Since I had nothing to do, I've decided to write again, although this mystery seems to be taking its toll on me.
Anyway, here's the next chapter.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q. anyone who thinks otherwise needs to have a brain transplant.
Chapter 7: Not a Trace
The detective escorted Kyu, Ryuu, Meg and Shizuko back to the crime scene with a smirk. "Okay, then. Forensic experts have examined the scene, and the body."
They entered the room again. The only thing that was different was the fact that Shinji's corpse had been removed, and a white chalk outline was there to mark the place where he lay.
The detective held up a sheaf of papers. "I'm going to read out to you what the forensic experts found, and you'll tell me what your so-called theories are."
The four teens looked at each other. Is this guy serious? they all thought.
"All right. First of all: the victim's name, Shinji Nogisaka. Estimated time of death: between 1:00 am to 2:00 am this morning according the recorded body temperature post mortem. Found lying on his front, with a cord around his neck and dark red or purple patches on his back…"
"The body was moved," Shizuko said quickly.
"Eh—what?" the detective sputtered, then stopped his report.
"The body was moved after death," Ryuu repeated.
"And tell me why you think that."
Shizuko sighed. "After death, a person's blood sinks to the lowest portion of his body. It seeps out of the blood vessels and into the surrounding tissue, leaving a dark red—or purple—patch on the skin."
"It becomes fixed after a certain amount of time," continued Ryuu. "So if you find a body that lying on its front with purple patches on its back, you can conclude that the body was moved after death."
The detective gave turned up his nose at them. "Lucky guess."
Meg rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.
The detective continued the report in a haughty tone. "Along with the curtain cord around the neck, there were hand-shaped bruises around his throat, followed by an even deeper groove around the neck…"
"I didn't see any bruises on his neck," said Meg. "But there was a groove around his throat, caused by the curtain cord, obviously."
"Maybe the hand-shaped bruises, usually seen at the surface of strangled neck, have faded," said Kyu. "But in that case, they could probably find the bruising under the layers of flesh under the skin."
The detective pursed his lips in annoyance and showed them a photo of a cut-open neck, where, on the layers of flesh inside the skin, was a clear deep-purplish handmark. "Right again."
The detective turned to Meg. "How did you know that the bruises weren't on the surface?"
"I saw the body, and I remember every single detail."
"How?"
"Well, you see, sir, I've been blessed with a photographic memory…"
"A photo—what?"
"A photographic memory means that I can remember everything I see, or hear."
"Interesting."
The detective continued his report. "The cord found around the neck of the victim was a match to the curtain cord found in his room. It was cut off and used as a device to asphyxiate the victim…"
Ryuu's voice interrupted the statement.
"Detective Iwashizu. You will have realized by now that we are going nowhere with this case at the moment. The killer has left nothing to trace him by. All we have just done is explain to you how he died. However, it does nothing to help us discover the identity of the murderer. That has to be your top priority, isn't it?"
The detective sighed. "Kid, I know. You're right. But like you said, there's nothing more I can do here. I've looked at the evidence, and frankly, it's said all that it's needed to say. Unless something else turns up, I'm sorry. I can't do anything more."
Kyu piped up uneasily. "So what was with all this?"
The detective chuckled in spite of himself. "I wanted to see how you interpreted the situation. After all, you've been here for longer than I have, and your knowledge of the students would have helped in making a break in this case. But I'm afraid I've done all I can…"
"This isn't good," Kyu said later after their conversation with the detective. "There's no break in the case, and the killer's been as good as he was last time. Not a trace."
"I know," said Meg. "This can go on for a while, and we all know that we can't afford to let that happen."
They were in Shizuko's room once again, and Shizuko was busy typing out a message to Kazuma. Her fingers flew over the computer's keyboard, writing up a report about the second murder.
"Hmm…Meg, do you mind dictating to me what the detective said earlier in his report?" asked Shizuko, pausing in her typing.
"The victim's name, Shinji Nogisaka. Estimated time of death, between 1:00 am to 2:00 am this morning. Found lying on his front, with a cord around his neck and dark red or purple patches on his back…" Meg began reciting from memory.
"Wait, stop right there," said Kyu.
Shizuko and Meg looked up at him. "What is it, Kyu?" asked Meg.
"Well, why would Shinji's body have been moved? And how? Okay, we know he died on his back, but then why would someone want to turn him over?" said Kyu, musing.
"Obviously it had to be some time after he had died, which means…"
"Which means that someone else found the body before Mei and Musashi did," finished Ryuu, who had been quiet all this time.
"But who?"
"Is there anything else you remember on Shinji's body?"
"Wait, wait, let me think…" Meg placed her fingers at her temple and closed her eyes, a position which she often assumed when trying to recall something.
Everyone stared at her, waiting for an answer.
Her pink eyes snapped open. "Of course…there was a strand of purple somewhere on his sleeve."
Kyu and Shizuko looked at Ryuu…and their eyes flicked upward to his purplish-blue hair.
Ryuu looked from one to the other. "What? You can't possibly think that I did it."
Kyu and Shizuko looked back at Meg, who shook her head. "No, it wasn't Ryuu's shade of purple. Darker. And longer."
Kyu, Shizuko, and Ryuu sighed in relief.
"Wait, a minute, Meg, I want you to look at something."
