Disclaimer: All the Detective School Q characters belong to their creator.
Saburomaru has his uses, well, sorta.
24. Another Victim
Junior Bartley gulped down his pills at the sink and wheeled himself out of the kitchen. The pills would help him a little. He could catch snatches of the evening mass drifting from the church. Sister Anna was not around to assist him. He had the hostel to himself. Erik would have gone out to a club or a game arcade or something. Staying in was not in his nature. It was getting dark and he wondered when the others would be back. A storm seemed to be brewing. He rolled himself out onto the hostel's little porch and waited, braving the strong gusts of wind.
"It's going to be a wicked storm, father," he muttered to himself. The first raindrops started to fall…
Nanami had to hold onto his hat tightly to avoid losing it to the wind. The weather report had warned of a possible typhoon. They were located far enough from the coast not to be too troubled. "Nanami-sir!" a policeman stopped retching into the grass by the porch long enough to greet and usher him inside. The first thing that caught Nanami's eye was several boxes of skulls stacked on the moth-eaten carpeting near the door.
"He's the one who found the body, sir," the policeman pointed a very familiar figure with an eye-patch. "Onikobe Dokuro? What are you doing here?" Nanami asked.
"Long story. My grandaunt from Yokohama suddenly decided she is coming to stay with me tomorrow. Thought I would borrow this place to keep Elizabeth and my collection for a while… I tried Tatsumi's but he wasn't in. I would have brought everything over to DDS but my car is in the workshop. Since I had a key to here and it's near my place and no one's using it…" an ashen Onikobe chattered on nervously as he clutched his favourite skull. "I get the point. Where is the crime scene?" Nanami demanded. A foul odour was wafting in from upstairs.
The policeman hesitated. "It's upstairs, in a bedroom… The corpse has been there for a while… possibly even before the incident at the park…" A man in the police's forensic team uniform suddenly dashed down the grand staircase, taking the last three steps at one go. He rushed out and was violently sick.
"Nanami-san?" St Clair's voice crackled over the watch communicator. "There has been an incident on campus. Narusawa Kazuma has been attacked. He's unconscious and barely breathing. They're rushing him to hospital in Katagiri-san's car…Toyama and Renjo are going with him…"
For the first time, Nanami was starting to regret firing Hougou. Maki would be arriving at the mansion soon. Nanami debated whether he should contact the students. He climbed up the stairs to the crime scene. The body was bloated with decomposition and teeming with maggots, but enough of the clothes remained to tell him the victim was wearing a maid cafe uniform. Besides Onikobe, all the DDS staff had access to the keys. Also, it could be a case of illegal trespassing. The gate could be climbed easily and the lock on the main door was a type which could be easily picked.
"Erik Thorsen?" St Clair hung up on Nanami and looked up to see the blond teen glaring at her. "Who are you exactly, sensei?" The teen marched up to her and slammed his laptop on her desk. St Clair started. The staff room was empty. "Explain this, Miss St Clair. Or shall I say, Mrs Kokuo?" Erik pressed. St Clair let out a small gasp of shock and surprise before regaining control.
"I have no memory of this, Erik. Now please…" she avoided looking at the wedding photo on Erik's laptop. "Art theft suspect acquitted and wins the hand of the investigating officer… How convenient, Miss Theodora St Clair…" Thorsen barred her way as she tried to leave. "Stolen art piece returned to Cairo museum by mystery persons, possibly the infamous Master Thief Loki. You were investigating that case, St Clair…"
"He was a gentleman," St Clair muttered quietly.
"The master thief? Your suspect, Alex Kokuo? Or both?" Thorsen asked quietly. "You know a student has been attacked on campus…" St Clair struck out, knocking the laptop off her desk and smashing it against the wall. Erik let out a scream of outrage at the damage to his precious laptop. The teacher seized her chance to flee the room.
"Ten minutes more and he would have been dead," the doctor said to the two young men waiting outside the examination room. "Will he be okay?" Kyu cut in as the nurses whisked Kazuma off in the direction of the operating theatre. The doctor paused. "He is severely hypothermic and unconscious. The CT scan shows not only concussion, but a fractured skull with bleeding in the brain. We are contacting our neurosurgeon to operate immediately. The signs suggest he was hit with a blunt object multiple times. Are you his family?"
"Friends," Kintaro replied. "We have contacted his folks." Kazuma's butler would contact Mr and Mrs Narusawa at whatever resort they are vacationing at. Kyu still looked pale. He was shocked when he stumbled onto the scene in the basement store. Saburomaru was screaming up against the wall away from the open freezer. The other medical assistant from the science department was struggling to pull a very stiff Kazuma out of the freezer. Kinta hit Saburomaru to shut him up. He then pulled his young friend out and was shocked to see Kazuma's favourite hat stiff with frozen blood. The medical assistant managed to locate a weak pulse and start CPR they best they could in the circumstances.
