I hope you enjoy the new case me and Kaede Tsukino came up with. It took some time but that's because we write our hardest. My health has gotten worse so I hope I'm able to complete this story.

XXX

One week later, Yoru and his father are at his father's detective agency. Yoru is breezing through his homework while his father goes over his mail.

"Hey Yoru, guess what." Yoru's father shows Yoru a picture he got from one of his previous clients.

Yoru stops doing his homework to see the picture of Shimizu and their previous client at a beach for the client's photo shoot. On the letter attached to the picture that read "The divorce finally got through!"

" It's funny," Yoru said. " The only happy thing people talk about in married people's lives are their divorces. I don't pity her husband at all."

" We did a good job together," Yoru's father said patting Yoru on the back. " I couldn't have solved that case without you."

" You couldn't solve any of your cases without me," Yoru replied holding his fingers out. He pulled them in and out to add ten cases they solved together. Every one Yoru solved. He was happy they were over, but none of them was getting him any closer to turning back into his older self.

" I know I make you work hard, Yoru. But if you didn't help me with these cases who else could have solved them. And you know I'm worried about you. Every time we go on a case I'm worried some bad man is going to take you hostage."

" Bad men have taken you hostage more times than me," Yoru said making his father almost fall down from embarrassment. " And every time someone has waltzed behind me and taken me hostage I get out on my own."

" I know I'm not the father who can protect his son no matter what, but if someone would hurt you I would arrest him. If someone kidnaps you and places you on another island I would find you. Even if you were born any different I would still love you. Can't you see I'm trying to take care of you?"

XXX

Yoru could not believe his father was taking the entire family, his aunt and uncles and his cousins to the botanical gardens. It was after he got home from elementary school. During elementary school Yoru was trying to beat Conan at who could answer the most questions and who could do it faster.

After school ended, he heard Conan and his friends talking about a famous botanical garden though it was mostly Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhikko talking while Conan and Ai were talking about something else.

Conan Edogawa. A boy who demonstrates knowledge beyond what most kids at his age would know. His high intellect caught Yoru's attention after he enrolled into Teitan Elementary. He was someone that Yoru had to keep an eye on no matter what. Something inside him tells him that there's more to Conan than meets the eye.

Then on his way back to his father's detective agency he met an unexpected scene that even he could not predict.

"Pack up your bags, Yoru! We're leaving!"

He certainly could not predict that his father would say something like that.

"Did your business fail already?"

"What! How could you say something like that to your old man! I'll have you know that my detective agency is flourishing quite well! Thank you very much." Yoru's father boasted. "I'm always getting new clients and customers!"

"No thanks to me, you idiot of a detective." Yoru deadpanned.

" As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted." Yoru's father waved his hand as Yoru rolled his eyes. " I found this great place we can spend our time. It's called the botanical gardens. It's in the country side and it is famous for its exotic flowers. I want to see the Iris japonica."

" A botanical garden? But I was planning on patrolling the night to see if there were any cases." Yoru said back to him.

" What kind of father would I be if I just let you go out in the dark and look for people who want to hurt you?" Yoru asked which was more sarcasm because he let him go ten times.

And that was how it all started. Yoru wondered if his mother was going to join them. And when he asked, his father instantly paled at the mention of his fearsome wife. Yoru's father had told him that Yoru's mother was busy with work so she couldn't make it. Understanding his mother's busy work schedule, Yoru didn't inquire any further.

"So what made you decide to go anyway?" Staring out at the window, Yoru nonchalantly asked his father who was driving.

"Nothing, just wanted to spend some quality time with my cute son who's always helping me out." was all Yoru's father answered, but Yoru knew there was more to it than that.

"Sure. Sure. I believe that as much as I believe in Santa Claus and Bigfoot." Yoru's words ooze with sarcasm. "If anything, I bet it has something to do with mom."

Yoru's father flinches at the mention of his beloved yet scary wife.

