Chapter 69

I'd been taught since childhood that you must never point at people. And yet, breaking that taboo, I aimed my index finger straight at Detective Chikage. I had to point it out.

"You shouldn't be here, right!? You're supposed to be in the hospital, aren't you!?"

Holding her IV stand with one hand and pressing down one ear with the other, Detective Chikage objected.

"Hey... don't shout, you'll give me a stomachache."

"Well then, stay in bed, okay? Detective Chikage... why are you at the crime scene?"

"Isn't it obvious? Ms. Hasegawa's former coworker just died. I have to investigate. Besides—"

"Besides?"

"People on SNS told any detective to look into it!"

"So you're doing whatever SNS says!? Just go sleep! Those people online don't care about your stomach pain!"

I told her so, but she wouldn't listen, brushing past me and Detective Akaba toward the back of the girls' restroom.

Mid-investigation she tossed a question my way.

"Huh... hey, nobody's using this restroom, right? The police—"

Had she thought of something? I gave her the proper answer just in case.

"Yeah. They're pushing the random-street-killer theory, after all. Did something bother you?"

"No, it's just... what is it? Something's off...!"

She was photographing the area with her smartphone. I snapped a few shots alongside her. Normally I'd hate taking pictures of a dusty, grimy place like this.

But this was a case investigation. I couldn't afford to care.

Detective Chikage opened the door of the farther stall of the two and seemed to be hunting for anything suspicious. Midway she cried "Eww!" and voiced her disgust at something.

I figured she'd just freaked out over a bug and ignored it. Honestly, she's not cut out to be a detective.

Detective Akaba, however, rushed straight over to her.

"What's wrong? Whoa, that's dangerous. Your IV almost got kicked... hey, we can't remove that, right?"

"Right. The doctor said absolutely don't take it off. Thanks to that I get stared at whenever I get in a taxi."

I wanted to say "Then don't come." I was about to quip "Seeing a food-poisoning patient leave the hospital for an investigation is pretty rare." But saying that would derail the conversation.

So I steered things back and spoke to Detective Akaba.

"Anyway, Detective Akaba. Did Detective Chikage see any bugs in there?"

As I said that I looked at the nearer stall's doorknob. It was a bit dusty, but someone had wiped a spot.

Probably whoever had tried to enter the stall had left that mark. Someone had definitely been inside—nothing more.

I stepped into the restroom just in case.

The toilet lid was closed, and it was completely dust-free.

In a place this filthy, why would only the lid be clean? Maybe the user wiped it because they couldn't stand the dust. That's what I thought, until it hit me. On the toilet paper and where the lid had been lifted, the dust still sat thick.

Why had only the lid been wiped clean?

Just as that mystery confronted me, Detective Akaba gave the answer to my earlier question.

"Nah, Chikage-chan just freaked out over the dust on the doorknob. Even though it's only a little."

Detective Akaba's exasperation floated across in her tone. Detective Chikage cried, "Don't embarrass me—!"

Dust on a doorknob... if that's enough to shock her, she'll never reach the truth of this case.

A small doubt crept into my thoughts.

Could that dust on the doorknob actually be critically important? I asked about the situation.

"Wait a minute! Detective Chikage, you opened the back stall door just fine, didn't you?"

From the other side of the wall came a reply.

"When you leave the stall you have to touch the outer doorknob, right? You'd have to touch it to get out of the restroom, yet it's... kind of dusty."

"Kind of?"

"There are handprints. The outer doorknob was perfectly clean, yet this one's still a little dirty... exactly! What felt weird was the way the dust was! Why wasn't there any dust on that doorknob!?"

I quickly checked this doorknob too. In this stall, the inside of the exit door had likewise been wiped only where someone had touched.

Why had only the entry to the farther stall been wiped clean? If it relates to the murder, it could be crucial evidence.

I wanted to ask Detective Chikage something. I needed to know how the dust lay inside that stall.

But with her IV in the way she probably couldn't get in. I could ask her to send photos, but that would take time. No choice—I placed the toilet lid down, stood on it, and stretched to peer over the partition into the back stall.

The first thing I met were Detective Chikage's eyes. She glared at my method.

"Hey. Don't tell me you're trying to peep while someone's using the toilet."

I had to deny it at once. I didn't want false accusations. Detective Akaba was also tilting her head, almost buying it.

"No! The dust in that stall! Is only the lid clean over there too?"

Detective Chikage, puzzled by my words, checked around. When she lifted the lid, the bowl beneath was dusty. Again, only the top of the lid had been wiped.

Why... I thought, and just as I started to climb down I noticed dust on the partition where my elbow had touched. Because I'd rested my elbow on the dusty top. Checking the dust on the partition, I saw one spot—

—where dust had been cleared as if a long object had lain there. About this thickness. A rope.

I hurriedly photographed my hand next the cleared mark with my smartphone so I could compare sizes.

After climbing down I looked at the picture over and over.

Which means a rope-like object had been stretched taut between this stall and the next.

There it was. If my reasoning is right, this restroom has crucial significance. Having noticed various pieces of information, I came up with something I had to tell Detective Akaba.

"Excuse me, Detective Akaba... if the other detectives are pushing the random killer theory, does that mean the autopsy also said the victim's neck was suddenly squeezed tight?"

Detective Akaba nodded.

"That's right. Suddenly. Really. There were no rope scrapes either. The story is that the victim suffered terribly from a single attack and was killed on the spot."

"I see, I see... so that's how it is...!"

I thanked her. We still know nothing about the motive. Yet the truth of this case is coming into view, little by little.