ALEXER POV,
"Seems like it was your first time to cut class, huh?" I looked back at Vienne when she said that. We are on a bus now going to school.
"I couldn't come back, Comere tagged me along to solve the case about the missing pencils." I explained. "By the way, thanks for dropping my bag at home." I said to Wadalei who just nodded.
"Oh, it's good that he considered you one of the members of D-Club." Vienne said sarcastically.
"I think he already accepted us in the club." I quickly answered her, which she just sneered at. "But of course, he just wanted to test how far our patience would go." I added and shrugged my shoulders. "You just need to get used to his actions if you really want to be in the D-Club. He seems like he's not going to be nice to you either."
"Then I won't be nice too!" Vienne said instantly and I pouted. Looks like Vienne would also compete in attitude with Comere…
When we got to school, we went directly to the D-Club. We immediately noticed Comere, seriously focused on the papers like there was important information written about whoever was in his case now that laid on the table.
"Good morning Comere!" I greeted him and sat at the couch, he then looked at me and the two behind me who just got in the clubroom.
"Now that you're here, I want you to know what case we have today. As you can see, I have already obtained information about people possibly involved in what happened." Comere showed a paper which I quickly reached from him. I felt Wadalei and Vienne at my back reading the paper that Comere just handed me.
"There's a woman named Lori Ann Gazo. She loves red roses. Inside her house, a note was found that set out details about what she should do that day. Almost every task has check marks as if she had already done it, but something caught my attention," Comere said and he put out another paper. It's a picture of a man and he quickly pointed at it.
"His name is James Lastiña, he is Lori's boyfriend but some people have said that he has not visited the girl for three days. What could be the man's possible reason for not showing up for three days? Did he have anything to do with the girl's death? What do you think?"
We stayed quietly after he put down the picture on the table. We couldn't speak. Even me, I don't know what to say to what Comere just told us.
I'm not expecting to encounter this kind of case that has something to do with death this early.
Is Comere just trying to test us? If we can handle these kinds of cases? I don't know.
I looked again at Comere but he's busy spinning his pencil on his fingers. For sure he's waiting for us to speak or for us to give some information to the case he just showed now.
I'm nervous again..
"I expect not just one person is involved in this case." Vienne commented and Comere just shrugged his shoulders.
"Yes, but unfortunately, my investigation is pointing to one person. I noticed something suspicious about him. James Lastiña has a note found at the crime scene. And my acquaintance has made it one of the pieces of evidence." Comere is still focused on his pencil. "However, there's no chance of declaring it one of the clues. Unless we find more evidence inside the house." He added.
"We may not attend our classes for today just to see where the crime scene is." Vienne said.
Comere showed his strange smile. The smile I always see at him everytime he expects something to happen.
"And if ever we solve this case, you'll promise you won't get rid of us from your club anymore." Vienne challenged Comere. I looked at her appalled, I wanted to tell her to shut up.
Really, this girl… so impulsive.
"Are you asking me to shut my mouth whenever I don't want your presence?" Comere smirked. He's definitely teasing Vienne. I anxiously swallowed, waiting for Vienne to speak.
"I'm asking you to accept us and let us be part of your Detective Club, Comere Grey Shion."
*Stunned*
I stared at Vienne when she said that. She sounds no pride at all. I smiled because of the sincerity in her speech.
"Hmm, let's see.." Comere clasped his hands and stared at Vienne, "I'll give you a chance, just prove to me that you can solve this case.."
I'm amazed looking at them staring at each other. This seems going to be an interesting case because of Vienne.
When we arrived at the victim's house, I immediately noticed Comere walked directly to the police officers. I couldn't hear what they just told him. We walked closer to them when he gestured at the three of us.
"These are my members in D-Club, they're gonna help me solving this case. Go introduce yourselves." Comere wearily said. Well, I expect him to be like that.
"Hi Inspector…uh?" I looked at him from head to toe. Who is he? Comere didn't even tell us his name.
"Oh.. This is Inspector Megure. He's in charge of this case." Comere quickly introduced the police in front of us.
"A-Ah! Hi Inspector Megure! I'm Alexer.." I looked at Wada who was standing beside me and he slightly bowed at him.
"Wadalei." She said shortly.
"Hello Inspector! I'm Vienne!" Vienne said cheerfully. "Why does he look like he's tired? He also looks like he needs some sleep... Maybe he's not sleeping..." Vienne whispered at me, talking about the police in front of us.
