Glad to be back! Another chapter in this adventure awaits…
There may be a little Meg/Kyu here….but just a bit….
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.
Chapter 3: Questions without answers
Class Q met the next morning in Kyu's room to discuss what they had deduced from the will.
"So we were right," said Kyu thoughtfully. "Maestro Maeda wasn't ready to let everyone know about his decision, even he was sure of it."
"But what does the will have to do with the case? Our job is to find out who killed Fumika, not go after some lost will," said Kinta.
"Kinta's right. After all, that's why we're here in the first place," said Meg. "Minoru said that he was the one who contacted the DDS because he wanted to know what really happened to Fumika. But why would Mr. Dan send us over here when he knew that a will was going to be read out and get us involved?"
"Exactly," said Kyu. "But didn't we say before that the will might be closely connected to the case?"
"Yeah, but how?" asked Kinta.
"Don't you think that she might have been killed because she was in the running for the violin's inheritance?" asked Kazuma.
"That's a possibility," said Ryuu. "But it'd become painfully obvious if the best students are killed one by one and then the killer would be the only one left."
"When this deadline of two weeks was given, it would limit the choice and time even further," said Shizuko. "It wouldn't give the killer much of an advantage. After two weeks, all hope of inheriting the violin will be gone."
"Unless the second will is found," said Kinta. "Do you think that whoever killed Fumika knows what or where the second will was?"
"That's possible, and maybe Fumika stumbled over the will but didn't know what it was," said Kyu.
"Maybe that's why the whole 'cursed' violin piece began. The killer needed a cover-up," said Ryuu.
"Well, Fumika's death did cause some panic among the students, even just a little. She was among the top students, right?" asked Kazuma.
"Yeah," said Meg, "Her name was mentioned in the will as one of his best students…"
"Is it safe to assume that everyone in the top class has a motive to kill each other off?" asked Shizuko.
"Well, yes, actually," said Ryuu. "For the students, it'd narrow down the competition for the violin…"
"Hang on, what about Ms. Minamoto?" said Kyu. "She's got a motive too, you know."
"What kind of motive?" asked Meg.
"Well, she may not be in the running for the violin, but if she can keep people away for the time being, she'll gain the entire school," replied Kyu.
"But why would she need to kill Fumika? She only found out about the two-week deadline yesterday. Fumika was killed before the will was read out to everyone," said Kazuma.
"Maybe she had some kind of personal grudge against Fumika, that's one reason," said Kyu.
Shizuko picked up her violin and played a short tune. "Hold on a sec, what about the Maestro's composition? 'The Nine Circles of Hell', remember?"
"What about it?" asked Kinta.
"Don't you think it's somehow connected to our case? I mean, the killer used it as a cover up, it has to mean something," said Shizuko.
"Well, most cover-ups are insignificant," said Kazuma. "The killer'd probably want everyone to make a big fuss over something meaningless rather than something that was closely involved with the will or something, it'd give people even more reason to pick up the composition and examine it. That'd be a good distraction."
"I guess you're right," said Shizuko, fiddling with the tuning knobs on her instrument.
Kyu looked thoughtful. "There're still a lot of things we don't know about this school. And the students." He looked at the rest of his classmates. "Let's try and take a look at this place from top to bottom. The more we know about this school, the quicker we'll solve this case."
"Great idea," said Meg. "Let's take a look at the music room first. After all, that's where Fumika died, didn't she?"
"That's a start," said Kinta.
"I'll try and see if I can get any more information about the Maestro," said Kazuma, typing on his laptop.
"Ryuu, Kinta, let's take a look at the music room on the first floor. Shizuko, you and Meg can search the upper floors and see if there's anything we might have missed," said Kyu, being a little systematic for once.
The investigation had begun.
"This is some music room," said Kyu.
As they opened the door, the first thing in front of them was the leather couches laid out in a sort-of semicircle around a music stand. A grand piano stood in the upper left corner, while a large shelf flanked the wall at the right. The shelf was filled with some items for the care of the instruments, and music sheets; some old and yellowed with age, others fairly new.
