“Yeah, I guess. But neither me nor Kioku are that petty.” said Fushichin.

“I’m the same as you.” said Salim.

“But the two captured culprits are related to the Church of Hinokaiser. The Shyudharma temple Fushichin mentioned has nothing to do with the two culprits.” said Klancy.

“It’s because the religion of Hinokaiser is big. It has the largest following in Elenrago. Tying it to be the motive for Layla’s murder was Hellen jumping to conclusions.” said Salim.

“I’ve searched on the top info tech and it says that Darima Lector is 30 years old, works as a taxi driver. Not related to the Church of Hinokaiser at all.” said Galtomor.

“That proves Salim’s alibi to be legit?” asked Joey.

“It proves nothing. Friends or people who got a lot of money from the church, could lie.” said Fushichin and faced Salim.

“Hand over your phone” said Fushichin.

Salim frowned and hissed “What?! You think you’ll find something in my messages? I still think it’s ridiculous that only I’m-”

“Do as he says Salim” said Klancy.

“Tch, you don’t have an alibi during the time of the murder mister Klancy! And you’re ordering me around?” grumbled Salim.

“We’re focusing on the thievery. You leaving the building gives you enough freedom to change your appearance into the kimono person!” said Klancy.

Salim grumbled and gave his phone to Fushichin. Hellen looked at the exchange and suddenly a thought hit her.

“There is even proof that Salim changed his appearance. He had shaved his mustache when he came back to eat dinner at 20! He had to have done that otherwise it would become clear that he was a man in the kimono outfit!” yelled Hellen.

“What?! That’s just a coincidence” yelled Salim.

“Yes. In the footage, the kimono person is covering their face, but we can still see that they have no mustache!” yelled Galtomor.

“No other man had their mustache suddenly shaved during our little resort visit.” said Kyong with a smile.

“Grahh, there are people like Manish, Hugo who have clean faces all the time. They can pull off that disguise too! I’m not the culprit because I already have an alibi!” said Salim.

“Alright then, Salim, where did you talk with Darima? What topics did you guys talk about?” asked Fushichin.

“We talked at Mogura cafe. We talked about the worship of Hinokaiser, movies and the prices of small businesses like Mogura!” yelled Salim.

“Fine. Then let’s check that. Some of you keep an eye on Salim and some of you should record this talk I’m about to have.” said Fushichin.

Kyong, Dimitri, Klancy, Hellen surrounded Fushichin. The others such as Joey, Hui Ying eyed Salim while Manish, Hugo, Naran walked to the door to block it. Sweat seemed to appear on Salim’s chin.

Fushichin found Darima’s contact number and called.

“Hello, Salim, what ya doing?” said a man’s voice.

“You’re Darima Lector, right?” asked Fushichin.

“Oh yes. You’re not Salim. What are you doin-”

“We’re the cops. Salim’s friends, if Salim remained on the side of justice. I would like to ask you about your whereabouts with Salim on August 5th.” said Fushichin.

“Oh, that again? What am I supposed to say about that? We met.” said Darima, a bit annoyed.

“At which hours were you together at? Where did you meet? What did you talk about?” asked Fushichin.

“That’s a lot of things. Hold up. Umm.” grumbled Darima.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Are you looking up from notes or something? Hurry up!” yelled Fushichin.

“Okay okay. We were together from 19 to 20.” said Darima.

“Give me the exact minutes if you could!” said Fushicin.

“I dunno. I don’t remember well. But we were definitely together from 19:00 to 20:00 at Mogura cafe, okay! We actually met outside so we might have been together starting from 18:40. We talked about the religion of Hinokaiser, small businesses” said Darima.

“Tch, probably planned it out” grumbled Kyong.

“What do you mean?” asked Darima.

“Where exactly did you sit at Mogura? The smoking section, right?” asked Kyong.

“Yeah. We sat in the smoking section. I smoked there a bit” said Darima.

Kyong grinned and laughed.

“Too bad. You’re a naughty boy aren’t ya. I visited Mogura as well with my pal Dimitri here that day, at around 17. I wanted to smoke there but unfortunately the smoking section of the cafe was having a renovation. It wasn’t open for use so you couldn’t use the smoking section!” yelled Kyong.

“Gah!” yelled Darima.

Salim gritted his teeth in response to the conversation.

“Ohh, right, right. My bad. I was definitely in the non smoking section. It was just a brainfart, huhu.” said Darima with a laugh.

“Yes, very funny. It’s funny because I visited Mogura again at 19:30 with my pal Dimitri as well. And you know what happened? I didn’t see Salim there! And we saw your face from our search system just now. And we definitely didn’t see you there that day either!” taunted Kyong.

