“Are there really no other suspects besides these people?”
“What did you think I just said?”
As I asked, unable to give up hope, the Inspector snapped at me.
“Strictly speaking, only that brat on the far left has enough suspicion to be called a suspect. For the others, there is only a thread of a possibility that a crime could even be established. They are people who did not even need to be summoned, but I brought them here specifically to handle the case thoroughly. So that even the slightest possibility is not ignored!”
However, contrary to the Inspector’s words, none of the three had a black shadow cast over them.
‘At least it is a relief that Adriel does not have a shadow…’
The case had fallen into a total fog.
To think the culprit was not among them.
Then who was the killer?
“…Could you start by introducing these people to me?”
I finally spoke up after agonizing over the situation.
‘I need to figure out who they are first.’
If I could find out who they were and what their relationship with the victim was, the missing pieces of the puzzle might appear.
A third party who could potentially be the culprit but was not currently in this room — someone who might have visited this house.
I had to find that person.
So, for now, let us try questioning them.
“We shall start from the far right.”
The Inspector gestured toward one person with a tilt of his head.
A woman with a dissatisfied expression was standing there.
“This is Mrs. Sarah, Mrs. Claire’s next-door neighbor.”
“I truly feel wronged.”
The woman opened her mouth as if she had been waiting for the chance.
“I do not even know why I was called here. I am just a normal housewife. A normal housewife raising my angelic daughter.”
“But did you not have a conflict recently with the victim, Dolores?”
“Recently? That happened almost 2 years ago, and you still count that as recent?”
The woman twisted her hair as if displeased before finally beginning her story.
“That was when my Emily was a 6-year-old. This household’s boy was a 7-year-old. Until then, I thought the son of this house was a normal child.”
“My child is normal!”
“Yes, well. I am sure you think so. Anyway, I let the son of this house play with Emily. When I returned after stepping away for a moment, oh my goodness!”
Mrs. Sarah raised her voice, looking around the room as if asking if anyone could believe it.
“Was my child not crying her eyes out? She was clutching her bleeding knee and crying so piteously!”
Oh, come on. I thought it was something serious.
“Is it not common for young children to get hurt while running and playing together?”
“The problem was the reaction of this house’s son who was standing next to her! That boy did not comfort Emily, nor did he cry along out of surprise; he just stared blankly at Emily while she was on the ground crying! It was so chilling!”
Mrs. Sarah shuddered.
“He must have pushed our Emily. I immediately protested this matter. I was even willing to forgive them if they simply apologized. However, unlike Mr. Washers, who bowed politely and apologized to me, Mrs. Washers and that maid shamelessly insisted that their son could not have done such a thing.”
“That is because you kept saying such nonsense! You did not see it yourself, so how do you know Adriel pushed her? Adriel is just a child who does not know what expression to make when he is flustered! His emotional expression is just a bit clumsy, but he is not a child who would recklessly harm others!”
“Exactly! Just like now! Did you see that? Is she not truly shameless? Even though her child murdered the maid, she claims he would never hurt anyone. With a wife like that, it is no wonder Mr. Washers left this dreadful house!”
Mrs. Sarah was already treating it as an established fact that Adriel had killed Dolores.
She did not stop there and continued.
“It is a pity the maid died, but it is all because she raised that beast-like child with too much indulgence. That is why she was murdered by the child! They should have tied that devilish child up with chains long ago so he could not hurt anyone!”
Claire ran over, covered the child’s ears, and glared at Mrs. Sarah.
“Well… it is as you see.”
The Inspector summarized the situation listlessly.
“Mrs. Sarah is the neighbor right next door, and she harbored ill feelings toward Dolores.”
“I see…”
“But as you heard, this relationship has already persisted for over 2 years. If she were going to suddenly visit this house and stab someone to death, she would have done it long ago. Furthermore, Mrs. Sarah is a housewife who has never done a day of rough work in her life. How could someone so busy looking after her own daughter commit such a murder?”
Well.
‘That does not seem logical at all.’
Human emotions are not that simple.
Bluntly speaking, could someone not ruminate on a grudge from ten years ago, not just 2 years, and then decide to commit murder in a moment of sudden heat?
Moreover, to say she could not have committed murder because she is a housewife?
Was he really saying that while pushing a 9-year-old boy as the prime suspect?
Handling kitchen knives and killing living things would have been far more familiar to a housewife.
‘…is what I desperately want to say.’
But I decided to remain silent.
It was because Mrs. Sarah was not the culprit.
“Who is the person next to her?”
I asked, pointing to a rowdy-looking man standing next to Mrs. Sarah with his weight shifted to one leg.
“Mr. Gale, the cousin of the victim, Dolores,” the Inspector explained. “I heard they lived in the same house since Dolores was young. Though it seems they did not get along very well.”
“It is all because of that ungrateful girl.”
The man spoke while swaying back and forth.
“If someone raised an fatherless orphan, she should naturally repay that kindness, right? But she refused to lend her brother a bit of money? It is not like I was not going to pay her back; I said I would pay her back once I won! That day was the day my lucky star rose! If that girl had just lent me the money, I would have won for sure! So, I lost at least 300 because of her.”
He was such a disgusting human being that I wondered if there was even a need to talk to him further.
Mrs. Sarah subtly moved away from Gale.
Judging by how she lightly pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger, it seemed this man even gave off an unpleasant smell.
“Mr. Gale.”
I asked, trying my best not to be rude.
“Did you make financial demands of Dolores?”
“Once or twice a month. But that cold-hearted thing never once opened the door for me.”
“Mr. Gale is a severe gambling addict,” the Inspector said. “He is a person of such poor character that he has plenty of motive to kill the victim, but if this man had visited, the victim would not have opened the door so easily.”
