It's about time I updated. I need to finish these stories before school starts, then after that, I won't be writing for a long while, I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.

Chapter 10: The Final Clue

"What could it mean?"
Shizuko was holding a copy of the crime scene photograph in her hands, turning it over and over.

It was noon, and the four of them had sat at the same table during their lunch hour. Since the cafeteria was hopelessly noisy, they didn't bother to keep their voices down too much; however, they took care not to let anyone know what they were talking about.

"It just doesn't make sense. Why would she go through the trouble of ripping off something from her memo pad to write something that no one can understand?"

"Maybe that was the point," said Ryuu. "Maybe she thought the killer could come back and take whatever evidence he accidentally left behind."

"That's a possibility," said Kyu.

"According to the detective, there wasn't any clue to the killer, again. The knife didn't even have any fingerprints on it. And no trace of DNA was left from the killer, either," said Meg.

Shizuko sighed and turned the photograph over again, twisting it upside down, then right side up…whichever side it was supposed to be facing.

"I can't even tell it if it's right side up," muttered Shizuko.

Her homework, which was spread out on one side of the table, was left ignored for a while as she wrinkled her eyebrows, trying to make sense of the piece of paper Sumika had left behind.

The note itself was composed of three lines, each with a set of different series of pen strokes.

"There are three lines in whatever she was trying to say. It's too organized to be that senseless," Shizuko muttered.

"She wrote those lines with a purpose," said Kyu.

"But what?" asked Meg.

Shizuko began doodling on a piece of paper, using her pen to stab the document in places. Ink splattered the paper in several places, and even blotted her fingertips, but she didn't seem to care, she just kept scribbling roughly on the paper.

"Don't take your anger out on your homework, Shizu," said Kyu.

She sighed heavily. "I just wish I could figure out what this means!"

"We don't have any clues, no leads, and now this note, which doesn't make much sense, is left behind by our victim. And we can't even decipher it!"

"I sent a copy of the note to Kazuma last night, anyway. Maybe he can figure it out," said Ryuu.

"Have you heard from him since?" asked Kyu.

"No," said Ryuu.

Shizuko sighed. "Maybe he's busy trying to run it through his software. Let's hope he's got something on the note soon."

That evening, the foursome had met in Meg's room, since Meg had offered to meet there instead.

As soon as they had gathered, Ryuu's cell phone rang.

They all looked at him expectantly as he answered it.

"Hello?"

"Ryuu, it's Kazuma—"

"Don't forget me, computer boy!" yelled a voice in the background.

"Kinta, is that you?" Ryuu asked.

"Of course, who else could it be?" The older boy's voice replied in his ear.

"I have you guys on speaker, Ryuu, so this big dope can hear you," explained Kazuma.

"Wait, Kazuma, I'll put you on speaker as well," said Ryuu.

Ryuu's cell phone rested on the bed again as Kinta and Kazuma's voices resonated through the room, clear but with a metallic echo, a hint of static, behind it.

"I'm sorry, Ryuu, I was up all night trying to figure out that 'dying message' that I received from you last night, but I got nothing. It doesn't seem to be anything I've ever encountered," said Kazuma.

"I told the computer boy to lay off the software, but no, he ran it through anyway. I told him it wouldn't work," said Kinta.

"Do you have any idea what it says, Kinta?" asked Kyu.

"Uh…."

"That means 'no'," Kazuma replied.

They suddenly heard some kind of impact behind the metallic echo. It seemed that Kinta had whacked Kazuma.

Shizuko raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway, you guys are sure that you can't figure out who did this last murder?" asked Kazuma, who seemed to have recovered from Kinta's mild blow.

Ryuu sighed. "Not yet. I guess everything depends on this note."

"You guys can figure it out, I'm sure!" said Kinta's optimistic voice.

"Thanks for the support, anyway," said Meg.

"No problem," said Kazuma.

"Bye," said Kinta.