"Naturally, our Tokyo U grad was about as useful as a block of wood," Kinta growled. The medical centre needed to administer a sedative to the wimp. Kyu took out his phone. There was a message from Ryu. Kyu, I need to talk.
Koda Kagome paused outside the café and stared thoughtfully at the sign. "Aren't you going in?" Meiling asked. She was sharing an umbrella with Megumi. "I'm not really welcome here, but whatever…" Kagome entered with a flourish of black lace and snapped her lacy umbrella close.
"Koda Kagome, I thought I told you not to come here ever!" the café manager of Sweetie Pie Maid Café paled when he recognized the Gothic Lolita entering the door. "Oh, but I am legally employable now, if you wish to hire me. However, I predict that you will receive massive damage to your establishment shortly, Mr Ogawa," Kagome replied tartly. "Hi, Mr Senda, sorry for your losses in the stock exchange. Oh, Kimura-san, did you remember your wife's death anniversary? She'll be upset if you didn't. In fact, she looks very angry now. Anyone interested in a fortune reading by little me?" she smiled sweetly at the customers, many of whom were regulars as she fluttered from table to table. A good many of them paled and started making excuses to leave.
Megumi and Meiling stared at the effect the older teen had. "Koda Kagome, haven't you done enough harm the last time with your Little Miss Oracle of Doom?" Ogawa groaned and struggled to get his potbellied bulk up from behind the cashier's. "So I predicted misfortune for some. Pretty accurate, don't you think?" Kagome teased.
"Dead on was more like it! Two were seriously wounded in traffic accidents, one was killed. Three had their businesses fail… What information will it take to get you to stay out this time?" Ogawa wailed. "With the typhoon coming some information on the Ripper victims will be nice. They were employed by you," Kagome continued without missing a beat.
"Come on! I don't employ minors! Scat before I call the police!"
"Really? Be my guest," Kagome did not bat an eyelid. She cast a glance at the waitresses. "Anyone here below eighteen? I foresee a bit of trouble heading your way if you are…" A nervous twitter ran through the waitresses. A few even dropped their trays. Koda's predictions were notoriously accurate in the Shinjuku region. More customers fled at the sudden commotion.
"Okay, they were both working here but they quit! Said they found better jobs outside," Ogawa replied. "You know I always believe what the girls say about their age…"
"You should be more careful, Ogawa. Ask for their identity passes. The government is not taking too kindly to such excuses now. Besides the two victims, are there other girls who have stopped coming to work? Hurry up with it," Kagome continued her questions as she perched on the cashier's counter.
"Oda Kikuko. That one stopped coming some time ago without notice…" Ogawa added.
"She did not go home. Her father believes she ran off with her boyfriend," a young waitress volunteered. "But she has no boyfriend. I would know if she did! Do you think that nasty serial killer got her?" Fear rippled through the waitresses. A few even started crying openly. "Thank you. Go back home now," Kagome said mildly as she glanced at the entrance. "The Shinjuku line will be closed due to flooding soon. Ogawa-san wouldn't mind closing early, will you?"
"Go home," the manager said weakly. The girls scurried off to the back to change to their street clothes. The wind was beginning to pick up and Megumi noticed water starting to seep into the café from the street. The café was a basement unit. Ogawa let out a groan as the trickle of muddy water turned into a torrent. He waddled into the back and emerged with a mop. The water would spoil the carpeting. Megumi glanced once more at the café. An annoyed cat meowed and leapt out of the way of the water. It slinked off to join his owner, who was trying to blend into the shadows.
"There in the far corner," Meiling pointed out to her companions. "Yamada-san. I recognize his cat."
"Francis Kim, the man reading in the other corner," Megumi recognized the student when he lowered his newspaper.
"Koda Kagome, where are you?" Nanami's voice crackled suddenly over Kagome's DDS watch communicator. "Your mother's at the hostel and wondering…"
"In Shinjuku, at the Sweetie Pie Maid Café with two suspects in our sights," Kagome whispered. "Get back to the campus immediately! I absolutely forbid you…" Nanami's voice was cut off abruptly as Kagome resolutely turned off her communicator. "Shall we obey the Principal's orders and go back in this terrible rain or wait here for it to stop?" Kagome asked mildly.
Author's Notes:
Kagome is being rebellious here. Kazuma has been rescued but is in critical condition. Erik thinks St Clair is hiding something. Prediction: stormy weather ahead.