“Wh-what?” yelled Darima.

There was a silence from the phone and then Darima disconnected the call.

“Huh, looks like we destroyed Salim’s little plan.” said Kyong with a satisfied grin.

“That bastard Darima has a bad memory. Of course we were there at Mogura together! You’re the one who lied about being at Mogura, head detective!” grunted Salim.

“Either way, I don’t think your alibi is very solid. The guy was very fishy and retracted his claims under just a little bit of pressure.” said Kyong playfully.

“He is just a coward! You spooked him. He was definitely with me!” grunted Salim with anger and frustration.

“It’s over Salim, just admit it!” said Hellen with a frown.

“Bullshit! I have an alibi during the time of the murder!” yelled Salim.

“You do?” asked Galtomor.

“Yes, just give me my phone. I’ll prove it to you.” said Salim.

“No way! He is suspicious, you can’t trust him with the phone.” yelled Hui Ying.

“Give me the number you want to dial for this alibi. I’ll call it for you.” said Klancy.

“69991281” said Salim.

“Who is this person you’re trying to contact?” asked Juniper.

“Fareed Mouman” said Salim.

“Oh, you mean the pope himself? I heard him on TV, talking about heaven and hell and how it’s like to be there.” said Klancy.

“Finally decided to rely on your cult buddies huh. So, tell me, before we call. Where were you with this person? What did you guys do? Were there only two of you?” asked Fushichin.

“Ahh, to hell with that crap. You’ll know what he is gonna say when you talk to him” said Salim.

“You’re trying to corroborate whatever he is going to say afterwards in order to create a better alibi. We’re not falling for your tricks!” yelled Hellen.

“I’m not, you’re all being hysterical!” rumbled Salim.

“Well, if you don’t like how we’re doing things. We can simply jail you. Everyone besides you had an alibi during the thievery or the killing. None of them have any connections to the Church of Hinokaiser other than you anyway.” said Klancy.

“F-fine. It’s not like I have any reason to hide anything. I went to the Church of Hinokaiser at 22 pm in my car. Starting from 1:00 am Fareed prayed with us. There were two of his disciples next to me. We talked to our father, the sun god then prayed silently. The ceremony was disrupted when you called me to meet up at the police station at 3 am.” said Salim with spite.

“So, that car you were riding in. Is it your usual car that you drive here to work? That black car?” asked Galtomor.

“Yes. My black Sedan” said Salim.

“Heh, no wonder you’re the dumbest detective in our group. Losing valuable sleep time on ridiculous rituals such as this.” said Fushichin.

“Shut up! I’ll kill you!” grunted Salim.

“Haha, yeah. I don’t think you’re joking about that. You showed that you’re very much capable of murder.” said Fushichin with a grin.

“Speaking of killing, confiscate his gun, now! Before any danger comes up.” said Klancy.

Remembering the dangerous weapon Salim held, Dimitri, Kyong, Galtomor, Hellen quickly rushed to him and confiscated his gun from him and pushed him to the corner of the room.

“You’re wrong. But I can’t seem to convince you people otherwise.” said Salim.

Klancy dialed, the phone called and soon a deep voiced man spoke.

“Hello, Salim, is that you?” asked Fareed.

“No, I’m his coworker. Salim had to urgently go, so he left his phone with us. You are Fareed Mouman, yes?” asked Klancy.

“Yes.” said the man elegantly.

“I was wondering, could you tell us what you were doing from 1 to 3 am on August 15th?” asked Klancy.

“Oh, yes. I was performing a midnight to sunrise ritual with my fellow worshippers. There were only three of them during the ceremony. We talked to and prayed for the sun god, Hinokaiser, to grant us a more vigorous life. It is a ritual that we must start from 1 am until the sun rises.” said Fareed with pride.

“I see. Who were these three worshippers with you?” asked Klancy.

“Miguel Sonani, Welbert Garuda, Salim Aziz. Yes, those three” said Fareed.

“Hmm. So, I presume all four of you ended the ritual at sunrise and went home?” asked Klancy.

“Oh well, the three of us. Salim was called on the phone and had to go urgently. I believe he was called around 3 am. I’m not so certain of the time.” said Fareed.

“No, I think that’s accurate.” said Klancy.

“Right. Anything else?” asked Fareed.

“Not much. Do the two worshippers beside Salim have cell phones? Could you give us their numbers?” asked Klancy.

“Delightfully. I’ll send it to you through a message” said Fareed.

The call ended. Klancy stared at his phone with a dumbfounded look. Fushichin who had heard the conversation was also silent and contemplative.