"Ah-ahhh.." I scratched my temples and I awkwardly smiled at the officer. Vienne really doesn't care where she is, she's always too loud…
"Hello everyone. It's nice to have you here." Inspector Megure welcomed us and looked at Comere again. "Just like I said, until now, we still can't reach the victim's boyfriend. We also already printed out all of the details about this case."
"Where's the evidence?" Comere said.
Inspector Megure handed a folder to Comere which he instantly opened.
We looked at what he's holding.
"You might see something you don't like but bare with it." Comere said quietly.
"Eh.. Wait Comere, aren't they going to get mad if we're going inside the house too?" I was kinda hesitant to ask him that but he just stared at me like I'm so stupid.
Ouch. -.-
"Until now, we still don't know James Lastiña's whereabouts. We asked a lot of people, but we still don't have any news about the man." Inspector said, we also started walking inside the house.
You can clearly see how messy the living room is, there are a lot of dead flowers scattered on the floor. If you look at it, it looks like there was a fight that caused the mess.
We stopped when we smelled the stench coming from the house.
"It's too strong… Smells like the house just got cleaned… But why is it so messy here?" Vienne commented while looking around us.
I couldn't stand the smell. Vienne is right, the stench is so strong that you can smell it all over the house.
Like something was sprayed here or got spilled.
"Bleach..." Wada said silently.
"Yeah, you're right, it's bleach.." Vienned agreed. "It seems like Lory did her laundry before she died." Vienne jokes. "Oh wait!" She left and she's looking for something outside. She scratched her temples when she got back, "There were no clothes hanging outside. Bleach is used to whiten your clothes. If not, she doesn't look like she cleaned her house either, look how messy this place is…"
Vienne is right, if the victim didn't do the laundry, then why did her house smell bleach?
I scratched my temples too and glanced at Comere, hoping he could say something for me to understand more.
Inspector Megure excused himself, saying he needed to talk to someone outside. So it's just the four of us left inside the house.
Comere started to walk like he's searching for something.
"C-Comere…" I called him and went to his side. He didn't glance at me, he's busy inspecting around us. I looked at the back and saw Vienne went to the second floor. While Wada is standing still staring at the flowers on the floor.
"Messy place… The smell of the bleach and dead flowers…" Comere murmured. "The whole area was chaotic as if a storm had passed through this house…" Comere added. He walked to the table where there were two empty glasses. "This can only mean that someone is here, before Lori died." Then he looked back at me.
"A-are you sure?" I asked. He stood up straight and pocketed his hands.
"Of course. Do you have any explanation why there are two glasses here, even though Lori is the only one living here?" Comere raised his eyebrows and waited for me to answer him. I swallowed and shook my head slowly, which he just sneered.
Maybe it's best for me to just shut my mouth, I don't have any information to contribute in this case anyway. -.-
"Maybe the reason why there are two glasses is because she had a visitor or someone is visiting her. Assuming around 10:20am to 11:00am someone is here and Lori gave him water while they are talking… Anyway this is obviously my theory if someone else was in this house the time before Lori died." Comere started to speak again while staring at the two glasses on the table.
"So Lori's boyfriend shouldn't be the only probable suspect here?" I asked unsure.
"Yes. And if I'm not mistaken, Inspector Megure already knew about this." Comere snapped to the air.
"The flowers…" I heard Wada talking so I looked back at her. "They looked like they didn't die because of the bleach…"
I looked at Comere after what Wada had said.
"Hmm, you think so?" He seemed amazed looking at Wada's direction. "Can you explain how it's not caused by the bleach?"
"Hmm, they looked freshly picked from the soil. There was no hint of chemicals to the petals either. I'm sure it's not bleach that caused them like this." Wada explained wearily. Comere crossed his arms and made him think deeply. But he quickly turned his back to Wadalei like he didn't care about her explanation.
"Is that so?" Comere commented.
Comere didn't get any answer because Wada quickly shrugged her shoulders after what Comere said.
I let out a big sigh, I should help them too to look for any information. I started walking and kept myself busy looking for any clues.
I glanced at the stairs and remembered Vienne went up to the second floor so I thought of following her there too.
The bleach is stronger on the second floor which made me cover my nose. My eyes went looking for Vienne and found her standing in front of the bed. Maybe it's the victim's bedroom.
"What are you doing here? Isn't your nose hurt from the smell?" I asked while tugging her uniform a bit.
