“At all three scenes, the person who discovered the body opened the door and came in. Using a spare key or breaking the door down. They all came into the room… and saw that creepy doll on the wall. The Wara Ningyo was the first thing they saw No matter what, their attention was drawn to it, Maybe while their attention was distracted, the killer, who’d been hiding in the room, slipped quietly out the door...”
“As classic a locked room detective novel trick as the needle and thread. But Misora, think about it. If you wanted to focus someone’s attention, you wouldn’t need the doll.”
“Why not?”
“If there was no doll, then the first thing they would see is a dead body. Just like you froze when you came into the room and saw my corpse. All he had to do was slip out of the room when someone came in and was staring in shock at the body.”
“Ah... right. Of course. So... did he want the person who found the body to see something besides the body first? I can’t think of any reason why, but...”
“Neither can I.”
“If he didn’t want them to notice the body at all, I would understand, but what could he gain from arranging it so they didn’t notice the body for a second or two? But in that case, why put a Wara Ningyo there? Is the placement just a coincidence?”
“No, I’m sure it was deliberate. It makes no sense to dismiss it as coincidental. But approaching it from this perspective doesn’t strike me as very effective. Like I said before, rather than focusing on the Wara Ningyo and the locked room, I would prefer... I think we should concentrate on figuring out the message the killer left behind.”
“But, Ryuzaki... no, you’re right.” She almost argued but stopped herself. It certainly was worth pursuing, but she didn’t have any follow-through at the moment. First they needed to identify the fourth victim, or at least the location. There were Wara Ningyo at all the scenes, but the message was only in this room, and they needed to find it as soon as possible. “Sorry. I was wasting valuable time.”
“I would rather you apologize for stepping on me, Misora.” “Oh, right, of course.”
“You mean it? Then as a token of your contrition, would you do something for me?” “Okay..
Could he be more blatant? But she had stepped on him. Very hard, with her full body weight.
“What?”
“Would you pretend to be dead, Misora? Like I was a moment ago. The victim, Backyard Bottomslash, was a woman, so you might provide more inspiration than I did.”
Apparently this private detective was unaware that most people possess something called self-respect. But this was not the time to point this out to him. If she did, Naomi Misora felt she would be well on her way to earning a reputation as a tsundere-- prickly to hide her inner drippiness. And the matter was urgent--- she was willing to try anything that might help. She wasn’t sure if this was one of those things, but by this point she was even willing to try crawling. Peeling oddly resigned, she lay down on the floor. The room looked really different from down there.
“So? Anything?” “No, not at all.”
“Oh. Yeah, I thought not.” Futile.
Ryuzaki sat on the chair with his knees against his chest, pointed out that the coffee Misora had made was getting cold, and drank his. Misora had put sugar in the way she liked it, and half expected him to complain, but he didn’t say anything. Apparently he was capable of consuming non-sweet things too. It seemed she could get up now, but it felt more awkward to do so than to stay down here, so she didn’t move.
“Whew... hot coffee helps the pain in my belly,” Ryuzaki said. He seemed so nonchalant, but he just wouldn’t let that go.
“Ryuzaki. . .was this the same as the first victim? After she died, he took the clothes off, then cut off the arm and leg, and then put the clothes back on?”
“Yes. What of it?”
“No, I know it’s easier to cut up a body without the clothes getting in the way Clothes are pretty sturdy, really. They get tangled up on the blade. But once he has the clothes off, why does he put them back
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