Joan called out Shane, "I think she fits the bill. She was the first one to discover the body and using that trick she could have thrown the investigation into jeopardy."
Shane replied, "She's the most suspicious one, still it was a hellishly devious trick. To switch on the AC at 15 degree Celcius to fake a rigor mortis, so that that we mess up on the time of death. Surely these kids are smart."
"I have already ordered a background check on her, one of the Profs even said that her family had a history with the victim, but he couldn't recall it perfectly."
Shane nodded in agreement as suddenly a Fox burst in,"Detective Joan, this is a very revealing information." the fox caught his breath and handed over a piece of paper cutting into the Investigator's hand.
Joan took the cutting and looked on the underlined story, it was a five year old incident, in which a student of ZIS, committed suicide after being severely censured by Professor Koman. His name was Tai Lang the snow leopard, he had a sister named Lana Lang.
Shane had a half smile on his chiselled face, "Hmm...this is a hell of a motive, Joan."
Joan nodded in agreement. As the rookie fox went out to call in Lana Lang.
Rambo in a very hushed voice stated, "Jose, do you remember that incident, when a student of ZIS committed suicide after being censured by some prof?"
"Hmm...now that you mention it, I can recall it very clearly, the guy was some snow leopard, some Tai Lang, committed suicide after his prof blasted him in broad daylight. The news circulated around the national media for some good amount of time" Jose concurred.
Melina overheard them, "I know, what you both are insinuating, still how can you just suspect your own classmate?"
Rambo replied, "I frankly have no idea about herself. From the scenario it seems she has a motive and lacks alibi."
"What? Are you fucking mad?" both Melina and Hose cried out, the whole class was looking at the trio including Lana.
Rambo didn't lower his voice, "When we found the body, the AC was already on. The temperature of that room was somewhere around 15 degree Celsius. Enough to to make cold stiffening of body muscle to mimic rigor mortis. Now rigor mortis do set in only after 2-3 hours of death, so the time of death was dragged almost half an hour and the culprit got an alibi for herself."
Now the whole class was looking at him with awe, suddenly a moose girl jumped up while looking at Lana. "You're the sister of that guy, who committed suicide after he was given Fail and repeat grade by Prof. Koman!"
The whole class was astonished and many of them were cowering in fear from having a murder suspect among them.
Suddenly the rookie fox came in, "Ms. Lana, we need to have you for further questioning, don't worry. It's a routine thing."
Lana looked at her friends with pleading eyes and then left with the cop. Melina slapped Rambo directly in his face, "How can you suspect her. She's my friend and I'm her Badminton partner. I know that girl and You of all people call her a killer. I spit on your friendship Rambo."
Jose tried to mediate, "Don't mind her. She's a bit emotional."
Rambo didn't even bat an eyelid, "She had motive and she could have pulled off that trick. She is a suspect, whether she is our classmate or not is just irrelevant. Truth can't be guided by emotion."
"Damn you and your crappy truth, stupid, idiot. That's why nobody will love you." Melina almost broke down and Jose went to her side to help her, Rambo simply strode out of the class.
"Hey, Tiger boy? What's the big fuss happened just now?" Ms. Neela was looking at the teenage Tiger.
"Well, they still need to learn that truth can't be tailor made. Truth can't be uncovered by emotion." Rambo looked at the floor.
"If I was in your place, I would have started searching for clues to back my theory. That's what scientists do." Ms. Neela smiled.
"So if we search her room, we might find ingredients of fake blood. But it's a lot of trouble. I would rather have the cops take the glory." Rambo replied without a second thought.
"And earn the nickname of a lazy sociopath. And I thought that you're the best of the best?" Ms. neela looked a bit dissatisfied.
Suddenly Rambo's eyes showed a spark," Who else did know about Lana's brother?"
"Now you're on the right track. I'll tell you this, Koman was very hated in this part of the world. There are infinite number of people, who got screwed over by him. And for the incident, everybody in the department knew that." Neela replied.
"Ok, so a professor who was scheduled to take our class would have looked through the student list and got her name and then he/she might have used her as a scapegoat. This can also be an angle." Rambo's eye lit up.
(In the Interrogation room)
"I didn't kill anyone, please believe me." an almost crying Lana pleaded to the detectives.
"All of them use the same technique, don't they? Joan?" Shane wasn't moved by her plea.
"Well, she doesn't have an alibi from 9.30 to 10.00. Her friends said that she left them after she was called by the nature. But the security guy near the main office vouches that he has seen her around that cabin bay of the profs around 9.40." Joan replied.
"Ok, I got a mail from an unknown id. They said that they have vital information about my brother's case and I should wait near the cabin of Prof. Koman around 9.45. I know my brother can't commit suicide." Lana replied.
"Can we see that mail?" Shane asked.
"It's here." Lana handed her smartphone to Shane who checked it.
"Hmm...we'll investigate it and you better tell us the whole story." Joan gave a little press on Lana's shoulders.