We sat down and Luna studied the illustrations intently, seemingly deep in thought. However, after five minutes had passed, she still hadn't found anything to say.
As I gazed at the poster on the wall that depicted a silhouette of a detective, which they seemed to use as their club logo, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
It was already past the halfway point of the semester, and not the best time to be looking for new members. Most students had already settled into their own routines or found their place in a club.
So why were they doing this? Especially since they already had three members. They didn't really need a new member, at least not right now. Usually, clubs like this were busy recruiting new members at the beginning of the school year.
Even if I assumed that they just wanted a new member, their actions were strange and contradictory. Apart from the blonde guy, the other two didn't seem excited to see us. One was engrossed in her book, and the other was busy eating and listening to music.
I gazed at the blonde guy. It's possible that he might be the only one who cares about the club's success. After all, he looked like the leader of the club. It would be understandable if the other members didn't care as much. But even he was acting strangely.
If he really wants new members, why go through the trouble of creating a test? Even if he is looking for someone with strong deduction skills, his previous words contradict that.
[Don't worry, this won't be hard.]
Why did he say that? I could tell that he was trying hard to make this case difficult to solve.
It was as if he wanted us to not take this seriously and make mistakes. It felt like he wanted us to fail from the start.
As I suspected before, his annoying grin held a hidden meaning. He didn't really care about getting new members. All he wanted was to feel superior when people failed to solve his test.
"Um... I think I solved it," Luna said suddenly.
"Really?" the blonde guy said, looking surprised. "Please tell me then."
"What caught my attention the most," Luna continued, "was the position of the victim's blood. Why is it on top of the illustration? I think the culprit moved her body to hide the actual message she left."
Luna then turned the dead school girl illustration upside down. "In other words," she said, "like this. This is the actual message. See? The actual message was not a number, but the word [BOE]. I think the victim was passed away before she managed to finish her message. So the culprit was someone with a name that started with [BOE] It means Boero."
"I see," the blonde guy said. "So Boero is the culprit?"
"Yes!" Luna exclaimed.
The blonde guy grinned, but his expression was unpleasant.
Look at him, if he's that pleased with Luna's answer, it's pretty clear that her answer was wrong. Personally, I didn't really care if we failed or not, but I don't like the way he's acting.
"That's what the real culprit wants us to think," I said.
"Huh?" Luna turned to look at me.
"You said that the culprit moved the victim's body to hide the dying message, right?" I asked. "But we're talking about chalk here. It's easier to just remove it. Chalk isn't permanent."
"That's true," Luna said, hesitantly.
"And just leaving a dying message like that is still risky," I continued. "Even if you manage to make it look unreadable at first glance, it doesn't mean the culprit is in the clear. The police could see it from another angle."
Luna nodded. "Okay, you're right, but then why...?"
"The only reason the culprit left the dying message there was to point suspicion towards someone else," I explained. "There are two possibilities - either the culprit altered the message, or they wrote it themselves."
Luna picked up the illustration and examined it closely. "So, the culprit wrote this themselves?" she asked.
"No," I replied. "If the culprit wrote the message, it would be easy for the police to compare their handwriting with the victim's. If the handwriting is different, then it couldn't be the victim's message."
"But what if the culprit tried to copy the victim's handwriting?" Luna suggested. "They were close to the victim, so they might be familiar with how she wrote."
"That's true," I said. "But copying someone else's handwriting is not an easy task, especially in a panic situation. I imagine the culprit would have made mistakes before getting it right. Plus, if they kept writing and erasing so many times, it would leave marks on the floor. Chalk residue."
I saw the purple-haired girl who was sitting near the bookshelf, glancing at me. She stopped reading and seemed to suddenly take an interest in me.
"So the culprit tampered with the message?" Luna asked as she examined the illustration closely.
"Yes," I replied. "There's also a hint in this illustration."
I moved closer to Luna and pointed at the message. "Look," I said. "The alphabet 'o' here is smaller compared to the other two. What alphabet has a small 'o' if some part of it was erased?"
"Um, you mean like 'p' or 'q'?" she guessed.
"No, look at the illustration, the circled part needs to be below," I explained.
"Oh, like 'b' or 'd'?" Luna guessed again.