"She probably said something among the lines of 'You never gave him a proper childhood by making him solve all those traumatizing cases of your's in your place. And now that he's a child, you should at least give him the proper childhood you never gave him now while he's still a kid.' And then she proceeded to kick your sorry butt out."

Knowing his parents, that probably what happened.

"Haha..." Yoru's father lightly chuckles at his son's accurate scenario except for one thing. "You're wrong about one thing. She kicked me out after I said, "You're always working so you never gave him much of a childhood either." Then she said, "Don't you dare talk to me like that, you lazy bum. If you don't take him somewhere away from those bloody murder cases, I'm divorcing you on the spot and taking Yoru with me.""

Yep, that sounded like his mother alright.

"That's why Yoru... For your old man's sake, please at least look like you're enjoying the whole thing..." Yoru's father said to his son with tears raining down from his eyes.

" Okay Dad...I'll do it for both our sakes," Yoru said in the same way his father said it. He too was scared of her anger.

Yoru's father smiled and pat his son's shoulder. " That's my boy."

XXX

Yoru was doing all the things he should do when his family went on a vacation. The first thing was putting everything that gave him joy away in his drawer or closet. The next thing was getting a camera for the vacation. It was a regular camera because anything that distracted him from the trip, smartphones or cellphones, were not allowed. Taking pictures was the only thing that was allowed.

Looking at the beautiful nature scene, Yoru could tell that the place really did live up to its name. The only thing that would make it better is if his father would shut up.

"Hey Yoru, didn't I tell you this place'd be amazing! It's fine if you want to praise your daddy once in a while. Why don't you say something already?"

The constant chatter from his father irked Yoru to no end. Making their way to the lobby, Yoru asks a female staff worker where the botanical garden is.

"It's not too far from here. Just about 30 meters down the hiking trail. If you need any assistance, I'll guide there if you'd like." The female staff worker said while smiling.

"Really? That's be great." Yoru's father blushed at the sight of the female staff worker's smile although it was more directed at Yoru than him since she liked children.

"What are you blushing for?" Yoru questioned the blush on his father's face.

"Botanical garden?" A man sarcastically remarked. "Just some over sized flowerbed. Sure doesn't live up to its reputation. You're better off looking at some random flower on the sidewalk."

Around the man's neck was a camera.

"Excuse, dear sir. Please refrain from speaking of such things." The female staff worker pleaded.

" Anything for a pretty girl like you, he said sounding like he wanted to pick her up. He didn't sound like a sleazbag trying to pick up girls because he was drunk. He just sounded like he was being nice. " Can I speak my mind outside this garden?"

" Of course you can. But if you talk like that in here and I'm around I might lose my job."

" How about I tell you more about the flowers over diner?" He just gave the weirdest pick up line Yoru ever heard. The staff member looked offended by him and walked up.

" Sounds like he is a little screwed up in the head," Yoru's father joked whispering it to his son and elbowing his shoulder.

" Whatever," Yoru said. He didn't know why people did silly things. Maybe they thought they could get away with it or maybe they thought nobody cared what they did. " Let's go somewhere else before we go to the lilacs."

"I want to see the lotuses first!"

Yoru heard a familiar feminine voice from behind. That wasn't the only one as he recognized the next voice along with the other's.

"What's so good about those?" Genta complained. "Man eating plants are more interesting."

"No way. I wanna see the pretty lotuses. One of the nice ladies told me that the lake near here has pretty lotuses growing out of it." Ayumi firmly held her ground.

"Now that I think about one of the employees did tell me that if a man and a woman gaze at the lake during a sunset they will be blessed with eternal happiness together." Professor Agasa remembered a female worker with long black hair telling him that.

"What?!" Both Genta and Mitsuki yelled out.

"Then in that case, we have to go there right away!" Genta shouted out.

"That's right!" Mitsuki yelled in agreement.

"Except that the sunset won't be coming out until hours later." Ai deadpanned much to Genta and Mitsuki's embarrassment.