"I'm looking for more evidence… I'm looking for something that could fit into that mark on the wall…" Vienne pointed above the bed. I scratched my forehead and looked in it's direction.
But there was a crumpled paper near the bed that caught my attention.
"I-is that a paper?" I'm still not sure so I asked. I was about to climb on the bed to reach it, but Vienne quickly hit my head that got me distracted, "Hey, it hurts! What is it for?!"
"Don't climb up the bed! Be careful! You might've messed up the evidence that we still don't know yet!" She said then rolled her eyes. I just pouted my lips and walked back away from the bed.
I was just trying to help. -.-
"I'm still not convinced this is a murder because if it is, why the bleach is stronger here than downstairs where the crime was happened? That mark could help us to find another clue too. It could be an old picture that was hung before." Vienne calmly said. I sighed and stared at the mark Vienne pointed at.
All the evidence shows that this is a murder case. It's what Comere also sees in this, but Vienne…
Her assumption is really different from Comere, could it be she's just looking at this case from a different angle? Or there's really another clue that Vienne sees that Comere didn't?
"Lex… Vi…" We looked at the door when we heard Wada's voice. "Inspector is looking for us…"
When we got outside, we saw Inspector Megure and Comere talking.
"Ms. Alice, Lori's neighbor, 45 years old. She confirmed that the glass on the table was hers. She said that Lori's parents relayed a message to her and they talked about it." Inspector Megure said. "Her alibi is, around 2:30 in the afternoon, she's taking a rest from all the chores. She even smelled the bleach from her home because her house is just beside the victim's.
"Oh… I see, my theory is right. So, it makes sense why there are two glasses on the table, huh. But her alibi is not that strong. She must confirm it, Inspector."Comere said.
"We already confirmed it from her neighbors and also from her family. Their stories were aligned. It's enough to believe she's innocent." Inspector Megure stated. "And there's a big chance that she doesn't have anything to do with what happened, aside from she doesn't have any reasons to kill her, there is also no evidence that she's involved." He added.
"But that doesn't mean it would change the case is pointing at," Comere quickly rebutted, "Inspector, this case can only mean that it's a murder." Comere seriously said.
"That's what we also see in this case." Inspector agreed with him.
"The strong stench of the bleach can smell all over the house. Aside from that, there were also scattered flowers and soil on the floor like it is intended. It seems the suspect wants to cover some evidence around." Comere explained. "You already checked the second floor but you didn't see anything suspicious. Also the body was found here on the first floor even if the bleach is stronger upstairs." Comere opened the folder again and scanned what was written. "She died from bleach poisoning. The whole house smelled maybe because it's what the suspect wanted, to cover the ugly truth."
"Tss…" Wada gritted her teeth.
Inspector Megure and Comere turned around to face us three. I nod at them first before walking beside the two of them
"Is there any update in this case, sir?" I asked, slightly smiling, the inspector just looked at me and sighed.
"All we need now is James Lastiña for all the evidence to be completed. We need the man's alibi." Inspector Megure answered.
"You think you can get the information you need from him?" Vienne butted with crossed arms. She smug when all just stared at her.
Comere just glared at Vienne, he didn't say anything to her.
"We need to talk to the man whether he was involved or not." Said Inspector Megure. "We hope we get his statement about what happened here soon."
A cell phone rang and one of the police officers answered it. Later on, he handed it to the Inspector and they talked for a while. When their conversation ended, he walked back to us smiling.
"Good news, James Lastiña is on his way now. We can talk to him." Said the inspector excitedly.
"That's good. Now we should wait for him to confess everything and it's all done." Comere grinned.
"Tss." Wada made that sound again.
I just pout my lips to Comere's confidence. I looked back at Vienne who suddenly chuckled quietly.
"Obviously, you would think this is a murder. Are you really sure that this is REALLY a murder case? Well for me, you need more evidence to confirm this… is in fact a murder." Vienne said and quickly rolled her eyes at Comere.
"Uh yeah, the talkative is here." Comere commented. "We just need to get the information from Lori's boyfriend. Just one word from him can lead to the outcome of the case." He pointed upward like he remembered something. "The note was found inside the house. And before I forgot…" Comere pulled out a paper and showed it to us which we read immediately.
You're the last hope of my life,
with you, I learned to stand up and appreciate every sunrise.
You are my light whenever my path is dark.
My life is worthless, if you can't be with me for life.
I love you Lori..
"Sometimes too much love… kills you." Comere commented.
