could say for sure was the war made Ava more hellish than it was before. So, I gave a passing protester a little salute and continued on my way with my mind wandering back to dates and times and names and Len.

Len was doing alright, if you were wondering, all things considered. I saw him almost every day to give him updates and ask him questions and train him for getting up on the stand when ("if," I reminded myself) this case went to trial. I realized quite suddenly as I began clicking my way through a parking garage that I hadn't spoken to Yuka in at least three days. When was the last time I saw her again?

Maybe I was obsessing too much over this.

Nah.

Len's apartment building was a two-story complex covered in graffiti and unidentifiable brown stuff. He did say it was temporary until his new book finally hit the shelves, but still, compared to the pictures of his house he had down South that Rin showed me every once in a while, this place… Considering everything that'd happened, it would have been better if he'd never set foot in Ava again.

Apartment 17 was on the second floor. Using my handy-dandy key that Rin (ever the provider of Len-related items) bestowed upon me, I pushed in before the mosquitoes could coordinate an attack and almost fell straight on my face. A bookshelf was killed in action, laying on its side at my feet, its contents missing. Turning on the light, I realized just how hard the police partied with that search warrant of theirs. It was bad. Rin-and-Len's-21st-birthday-party bad.

There was hardly an inch of open carpet, every piece of furniture toppled to the ground. The books from the murdered bookshelf and all other items in Len's possession were splayed across every corner of the two-room apartment. Now I understood why Rin didn't want to be the one to retrieve the book she lent him a week before the incident. Her funny little request finally made sense to me. Curse you, Rin. Curse you.

"Oh, great…" I mumbled to myself, immodestly hopping over some chairs to reach the first pile of books. "What was it called again? It was something stupid that I couldn't pronounce." I rifled through the pile until I was certain it wasn't there. God, my back was starting to hurt.

As I prepared to descend deeper into the hellscape that was Len's apartment, a glint caught the corner of my eye. Sighing, I caved into my curiosity and changed course. It turned out to be a picture frame. The captured image inside was the exact same photo I had on my own bedside table. It was the four of us, young and undaunted, arms wrapped around each other. I found myself smiling and placed it upright on the only standing table in the room. Now, before I became any more of a stalker, I had to find that book.

It may be noted that Len didn't exactly know I was here. Oh, well. Lawyer-client confidentiality.

All his silverware was piled up in a corner behind the cabinets, except the knives. They must have been confiscated when the police blew up their bomb in here. I would be finding out what else they took soon enough, once I get my evidence list from the oh-so-efficient DA. Calm down, Mayu. Just find the stupid book and get out of here.

Matryoshka was in a pile by the bed, intermingled with Len's own original novels. I recognized them right away, all six of them firm occupants of my own bookshelf at home. Taking a seat on the bed, I looked over the cover of his first published book and opened it up. He dedicated every story to his sister. Yeah, a cold-blooded killer, indeed.

I grabbed Rin's book and was halfway through the jungle of furniture when I saw someone through the window that led to the outside corridor. Lily was on the sidewalk. She glanced up once at the building and began to climb the metal stairs. Why would she be here?

Panicking, I climbed my way over to the front wall and peeked out the window. When Lily made it to the second floor, she immediately walked over to Apartment 17 and jiggled the doorknob. Locked, of course. I had done the deed myself. She looked around in exasperation and began storming back to the staircase as I opened the door and called, "Lily Mosh! Ms. Mosh!"

She whipped around, eyes betraying her quickly-applied smile. "Ms. Hidari."

"I'm surprised you're not upset with me, considering I'm defending the man who you think killed Ms. Star. Then again, this isn't a place you're supposed to be is it? I suppose we're even," I said.

"I-I was just curious to see where he lived is all. I don't know why," Lily replied hastily.

I cocked my head to the side. "Really? Because it seemed you knew exactly where his apartment was despite never being here before. You didn't even glance at the room numbers or anything." I tried my best to be confident, but seeing her sort of knocked the wind out of me.

"That's not true," she denied. "A-And even if it was, I don't have to tell you everything. Showing up to the vigil like that. Don't you have any shame?"

"You're trying a little too hard to be like Mothy Star, Ms. Mosh. I know you're going to be a key witness for the prosecution, but we're not in court quite yet. I'd like us to be honest with each other. I want to find the killer just as much as you do."

"Unlikely."

"If Len Kagamine didn't do it and is sent to prison for it, then the real murderer would still be out there. Don't you want to be sure?" She looked at me, wild-eyed, for a moment and then starting bolting down the stairs as fast as her orange heels could take her. "Just keep an open mind, Ms. Mosh!" I shouted.

Well, that could have gone better.

I gave her a few moments to get away before venturing down the stairs myself, Rin's book in hand. In a tiny corner of my mind, I asked myself a question that had been plaguing me from the start. Plaguing everyone, really, except the answer to the question. Whoever that is was probably laughing somewhere, laughing as he or she watched me fumble for evidence.

Who killed Miki Star?