Despite all his years of solving cases, he never would have thought that he'd meet his classmates in a place like this. It was a good thing they hadn't noticed him yet. Things would just get complicated if they find him. He can't let them know that he's there too. Although they were classmates, Yoru hardly interacted with anyone so he doubts they had any recollection of him. He made sure not to leave any kind of impression that would draw any unnecessary attention to him.

"Hey, isn't that Kurihara-kun!" Ayumi pointed to Yoru.

It seems that he thought too soon.

"Kurihara?" Genta repeated the unfamiliar name as he didn't recall anyone by that name.

Ayumi and Genta followed Yoru. It was too late not to bring attention to himself. Yoru deduced their young age followed by their curiosity was what made them follow him. Yoru didn't know if they were spying on him or wanted to invite him to see the flowers with them. Yoru didn't really care what they wanted. He was only knew he wasn't really the same age as them and even when he was that age he was still much smarter than them.

Ayumi got in front of Yoru. She looked at him with her blue eyes. She looked at his face and for some reason she looked down at his shoes. Yoru was surrounded by her friends Mitsuki, Genta, and Ai. Yoru knew they were more than just friends; they even had a name for a club they were part of. Yoru didn't care to ask them what the name was.

" You are Kurihaha!" She exclaimed. Mitsuki and Genta were surprised and happy to see him. Ai was looking at Yoru with an evil smile on her face. Yoru always knew there was something different about Ai than the rest of them. At times he felt she might have something to do with his now young age. Yoru was going to ask her questions, but Ayumi wouldn't stop talking. " Hi Kurihaha-kun. Want to spend time with us?"

" Why don't you spend time with your parents?" Yoru deadpanned her. " Their the ones who pay for you to see the garden."

"Stuck up guy..." Genta grumbled, not pleased with Yoru turning down Ayumi's invitation. "Let's just go ahead. We don't need to go with this rude jerk."

"We didn't come with our parents. We came with Professor Agasa!" Ayumi clarified for Yoru.

Yoru didn't understand why five children were out in a place like this with a professor rather than their own family. He must be close to them for him to take them to a distant location like this. He was probably a neighbor of one of them or something.

"He's really nice and takes us to lots of fun places like this. He even took us to eat sushi one time and took us camping a few times."

'Yeah, and all of them ended up as murder cases.' Ai internally retorts.

"It'll be fun! I'm sure you and Conan can get along really well!"

"Conan?" Yoru feigns innocence. He had already known about the detective prodigy Conan Edogawa. It was hard not to know about him considering how odd his name was.

Conan Edogawa, a transfer student like him. And like him, he was much more intelligent compared to his peers. From what he's heard, it seems that Conan has been solving numerous cases and even helping out the police in their work and many other achievements. Yoru had never interacted with Conan before, but he could tell that there was something different about Conan compared to the other students. The same goes for Ai Haibara. The air around her was different from rest of the kids in their class.

Suddenly, Yoru heard screaming. It sounded like two women screaming together. Sure enough his father came running towards him sweaty and out of breath. He saw the little kids near Yoru and feigned a smile.

" Hi kids," he said. The girls were still screaming but

Ai sighed. " I knew this trip would turn into a murder case."

At the edge of the lake was the drowned corpse of a middle aged man. And not just any middle aged man. It was the man Yoru just met about half an hour ago. Just exactly what happened in the half hour he hadn't seen him for him to have died just like that, but that could wait till late.

Immediately as soon as he saw the body, Yoru checked the man's pulse to see if he was still alive. However it was no good. The man was already dead.

"He still alive?" Yoru's father asked.

Yoru shakes his head in sorrow. No matter how evil or corrupt one may be, it is never a good thing to see one's death.

Yoru checks the man's corpse to see if there was anything that could have caused his death. He wasn't the only one as Conan on the opposite side was doing the same thing.

"Were you two the first ones to find the corpse?" Yoru asked the two ladies who were scared by the appearance of a corpse in this beautiful nature scene.

