[https://i.imgur.com/9Jbvm4I.jpg]
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As Mary Blushark is about to be led out of the kitchen and into the police car accompanied by Sammy, a girl screams.
- WAIT!!!
He stops and Gatito suddenly turns around. The person who just shouted is—
Deshya.
She gritted her teeth and clenched both fists, unable to believe she had missed such a detail... Yet, as soon as she had looked at this room, she had noticed this thing that seemed strange.
- Something... Something is wrong.
As she says these words, she stares intently at Mary. The woman stops crying, staring at the girl with a gaping mouth. Koinu and Kyria arrive in the kitchen, having heard Deshya shouting.
- Is something wrong?!" asks Kyria.
Deshya doesn't pay attention to her question and turns her face to her father, Gatito.
- Dad.
- ...
Deshya's fox tail is raised to the sky, stretched out.
- Can I talk to you for a second?
CHAPTER 3
⎾Alarming Suspicions⏌
- Wait for me, Sammy.
Gatito asks him not to move and he agrees. Sammy watches Mary with another policeman and he ends up joining Deshya, who is waiting for him on the first floor. He closes the door behind him and crosses his arms.
- You better have a good reason—
- I don't think we were right.
- ... What do you mean?
The policeman squints in surprise. He's seen his daughter be serious before, whether it's about a riddle, a game of chess, or even her schoolwork, but never has he seen her like this. Her eyes have a certain light that is different from other times… Is it because a real crime has just been committed? After all, she knows 'Kyria Blushark', so the case must affect her in some way.
- I also think that Mary is the culprit, but…
Deshya does not finish her sentence directly. She puts a hand under her chin and squints.
- I don't think the way he died was the way we said he did," she admits.
Gatito touches the back of his neck.
- Yet everything seems to be right. Both girls have an alibi and if one of them would have tampered with the oven, then Mary would have died instead.
As he says this, Gatito thinks of something. He thinks about it for two seconds, but after a short reflection, he shakes his head.
- If you think about the fact that she didn't touch the oven for a long time and that—
- No, it's not.
- — So what is it?" he asks, beginning to feel impatience gripping him.
Deshya turns her gaze towards him and puts both hands in the pockets of her sweater.
- I can't make any assumptions yet, but…
She begins to whisper in his ear what she has noticed and Gatito frowns. When she finishes, she takes a step back and her father begins to think.
- Sammy noticed it too and told me about it, but for him it was simply because of the explosion..." he admits.
- However, I noticed that there are several pieces on his face.
- !!
Gatito understands immediately what this means.
- If he squatted to put something in the oven... Then it doesn't add up.
He starts walking in circles, while his daughter observes him without moving from her place. The seconds pass slowly, but Gatito finally stops and turns his head towards Deshya.
- …
He closes his eyes... but opens them immediately after.
- I guess you want us to investigate?" he asks.
She nods.
- Even though I still think Mary is the culprit, since it's very likely that we got the method of the crime wrong, there's nothing to say that one of the two girls didn't commit it," she explains.
- Certainly.
He puts his hands in the pockets of his pants.
- However, we are still going to take Mary to the station. Even with what you're telling me, I don't see how Mary wouldn't have seen something like this.
- But then, how did Miro not see it?
- …
Gatito frowns, but does not answer her question. It's not out of insolence, Deshya knows it very well: he just doesn't have the answer to that.
- Deshya.
He stops before leaving the living room and turns his head to the right, without seeing his daughter.
- We're going to leave two police officers by your side and you have the right to investigate, but at least take this.
He throws something white at her and she catches it in the air. She looks at what she has just received and smiles.
- I do this quickly," she says.
Gatito walks out of the room without saying anything and Deshya puts on the two white gloves that her father has passed to her. She smiles as she leaves the room and from the still open front door he watches his father follow Sammy and Mary, all three of them going to the police station.
- ... Thank you.
Muttering this word, she returns to the kitchen. A policeman approaches her.
- Gatito told me you wanted to investigate a little more before closing the case," he said.
She nods.
- Exactly. Where are the two girls...?
- They are still in the dining room. They haven't touched anything.
- Perfect. Make sure she doesn't touch anything, I'll make it quick.
