Another chapter. The plot thickens!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q. I wouldn't be making fanfictions if I did. And if I did own it, then Kyu and Meg would have hooked up by now.

Chapter 8: A Third Murder

Shizuko walked into the girl's bathroom during one of her Science class. Somehow she had gotten her hands dirty with who-knows-what, although the teacher assured her that it was probably harmless, she was going to wash it off anyway.

As she turned one of the taps in the sink, she heard someone sniffling in one of the stalls.

That caught her attention.

She walked over to the farthest stall, which was open.

Mitsuru Asho was there, sitting on the toilet (which was covered, of course) and crying her eyes out.

"Mitsuru?"

The girl looked up. Wiping her eyes on her sleeve, she choked out, "What do you want?" trying to sound tough, but her tears overpowered her.

"Nothing…I just wanted to know, what's wrong?"

"None of your business."

"Fine, so it's none of my business." Shizuko turned away to wash her hands at the sink. Then an idea came to her.

"I just find it weird that the day after they find someone dead, only one person's crying," she said offhandedly.

"Shut up," answered Mitsuru. But more tears fell from her eyes as she said it.

"This is about him, isn't it?"

"So what if it is?"

"Did you like Shinji?"

"Like him?" Mitsuru laughed bitterly. "I loved him."

"So you were together? A bully like him?"

"He wasn't a bully! To me, anyway."

"So why don't you come clean and tell me about it. Then I'll shut up, if that's really what you want."

"Fine, if you must know. Shinji and I just started going out. Just a few days ago. It was fun. He's really great. He even told me he wasn't like any other girl he'd ever met."

Shizuko wasn't really interested in this kind of information, but she listened anyway.

"Anyway, he told me the other day he had something planned for us the next day. But I never saw him all day yesterday, and I only found out today that he was killed. So…he's gone. The only other guy who's ever really liked me and he dies. I must be really unlucky in love…first Makoto takes my other boyfriend, and this killer guy takes my second."

The blonde girl looked up at her. "I must look really pathetic, right now. But what's wrong with me?"
Shizuko suddenly felt sorry for the girl. "Look, nothing's wrong with you. And I'm sure that it's not bad luck…maybe they've only gone because there's something, or someone out there who's way better, who'll never leave you."

Mitsuru sniffled, and Shizuko could see that she was close to smiling.

"Look, I appreciate how you tried to be nice to me and all, but anyway. You didn't come here to ask me about my love life, did you?"
Shizuko winced inwardly. This girl can be sharp.

"It's about Shinji," she said uneasily.

"Okaaaay, what about him?" Mitsuru said, tugging at one of her purple streaks.

"I saw his dead body, and I thought…well, I thought I saw a strand of purple hair…like yours," she said, pointing at the lock of hair Mitsuru was tugging on.

"You didn't imagine it, sweetie, it was probably my hair you saw on him," Mitsuru quipped. "We were snogging the day before he died."

Shizuko cringed again. "Right."

"Anyway, I'm glad to have done it….at least before he died I got a taste of him."

"Uh-huh. Anyway, I have to go, I still have to get to my science class."

"I still can't believe I got dragged into that kind of conversation," Shizuko said that afternoon. Classes had just ended, and the four of them had met again in her room. Shizuko had just told them about the talk she had had with Mitsuru in the girl's bathroom.

"Well, she confessed to having been with him the day before he died, and we know why her hair is on him, but that could mean that someone else moved the body," said Ryuu.

"Maybe one of the guys who first found the body moved him, and Sumika didn't know. She said that they were too afraid to move him, remember?" said Shizuko.

"Yeah," agreed Meg. "I heard her say so."

"But its weird why they would move him…He died on his back, so…" Kyu trailed off.

"Wait, let's take into perspective how he died…let's try a little reenactment. Kyu, you be Shinji, and Ryuu, you play the part of the killer," said Shizuko.

"Okay, let's say Shinji was in the room, and the killer was outside. How'd the killer get in, first?"

"He could've knocked, and Shinji went to answer it," said Ryuu.

"Okay, so he answers the door, and the killer grabs him by the throat and forces himself in," said Shizuko, while Ryuu put his hand at Kyu's throat to comply with the role-play.

"Kyu, step backward a bit…and then, collapse," said Shizuko.

Kyu "fell" to the floor, on his back.

"Okay. He's on his back, the way Shinji died…but then, there's still the cord around his neck. How did the killer manage that? We know that Shinji had passed out…"

Ryuu stepped forward, with a towel rolled up, then proceeded to pretend to "strangle" Kyu with it.

"Okay, so he had to get Shinji to a standing position, then strangled him with the cord. Enough, Ryuu, let Kyu go."

Ryuu let Kyu drop—gently, of course.

Kyu landed with a soft thump on the worn carpeted floor. He still landed on his back.

"Well, that's it. Shinji dies on his back. The killer leaves him, and then returns, for some odd reason, just to move the body…but why?"

"Maybe to remove some kind of evidence," mused Ryuu, helping Kyu up again.