Kinta raised his eyebrows. "Huh. This looks…."
"Familiar?" finished Ryuu.
"Yeah," said Kinta. "The Maestro form Hell case, remember?"
Kyu grinned, saying, "Well, we can't just stand around here staring at all this, let's start investigating!"
Ryuu shook his head, amused. Someone's being a little enthusiastic today…
Ryuu stepped into the middle of the room. "This place is soundproof, isn't it?" he said, looking around the space.
"Yeah, Meg said something about it," said Kinta.
"That's natural for a room like this; it's supposed to keep all noise out so that the performance in here won't be disturbed. But what if it also worked the other way?" said Ryuu thoughtfully.
"You mean it also keeps people from hearing the anything from the outside?" asked Kyu.
"Yeah. If that is the case, well, I'd say that no one ever heard her die. If someone had been in this room with her, no one would have known anything."
"But we don't even know if she was alone," said Kyu. "Although that is a pretty good idea. But the problem is how did the murderer kill her and not leave forensic evidence?"
"Hmmm," Ryuu said thoughtfully.
"Not only that, but how could the killer have gotten in? And out as well, someone could have noticed it…" said Kinta.
"The killer was probably clever enough to provide himself with an alibi in order to cover himself up," said Ryuu. "And since dead bodies don't talk, no one else would have been able to know what had happened during the night."
"I can't see anything major here," said Kinta. "Tell you what, I'll just take a look outside, maybe I'll find or hear something useful."
"Good idea," said Kyu. "Ryuu and I'll just take a look of there are any more clues outside of here, maybe along this floor."
Meanwhile, on the upper floor…
"Let's take a look in here," said Shizuko, opening a door cautiously.
Meg nodded, next to her. "Right."
The dark-haired girl pushed the door open wide. "No one here…" she said, entering the room. she glanced at some papers on a desk. "Is this supposed to be a study?"
As she stepped closer, she noticed that the papers were oddly scattered, and some drawers were left open.
"It looks like the desk was ransacked," remarked Meg. She sniffed the air. "Do you smell something?"
"Kind of…I don't know what it is, though….wait. The drawers were rifled through," said Shizuko, stepping behind the desk. She reached for a piece of paper. It was full of all sorts of scribbles, barely discernable. "I wonder who wrote on this."
"Even if I memorize that, we still won't be able to understand it," said Meg.
"Yeah...I wonder what it was for."
Neither of the two girls saw or heard the door close silently.
Shizuko looked down at the desk. "That's odd."
"What is?" asked Meg, stepping closer and going to the back of the desk, next to Shizuko.
"All the drawers are open. Except for this one," said Shizuko, pointing to the uppermost one.
"Maybe someone didn't have enough time to take a look at this last one," said Meg.
"Well, we've got enough time," said Shizuko with a small smile on her face. "I wonder what the person was looking for."
"Let's open it," said Meg, reaching for the handle. She pulled it open, a bit more sharply than she had meant to.
Unexpectedly, something sparked within the deep recesses of the table. Almost immediately, the papers on the desk burst into flames.
Meg screamed. Shizuko's eyes widened in alarm and shock. "Meg, did you see anything in the hallway that can help us put this out?"
"There was a fire extinguisher in the hallway," answered Meg, sounding fearful.
Shizuko's gaze went to the door they had come through. It was shut.
She ran for the door and pulled at the knob. "It's..it's locked!" she cried out.
"How can that be?" said Meg in shock. "I didn't close it!"
"Neither did I!" said Shizuko, panicking slightly.
The papers on the table were burning quickly, feeding the flames.
"Oh, shoot," muttered Shizuko, staring at the flames on the table. Meg had run over to her. "What are we going to do?" she exclaimed, scared.
Shizuko made a face, then began yelling through the door. "Kyu! Ryuu! Kinta! Anybody! We're trapped in here!"
She began banging on the door desperately.
Meg joined in. "Kyu!" she yelled.