"Tch. I'm still not convinced this is a murder. Besides you didn't double check the second floor which I did, by the way, while you're here busy thinking about other things." Vienne looked away annoyed after she said that. "For me, this is not a murder case!"
Seriously?
They're gonna argue…here? =.=*
"Inspector Megure said they finished investigating the second floor. I don't need to go there just to clarify things. And besides, how can you be so overthinking? This is just a simple case and the evidence is clearly here." Comere said wearily.
"Blabla! I'm still not convinced, Comere Grey Shion! I have a feeling that this time you are wrong! And I'm gonna prove it to you!" Vienne said.
I'm getting more anxious seeing them arguing. We are now in the Detective Club, but we can't survive a day without those two fighting…
We waited for hours for the most important person in the victim's life and that is her boyfriend, James Lastiña.
He arrived around three in the afternoon, and he sadly greeted us. He said that he just arrived from his vacation and it was his treat to himself after being burnt out from work for weeks. He just wanted to unwind and forget all of his problems, that's why he's not responding to any messages even to his girlfriend.
He didn't expect this to happen either. When he got to his home, his parents told him what happened to his beloved Lori. At first he couldn't believe what they were saying, that's why he contacted the authorities right away who are investigating the case.
"Is there anyone who can testify that what you are saying right now are all true?" Inspector Megure asked James Lastiña who smiled sadly.
"Yes. Most of my officemates knew that I was on vacation. And if you need more information, you can call the hotel I stayed in. They can testify and give you the details that I didn't leave my room for days. If you're still not convinced, you can talk to my parents and also my other relatives who just picked me up at the airport this morning.
We all went silent when we heard James Lastiña's statement. Comere put his hands on his pockets and smirked like he's expecting something. He glanced at Vienne and gestured his hand to her. I got confused about what he did but I just watched Vienne.
"Ehem.. James, if you don't mind me asking, do you know what was hung above Lori's bed?" Asked Vienne. James furrowed his brows like he's trying to remember what Vienne is talking about. Later on he gave out a sigh and answered Vienne.
"Yes." He answered shortly.
"Can you come with us upstairs?" Vienne asked again and James just nodded.
Wada, Vienne, James and I went to the second floor and some police officers just like what she wanted. We don't know what she's up to.
While walking up the stairs, James started talking. "It's their family picture, the one that was hung on her bed."
"Oh really? So it's true that she still has a family…" Vienne murmured.
"Even if she has a bad relationship with her family, she still treasures that picture. It's the only family picture you can find. In fact, she doesn't want to talk about anything with her family. And I respect her decision, I didn't want to force her to say anything, I just told her that whatever it is, I will stay with her no matter what. I'm here to listen whenever she's ready to talk about it." He smiled a little like he remembered something. But you can see the sadness through his eyes.
Then we got to the victim's room…
"Then we took a picture that day, I even gave her red roses that she liked." He laughed but you can feel how he misses Lori.
"Is this the picture you're talking about?" Vienne pointed at the picture sitting on the desk.
"Yes, that's it… but…" James frowned. "But this is not our frame. T-This is the frame of her family picture…"
I can see in Vienne's face that her suspicion is starting to get clear.
"She can't reach you these past few days, right?" Vienne asked, still looking at the picture on the table. "It could be… she wanted to talk to you about her family, but she can't contact you. Based on what you had said, she looks like she has depression…" The man nodded at Vienne. "So she tends to have her breakdowns." Vienne added.
Vienned looked back at the bed and she saw the crumpled paper. It was the paper I wanted to reach earlier. "Huh, there's actually a paper there…" Vienne noticed it and picked it up, we stayed quietly watching her actions.
It's the family picture of Lori, there's a crease on the sides and some teardrops…
"Is this the family picture?" Vienne asked James.
"Yes… It is…" Tears are now forming in James' eyes, like anytime he would cry.
We went back to the first floor where the other police officers were, Vienne walked to Inspector Megure and Comere, and looked straight at them.
"Now, it's really not a murder case." Vienned said confidently.
"Huh?" I said shockingly. She's insisting again. But Comere smiled like he's expecting Vienne to say it.
Wait… Could it be…?
"But Miss, all the evidence are pointing this is a murder case." Says the other police.