"Bye," said Ryuu.

Shizuko slumped in Meg's computer chair as Ryuu disconnected the call.

"I can't believe this," Shizuko muttered. Something rustled as she slid in her seat.

"What's this?" she muttered, reaching into her pocket.

She pulled out the piece of paper that she had been scribbling on earlier during lunchtime. She looked at it with a bored, uninterested expression on her face.

"Was that the paper you were scribbling on at lunchtime?" asked Meg. "All the same blots are there."

"Yeah, it is," Shizuko replied. "It's just a bunch of useless scribbles."

"Hmm, you know what, some of the scribbles look kind of like unfinished Japanese characters," said Kyu.

"Hm?" Shizuko looked at it again. "Yeah, I guess you're right…"

Wait a minute.

She looked at the paper again. "Could it really be that simple?"

"What?" asked Meg.

Shizuko's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh," she said shakily.

"What?" Kyu and Ryuu said at the same time.

Shizuko covered her mouth, her eyes shifting from one side to the other, as though thinking about something, really hard.

"I'll be back," Shizuko said, leaping up from her seat and running from the room.

Kyu, Ryuu, and Meg looked at each other in confusion.

"I hate it when she does that," Ryuu muttered to himself.

Shizuko was in her room, fishing around in her things for the crime scene photograph.

"Yes! Here it is!" she said.

She sat down at her table and began doing writing something on a piece of paper.

"Right…yeah, that looks right…" she muttered to herself.

Kyu pushed open her door. "Shizuko? You okay?"

Ryuu came in, followed by Meg. "What was that about?"

Shizuko waved the paper in their faces. "I've got it!"

"I know who killed Sumika!" she cried out.

The three teens looked at her in confusion.

"And I know how to prove it," she said, rubbing her hands together. "We need to get back to the crime scene," she continued.

"Wait, wait, let me see that," said Kyu, trying to reach for the piece of paper that Shizuko was brandishing at them.

The moment he looked at it, he understood. "Of course! How could we not have seen it?"
Ryuu took it from Kyu and his eyes widened. "So now we've got the killer."

"We need to get to the crime scene," said Kyu, running ahead of them.

"Wait! Kyu, wait!" said Shizuko, who sped after him, right on his heels.

Ryuu and Meg looked at each other, and then ran after the two of them.

Shizuko, Ryuu, and Meg reached Kyu just as he was being turned down by the police officer guarding Sumika's room.

"Sorry, kid, this is a crime scene, you can't come in here," said the guard.

"Sir, I need to get in there," said Shizuko, stepping forward.

"Didn't you hear what I just said? No one's allowed in here."

Shizuko looked at Ryuu and asked, "Do you think I should—?"

Ryuu nodded. "Go ahead."
Shizuko drew out her DDS notebook somewhere under her school uniform's blouse.

"DDS. Let us in."

The guard looked suspicious for a moment, peering at the DDS logo. Then, the expression on his face changed, looking flabbergasted. He let them enter the room.

As soon as they entered the room, Shizuko immediately began looking around, muttering to herself.

"It has to be somewhere around here, maybe forensics missed it…" she said.

Kyu was looking around the back of the computer desk.

Ryuu checked under the bed. "Look at this," he said.

Meg, Kyu and Shizuko came up to him. "What is it?"

"I think we've just found our evidence."

Shizuko looked under the bed, not caring right now what the state of her short skirt was.

"That's it!" cried Shizuko, her voice a bit muffled. She reached for it with a gloved hand, and then showed it to Meg.

"This is it, isn't it, Meg?" Shizuko said, holding up their last piece of evidence.

Meg studied it carefully. "Yes. That's it."

The foursome grinned at each other.

"Now we have the proof," said Ryuu.

"And we can finally close this case!" cried Kyu. "There's only ONE ANSWER!"

Rants: curious to find out what the "evidence" is? It'll be in the next chapter, people.

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