- Sure
Deshya is surprised that she is listened to so well: she is only a 16-year-old high school student. Sure, she is the daughter of Gatito, a highly respected policeman, and one of the three 'geniuses' of the Tetazo school, but even with that reputation, does it justify her investigating a real crime scene? Thinking no more about it and happy to have her father's approval, she approaches the body again and lifts the sheet. She observes the body of the deceased again, where pieces of glass are visible. Some are quite clear, but others... are much dirtier.
- ... I was not dreaming. Black lines…
— And that especially at the level of the face. She pulls down the sheet and looks around the kitchen for a few moments before approaching a certain object. She doesn't have to analyze it at length to see how dirty it is... She turns her face toward the dining room door and, after a short thought, heads there. Before knocking, she calls a policeman. This one approaches.
- What is it?
Deshya shows him the man's body.
- Can you check to see if any of the pieces of glass on his face came from this?" she asks, pointing to another object.
The policeman seems surprised at first, but he nods and does not ask for more. Deshya knocks on the door and Kyria comes to open it.
- Yes... ?
Her cheeks are wet and her eyes are still glistening with the tears that have been shed. Deshya feels bad to see her like this and would like to comfort her, but she doesn't have time for that; besides, if her theory is right, then Kyria can be the culprit of the story too.
- Can I just ask you a certain question?" asks Deshya with a soft voice.
- W-What is it?
- Do you…
She brings her face close to Kyria's ear and whispers her question. The blonde-haired girl blinks before nodding.
- Yes, it was very dirty, especially inside.
Deshya smiled inwardly.
- However, we haven't touched it for a long time, since it's been broken for a good month…
- !
Deshya opens her eyes wide.
- It really didn't work?!" she asks.
The change of tone of Deshya surprises Kyria. She shakes her head.
- No, not at all... We were going to change it soon, as it didn't work at all, and it wasn't even plugged into an outlet..." admits Kyria.
- ... I see…
- Why is that?
- A-Ah, for nothing! Thank you, Kyria!
- Okay…
Kyria doesn't seem very convinced of Deshya's words and closes the door before joining her sister. The fox eared teenager looks at the object while putting a hand under her chin.
- ... It didn't work... But if it was that dirty, then…
She is in her thoughts when the policeman returns with a piece of glass.
- Deshya!
- Yes ?
- You were right! This piece of glass did come from this object!
Deshya smiled: she had suspected it and had no doubt, but now that it was confirmed, she was certain of one thing.
Something else killed Miro.
An explosion? That is certain. From the oven? Now Deshya is convinced that this is not the case. However, she has a question.
- The oven still exploded and parts of bombs were found there... Why?
Another question that Deshya asks herself is :
- If the person guilty of Miro's death wanted to kill him, they could have simply put a bomb in the oven and it would have worked... So why...!!!
As she thinks about it, a flash of lightning strikes in her mind.
She opens her eyes wide and looks out.
- What if...!
She thinks of something: however, if she is right, it can only mean one thing. She lowers her head while putting her hands in the pockets of her fox-eared sweater.
- If I'm right, then Mary... However, I still don't know how it worked, or how the murder was committed.
She has several different ways in mind, one being with a remote control which would mean the bomb was activated from a certain location, but in this case, Deshya wonders:
- If the culprit could activate the bomb from a remote location, there would be no need to pretend…
She squints and looks at the oven.
- Either the person didn't know how to make one, or there was another reason to do all this. Also, the range can't be unlimited…
Without knowing the motive for the murder, or the method used, or why he made such a plan, Deshya unfortunately cannot offer a correct theory. Nevertheless, she is certain of one thing: there must be clues in the house; starting with the kitchen. She walks towards the oven and looks around. Even if the glass of this one exploded and pieces of it were in the skin of the victim, Deshya noticed well what was wrong... Moreover, by analyzing the glass, she sees that there remains one or the other piece all underneath; even if Deshya already knows that she is right and that the murder was not committed with a bomb in the oven, she is happy to see that all the small details that she finds on the way prove it. She gets up and starts to observe the work surface. The damaged microwave hasn't moved from its place and the sink has a few pieces of it, some of them glass. She grabs one and looks at it, but she puts it down directly after, certain from which it came. She continues to look around the kitchen with her watchful eyes, searching for any detail that might explain how the crime was committed. There are far too many possibilities and if she is right about where the real bomb was placed, then she needs to find the way it was activated. At first she had thought of something, but unfortunately it was proven incorrect with what she was told... Anyway, Deshya has to keep looking.
