Two Tragedies
No — it was still too early to say for certain. More than half a year had passed since the case, after all; there was every chance the window had been tampered with only after the fact.
"Noelle, you mentioned to me before that the maid who worked here before you was connected to this case. Would you mind telling me about it in detail?"
Lisa kept up her close inspection of the window's unusual marks as she listened to Noelle's account of the matter.
"Mm-hm, of course!" Noelle nodded along happily. "Um, let me see... The maid before me was named Kana. Miss Kana had served at this villa for quite a long time, I believe. When the incident happened, the only ones here were the young lady and Miss Kana."
"If I remember right, the police's initial conclusion was suicide?" Lisa opened the window and climbed out through it.
"Ah — yes, that's right." Noelle was bent over, searching beneath the bed a little at a time. "The first investigation found that the room where the young lady died was a locked room, so they ruled it a suicide. Then about half a year later — ah, that would be a month ago now — a high school detective came along, and it seems he discovered that the crime scene was not actually a locked room. Because of that, he came to suspect Miss Kana, who had been present at the scene as well, and once he told the police, they began investigating her."
"Oh? And what did this detective find to make him decide it wasn't a locked room?" Lisa was sweeping the ground near the window in slow passes when something in the grass caught her eye; she crouched down and picked it up.
"Um... he found screws with their heads cut off around the crime scene's window, and reported it to the police — he believed it was a homicide."
At that point Noelle's voice sank. "So they came to suspect Miss Kana, and in the end she couldn't bear it any longer and took her own life. The police decided she had killed herself out of guilt, and the case was closed."
"But I believe Miss Kana was innocent. Right up until her death, she kept saying that she hadn't killed anyone, and Mr. Kotani said he believed she hadn't done it either. Even if the crime scene wasn't a locked room, it could just as easily have been an outsider who killed the young lady!" Noelle's voice climbed higher and higher, worked up now.
Nothing under the bed, and a full sweep of the room had turned up nothing either. Noelle felt thoroughly vexed with herself — oh, Noelle, you really are hopeless. You were the one who asked Miss Lisa to solve this case, and here you are, unable to help at all.
Then her eyes fell on the fireplace — come to think of it, she hadn't looked in there yet, had she?
Lisa climbed back into the room through the window, intending to tell Noelle what she had found — only to see that the girl had actually burrowed into the fireplace hunting for clues.
"Miss Lisa, look! I found something!" Noelle wriggled back out of the fireplace, held something aloft in her hand, and ran over to Lisa.
"Oh my~" Lisa blinked; she had been just about to call the girl out when the cry of triumph reached her.
Truth be told, Lisa hadn't held out much hope of finding fresh leads inside the room where it had all happened. But Noelle had looked so earnest in her wish to be of use that she hadn't had the heart to refuse, and had simply let her hunt around to her heart's content.
Taking in the sight before her — the soot smeared across Noelle's face and hands, her hair slightly mussed — Lisa reached out and tidied her up, smiling as she did. "Mm, aren't you clever, cutie — actually thinking to search the fireplace."
With that, she took the object from Noelle's hands — a glass medicine bottle, no longer whole; part of it had evidently shattered when it struck something.
"Was this the only bottle in there?"
"No, there were a few others, but most of them were just shards. This one was relatively intact, so I brought it out." Then she asked, "Miss Lisa, will this help with the case?"
"Mm~ it does. It confirms what I suspected," Lisa admitted readily. "You've been an enormous help, Noelle."
"Then... does that mean you know the truth of the case, Miss Lisa?" Noelle's eyes went wide with delighted surprise.
"Well, the broad strokes, at least." Lisa studied her. "Hmm... one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. No, wait... they may very well both be bad news."
"Let me start with the case of this villa's young lady. It was indeed a suicide — and the scene truly was a locked room. She most likely reached the end of what her mind and body could endure under an addictive drug — the very kind you just fished out of the fireplace, Noelle — and so she took her own life."
"Then... did that passing detective investigate wrongly?" Noelle trusted Miss Lisa far more than some detective she had never met, and instantly concluded the man's reasoning had been at fault.
"That's the second thing I wanted to mention — the detective wasn't wrong. This room's window was indeed left unsealed; someone had dealt with it. But it certainly wasn't half a year ago, at the time of the incident. Just now, outside, I found a screw the investigation had missed. Its head had been cut off, true — but judging by how far it had rusted, no more than three months could have passed. It has nothing to do with the young lady's case. Most likely, some member of the villa's staff wanted to slip in and steal something after the incident, saw that this room was rarely occupied, and worked on the crime scene's window precisely so they could get in with ease."
"So, quite clearly, that passing high school detective took faulty evidence and reasoned his way straight into error. A little more observation, a little more thought, and anyone could have known the truth — but that person couldn't wait to run to the police and the media with his 'proof' and show off his grand discovery. Honestly, carry confidence too far, and all you have left is conceit!"
"And those police officers — how laughable. A detective comes knocking, overturns the conclusion of their own case, and they simply take him at his word without so much as a follow-up investigation. Then they set off hunting for a 'murderer' who never existed — and somehow landed on Miss Kana, who had merely been at the villa when it happened."
Even now, Lisa could scarcely believe it. Were the police who investigated this case idiots? Or were the ones who processed the scene blind? Never mind failing to notice whether the window had been compromised at the time of the incident — it was a matter a single careful inspection would have settled, yet they hadn't lifted a finger. Did they really trust a stranger that much?
"So Miss Kana truly was innocent!" Noelle brightened for a moment — then, remembering that Kana had already taken her own life, the light in her face dimmed. "But... Miss Kana is already..."
"Yes — the maid did, after all, 'take her own life out of guilt.'"
Lisa's smile carried a faint edge of mockery, her eyes gone cool.
Lisa turned her gaze toward the doorway.