Shizuko typed something on her computer, and all of a sudden, a color palette appeared on the monitor.
"Can you pick out the closest color to the strand?"
Meg wrinkled her eyebrows, thinking. She pointed to a deep, royal purple shade. "That's pretty close."
"Ah…now that's interesting."
Everyone else looked at her. "What?"
Shizuko turned to them. "Mitsuru Asho just made her way to the top of my suspect list."
"Why?" asked Kyu.
"When I bumped into her this morning, she had purple streaks in her hair, a lot like this one. But she's also blonde…I don't know why some of her other hairs didn't get on him."
"Well, dyed hair has a tendency to fall out more easily, since the chemicals are absorbed at the roots," said Ryuu.
"Unless…" Shizuko began. "No, it couldn't be."
"Unless what?" asked Meg.
"Maybe Mitsuru and Shinji are together…I'll leave to your imagination how her hairs got there…"
Meg playfully slapped Shizuko on the arm.
"Ow," complained Shizuko. "What was that for?"
"For giving me a very annoying visual."
Shizuko pouted. "Sorry, all the stuff that Sumika told me about Mitsuru and Makoto must have infected my brain."
Meg shook her head.
Shizuko sighed.
Kyu and Ryuu looked at each other, uncertain of what to say.
"Well, anyway, now I know why she was so jumpy this morning. I bumped onto her and she went all Godzilla on me."
"But why move the body and not tell anyone about it?"
"Maybe because she was secretly glad about him dying?"
"Or maybe she killed him…?"
"It's definite maybe."
"But a definite maybe can also be a maybe not."
Ryuu sighed. "We have no proof, save for a couple of hairs, that she killed him. For all we know, that hair could have been on him long before he died."
"True, true. But then we're back where we started…"
Shizuko continued typing again, this time finishing the report and sending it to Kazuma.
Moments later, Ryuu's cell phone began ringing. They all looked at him with raised eyebrows. Ryuu winced and quickly answered his phone.
"Hello, Ryuu here."
"Ryuu, it's Kazuma. I just got the report from Shizuko."
Ryuu looked at Shizuko. "That was fast."
Kyu looked at him. "Is it Kazuma?"
Ryuu nodded. "Listen, Kazuma, I'll just put you on the speaker so they'll hear you as well."
Ryuu's phone rested on the bed, Kazuma's voice emanating from it.
"Well, Principal Dan's heard the news, you guys. He isn't too happy that the killer struck."
"Neither are we," said Shizuko.
"Well, what makes things even worse is the fact that there wasn't a trace left of the killer, save for the message on the screen. And it was well-written, too, like the guy was intelligent," continued Kazuma. They could hear his fingers clattering away at a keyboard in the background.
"That's what we're all thinking, since the killer's clever enough not to leave a trace leading to his identity," Kyu said.
"But you say the body was moved?" asked Kazuma.
"Yeah, based on the forensic report, he was," Meg replied.
"And there's no clue to the identity of the person who moved him? For all we know he could have killed him…" Kazuma mused.
"We do, Meg remembered seeing a strand of purple hair at his sleeve," said Kyu.
"Ryuu, you didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" asked Kazuma with a mock accusing tone in his voice.
"Of course not," said Ryuu defensively.
"Meg said that the shade of purple was darker. And I know someone who could match it," said Shizuko.
"So what's the problem?"
"We can't prove that she actually moved him, much less killed him. For all we know, the hair could have been left on him for a while," said Shizuko.
"Nothing else aside from that? Any fingerprints? Foot prints? Epithelial traces?"
"Epithelial traces?" asked Kyu.
"Those are traces of skin cells. Humans shed skin all the time, and leave it on most surfaces. Since they contain DNA, they could be traced to an individual," explained Ryuu.
"Yeah," said Kazuma.
"This isn't good," said Shizuko. "We're at a loss again…Why can't we even collar this guy?"
"Well, one thing's for sure. I'm not giving up on this case," said Kyu. "What about you guys?"
"Of course we're not giving up, whoever said we are?" sad Meg.
"I'm staying on it," said Shizuko.
"I'm not backing out," said Ryuu.
"And I'll be here to help you guys," said Kazuma.
Kyu grinned. "That's good, after all…"
"If a detective gives up, the case will remain unsolved!"
rants: still writing this story out. The next chapter will come, don't worry.
PLEASE REVIEW!
and if you can, please tell me who you suspect is the murderer. From all the reviews I received so far, Rei has been on people's minds as the killer. Although I'm not saying who it is, right now. You will all know anyway.
By the way, I'd like to point out that all the information in this chapter about evidence in the crime scene is all true. Blood does sink to the lowest point of the body after death, and there are some signs of violence that can't be seen at the surface of skin. If that's the case, then they are usually found within the layers under the skin. The stuff about epithelial traces is also true. And as you all know, after death, a corpse's body temperature lowers. Forensic experts take its temperature, and the general temperature of the environment it was in. The regular body temperature of a living person is 37 degrees Celsius, and at a place where it is neither very hot nor very cold, a person's body temperature after death lowers at an average rate of 1 degree Celsius per hour. Then depending on the size and body mass of the person (a fat person cools more slowly than a thin one), forensic experts can calculate the time the person died.
Eh, enough lecturing from Professor Riyoko and PLEASE REVIEW!