"Maybe…but…oh, I don't know," Shizuko muttered, pounding one of her pillows in frustration.
Suddenly her cell phone rang, beeping and whistling merrily. Shizuko mumbled something incoherently, then picked it up and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Shizuko? It's Sumika. Listen, I think I know just who might be behind all this."

"Behind all what?" asked Shizuko, hoping against hope that she wasn't talking about the case.

"The killings, of course," came Sumika's cheerful voice, making Shizuko's heart sink.

Kyu, Ryuu, and Meg all looked at her in confusion.

Kyu's face was asking, "Who's on the phone?"
Meg's expression read, "Is it about the case?"

Ryuu's look was saying, "Tell whoever it is to call you back."
Shizuko answered them all with a look that said, "WAIT!"

Meanwhile, listening to Sumika's excited voice was quickly giving her a bit of a headache, since the girl was off rambling.

"Wait, what exactly are you trying to say?" asked Shizuko when she could finally get a word in.

"I'm saying that I think I know who's been killing everyone, but it's just a hunch. I'm not totally sure yet."

"Really? But how did you think it in the first place?"

"Can't explain. It sort of came to me. But I'll tell you tomorrow, when I've got everything. I've got a ton of homework tonight, and I won't be available till later this evening…"

"Uuh, okay?" said Shizuko, unsure.

"Bye!"

"Bye…"

Ryuu raised an eyebrow as Shizuko disconnected the call. "What was that about?"

"It was Sumika. She thinks she knows who the killer is, but she didn't say who it was, and she said herself that she wasn't sure…"

"What could have made her think that?"

"I don't know, she said that it sort of just came to her."

On the other side of the school grounds, Sumika had just ended the call on her mobile phone.
She didn't notice, but a shadowy figure was lurking behind her.

So she thinks she knows, huh? Well, she better think again.

The dark form followed Sumika all the way to her bedroom.

Sumika, unsuspecting, unlocked her bedroom door and went inside, never seeing the figure come in after her.

Seconds later, she was struggling for dear life against a pair of strong arms, as they encircled her and thrust a handkerchief, soaked in a sweet-smelling liquid, over her nose and mouth.

Chloroform! He was trying to knock her out.

She couldn't scream or call for help, and a few moments later, her vision was fading, and she slumped to the floor.

The sinister figure, pleased with his success so far, brought out a knife. Its five-inch long blade gleamed threateningly in the light of the incandescent above him.

In one fluid motion, he plunged the knife straight into the bottom of her rib cage.

Then as though realizing what he had just done, the killer turned and fled from the room.

Sumika lay on the floor, her vision becoming poorer and poorer as images began swimming before her eyes.

It didn't matter, no matter how much the knife hurt. She had seen her killer's face!

I'm still alive, for now, but I won't be, soon…

She fought to keep her brain awake. The pain of the wound, and the blood she was losing, made it positive that she would pass out, and die, within moments.

Reaching up to her desk, she groped the tabletop. Her plastic pencil mug clattered to the floor, scattering pens everywhere. Her memo pad had fallen as well.

Wincing with the pain now spreading all over her insides, she wrote something on the top sheet using a felt-tip marker.

Satisfied, she crumpled the piece of paper in her fist.

The pen rolled out of her hand as her last breath escaped her lips.

Musashi was running down the hallway, looking panicked.

He crashed right into Meg and Shizuko, who had just come out of one of the rooms in the dorms.

"Ah, sorry!" he said, panting.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Shizuko.

"Nothing, it's just…" he was breathing heavily. "Shinji's old cronies are after me, that's all…"

"Oh," said Meg.

"Uh, yeah. Good luck with that," said Shizuko.

"Thanks, but, uh, I gotta go now, see ya," he said, running off again.

"He must have been in some argument," Shizuko muttered as Musashi sped off. "One of his little gold cufflinks was missing."

"Yeah, I saw," said Meg.

"What did you see?" asked Kyu, having arrived just as Meg was saying her last statement.

"Oh, nothing, Musashi was just on the run, that's all," said Meg, a little surprised at Kyu's sudden appearance.

"Oh," said Kyu, looking a little disappointed.

Ryuu came up to them, bringing about sighs from girls in the hallway. Apparently not noticing, he spoke to Shizuko in a bit of an undertone.

"Shizuko, don't you think that you should be talking to Sumika about who she thinks the killer is?"

"I don't know…I never even knew she was interested in the case. I don't even know what kind of connection she's made…"

"If she knows who the killer is, or if she's expressed that she thinks she does, she could be the next target," said Ryuu.

"I know, I know. But still, I have doubts that she actually knows, or if she's actually discovered something that could lead us…"

"Any lead is better than no lead. When is the best time you can see her?"

"She said she had a lot of homework to do this afternoon, so maybe I'll see her later tonight."

"Right. We'll come with you. Kyu, Meg, do you think you can make it?"

"I don't have much planned," said Meg.

"Yeah, and I can get some homework done, too," said Kyu.

"All right. We'll meet at around eight, then…" said Ryuu.

They all nodded.

Rants: what will they do when they discover that the only person who possibly has a lead on the case has been murdered as well? Go to the next chapter!

PLEASE REVIEW!