After ten minutes of endless searching in the kitchen, she comes out and sighs. One of the two policemen who stayed at home joins her.
- Did you find anything, Deshya?" he asks.
- I feel like a police detective..." she thinks with a smile.
She takes a slightly more serious posture and turns to the kitchen.
- I am convinced that the method used by the criminal is not what we think, but I still do not understand how it was done..." she admits.
- So you think another bomb went off somewhere?
She nods.
- I am convinced of it…
- Isn't it possible that the bomb was set to explode at precisely 4:32 p.m.?" the police officer asked.
- The firemen would have found the mechanism and other parts of the bomb would have been found too. Besides, if that was the case, I don't see why put another bomb in the oven.
- So the one who killed Miro is Mary, right?
- ...
- I mean, how could she have missed the bomb in the oven? Even if it was hidden, since she used it, she should have seen it, right?
- ... Mary simply checked to make sure nothing was in there and didn't take a long look inside, so there's nothing to say she just wasn't paying attention. However, why put a bomb in the oven as well and risk being seen by Mary…
- So Mary is the one who killed her husband?
- …
She squints and turns to the man.
- Can you contact my father, Gatito Oveja, to ask him the details of when Mary observed the oven?" she asks.
- Of course.
He nods and walks through the front door before pulling out his phone. Deshya returns to the kitchen and squints, her hand in front of her mouth. His index finger touches his lips while his irises observe the whole room.
- If I'm right and the real bomb is in this place…
Not having found a single clue in the kitchen, she figures that another clue can be found by searching the house; nevertheless, she doesn't want to search every room, including the bedrooms, without having any idea of what she is looking for. Depending if the method used is the same, the clue she is looking for may be hidden under a mattress or even behind a wall, although she doesn't think this is the case. If she really doesn't find anything and doesn't manage to get a lead, she will be forced to search every corner of the house, although she will then ask the two policemen for help.
- Tessa always talks about how the time of a crime can reveal clues, but here... 4:32 p.m.... It doesn't mean anything.
If Kyria had not arrived late, then she would have been hurt; even killed. She did say that she had to stay with the gym teacher to help her... This is always something that bothers Deshya, but could Kyria have committed the murder?
- Koinu could have done it too, but I have no proof. I don't have anything that tells me who the real criminal is... For now, Mary is the biggest suspect.
Deshya doesn't really care who committed the crime: they will remain a criminal. A person who took the life of another. Whether it was Mary, the victim's wife, Koinu, the older daughter or Kyria, the younger daughter, she doesn't care. What interests her is to discover the truth behind the murder. To know how the crime was really carried out.
- Deshya!
While she is in her thoughts, the policeman returns. She turns and looks at him.
- Did you get an answer?' she asks.
The man nods.
- She opened it to see if anything was in it, but didn't use it: she just checked in case they had forgotten something inside. She didn't need the oven to cook, but since they had used it the day before, she preferred to look to see if anything had been left inside.
- Nothing new, then…
- Also, your father asked me to tell you this, since it might interest you.
Deshya looks at the policeman with intrigue.
- He told me to tell you that the dish Mary prepared was quick to make, but that she would not need the oven. However, it was her husband who had to prepare the next dessert.
- The dessert...?
- A special homemade cake. They decided as a family to make it today for back to school, so the whole family knew Miro would be using the kitchen.
- …
- Moreover, even if Mary does not say that it can not be one of her daughters, she confirmed that Kyria and Koinu knew that she was going to cook today, as well as her father and Miro, the deceased, did not hide that he would come to prepare the cake when he returned.
- Wait!
Deshya frowns.
- So the whole family knew that Miro was going to cook when he came home...?
The policeman nods.
- Whether it was his wife or his two daughters, they all knew that he was going to cook, use the oven, make a specific cake and be there by 4:00 pm at the latest.
- Wait…
Deshya starts biting the nail of her right thumb.
- Wait, wait, wait…
She suddenly turns her gaze to the kitchen. If the whole family knew such a thing in advance, the murder could have been prepared in advance. Also, if the father had confirmed that he would start cooking around 4:00 p.m... And that the cake would take some time…
Then it would be certain that he would be in the kitchen at 4:32 pm.
