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Not very helpful.

“So there’s no point in my being here?”

“No,” L said. “I expect you will be able to find something that the police did not.”

“Well.. that’s clear enough.” Or perhaps a tad obvious.

It ultimately explained nothing.

“They say you should visit the crime scene a hundred times, So going there is hardly pointless. Some time has passed, so it’s possible something floated to the surface. Naomi Misora, the first thing we iced to think about in this case is the connection between the victims. What links Believe Bridesmaid, Quarter Queen, and the new victim, Backyard Bottomslash? Or is there no connection, and these murders are completely random? But even if they are random, there must be some logic by which the killer selects his victims. What l am asking you to do, Naomi Misora, is to discover this missing link.” “I see...”

She didn’t really, hut she had begun to understand that arguing with L would not make him stop being evasive and tell her what she actually wanted to know, so she decided to not ask many questions. Besides, she had found the bedroom. The door opened inward and had a thumb turn lock.

A locked room.

The second and third crime scenes also had thumb turn locks... was that a link? No, that much information had been in the file. The

police had already noticed it. L was looking for something more.

It was not a very large room, but there was not much furniture, so it did not feel cramped. There was a big bed in the center of the scene, but the only other furniture was a few bookshelves. These shelves were mainly filled with how-to books for different leisure activities and famous Japanese comics, suggesting that Believe Bridesmaid had used this room exclusively for relaxation. He seemed be the type to carefully separate work and private time—not a type often found in freelance writers. Presumably there was a study of some kind on the second floor, Misora thought, absently glancing up at the ceiling. She would have to check there later.

“By the way, Naomi Misora. What are your thoughts on the culprit behind these killings? I’d like to hear your current thinking on the matter.”

“I doubt if my thoughts will be of any use to you, L…” “All thoughts are of use.”

Oh?

Misora thought for a moment.

“He’s abnormal,” she replied, not bothering to choose her words, but just stating her mind. This was the main impression she had received the day before, reading over the file. “Not just because he’s killed three people, but... each action he took just drove that impression home. And he’s not even trying to

hide it.”

“For example?”

“For example… fingerprints. They have not found a single fingerprint at any of the crime scenes. They had been wiped away completely.”

“True... but Naomi Misora, surely leaving no fingerprints is the most basic of criminal techniques.” “Not to this extent,” Misora said, annoyed—she knew L understood what she was driving at and was sure that he was testing her ability, no matter what he said. Testing to see if she was capable of serving as his man on the scene. “If you didn’t want to leave fingerprints, most people would wear gloves—or otherwise, wipe down anything they touched. But this guy... apparently he wiped clean every fingerprint in the house. At all three scenes. At first I wondered if he’d been to the victim’s house so many times he had no idea what he’d touched and what he hadn’t, but once I read that he had unscrewed the light bulbs and wiped the sockets, it became a completely different story. What else can you call that but abnormal?”

“I agree.”

Did he, now?

“So, L, back to what I was saying earlier, if he’s taken such extreme precautions, then I doubt I’m going to be able to find anything new here. It’s a faint hope at best. Someone like this isn’t going to make a mistake.”

A mistake.

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