"Y-Yes..." One of the ladies, Sakura Hanabusa, who wore a cherry blossom hair clip answered. "It was our shift to water the plants in the botanical garden... On our way, we saw a guest fishing in the lake, but he seemed to have had trouble pulling in his reel. We assumed that his hook might have got caught between some stones or debris so we assisted him, but when we managed to pull it out. We found this..."

Sakura looked down frightened by the discovery of the body.

"And where is that man who was with you?" Conan asked.

"He went to get a doctor. At first, we thought he had simply drowned so he went to get a doctor while we performed CPR but when we tried to feel his pulse..."

She didn't need to say anything else since they could already guess what happened next.

" He was already dead." Yoru finished for them. " I'm guessing it was trauma to the brain. After the murderer killed him he or she threw him into the water. Nice try, murderer."

" Son, don't talk like that," Yoru's father said. He moved his son's head so he could see that a lot of people were murmuring about him and pointing their fingers at him. Yoru forgot he was only a seven year old boy. " A man just died. Try to act a little more...shocked...maybe a little scared like your seeing his body for the first time."

" I am not in a circus, dad. If they don't like how I'm acting they should open up a newspaper because we are in the twenty first century. Kids are sayin words younger and younger. They just don't know why their doing bad things."

Conan finished his investigation. He walked away to the rest of the little kids who were his friends. Yoru wondered if he had new leads about what the autopsy report would say so he tried talking to Conan.

"It's most likely that the murder tried to make it look like he drowned by knocking him out and setting him adrift on a row boat. If anyone had passed by, they'd just assume that someone didn't tie the boat by the coast. After awhile, the boat would sink along with the man making people think he simply drowned." Yoru explained to his father.

"But how would the boat sink? Most boats are designed to float. That's the whole point of it." Yoru's father questioned.

"If it was rigged to sink, then it'd sink. Just one hole would be enough to capsize a boat especially with a human body in it."

"Then how are you sure it's murder. Couldn't he have just taken a nap and didn't notice the sinking boat?"

"Would someone taking a nap in boat be tightly holding onto flower petals in his hands?" Yoru shows his father a flower petal that he found while inspecting the corpse.

"What!" Yoru's father exclaimed in surprise.

"Normally, when someone drowns, they immediately wake up upon contact with water especially considering the difference in temperatures. If he drowned like you said, then he would have woken up when the boat was starting to fill up with water. It's like throwing a bucket of cold water on a sleeping person. And if he had woken up and realized that he was drowning, he would have had those flower petals in his hand."

Yoru had a point. Yoru's father couldn't deny that. Usually, when a person drowns, their palms are free of anything so that the victim could swim to shore or grab onto something that could help them.

"The only way he could have drowned while holding onto these flower petals would be that he died beforehand in a place that had these flowers and then set up to look like he drowned."

"I see!"

Yoru walks up to the two female witnesses.

"Excuse me, Miss? Do you know where I can find this flower? I saw this earlier when I was with my dad, but I forgot where it was." Yoru asks putting on his false child persona.

"Why this is our famous iris japonica..." Sakura recognized the flower as the botanical garden's most famous flower. "Isn't it, Ayame?"

The other female witness, Ayame Sakurai, meekly nodded in agreement still not fully recovered from the trauma of seeing a drowned corpse.

" Ayame, I need you to speak to my about this next question. The flower may be the key to finding this killer. Besides your exhibit is there anyplace else with cameras that sell that flower. The flower is one clue to the murder. Another is motive or hate. "

"No." Ayame shakes her head. "The iris japonica can only be found in the flowerbed cultivated in an area in the botanical garden."

"Can you take us there?" Yoru needed to confirm the meaning behind the flower. Exactly for what reason did he hold onto that flower.

As per Yoru's request, Ayame reluctantly guided Yoru and his father to the iris japonica flower field. She held mix feelings in this whole ordeal. A person just died and not just one but two kids were acting like detectives.