- But there is always the possibility that he is in the bathroom or not in the kitchen at that time. In that case, he would not be dead and the plan would not have worked. Is it bad luck or does the time of the crime not matter?
In this case, Deshya can only accept one thing: Mary did kill her husband.
Even though the method used was not what they thought with the bomb in the oven, Mary went to her room, waited for a while, and when she checked that her husband was in the kitchen, she activated the other bomb. Kyria was at school and Koinu was at work, so neither of them could have made sure that their father was cooking. If by chance - or rather, by luck - he had a full bladder or left the kitchen for some reason, then the plan would have failed completely.
- It can only be Mary... but there are still mysteries I don't understand...!
She sighs and walks back into the kitchen. She doesn't understand this case at all... If Mary wanted to kill her husband, why did she blow up the kitchen? She was alone in the house with him, she could have killed him with a knife and made up a story. Moreover, if she really intended to kill him with the bomb, why not just kill him the way Deshya, Sammy and Gatito thought? Admittedly, this is simple enough to understand and Mary was quickly elected guilty, but in this case it makes even less sense.
- Why put another bomb in the oven if she was going to kill him otherwise? If she wanted the police to understand directly that she was the killer, why was she crying and shouting that it wasn't her?
She grinds her teeth, annoyed.
- If it was one of her daughters who killed their father and Mary wanted to make it look like it was her, why the show? Moreover, she would never have had the time to put the pieces in the oven, so...?!
She scratches her head, grumbling, and her fox tail starts wagging furiously behind her. The policeman tilts his head at her a little, wondering if she's okay, but he doesn't dare say anything. Just as Deshya is getting upset about not understanding the murder, her phone rings. She calms down and takes it out of her pocket before picking up.
- Yes, hello?
- Deshya, we just learned something.
She opens her eyes wide. She hadn't checked who had called, but the voice—
- D-Dad?!
- Listen to me carefully. We just interviewed Mary a little bit more and asked her if she heard or saw anything strange a little before the bomb went off or during or even after.
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- So what?
- Even though she said nothing strange happened, she said she thought she heard…
Deshya listens carefully to her father and when he tells her what Mary has heard—
- ... W-What?!
With her eyes wide open and her mouth agape, she remains motionless on the spot. The policeman behind her is astonished — almost more than the girl — even if it is only because of Deshya's cry: he did not hear what was said.
- It may not mean anything, but she keeps saying that she is not the murderer. Do you have a lead of your own?
Deshya does not answer directly, multitudes of thoughts running through her mind. She remains motionless, the eyes fixed on the ground before her, and there—
- !!!!!
She's thinking about something.
Even though she still doesn't know how the murder was committed, she thinks back to what Tessa told her.
- The time of the murder…
She's finally moving.
Deshya smiles.
- Deshya?
- A-Ah, sorry, Dad. I think I have a lead, yes. I'll call you back when I'm convinced of myself.
- Okay.
Her father hangs up and Deshya puts her phone away in her pocket. She turns to the policeman and gives him a determined look.
- Can you search with me?” she asks.
- What exactly are you looking for?
- Anything that would be a hole in a wall. It can be extremely thin.
- In the kitchen or somewhere else?
- Start with the kitchen. Even though I looked around myself, I admit I didn't pay much attention to the walls.
- I do this.
- Thank you.
As she goes up the stairs, the policeman speaks.
- E-Excuse-me, I just wanted to ask...
- Yes?" asks Deshya, having stopped in front of the first step.
- Is it me, where you answered your phone... by putting your phone in front of your ear... of your sweater?
Deshya blinks and touches her fox ear before giving an embarrassed smile.
- A-A-Ah…
She starts to stammer, but ends up waving her hands in front of her, all red.
- Aaaah, i-i-i-i-it’s because the ears... Well, m-my fox ears o-of this sweater are, well, they have headphones that go to my ears and…
The policeman frowns, not understanding the girl's gibberish at all. She sighs and puts both fists on her hips.
- I'm going to tell my father that you're asking me strange questions!" she says.
- Pa-Pardon me!!!
He runs into the kitchen and Deshya sighs heavily before climbing the stairs.
- I'm going to get screwed quickly, if I'm not careful..." she thought with a silly smile.
