“It’s exactly as Kyong voice acted. Also seriously, did you have to make your voice all woman like to read it out loud?” asked Fushichin with suspicion.
“Why you gotta play the act fully, am I wrong?” asked Kyong with a smirk.
Fushichin pondered and said “No, you’re right actually. Well done on your role.” said Fushichin with a giggle.
“So, I was correct. Could you two please bring a stair? We need to check the vent!” said Hellen urgently.
“Oh yeah sure, let’s trust the delusional diary of a pedophilic rapist. Maybe she was imagining her white knight in shining armor visiting her from the vents. Pretty sus if you ask me.” grunted Aldart.
“This isn’t the time to act prejudiced. What she saw and heard on the 16th has nothing to do with the crimes she committed” said Hellen with anger.
“Fine. Let’s go. This could prove important.” said Vernonia.
The two jailors went away and brought a stair and a blue costumed middle-aged lady with them.
“She is Hannah, our janitor. Brought her here because she also occasionally cleans this place.” explained Vernonia.
“I heard you folk need a stair.” said the woman.
“Yes, thank you. Could you extend that and put it here?” asked Hellen.
Hannah did as Hellen told her to do and put the stair under the vent. Hellen climbed up the stairs and looked through the vent.
“It seems pretty dark. I can barely make anything out” said Hellen.
“Yeah, no duh” said Aldart with irritation.
“And the vent hatch is screwed shut. I need a screwdriver to get inside.” said Hellen as she looked down.
“Hold on a minute. Miss, I think you need to get down. There is no way that vent was used. I mean it was screwed shut, as you said?” said Aldart in an annoyed tone.
“Come on, do as she says. You’re so annoying! We have a testimony that says the vent is important” grunted Fushichin.
Aldart rolled his eyes and went away. After a while he brought another jailer named “Garron.”
“I brought a guy who is a decent mechanic. Hope he satisfies all your useless needs” said Aldart with a frown.
“Yo! I also am in charge of the solitary confinement. Ahh, mm, a backup person in case these two are busy, so to speak” said Garron and raised his hand.
“Ugh, just give me the damn screwdriver.” said Hellen.
Aldart gave the screwdriver to Hellen and she unscrewed the screws. The vent still remained stuck to the ceiling so Hellen grabbed it and pulled it off. She gently extended her arm and gave the vent cover to Fushichin.
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Hellen threw out a breath, jumped and pulled herself up into the abyss.
Fushichin grabbed a flashlight from the bag that Garran brought and walked up the stairs. He then gave Hellen the flashlight and climbed into the vent himself.
The ventilation hallway was quite big, big enough for a person to crawl. Hellen and Fushichin crouched next to one another without bumping into each other, indicating the spaciousness of the ventilation.
“Shit, you were right. It should be possible to carry a body through this, right?” asked Fushichin.
“Yeah. It does make quite a bit of sound when I walk. But the guards were sleeping and the inmates couldn't do anything even if they heard it so it’s not a problem.” said Hellen.
“The only issue is. How was the vent screwed shut? It couldn’t have been screwed from here, could it?” asked Fushichin.
“I don’t think so.” said Hellen as she aimed the light towards the hole of the vent.
“There aren’t any small holes the tip of the screw could have made. The ceiling wall is wide. I don’t think the culprit could have hit the screw from this side to unscrew it.” said Hellen.
“Also, could you light the ground in front of us for a moment.” said Fushichin.
Hellen did as he said. Fushichin’s eyes widened.
“Yes, very interesting. There are dust, dirt and dirt balls on the upper and side walls of the vent. The floor has some but there are trails of something wiping away all the dirt.” said Fushichin with intrigue.
“Yes. Can you tell which way it was wiped?” asked Hellen.
“It’s hard to tell. But I would guess it’s forward, towards where Hori’s room was.” said Fushichin.
“Hmm, I think so as well.” said Hellen.
“Hey, what are you two doing up there?” grunted Aldart and climbed up and arrived behind Fushichin and Hellen.
“Wow, what the fuck, why is this vent hole so goddamn huge? Who designed this shit? I didn’t know vents needed to be this big.” said Aldart with high volume.
“So, you didn’t know?” asked Hellen.
“How the hell do I know? Do I look like someone who normally crawls inside vents?” asked Aldart.
Fushichin, Aldart and Hellen walked through the ventilation. The vent hall only goes in a straight line but it connected all 5 vents of the confinement rooms. The hallway that goes up to the fifth floor was far narrower. Hellen fit through it but only barely and the vertical length of the vent seemed long as well.
There seems to be bending marks on the edges of the hole to the vent hatches. They all exited the vent and went down the stairs, stepped onto the tile floor.
“Ahh, this is super weird. I guess they made it that way so that if a fire happened, the smoke would quickly go away. That kinda makes sense.” said Aldart with confusion.
“No, it doesn’t. If I were to make a guess, the ventilation was created specifically so that the inmates could be carried like this through the vent.” said Hellen.
“How? I mean, come on, there is no way.” grunted Aldart with fear and disbelief.
“The vents were screwed from inside the room. If one of the inmates decided to attack the other inmates by going through the ventilation, they would have to completely break the vent cover, unscrewing it from inside the vent is impossible.” said Vernonia.
“Oh, how do you know the vent covers were screwed during the night of the crime?” asked Fushichin.
“Umm, because it would fall down if it wasn’t?” said Aldart meekly.
“I just unscrewed the cover. It didn’t fall!” said Hellen with a frown.
“Well, I don’t know then. You’re so good at arguing and shit, you’re making me very confused.” grumbled Aldart.
“That finding is quite important. But Aldart was quite sure the culprit couldn’t have arrived from the fifth floor vents?” asked Kyong.
“Yeah. It would make sound. And also, I did look inside the vent that connects to the fifth floor just now. It was not this big at all! If you’re fat, good luck fitting in there! Even thin people would need to crawl like a snail” said Aldart.
“The vents don’t connect to any other room aside from the five confinement rooms and to the fifth floor but that seems hard to reach.” said Hellen.
“Then how did the culprits enter? And how did they get out?” asked Hui Ying with curiosity.
“Let’s investigate the other rooms. We might find something.” said Dimitri.
They entered the fourth room.