"Yeah," I said. "But nobody has a name with 'b' in it, so it's not that. Now we have the actual message from the victim, or part of it anyway. Compare it with the suspects' names and you'll get it."
Luna looked at the illustration. "So the actual message was [BdE]?" she said as she checked the other illustrations. "And the suspects' names are Opal, Abdel, and Boero. Oh! That was the middle part of the boyfriend's name! Abdel!"
I'm smiled.
"Yeah, but we must be wrong, right?" I said. "I mean, this was too complex to be called an easy case, right, Mr. Club Leader?"
I turned to the blonde guy, who was sweating profusely
"Err... Haha," the blonde guy laughed nervously. "No, no, you're right. The test was actually just about noticing the word [BOE]. The other part was just extra, I didn't expect you to be able to solve it."
What a pathetic excuse.
I didn't want it to end just like this, but I had no proof that he was trying to trick us. What should I do?
"Anyway," he said, "you two passed the test. Congrats! The new member application forms are over there. Please follow me."
He walked over to the corner of the room, close to the chubby guy.
"Come on, Geo," Luna said as she stood up from her seat.
"You go ahead first," I replied, not wanting to stand. I knew she would force me to do it if I said I didn't want to.
"Umm, Okay," she said, a little hesitant, but finally walking towards the blonde guy.
As I watched her, the blonde guy handed her a pen and paper.
"Here you go," he said. "Please write your name, your class, and your phone number. Your social media is optional."
The girl with purple hair, who had been quiet from the beginning, closed her book, making a soft poof sound. I didn't pay much attention to her until she stood up and stand next to me.
I turned to face her. "What?" I asked.
"Excuse me," she said with a smile. "Can we talk for a bit?"
I looked at her with suspicion, but quickly reminded myself that she might have nothing to do with the club leader's actions. It wouldn't be fair to judge her based on that. So I tried to be friendly.
"Sure," I said. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Thank you," she said as she sat down in the chair Luna had occupied before. "My name is Libra, but you can call me Libby if you want."
I nodded. "I'm Geo."
"I'm going to be honest," Libra said. "You know our leader wasn't really looking for new members, right?"
I blinked in surprise. She knew?
"When you confronted our leader about the test being too easy," Libra continued, "it made me think that you knew everything. What our leader's actual goal was."
"Okay," I said, observing her expression. "Then what are you trying to say?"
"Well, about that," Libra said, "do you know about the serial murder case involving a student named Mars?"
Of course I do. I'm basically the one who sent him to prison.
"What about it?" I asked.
There's a real criminal in this school, yet we know nothing about it," Libra said. "As a detective club, that's humiliating. We get laughed at and people call us trash, and we can't say anything back because we don't have anything."
I think that's normal. Even if they call themselves a detective club, it's not like they'll be involved in real cases, especially if they don't have connections with the police. Even Luna, who has a police officer for a brother, had a hard time getting involved in cases.
"Well, I'm trying not to think about it too much," Libra said. "I joined this club because our leader has a huge collection of books. I can read as much as I want here. If you're wondering why I don't just go to the school library, it's because their collection is bad. They don't have many mystery or detective books."
"You do seem like someone who likes to read a lot," I said.
She smiled. "Thanks. And that senior who's a little chubby," she said, gesturing towards the guy who was currently eating bread. "He's more interested in eating and listening to music than anything else. I guess he joined because he's friends with our leader."
"That makes sense," I said.
"But our leader is different," she continued. "He takes everything to heart. That's why he came up with this plan. He thinks that if people find out how hard it is to join this club, they'll stop looking down on us."
So that's the reason.
"Still," I said.
"Wait, no, don't get me wrong," Libra quickly said. "I'm not trying to make excuses for him. What he did was stupid, and I tried to stop him, but he was the leader, so there wasn't much I could do about it. And I don't want you to think that I'm trying to making excuses either."
I smiled. "Okay, so what are you trying to say then?"
"What I'm trying to say is," Libra said, "I'm sorry if we offended you. And I understand if you don't like this club. But, um...if it's possible, I would really like you to join this club."
Libra toying with her purple hair and looking a bit embarrassed.
I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because I think I like you."
***