Normally, Deshya always puts her phone in front of where her right human ear should be, since she can still hear the noise coming from the phone from that place. However, she was upset about the current situation and had not thought about it. When she is alone, she puts her phone next to her fox ear, but doing this in front of someone... Thankfully, no one can believe that she really has such ears, otherwise, she wouldn't keep this secret for long.
She gets to the top of the stairs fairly quickly and admires the hallway in front of her. It is not too long and the wooden floor does not make too much noise under her feet. She moves forward a little and notices that the first door on her right is a bathroom. Nevertheless, she doesn't need to go there now. She continues and opens the next door: it is a room.
- Not the mother's..." remarks Deshya.
The bed is quite small, not being able to leave room for two, and almost everything in the room screams that it is a teenager's room - or a young adult's room. She feels bad about doing this, but she goes in without asking permission and scans the room. Very tidy and without any clutter, a window with a curtain that is currently pushed to the right as well as a well made bed. This means that she has taken the time to make her bed before leaving... The shelves show chic clothes and a poster of the band 'BRICK 'N WALL' is above the window. Even if Deshya doesn't know Kyria well, she knows for sure that she doesn't listen to this kind of music... Whether she is wrong about her musical tastes or not doesn't change anything: she is sure that this room is Koinu's. After all—
- The clothes are too big for Kyria," thinks Deshya.
She looks at the walls carefully, but she can't find any holes or anything that might be a clue. She sighs, but her attention is drawn to something. She turns to it and crouches down in front of the object.
- If I take into account what Mary said to Dad, then... Maybe…
She touches the object and notices that it is quite basic.
An alarm clock.
It's a digital alarm clock with only three buttons on the top, and others behind. Attached to the wall, it shows the time as '17:37' in a dark, almost depressing color. She wonders how to set the alarm on it, but gets up with a disappointed look on her face.
No matter how it is activated. Deshya is certain that it won't help her.
- This means…
She exits the room without even observing the entire room and continues her walk down the hallway. A simple toilet with little toilet paper is next to Koinu's room, but still next to—
- Kyria's room.
With a little more clutter and a messy bed, she can admire clothes spilling out of the laundry bin. Even though there are no posters stuck to the wall, two long shelves hang there with dozens and dozens of fumo fumo stuffed animals of 'Touhou' sitting on them. Deshya knows directly that this is Kyria's room, there is no doubt about it. She enters there with embarrassment and admires the awakening of Kyria. It is already more beautiful than Koinu's and shows more originality. It is a cube that can open or close with a ballet dancer on a disk. Deshya touches it and notices that it moves. As she fiddles with it a bit more, she notices that it can only go one way, but the metal dancer seems to be blocked by a mechanism.
- I've seen this kind of alarm clock before... It only works when the alarm is on.
She doesn't have such an alarm clock at home, but she admits that it would be nice. She notices several buttons on the side. Words in English are written on them, clearly explaining what X or Y buttons are for. Deshya observes the 'ALARM' button on the alarm clock and presses it. On its sides are two buttons The one on the left is an arrow to the left '<-' and the one on the right is an arrow to the right '->'. When she presses the 'ALARM' button, the digital digits, which were showing the time just before, start flashing. This time, the time shows '18:00'. She presses the arrow on the right and the time now shows '18:30'. She presses again and this time it shows '19:00'.
- The alarm can only be activated every 30 minutes? That's not so convenient..." thought Deshya, finding the concept strange.
To get up in the morning, Kyria has no choice for the time of her alarm clock... Maybe such a model would not be the best for Deshya. She presses again on the button 'ALARM' and the current time is shown again. Deshya gets up and looks at the whole room, but doesn't start analyzing everything in detail: there is little chance that any clues will show up. Nevertheless, she looks at the walls... but finds nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Deshya bites her thumb: would the detail Mary offered be useless? Maybe it was a car that passed by in the street and made that noise? She can't believe it. She looks again at Kyria's alarm clock and squints, but while she is concentrating.
Sounds of hurried footsteps on the stairs.
This puts the fox-eared girl on alert and she comes out of the room, but fortunately, it is neither Kyria nor Koinu who shows up, but—
- D-Deshya!
The police man with short brown hair stops in front of her. Deshya sighs with relief and looks him straight in the eye.
- What is it?" she asks.