Wasting no time, Yoru goes over the flower field with a fine tooth comb not missing any small detail that will prove detrimental to the case. So far he hasn't found anything out of the ordinary. That is until he comes across a human shaped imprint left in a section of the flower field. Based on the shape and the crushed flowers, this was where the murder was located. The location was quiet far from the botanical garden and hardly many people making it the perfect place to plan a murder without witnesses. But the question rose, how did the murderer transport the body from the iris japonica flower field to the lake?

"So you found a clue..." Yoru's father said to Yoru.

"Yeah... Now that we've determined the scene of the crime. Next up are the alibis of the three people at the scene of the crime. We have yet to see the last person at the scene. The one who fished the man out of the lake."

But finding alibis was going to be hard for Yoru and his father. Those kids from the elementary school he went to were asking everyone about their alibies before Yoru. It hurt Yoru's head and made him angry that people were doing his job. That's if it were under normal circumstances.

Normally, it'd be frustrating when he does nothing while someone was doing the case instead of him. It hurt his pride as a detective.

But right now, there was something more important than his pride at the moment. It was finding out Conan's abilities. Other than Yoru, he was the first to react to the corpse found at the lake. To have reflexes as fast as that, only detectives like him could react instantaneously like that. Hearing the rumors of Conan, Yoru had his suspicions about Conan. Now was the time to verify those suspicions. He'll leave them be and see how things develop on their end.

Based on the information he got from his father, the only ones without clear alibis were Sakura Hanafuda, Ayame Sakurai, Renge Seika, and Sayuri Kaben. Both Sakura Hanafuda and Ayame Sakurai are employees. They are both close friends and have been since childhood. Along with Sayuri Kaben, they tend to the flowers. Sakura Hanafuda is in charge of the green house while Ayame Sakurai tends to the flowers outside of the green house. Sayuri Kaben is in charge of the area around the lake as well as managing the lake and keeping it clean and pristine. Like them, Renge Seika is a guest at the inn as well as a regular patron of the botanical garden. He comes from a long line of flower arrangers. His family is quite famous in the field as well. He has been a regular visitor as he seeks inspiration from the flowers here and even uses them in his arrangement boosting up the botanical garden's business. Sayuri Kaben was the lady Yoru and his father recognized as the female employee harassed by that reporter. Like Sakura Hanafuda and Ayame Sakurai, she is a staff member as well. According to the rest of the staff, she seems to hold a grudge against the reporter for ruining her parents' business. Unable to coop with the stress, both of her parents are hospitalized. Now she works at the botanical garden to pay off her parents' hospital bills and earn enough money to support herself and her sister.

She wasn't the only who held a grudge as the others too were resentful of the reporter.

This was why Yoru never wanted to be a reporter. Reporters used to writer stories about how drugs were ruining the world and the mistakes the government made, but all reporters talked about now was celebrity scandals and how people were dying and no one is doing anything. If Yoru wanted to write about things that were affecting the world he would write a book about it.

It seems that botantical garden and inn are both owned by Sakura Hanafuda's parents and has been in their family for generations. However nearly went under after a negative review from that reporter. Sadly, her mother passed away during those hard times after she became neurotic from the stress and worked herself to death trying to bring their once thriving business back up. Her father became stiffen with grief and distant to everyone around him including his own daughter. It was only recently that they finally managed to get back on their feet.

And even before the botanical garden fell into hardships, Ayame Sakurai had been working alongside her childhood friend's side and has been a veteran employee for more than 10 years since she was 15. When the reporter came to the botanical garden, he made a lot of passes on the female employees especially the younger ones. Ayame Sakurai was no exception. After Sakura Hanafuda's father asked him to stop harassing his employees, the reporter wrote a bad review on the place mostly filled with lies saying how the service was terrible, the flower were artificial, and how shoddy the inn was just to spite them.

