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Class Q stood together at the pool, facing the three suspects, who were seated on the front row of the bleachers. Detective Odajima and a couple of his men stood to the side, ready to hear the DDS students deliver their verdict. The atmosphere was full of tension, which was broken by the detective.
"So, DDS, have you figured out the mystery behind Yamaguchi-san's murder?"
"Ah," Ryuu confirmed. After getting the results from the lab, as well as the information from Kazuma's laptop, he and Kyuu had figured out what had happened, pretty easily. "We have determined that the victim was most likely murdered at the time of death, between 9 and 11 p.m. last night. Water was found in her lungs, meaning that she had been drowned. A professional swimmer would most likely to know what his or her limits are when it comes to going up for air, so it was unlikely to be an accident."
"Could she have been suicidal?" asked Sugase-san.
Minabuchi-san shook his head vehemently. "No! She was my girlfriend! I know that she would never do anything like that!"
"I'm sorry, but we can't take your word for it, Minabuchi-san," Odajima said apologetically.
"You won't have to," Kinta pointed out. "We found some blood and hair belonging to the victim that had been left on the metal railing of the ladder leading up to the diving board. If she had been suicidal, wouldn't she just hold her breath after diving in? There was no reason to harm herself further before death."
"Also, the blow to the back of the head was the only external injury that could have caused blood and hair to be left behind. Due to the placement of the injury, it was unlikely that it had been self-inflicted. So how did it get there?" asked Kazuma.
Everyone but the DDS students thought about it, but Kanegawa-san, who made the connection first, gasped. "You mean, someone else hit her on the back of her head?"
"Exactly," Megu nodded. "Meaning that someone wanted to harm her. And that someone killed her."
"And did you figure out who did it?" the inspector asked eagerly.
"Ah. There were three hints," Kyuu said. "And there could only be one answer!" The rest of Class Q were smiling, caught off guard by the familiar words. It was as if Kyuu had never been gone for all of those months.
.
.
.
"So, what were the three hints?" asked Odajima.
"One, the lockers in the women's locker room. Two, the security footage of the lounge. And three, this brochure." Here, Kyuu held up the bagged piece of evidence, just barely snatching the piece of evidence away from the hands of the police officers. "Actually, I'll hold on to this for a while. It'll keep things interesting." Everyone eyed him curiously, but the men in blue shrugged and backed away at the urging of their superior.
Odajima piped up, deciding to let the matter go in order to get the in estimation rolling. "So, you mentioned the lockers in the women's locker room? Were you talking about the sleeping pills found in Yamaguchi-san's belongings?"
"No," said Megu. "I already investigated that lead. As I was interviewing him, Minabuchi-san mentioned that Yamaguchi-san had been sleepy lately. I noticed that it was the bottle's label was for a strong prescribed sleeping pill, so I followed up with her doctor, who confirmed that Yamaguchi-san herself had been having trouble getting to sleep, and that the pills would knock her out for hours. And before anyone asks, the murderer probably didn't know she had such medication, if he or she went to the trouble of hitting her on the back of her head in order to drown her."
"So does this rule me out as a suspect?" asked Minabuchi.
"Yes, although it's not just because of that," said Kazuma. "From the second hint, I analyzed the security footage from the camera up there, and the one from the parking lot, and was able to confirm your alibi. You were seen here until 9:30. We then tried the route that you told us you took as you searched for Yamaguchi-san and timed ourselves. You reached the parking lot at a similar time, and drove off."
Sugase-san raised an eyebrow. "But isn't it possible to hack security footage and edit it?"
"Well, normally yes. However, the system was strongly encrypted, making it very hard to hack in. In fact, it even took me a few hours to get through it. And I was once known as the 'king of computer games'. Unless one of you has a secret master's degree in computer science, I highly doubt that any of you could have accessed the mainframe."
Sugase-san looked taken aback, but burst out into laughter. "That's impressive. I see your point, kid."
"Wait," Odajima interrupted, looking confused. "So, what did you find in the women's locker room, if it wasn't the pills?"
"I saw that the nameplate for Kanegawa-san was silver, and Yamaguchi-san's was gold. That reminded me of the medals from the Olympics, so I wondered if you had lost a swimming competition to her. The fact that you didn't seem to be on good terms with her, even though you were a lifeguard at the pool she regularly practiced at, raised our suspicions. So we researched, and found a news article about one such swimming competition. That was the one that launched Yamaguchi-san's career as a professional swimmer."
Kanagawa-san covered her face, and groaned. She muttered, "Of course, the princess still finds a way to haunt me after death. Yeah, it's true that that competition was what led me to become a lifeguard. No one really cares about the person who was in second place. While she got the fame and money, I was stuck picking up towels after stuck-up snobs. To make matters worse, she would come here and gloat about her victory, rub it in my face. But you can't prove I killed her!" she spat.
Kinta smirked. "Yeah, but we can prove that you didn't."
Kanegawa-san looked at him, confused. "What?"
"The security footage over the parking lot, remember? We saw that you left at ten, like you said," explained Kinta.
"But couldn't she have killed Yamaguchi-san before ten?" asked Odajima.
"No," said Kazuma. "According to the coroner's report, there was a certain amount of force that could have caused Yamaguchi-san to sustain the head wound. By inputting the necessary information into my computer program, I calculated the height and weight of the attacker. Kanegawa-san is too light in weight to do the damage. She couldn't have killed her, no matter what the time was."
"Wait. If Kanegawa-san wasn't the killer, and I wasn't either…" Minabuchi trailed off, as everyone turned to look at Sugase-san. The muscular man suddenly did not look as collected as before.
"Yes," Kyuu nodded. "The killer is Sugase-san."
Congrats to anyone who figured it out! Stay tuned for the reasoning behind the deduction, and the other cases on their way.