Ryuzaki finally reached the townhouse where the third murder had occurred at just past three. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Misora,” he said, not appearing the least hit guilty about showing up an hour late.
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t waiting. I started without you,” Misora said, as sarcastically as possible.
‘I see,” Ryuzaki said, going down on all fours and scuttling over toward her. She was getting used to it, but it happened so suddenly she almost jumped. She hadn’t seen him for three days, after all.
On August 6th, after speaking with L, she had gone back to Quarter Queen’s apartment and told him that the fourth murder would happen in six days, on August 22nd. Naturally, Ryuzaki had asked her how she knew, but Misora had no idea. And she couldn’t just say that L had said so.. .but while she and Ryuzaki talked the matter over, Misora had figured it out. Her answer was more than convincing, hut she didn’t feel like explaining it to Ryuzaki, so she simply stuck to her guns. In retrospect, Ryuzaki had let the matter drop a little too easily... but they had eventually decided to investigate the third crime scene, Backyard Bottomslash’s home, on the 19th. In the meantime, both Naomi Misora and Rue Ryuzaki would look into the background of the case and make other preparations for their
investigation.
Misora had spent the time staying in regular contact with L, advancing her own theories and obtaining a range of useful information as a result (including some new discoveries the police had made and L had relayed on to her), but the truth was that, on the 19th, even after arriving at the third crime scene and spending several hours investigating it alone, she felt like she had made no significant advances since downtown on the 16th.
“Did you already check the bathroom, Misora?” “Of course. You?”
“I glanced inside before I came upstairs. But that bathtub’s ruined. Painted like that, the only person who would dream of climbing in is Elizabeth Báthory.”
“He wipes every single fingerprint, but not a drop of blood. Finicky types are always like that. The killer honestly doesn’t give a damn about anything but himself.”
“Yes, I agree,” Ryuzaki said, but despite his words he seemed to have no problems crawling around the blood-spattered floor... or did he just not care? Just like the killer... Misora watched his movements carefully.
“I don’t think there’s anything here,” she said. “I went over it pretty carefully.” “My, my. I never thought I’d hear you be so pessimistic, Misora.”
“I’m not... just, Ryuzaki, I feel like the focus of this scene must be the severed limbs. The left arm and the right leg cut off... this is the biggest difference from his previous victims.”
“Like you mentioned before, something that should be here, but isn’t? In that case, what we have to think about is why the killer dropped the right leg in the bathroom and only took away the left arm. A
whole arm. Not nearly as easy as taking away two volumes of Akazukin Chacha.”
“And they still haven’t found the arm... it’s not that easy to dispose of body parts, so if the killer took it with him, then there must be a good reason for it. I don’t know if that’s the message... or if it isn’t a message, there might be some kind of mark on it that the killer doesn’t want us to see.”
“Possibly. That makes sense. But crushing the second victim’s eyes pointed to our blind spot, and to glasses, so carrying away the left arm must mean something.. .but once again, it’s the right leg that bothers me, Misora. The killer’s treatment of it is so muddled. You yourself said that disposing of a body isn’t easy, but neither is cutting one up. It must have taken ages. It doesn’t strike you as rather dangerous to do something like that in a townhouse? There are houses on either side, sharing walls, and they might notice at any moment.”
“Both limbs were cut off right at the root... the body was found over there. Right, pictures, pictures Misora flipped through the folder she had already taken out and produced the photographs of the third crime scene. The same picture that had helped them figure out the message at the second scene. She held the photograph up, lining it up with the room and pinpointing where the body had been. “It was over here, lying on its back, with the right arm and left leg flung out wide... hmm…”
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