Renge Seika, the heir of a famous family of flower arrangers, too faced many hardships due to the reporter. After he gave a negative review on the botanical garden, it became hard for him to concentrate on his work after seeing the place he liked so much go out of business because that bad reporter. He was so brokenhearted that it affected his works for a while. The reporter even took that chance and made a demeaning review on him saying how talentless he was and how his family's business was going to end with him.

Yoru had a tough job to do. He didn't have time to have any fun on this job. The first part of the case was always the tough part where he had to go from stuff that doesn't make sense to the stuff that does make sense. His father got the easy jobs but made it look like he was doing the investigation.

Things were getting tough. All four of them have some kind of motive to kill the man. The question was who? Sayuri Kaben and Sakura Hanafuda both have the strongest motives. However he couldn't rule out the other two. In Sakura Hanafuda's case, it would be most suspicious for her to commit murder on her own family business since she's the one most familiar with the layout.

'I doubt anyone would dare commit murder in her circumstances. But with that reporter around, it wouldn't be unlikely if she got backed in a corner. Sakura Hanafuda and Sayuri Kaben aside, the other two were suspicious as well and could have committed the crime at any moment. Well, that's all they got from the rest of the staff. Now onto the interviews with the suspects.'

Starting with the successor, Ms. Sakura Hanafuda.

" Why do you bring your son along for this interview?" Sakura asked Yoru's father. Yoru made sure his father was around for the interview. Besides being older Yoru's father bared something that made him easy for the interviews.

" I know it seems weird, Ms. Hanafuda, but please understand I brought him here without his mother, friends, or even a nanny. I can't just leave him all alone in a crime scene. It would be chaotic. I hope you can understand that." Yoku's father was good at telling lies. It must have been because he had some practice with it. The truth was Yoku's father wasn't afraid of Yoku getting lost. He needed him to solve the mystery.

" Very well. I am fine with you taking care of your son. I just don' t want him to ask me questions about what happened here. He's a kid, he has no right to ask questions about the crime scene." That sounded a little rude but Sakura was right. Yoku wasn't going to have any of his questions answered if he was the one asking them.

Yoku's father continued the investigation. " I'm a detective, ma'am. I'm not at liberty nor can I say I believe you are the one who committed this murder but for references I need to ask you questions that might make you feel uncomfortable. First question is where were you when the murder took place?"

"I was with my dear friend, Ayame. After I finished checking the green house, I ran into Ayame while I was checking up on the other areas. She asked for my assistance since she needed help to carry some equipment and gardening material."

"Help?" Yoru inquired.

"That's right. There are lots of flowers blooming around this season not just our iris japonica. She's having a hard time maintaining all of them. Also for the flowers that bloom, we make our own flower arrangements and put them in pots so we can sell them in our shop for our tourists as souvenirs." Sakura Hanafuda explained. "And while we making our runs, we met up with Ren... I mean Seika-san who was out fishing. It seemed as though his hook got stuck between some rocks so we offered to help him. But when we managed to pull it out... We didn't expect to see that..."

Sakura's face pales at the memory of the corpse.

"Miss, when you were referring to Seika-san, you almost called him by his given name? Is there a reason for that?" Yoru's father asked.

"Y-Yes, you see he's a regular patron at our establishment for many years. And over the course of time, I eventually got along with him. He even asked that I call each other by given names since he felt that calling me by my surnames was too formal."

Hm... So Renge Seika was close to Sakura Hanafude. Yoru made sure to take note of that. This could be useful for their investigation.

" Yoru," Yoru's father said to his son. In his hand he was holding a tuna sandwich with vegetables inside of it. This was his father's way of telling him it was time to eat even though they just ate not very long ago.

Yoru knew those young child detectives were going to look through the entire garden to find out how the reporter was killed and something like jewelry, a wallet, or a tear of who the person was but they probably didn't know what Yoru knew about Ayame and Sakura.

