I suppose I don't regret letting Kanoe-San stay with me, but I can't help but feel like It'd save me the trouble if he had stayed dead in the first place.
"You wanna explain to me where Kaneko Futsume's body went?" I looked up from my boss's desk to look him in the eyes.
"I had nothing to do with the body's disappearance, I have no use for a corpse such as that one." His gaze was nerve-wracking, almost like he was some kind of predator ready to tear me to shreds right here and now.
"I want you to tell me everything that happened that night in explicit detail, leave nothing out." I needed to come up with a lie, quickly.
"I was checking the exterior of the body for clues that could lead us to his killer, but I couldn't find any sign of DNA from the attacker left on the body. It was late, I was tired, and I hadn't cut open the body yet so I put it back. After that, I left the morgue and locked it. I didn't see anything unusual as I walked out."
I didn't need to worry about security cameras when I took Kanoe back home with me, nobody thought they were necessary since it's a morgue. I mean, who'd want to steal a body? Also, this hospital was on a budget cut. They couldn't afford security cameras in every part of the building so they decided to exclude the morgue.
"Alright, I'll let this slide. He didn't have any family or friends anyway, so I don't think he'll be missed. You're free to go."
"Thank you sir, am I still allowed to work on the new case that came in?"
"Yes, yes, go ahead."
I left the chief's office and sat down on one of the chairs beside it.
I can't believe I just lied to the chief, Kanoe better have been worth it. I'll talk to him when I get back.
I got up and went over to where Kaito was working.
"Hey, is this the body you were telling me about?" Kaito looked over at me for a second then nodded.
"Yeah, it is. The victim's name was Nakamura Sayuri, her house caught fire and burned down with her in it. The forensics said they found an opened box of matches under some rubble at the crime scene and wanted us to take a look to see if she was murdered or not."
I looked over at the corpse, well... it was kinda hard to tell that was a person at all. The body was charred beyond belief, so she looked more like an overcooked turkey rather than a person.
"Lets cut her open and check the lungs, she could've been killed before the house burned down and one of the most common ways to cover up a murder is suffocation."
"Got it."
When a body is burned, the organs inside it are going to be well preserved. Not perfect, but enough to identify the cause of death. So after checking the corpse's lungs we found traces of water trapped inside.
"This was a murder, the fact that she has water in her lungs is enough proof she was drowned before the house burnt down. Let's check the rest of the organs to see if there's anything else." I nodded in agreement and continued to work.
In the end, we found water in her lungs and learned that she was sexually active just before death. This narrowed down our options of people to investigate, and we started with lovers.
______________________________________________
"Kenji Tai. That's your name, correct?"
"Yes sir."
"Do you wanna tell me where you were the night Ms. Nakamura died?"
I decided to watch the interrogation today, I thought it'd be interesting to see who cracks and who doesn't. So far, we've questioned 3 people. All of which seemed to be telling the truth.
"Not particularly, sir."
"It's not a choice, Kenji." The boy, Kenji, had his head down turned and was pulling on his fingers. That could either be a sign of nervousness or OCD.
"I was with friends that night."
"Mhm, is this your matchbox Kenji?" The interrogator pulled out a partially burnt box of matches from his pocket and set it on the table. Kenji flinched in response.
"N-no sir."
"If it isn't yours, then why are your fingerprints on it?"
"I... okay. I admit, it's mine. I was at her house the day Sayuri died."
"You called her by her first name, were you two lovers?"
"Yes, before I cheated on her. But I didn't mean to, I was drunk."
"I want you to tell me everything that happened since the minute you entered her house, understood?"
"Mhm."
"Okay, you can begin."
"I went to her house to apologize that night, and she forgave me. Things escalated quickly and we... did some things. Afterwards, she told me she couldn't keep it to herself anymore and informed me that she had cheated on me before I did, and I got mad at her and stormed out. Later I went back in to apologize while she was taking a bath but we ended up fighting..... I didn't mean to say the things I did."
"Can you tell me what you said Kenji?"
"I... I was ranting and I s-said I was so mad I could k-kill her right then."
I was taken aback, I didn't think he'd crack so early into the interrogation.
"S-she passed out from shock and I thought she was just messing around, then I went into the living room to wait for her to finish bathing so we could work things out. S-s-she drowned... in the bathtub. A-and when I went to check on her and found her body..." Kenji was now shaking and sobbing uncontrollably, while the interrogator was looking a little uncomfortable across the table.
"So in a panic you burned down the house to make it look like an accident, am I right?"
Kenji nodded his head, wiping his face with his sleeve.
"I hate to break it to you Kenji, but you're not off the hook because it was an accident. You committed arson, so that could give you a long time in jail. I'd suggest you call your lawyer, you'll be going to court in a few weeks."
I left the observation room after that, I needed to escape the sobbing and hiccupping of the kid in the chair before it haunted my dreams. I went over to the vending machine and grabbed a hot coffee, and sat down on one of the chairs beside it.
"Good work Hikaru, you solved another case." I turned my head to find Kaito grabbing something out of the vending machine.
"You helped, it wasn't all me you know."
"I know, but I wanted to congratulate you anyway. You do deserve it, afterall."
I don't exactly remember when, but somewhere along the way Kaito started calling me by my first name. I don't mind it, but we aren't very close and so it's kind of strange.
"You should come by my place after work, I'll buy some drinks and we could hang out for a while. What do you say?"
"Uh, sure? I should go home first though, I need to feed my... cat."
"Here's my phone number, I'll text you my address." He handed me a small slip of paper with his cell number written on it in sharpie.
"Oh, thanks." I told him I'd see him later and left the building. But I was slightly confused, Kaito isn't normally this... nice. To me or anyone, really. I couldn't help but label it odd.