A murder has occurred at Kokuryo High. 3 of Class Q's members go to investigate, along with their new member. Another murder happens while they are there. Just when they are beginning to understand their case, a third murder happens, waiting to be discovered…
Will this trail of blood continue? Or will Class Q crack this case and foil the presumptuous murderer, who believes he is untraceable?
There's only ONE ANSWER!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.
Chapter 9: A Dying Message?
"Sumika?"
Shizuko knocked on Sumika's bedroom door. "Sumika."
No reply came.
Shizuko looked at her DDS classmates, who were standing expectantly behind her. "She's not answering."
Ryuu raised an eyebrow. "I thought she was supposed to be finished with her work by tonight."
"Yeah, I thought so too," Shizuko replied, leaning on the doorknob carelessly.
The knob turned, causing Shizuko to slip a little.
"What the—?" She was surprised. "It's open?"
She pushed the door open all the way.
Nothing could have prepared her for the shock she received next.
Sumika was lying on the floor, a knife sticking out of her ribcage. Thick, dark liquid dripped down the knife's handle, leaving a small pool of blackened blood on the carpeted floor.
Shizuko's jaw dropped open in astonishment. "Oh no…"
She felt her knees weaken, and fought to keep her balance.
"What's wro—Wha—" Kyu trailed off as he saw Sumika's dead body on the floor.
Ryuu came in with a questioning look on his face, but it was replaced by a look of pure amazement moments later as he saw the situation. "Oh, no...Meg, call the police," he said, trying to keep his cool.
"What's happened?" asked Meg.
"Another murder," said Shizuko. Her legs gave way completely, and she fell to the floor, almost fainting. This was too much of a shock.
Ryuu tried to bring her out of it. "Come on, snap out of it," he told her. "This is just another crime scene, think straight."
Shizuko shook her head a little, trying to clear her head. "All right."
Meg came in to take a look at the room. Seeing Sumika's body, she gasped.
Kyu nodded to her, saying, "Go, Meg, call the police."
Meg nodded quickly and bolted.
The three teens left behind in the room looked at each other.
Shizuko was still in a bit of a shock, but nodded at them. "Is there anything on the computer? A message?"
Kyu looked at the open computer. His answer was a bit of a surprise. "No, there isn't."
"That's odd. The killer always leaves a message. He's just broken his own pattern," said Ryuu.
"This kill was a bit rushed," said Shizuko.
She took a long, sad look at Sumika's position. Then suddenly, she noticed something. The lifeless girl had something crushed in her fist.
Looking at the body again, she noticed that one of the arms seemed to be reaching for something. Following the general direction, she saw a felt-tip pen that appeared to have rolled away from the hand. Even though pens were scattered everywhere, judging by the pencil mug that was on the floor, this one was isolated, far from the others.
"You guys, take a look at this," she said.
The two boys came up to her. "What is it?" asked Kyu.
She pointed at the pen. "What does that say to you?"
Ryuu thought for a second. "She was still alive. She used the pen to write something…"
"A dying message!" exclaimed Kyu. "She could have written the name of the killer!"
"Right…but we can't touch the crime scene, unfortunately. There's something in her fist, but if we try to get it out now, we might be charged with tampering with crime scene evidence…"
"So we have to wait until the detective gets here," said Kyu, disappointed.
"Darn," muttered Ryuu.
"We'd have a lot more freedom on the investigation if they knew we were DDS students," Shizuko muttered.
"But we'd have to work from the police's point of view, we wouldn't be able to find out much about the victim and people involved," said Ryuu reasonably.
"Yeah, that's true. I'm glad that we're undercover anyway."
"I can't believe this," Detective Iwashizu said exasperatedly. "You guys again?"
"Well, we did find her first," said Kyu in an embarrassed tone.
"I can see that," said the detective sourly.
Shizuko rested her chin in her palm and rolled her eyes.
"So what's your theory about this one?" asked the detective.
"She told me earlier this after noon that she had a hunch about who the killer was. She wasn't sure, though, and said she'd tell me when she was sure of everything. When we came to see her tonight, she was dead already…" said Shizuko.
"We have a feeling that the killer found out about her idea and feared that he would be discovered, so he killed her," said Ryuu.
"But there was no message on the computer, this time," said Kyu. "That was the only weird thing about the whole thing."
"But we noticed something, sir," said Shizuko uneasily. "We think she tried to leave a dying message, while she was still alive."
"How do you know she could have lived after she was stabbed?"
"Well, from what I know, when someone is stabbed, it takes about ten to fifteen minutes for the person to die while stomach acids seep into the chest cavity, poisoning him or her from within," she said quietly.
"She had a chance to do something, but was either too weak to call for help, or she could have been drugged beforehand. Maybe she only stayed conscious for a few moments," said Ryuu.
"I saw something in her hand earlier, Detective," said Shizuko. "We think that it whatever was in her hand might lead to the killer."
"Well, you might have something there," said the detective thoughtfully. He had just accepted a file folder from one of his officers and was flipping through it as he spoke. "It turns out that there were traces of chloroform in her system. She could have been subdued that way and then killed."
Detective Iwashizu raised an eyebrow at something in the data. "That's odd."
"What is?" asked Meg curiously.
"There was something in her hand when she died. But I don't know what it could possibly mean!"
"What was in her hand?" asked Kyu, leaning forward excitedly.
Detective Iwashizu drew out a photo and placed it on the table.
Kyu, Ryuu, Meg and Shizuko all looked at each other, then stared at the photo.
Seeing the item photographed, they didn't know whether to be excited, disappointed, or confused.
The photo showed a piece of paper, all right. But far from showing a dying message, it all seemed like a joke.
There was nothing on the paper but a series of senseless pen strokes.
Rants: is the piece of paper a clue, somehow? What about the senseless pen strokes? What could it all mean?
Find out in the next chapter.
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