"I. Said. It's. Not. A. Murder." She said, emphasizing each word and glared at the police who just talked. "If this is a murder case… and the victim is trying to get away from her killer and there were some struggles, then why there are no bruises on Lori's body? If you're the killer, of course you will tighten your grip on her. Look at her wrists," Then she pointed at Lori's picture on the folder, "You won't see any signs of struggles." All the police went silent, while Comere whistled and glanced at Inspector Megure who couldn't even blink at Vienne.
"And you guys think the reason why the flowers and soil were all messed up was because Lori tried to resist her suspect, right? Then why are there no other footprints? Why is there only one pair of shoes found?" She said again, this time she raised her eyebrows.
She backed at them and went to James Lastiña…
"That's why I have this feeling this is not a murder from the beginning." She stared at James, assuring him he's innocent. "I just wanted more evidence, so I checked the second floor once again…"
Wada tapped my shoulders, and I glanced back at her. She pointed at Comere who seemed very proud of Vienne.
"Clearly he wants Vienne to figure out things alone." Wada whispered to me. I was a little bit surprised.
Does she mean that Comere intended to change his view on this case so Vienne could find the right answer?
"In Lori's room… The bleach is stronger in her room yet her body was found here, downstairs, isn't it suspicious?" My attention came back to Vienne. "You can smell the bleach more upstairs. But there were no new washed clothes in her room either. So maybe she cleaned her room because her things were all tidy. But there is something different. Her bed is the only thing that's messy. Her bed sheet was wrinkled like someone stood on it. Same with the pillow, all of them were located on the head but you can see they got moved to the sides. So I thought maybe Lori stood on her bed. I asked myself, why do I need to stand on it? Is there something I need to see outside? Or is there something I need to reach? She has a great view from her window, you can see the whole village from it, there are no obstructions like tall trees or big houses...So it could be there's something that she needed to reach… I scanned her room and when I looked above her bed, there's a mark like something was hanging there before… Could be something like a picture frame…
James said it was Lori's family picture and he pointed this.. " Vienne raised her hand holding the picture frame with Lori and James' picture in it.
Family picture? But it's not the family picture. -.-
"Didn't you say, you saw a paper near her bed?" Vienne turned around to ask me, and I nodded.
"This was it, Lori's family picture.." I blinked when Vienne handed me a crumpled paper, "Lori swapped the pictures. Why? Could be her way for James to know what happened, and for him not blame himself.. She left him a clue and this was it." Vienne shook the young lover's picture on her hand.
Then Vienne told everyone what James said to them upstairs.
"Lori's having her breakdown. Her depression got triggered about her family. The bleach was strong on her room because she wanted to clean the mark on her wall.. She didn't want to remember anything that could remind her of her family. She swapped the picture for James to find her last words.." Vienne reached out to her pocket and gave something to Inspector Megure.
"We found this on the back of the picture frame when we opened it.." Vienne said while the Inspector was scanning the paper just handed to him.
"It's not your fault. I'm sorry to leave you this way. I won't bother you anymore, I'm setting you free. I'm letting go now." Inspector Megure read the paper out loud.
"You can see also the words 'free' and 'go' were written many times, like she's still hesitant about her plan. She wanted some help but there was no one to talk to. She even wanted to talk to James but he's not there when she needed him at that time, and with this… it pushed to her mind that she was all alone in her life.
She went downstairs and saw the flowers. Flowers that are the same in the picture..
These flowers reminded her what James told her before, that he will always be there for her to listen. Out of frustration, she destroyed it and decided to do her plan. She drank the bleach and committed suicide."
All of us were speechless after what Vienne said and some came back to their senses when they heard James Lastiña start to cry.
Wada walked over to James and tapped his shoulder.
"None of this was your fault." Wada said and James sadly smiled at her then nodded his head with guilt in his eyes.
"But... If only she had the chance to talk to me… She wouldn't think to do something like this… I'm the one to blame why she's gone now, because I made her feel that she had no one to lean on when she needed me the most…" He said crying.
I sighed and looked at Comere. He tapped Inspector Megure emotionless and walked outside the house. I quickly followed him where he was going.
"Comere, wait up." I called on him. He stopped and turned around. He wears his bored expression again. "Thanks." I just said.
"Hmm?" He confusely asked, then turned his back again. "I'm just testing her… I intentionally made a mistake in my decision to leave this case to her. She proved to me that you three really deserve to be in my Club." He exhaled and said, "Maybe it's time for me to accept members." He said just that and continued to walk.
I smiled while watching him walk away.
Comere accepts us now…
It means…
We're really now members of D-Club…
We're now Detectives…