On Saturday, May twenty-first, I woke up early in the morning.
"Time to get up."
I had had some kind of nasty dream. It seemed like I was about to be killed, and like I was also trying to kill someone. My entire body was being controlled by the sheer will to commit harm, and at the same time, I was being harmed. I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran, but sooner or later the figure chasing after me turned out to be myself, and I was gripped with terror. Certain death was just behind me, and yet it was strangely exhilarating. It was that kind of awful dream.
The sheer fact that I couldn't remember it made it a nightmare and the fact that it was a nightmare made this a rude awakening.
I rose up from my futon and checked the time. Five fifty in the morning. My plans with Mikoko-chan weren't until ten o'clock, so I still had roughly four hours to kill. With nothing in particular to do, I folded up my futon and pushed it into the closet.
I went outside, thinking it might be nice to go for a run for the first time in a while. I locked up just to be safe, but with a lock of this quality, Aikawa-san wasn't the only one who could easily break in if so inclined. Not that there was anything in that place I'd mind having stolen.
I ran east down Imadegawa Street and turned back once Dôshisha University had come into view. I went directly back to my apartment and changed out of my sweaty clothes. Why, oh why had I thought it would be a good idea to run in this heat? I wondered with the usual remorse.
I picked up the book I had borrowed from the school library and reread the part I had previously stopped in the middle of. That alone ate through a good chunk of time, so from there I picked up the envelope from Kunagisa, the contents of which I had already glanced over a few times.
The envelope contained police documents. Through what means Kunagisa had obtained such a thing, I didn't know, but we had sort of a don't ask, don't tell policy. What I did know, however, was that Kunagisa could access pretty much any place with electricity running through it and that within her circle of friends were criminals who knew just about everything in the entire Milky Way galaxy. Of course, normally I had little interest in a criminal investigation. But these were documents on the murder of Emoto Tomoe.
"But come on..."
I flipped through the paper-clipped sheets of A4 paper.
There wasn't really any new information. The documents elaborated on some of the more minor details, but most of them seemed irrelevant, and it was all more or less what Sasaki-san had told me. I was a little bit shattered to realize that this was what I had endured Aikawa-san's interrogation for.
Still, it wasn't a complete waste. There was some information I hadn't been aware of, and it was worth knowing.
"So here we have alibi relations."
As logic may have dictated, the four classmates who had been with Emoto Tomoe the night she died (us, that is) were the prime suspects. Nevertheless, all four of us had alibis, at least for the time being. Miiko-san next door had graciously vouched for Mikoko-chan and me, while Muimi-chan and Akiharu-kun were vouching for each other. The possibility that they had committed the crime in cahoots was present, but based on the police's observations, that didn't seem to be the case. Sasaki-san had made it sound like Muimi-chan and Akiharu-kun went to karaoke, just the two of them, but apparently other people from school had been present as well. In other words, Akiharu-kun and Muimi-chan had a sound alibi, just like Mikoko-chan and I. If anyone had a weak alibi, it was me. After all, Miiko-san could only vouch for what she heard (or didn't hear) through the apartment walls.
But of course, I knew I wasn't the killer.
"Okay then, that's all clear..."
Next was the list of items in the apartment. When I snuck in with Zerozaki, I didn't think anything was missing, but apparently, I was wrong. The police documents gave a complete list of everything inside Tomo-chan's apartment, from the largest piece of furniture to the smallest accessory. It was like the concept of privacy no longer even existed, but at the same time, it gave you a good idea of who this Emoto Tomo character was.
It was just that on this list, one thing was missing—the liquid-filled capsule neckstrap Akiharu-kun had given Tomoe-chan as a birthday present.
I had seen him give it to her with my own eyes, so it was strange that it wasn't on the list. The most logical explanation to come to mind was that the killer had taken it, but that just raised the question of why the killer would want such a thing.
"It wasn't exactly worth a lot..."
Meanwhile, the cell phone she had used to call me had apparently been found in her pocket. The documents included corroboration of the call based on the call history in her phone's memory.
No foreign objects had appeared in her apartment either. Evidently, the killer had left with the think cloth allegedly used to strangle her.
"Cloth... Cloth... Cloth, eh?"
Next was a thoroughly documented account of Mikoko's discovery of the body, which was information I hadn't been able to draw out of her. She had visited Tomo-chan's apartment in the morning and called her room on the intercom. But there was no answer. She wouldn't pick up her phone either. Thinking this was strange, Mikoko made her way through the auto-locked door as one of the other residents was leaving and headed to Tomo-chan's room. The door to the entrance wasn't locked. I had feared we might have another damned sealed room on our hands, but apparently, that wasn't the case.
"And finally."
That x over y writing.
The police had deemed this the "work of the perpetrator," which made sense. Sasaki-san said herself that Emoto Tomoe had died instantly, so it didn't make sense that she could've written a dying message. This was something I had realized in time as well. Once again, this raised the question of why the killer would do such a thing. Leaving a sign at the crime scene—this was no Jack the Ripper after all.
"And that's the end of that."
Those were the facts I had deemed useful. But overall, my ideas on the case remained largely unchanged.
And that was fine, I thought.
Based on this information, a number of minute possibilities had been crossed out. From here I would gradually narrow down the remaining possibilities. But for the time being, it was safe to say that a basic process of reasoning was starting to take form.
"But still..."
What the hell was I doing? Why did I have to do all this stuff?
Was it for Tomo-chan?
Or for Mikoko-chan?
Going as far as obtaining these documents, dedicating copious amounts of time—what the hell was I doing?
"I ought to talk to Sasaki-san again, huh..."
There were some things I wanted to ask. Some possibilities left to be narrowed down. I wouldn't use the word solution until I had something 100 percent watertight.
I slid the papers back into the envelope, tore the envelope to pieces, and threw it all into the garbage. In the unlikely event that somebody caught a look at these documents, there would be trouble. Besides, having perused them pretty thoroughly, most of the information had been committed to memory already.
Now then.
There was still a little over an hour until Mikoko-chan would be here. Two hours, if you factored in her lack of punctuality.
I lay down on the floor and thought a bit more.
About the murder?
No.
About my own ridiculousness.
Luckily, there was still plenty of time.
Life had only just begun.