- I-I couldn't find any holes, sorry…
Deshya lowers her head. The more time passes, the less Deshya is convinced that she was right. And if this that she had noticed was just a coincidence? Maybe the glass in the oven was dirty, too? What if the circumstances make the murder seem to be done in a different way, but in the end it's just Deshya's paranoia? She is only a teenager who is a policeman's daughter, nothing more... Maybe she should not have said anything: Mary is most likely the culprit, after all. Who could it be, anyway? Kyria mourned her father's death, as did Koinu. Kyria is just a young girl of the same age as Deshya, while Koinu seems to be a strong woman, but who has no reason to kill her father. Neither does Mary, but women always know sides of their husbands that no one else knows. Perhaps she was beaten? She seems like a nice woman, so she must not really know how to kill someone without making herself look like the culprit, so she must have been clumsy and thought the bomb would totally disappear; in short, pretending that the oven had only exploded. Deshya sighs at her idiocy, disappointed with the result.
- — But I found something else!
Just as she has given up, the policeman finishes his sentence. Opening her eyes slowly, Deshya remains motionless. Staring at the ground, the soft blue color of her irises slowly light up and the light that is mostly there returns again. Deshya lifts her head and looks at the policeman, her mouth weakly open.
- ... Something else?" she asks, surprised.
- Follow me, I'll show you!
He starts to run down the corridor and Deshya follows him closely. She doesn't know what he has found, but it gives her hope again: hadn't she been wrong? Was she right to ask her father to investigate? She tumbled down the stairs right behind the policeman, her fox tail wagging in all directions. She jumps on the floor and arrives in the kitchen at the same time as the man. He crouches down near the door and points to a part of the wall that is very close to the floor. Deshya crouches down in turn.
- It's not a hole, but I wonder what it is.
Deshya squints, and there—
- !!!!!
She can't believe her eyes. With her gloves, she touches the thing hanging on the wall and frowns. She turns her face quickly and violently towards the policeman next to her.
- Have you found any more?!' she asks, shouting.
- Not yet, I was looking…
- ... Not in the kitchen.
- Sorry?
The man blinks and admires the little smile that the girl makes. His attention doesn't even go to the fox tail of the same girl that continues to wag behind his back. Deshya chuckles as she closes her eyes, before opening them to show a new intensity. One of ember; one that can burn everything in its path.
- There are no others in the kitchen, but in the rest of the house!
She gets down on all fours and heads down the hallway. The policeman follows her, but Deshya's fox tail gets in the way. He could be wagging to move her, but she is so gentle that he just stops and smiles.
- Very sweet..." he thinks.
Deshya carefully observes the walls of the first floor corridor, more precisely the parts of the walls that are close to the floor. Her eyes move like excited cats, and there
- Here!" she cries.
The policeman regains his senses and moves the fox tail before joining Deshya. He looks where she points and sees it.
- Oh!
That's right. It is the same thing.
- It is at ground level…
- We need to find more!!! Know where it leads!
Deshya smiles and continues to search, this time up the stairs, but still on all fours. A few seconds pass when the policeman shouts back.
- Here, Deshya!
She goes back and notices that this time, one of them is hanging on the ground.
- In short, it means...!
She finds another one very quickly on the right side of the wall; in short, the opposite side of the kitchen. The corridor leads to three doors: the one on the left is the kitchen, while the ones on the right are the living room — where she talked alone with her father — and a toilet — where she did her business while waiting for Koinu. The first one she found — or rather, that the policeman found — is hung on the kitchen wall. The second one, on the outside wall of the kitchen: in short, the one in the hallway, but on the left side. This time, the third one, on the floor. And now, the fourth—
- Here!
— On the right side of the corridor.
- Does this mean that it's headed for the living room ?!" asks the policeman, starting to get excited in turn.
Deshya shakes her head and smiles.
- If I'm right, I've already figured out how the murder really happened.
She giggles.
- Including who really committed it!
The policeman opens his eyes wide.
- You mean—
- Exactly.
She turns her face towards the man.
- Mary is innocent!
Deshya starts to look for the others that are hanging on the wall, accompanied by the man, and this time they find them easily. Even if they are almost invisible to the naked eye, now that they both know their existence and know more or less where they are, they see them easily. Before, they were as invisible as a grain of sand between two stripes of a wooden floor; now, as big as cows in a meadow.
Following the trail, the policeman and Deshya arrive in front of a room door. The last one they find is on the floor, just outside the room's door, and they both stand up. The policeman touches his cap and looks at the room.