Kyu and Ryuu were downstairs, pacing the floor below where Shizuko and Meg were.
"I don't get it, how can Fumika die in a perfectly sealed room…"mused Kyu. "There was no other way in…"
"Maybe we're missing something," said Ryuu.
Frantic yells reached their ears from somewhere far away.
"Kyuuuuu!"
"Ryuu! Help!"
"Huh!" Ryuu said, looking towards the ceiling, at the next floor.
"Meg!" cried Kyu, running for the nearby stairwell.
Ryuu sprinted after Kyu, his heels clicking on each step of the stairs.
"Kyu!" they heard Meg's voice yell.
"Ryuu!" Shizuko's voice called. "Someone help!"
Kyu sniffed the air. "Do you smell smoke?"
Ryuu's eyes widened. "Hurry!"
Kyu ran out to the landing, but Ryuu leaped over the banister and turned sharply into the hallway, leaving Kyu at his heels.
The two boys heard banging from a door. And screams. "Kyu! Ryuu! Kinta! Anyone!"
"Meg! Shizuko!" called out Kyu.
"What happened?" asked Ryuu, yelling through the door.
"We're locked in! There's a fire here, get us out!" Meg's voice shrieked.
"Hurry!" shouted Shizuko.
"Kyu! Let's break down the door!" said Ryuu.
"Right!"
The two boys heaved their shoulders against the door once, then twice. A splintering crack was heard.
"Again!" said Ryuu.
They heard Meg's scream from the other side. Kyu's eyes widened. "Come on!"
They heaved themselves against the door one more time, and with a final groan, the door burst open.
Smoke engulfed them for a second, and then suddenly, Meg emerged, throwing her arms around Kyu. "Thank you, thank you!' she said, sobbing into Kyu's shoulder.
Kyu looked a little embarrassed and turned slightly red. Shizuko came out of the room next, grabbing Ryuu's arm. "Quick! There's an extinguisher out there in the hallway!"
Thinking quickly, Ryuu grabbed the extinguisher, running into the room with Shizuko. As he aimed the nozzle at the flames, Shizuko pulled out the pin and squeezed the handle. Thick foam sprayed out of the small hose, dousing the blaze.
Coughing a little, Shizuko opened the windows, letting the smoke escape. As soon as the smoke cleared, Kyu and Meg stepped gingerly into the room.
Most of the papers on the table earlier had turned into ashes.
Shizuko used a gloved hand to pick up a singed document, but it collapsed and turned into fire-dust in her palm.
She sighed. "Now we'll never find out what it was…"
"How did the fire start?" asked Ryuu.
"It started when Meg opened the top drawer. Something sparked inside and, next thing we knew, everything was aflame," explained Shizuko.
"Well, at least this explains the thing we smelled earlier," said Meg. "Remember? We smelled something at the desk before we began taking a look through things."
"Yeah, but if it was something flammable, it'd only be effective if it were wet," said Shizuko. "And the spark, how'd it happen?"
Ryuu opened the drawer carefully. "Here's your answer. Several matches seem to have been attached to one side of the drawer. The side of the matchbox was attached to a side where if you opened the drawer, the matches would strike against the surface and light up."
"But it started so fast," said Shizuko. "What could have been the initial fuel?"
Kyu opened the drawer further, following Ryuu. "There it is. It's an open bottle of denatured alcohol."
"Great," muttered Shizuko. She looked at the ashes on the desk. "Well, whatever this stuff was, someone didn't want us to see it."
"Didn't Meg see it?" asked Kyu. "She could just memorize them."
"I do memorize it, but we didn't understand anything," said Meg ruefully.
Ryuu sighed. "This just makes things even more difficult for us."
He walked towards the center of the room, furrowing his eyebrows. "There are too many questions surrounding this mystery," he continued, keeping his back on them. Everyone stared at him.
He turned around, facing them with a frown.
"But there are no answers."
Rants: aaaaaagh, I'm sorry for the loooooong time it took me to update this. I was under punishment, remember? But anyway, I hope you guys are still interested, and…
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