This time, I agreed with the Inspector’s opinion.
Additionally, the only place with signs of a struggle was the child’s room.
If that man had been the visitor who killed Dolores, it felt like the struggle would have started from the front door, not the child’s room.
“The third suspect was Mr. Washers, Mrs. Claire’s ex-husband, but…”
The Inspector frowned.
“Mr. Washers did not respond to the police summons.”
“That is suspicious,” I said immediately.
The Inspector seemed to have gathered the most suspicious people here, but to me, the fact that someone was not here meant they were more likely to be the culprit.
Since there were no black shadows here, the symbol of the culprit had to exist somewhere.
“However, there is a grace period of up to 1 week for a police request to appear. Even if I were Mr. Washers, I would probably delay as much as possible and arrive late rather than rushing to my divorced ex-wife’s house.”
It was such a rational point that I only felt frustrated internally.
‘What can I do? I only have half a day left.’
If Mr. Washers did not appear today, I could not confirm for sure whether he was the culprit.
“I summoned him because there was a possibility he might come to see his ex-wife or the son he left behind, but Mr. Washers is likely not the killer. Why would a promising doctor like him brutally murder his ex-wife’s maid?”
This man was truly a mass of prejudice.
By that logic, did Adriel have any reason to kill the maid who had looked after him his whole life?
‘Because he got scolded about the clock the day before?’
Would someone really kill over something like that?
“Therefore, there is only one suspect remaining.”
The Inspector spoke.
It was likely a conclusion that had been decided in his heart from the beginning.
“The prime suspect in this case, Master Adriel.”
Even then, Claire was still covering the child’s ears with an anxious expression.
On the other hand, the child she was protecting so fiercely was motionless, wearing a blank face.
When I shook my head, Claire reluctantly removed her hands from the child’s ears.
As if that were a signal.
“Hello. I am Adriel. I am 9 years old.”
A monotone, uninflected voice, clearly distinct from others, was heard.
And then, silence.
Unlike the other adults who rattled on about their own innocence, Adriel was quiet.
It seemed I would have to ask appropriate questions to hear his story.
I bent my knees to meet the child’s eyes and asked in the kindest voice I could muster.
“Adriel. Do you remember what happened 4 days ago?”
“If you are asking if Adriel remembers what happened 4 days ago, Adriel was in a different room. The room with the fish painted on it.”
It was a unique way of speaking.
Still, it did not seem like communication would be impossible.
“I see. Adriel was in a different room.”
“Yes. Adriel was in a different room.”
According to what I heard from Chairman Peterson, the child had moved rooms after a big fight with the maid over the clock issue.
And the place where the maid was murdered the next day was the room the child had originally been using.
‘…Perhaps, the target the killer was after was not the maid, but the child.’
I tucked away the thought that suddenly occurred to me and continued the questioning.
“Then, while you were in the other room, did you happen to hear any sounds coming from the room you were originally in?”
“When I was in the other room, I did not happen to hear any sounds coming from the room I was originally in. The fish room is quiet. Adriel likes the sound of clocks, but the fish room does not have clock sounds. It is very quiet.”
“Hmph! A lie.”
The Inspector cut in with a snort.
“The fish room where that brat says he was is on the second floor of the villa. It is certainly quite far from the room where the murder occurred, but the maid was not killed instantly. Since a struggle occurred and she was stabbed multiple times, she surely would have screamed at the top of her lungs. How could he not have heard that sound?”
“Our Adriel…”
Claire, who had been restless the whole time, quickly interjected.
“His concentration is incredibly good. When he is focused on something, his mind is completely fixed there, and he cannot pay attention to anything else. He would not know even if there were sounds around him.”
“No matter how focused he was, there is no way he did not hear the screams.”
The Inspector said flatly.
“As expected, this brat is the most suspicious.”
“Wait a moment, Inspector.”
I stopped him before he could reach a hasty conclusion.
“My questioning is not over yet. I have many things I want to ask Adriel.”
“Hmm, I do not know why you are dragging this out so much. Well, do as you wish.”
I asked Adriel once again.
“Adriel. Could you perhaps explain the shadow of the clock hands to me?”
The hypothesis I had a moment ago.
If the target the culprit was after was not the maid but the child, then the child’s room might have been targeted beforehand.
In that case, could the “shadow of the clock hands” the child mentioned have been a sign indicating some kind of intrusion?
However, the child’s reaction upon hearing my question was strange.
“Uh, clock. Shadow. Uh…”
Adriel’s mouth twitched this way and that as his face distorted in various ways, and finally, with a bizarre smile, he spoke.
“Clocks are good things. When the small needle gets to 7, Mommy comes. Clocks are good. Shadows are good, too. But it is not good when the shadow disappears. Adriel hates it when the shadow of the clock hands disappears.”
“…What does that mean? Can you explain it in more detail to me?”
“If I explain it in more detail, bad things happen when the shadow of the clock hands disappears. But I must not tell. I promised not to tell anyone.”
“…! A promise? With whom?”
“With Dolores.”
“…!”
“I promised. I would not tell anyone.”
With a heavily distorted smile, the child’s voice grew louder. His breathing was unstable, and his pupils darted around anxiously.
“Dolores said it was a secret. I must never, ever tell Mommy. Adriel keeps promises well. Stop! Wait! If you do not know what expression to make, you smile! It is an absolute secret from Mommy! Adriel likes Mommy. I will not tell Mommy.”
I did not fully understand Adriel’s words.
However, one thing seemed certain.
The child knew something, and the deceased Dolores had instructed the child to hide it.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.