" You need more meat, Yoru." Yoru hated being reminded that. It wasn't he had to spend a lot of time thinking about cases. " The sandwiches here are about the only thing you can eat with both your hands."

After questioning Renge Seika, they learned that he was a regular patron of the botanical and that he had a close relationship with not just Sakura but the other two suspects as well.

"Sakura? Oh, I've been good friends with her for a long time. She and Ayame were always together practically inseparable. Make me kind of jealous." Renge lightly joked with a hint of melancholy in his words.

"So you knew not just Ms. Hanafuda, but Ms. Sakurai as well. Just those two?" Yoru's father questioned.

"Not just them, Sayuri too. The four of us were really close and great friends."

"Were?" Yoru noticed Renge used past tense meaning they used to be close friends.

"Yeah, not long ago the four of us were really close, but then Ayame's husband past away a few months ago when the botanical garden started booming. She was really devastated by his death. It was too hard trying to talk to her like that. The only one who could bring her up on her feet was Sakura. After that Ayame started sticking to Sakura like glue, almost like inseparable sisters. Soon after that Sayuri distanced herself from us. Can't blame her though. Even I have a hard time interacting with them now."

So it wasn't just those two but all the of the suspects knew each other. This was getting interesting. Was it coincidence... Or not? Whatever it was Yoru was going to find out.

"According to Ms. Hanafuda, you were at the lake fishing and while there you thought your hook was caught between some rocks but in actuality was the late victim. You assumed that the victim had drowned so you went to get a doctor while Ms. Hanafuda and Ms. Sakurai performed first aid." Yoru's father explained. "Usually, that sort of case, even if the deceased was still alive, most people would think that he was dead based on your circumstances. What made you assume that he had drowned?"

"It's a hobby of mine to fish under a big tree especially with flowers or one near flowers at least. It helps me relax and get some inspiration. And the reason, I assumed he had drowned was because I thought he was trying to lower the place's reputation by drowning on purpose. He's nothing but a scumbag. Wouldn't put it past him to do something as rotten as that. If he hadn't died, I would have killed him myself." Renge's eyes showed pure hatred in them not waning in the least.

"K-Kill?" Yoru's father repeated. He knew the reporter did write horrible criticism towards him but say that he would kill in this type of situation.

"Ah, but make no mistake. I didn't kill him. Though I wish I did." Renge lowered his gaze. "But if I did something like that, she'd be sad..."

Thinking back at the questioning, Yoru remembered one crucial part that Renge said to them.

"On my way to the lake, I happened to pass by Sayuri, but she was in too much of a rush to notice me. Don't know what got into her. She looked really pale and scared almost like she was about to throw up."

Yoru's father probably suspected Sayuri, but it was too early for Yoru to determine.

Although it was still too early to identify the culprit, Yoru did know who he was going to speak with next. Next up for interview... Sayuri Kaben.

"Ms. Sayuri Kaben, from what I've learned, you're the caretaker of the lake where the deceased was found at?" Yoru's father asked.

"That's right." Sayuri responded indifferently.

Yoru found it odd. For someone who was a nervous wreck in Renge's story, she was strangely calm in front of Yoru's father, a detective. And her manner was much different from before when Yoru saw her in the lobby.

"Then I take it that you were at the lake doing your usual maintenance?"

"Sadly, I was not. Although I am in charge of managing the lake, I have other duties and oversee other parts of the botanical as well. Today was quite busy. I was so caught up with my other duties that I wasn't able to arrive at the lake until I heard about the incident."

"So you never went to the lake before then? Not once?" Yoru's father asked forwardly.

"No."

"Then did you, by any chance, run into anyone today?"

"No, not that I can recall. I was quite in a hurry so I don't think I would have if I had."

'Hmm...' Yoru smelled something amiss about this whole situation. Sayuri was hiding something, but the question was what was it? If she was the culprit, then she wouldn't have reacted the way she did when Renge saw her. The reporter's death was planned and calculated yet her reaction would have belonged to someone who had unintentionally killed someone.