- What do we need to find now?' he asks.
Deshya bends over something and fiddles with it a bit before stopping dead in his tracks. The policeman notices her sudden immobility and goes to ask her if everything is alright when—
She laughs.
- D-Deshya?!
She turns completely around to him and smiles.
- I was right! I was right!!!
She continues to laugh and the policeman joins her, although with less enthusiasm and more… incomprehension. Unfortunately, he is a man who works rather with his speed, including his agility with a gun, and who is not like Sammy or Gatito, who have a brain born for investigations. To put it simply, he has not yet grasped what Deshya has just understood. The latter rubs her chin, a big smile on her face, and takes two steps in the room.
- Now, I need proof that it was this person who committed the murder..." she murmurs.
The policeman hears what she says and tilts his head.
- What do you mean? Given the room we are in, isn't it obvious that it's her?" he asks.
- That's not really enough evidence. I need something more... concrete... How can I do that…
Deshya looks around a bit before seeing something on top of one of the large pieces of furniture. She squints, but starts to smile again.
- Since I have no choice…
She turns to the policeman and approaches him.
- I'm sorry, but could you carry me so I can do something?
The policeman blinks. She sighs and explains to him the reality of this murder: how it was done, by whom, including how she managed to understand that the oven was only a decoy. The policeman blinks and scratches his hair near his ears.
- Raaaah, really?! Are you sure about this?!
She nods and points to her phone.
- Unfortunately, I have no proof that this is that person," she says.
- It's true that without proof... How will you do it?
She smiles and opens her mouth. The man listens to her and finally looks at the top of the shelf.
- …
He takes his time to think: should he accept? However, if she doesn't do this, should they work together and watch the house? He finally sighs and nods.
- I take responsibility if your father yells at you," he said.
- Thank you!" smiled Deshya.
Three minutes later, a little less than ten minutes before it was 6:00 p.m., Deshya returned with the policeman to the dining room.
- They didn't move?" asks Deshya.
The second policeman, the other one who remained under the orders from Gatito, shakes his head.
- They stayed here!" he confirms.
- Perfect.
Deshya sighs and his fox tail falls to the ground.
- Looks like I was wrong..." she says.
- W-Wrongt?" asks Kyria, surprised.
- What do you mean?" asks Miro's other daughter, Koinu.
Deshya touches the hood of her sweater and sighs a second time.
- I thought Mary was innocent, but after a long inspection, I noticed that I was wrong... Sorry to have kept you here so long.
She bows to the two girls and Kyria suddenly stands up from her chair.
- W-Why would you think that?!" she asks
Deshya raises her upper body and offers her a rather embarrassed smile.
- Ahah, for nothing, for nothing.
Kyria begins to tremble while Koinu seems to be surprised and confused. Deshya turns to her.
- I am sorry that your mother killed your father in this way…
- They got along so well, though..." says Koinu, saddened.
Kyria looks at her hands and sits back in her chair. She sighs and Koinu asks her if everything is okay. Kyria is startled and smiles.
- Y-Yeah, sorry. It's just... the shock…
The policeman who helped Deshya tells the other that they leave without further ado and the girl with the fox sweater puts her hands in her pockets.
- We're not bothering you anymore today! The police are planning to come back tomorrow to discuss the case and all that, maybe first thing in the morning!" she said.
Kyria looks up.
- But big sister will be at work and I will be at school," she admits.
- We will come in the early evening, around 8pm. Is that okay with you?" asked the police officer who helped Deshya.
Koinu and Kyria look at each other for a few moments before nodding in agreement.
- I'll be home by then, so I'm fine with that," says Koinu.
- Okay..." says Kyria.
Deshya bows again and the policeman who stayed with them opens the door. Before leaving too, Deshya stops and smiles at the two girls.
- Anyway, good thing you were held back a bit by your teacher, Kyria!" smiled Deshya.
- H-Huh?
Kyria opens her eyes wide. Deshya nods before sending her a... rather sly expression.
- Well, yes. Otherwise, you would have died in the explosion, too~.
With these words, Deshya closes the door and leaves the room with a small smile. The two policemen in front of her, the girl shows her teeth to the God who surely looks at her with amusement.
- And with that…
Deshya is convinced that tomorrow—
- I am sure I have my proof~!