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Lust for Truth
Ch 77 – Wall of Mirage

Ch 77 – Wall of Mirage

“Alright, please info dump to us about what horrible crime the victim here did?” asked Fushichin.

“Sure. Miss Yulia Nikole, her crime is spreading state secrets to the public. She is sentenced to death.” said Vernonia.

“Wow, really? What secret is worth killing someone over?” said Fushichin.

“There is none. It’s messed up. None of the judges and juries nor the public knew what this secret was. How was she ever going to be sentenced fairly? Depending on what this secret is, she could be completely innocent” said Hellen with a frown.

“But hey, that’s how politics work. It’s a harsh game.” said Kyong with a smirk.

“Hmph, you only said that so you could feel good about complying with the cruelty of the justice system.” said Hellen.

“Hah, maybe. It’s not like we can change it. It’s beyond our powers.” said Kyong.

“You’ll never know until you try.” said Hellen with a determined look.

The detectives continued their investigation. The room looked identical to the other rooms with nothing of much to note so they moved to the fifth and final room.

“The inmate who died here was Saran Chuluudai. She was a sniper who attempted to take the life of the president. She was sentenced to death.” said Vernonia.

“Huh. Well, at least the sentence sort of made sense.” said Fushichin cluelessly.

“Does it tho? Marian was sentenced to 15 years for attempted murder too.” said Hellen.

“Yeah, but this guy is the president.” said Fushichin.

“What is so special about the president? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t follow the ignorant masses nor the idiotic politicians?” asked Hellen.

Fushichin blinked then grinned bashfully.

“Were you lying then or are you lying now?” asked Hellen with a frown.

“What the hell, woman are you trying to justify a president’s assassination?” asked Aldart.

“No. But I think killing someone over attempted murder is pretty ironic. You’re just assholes who are no better than the assassin herself.” said Hellen.

“What was her motive for attacking the president tho?” pondered Fushichin.

“Beats me. They wouldn’t wanna tell this to the public I bet” said Vernonia.

They investigated the room to realize the desk contained the exact same contents as the other rooms.

Kyong looked at the bookcase, circled around it and pushed it from the side. But the bookcase didn’t move.

“Damn, what? The bookshelf shouldn’t be this hard to move!” gasped Kyong.

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“Why are you even trying to move it anyway?” asked Casey.

“To see what is behind it, obviously.” said Kyong.

They took the books away to examine the bookshelf in more detail.

“Oh, the bookshelf is screwed to the floor and wall. I don’t know why it’s like that. Maybe to prevent the inmates from making the shelf fall on themselves?” said Aldart as he scratched his head.

“Hmm. We need to unscrew the screws and check it. There may be a hidden entrance to the rooms.” said Hellen.

“Pff, sure. I won’t stop you.” said Aldart.

Dimitri got the drill from Garron’s bag and unscrewed the giant screws from the bookcase. Afterwards the detectives pushed to move the bookcase. But nothing of note was there.

“Come on, let’s check the other rooms!” said Fushichin.

They went into the fourth room, and checked behind the bookcase. But nothing was there as well. They checked room three, two and finally the first one where Hori was held.

Fushichin and Kyong were the ones to move the bookcase. Suddenly Hellen’s eyes fell on the tile on the wall.

“Wha- What is this?” gasped Hellen and sat down.

The tiles on the wall near leg level had differed from the tiles above. And there seemed to be an almost unnoticeable small gap between the tiles on leg level and tiles on torso level.

“Wait a minute. This part of the wall might move? Someone could definitely crawl through this!” said Hellen.

She tried putting her nails in between the tiles, it somewhat worked but she could not move the part of the wall as she had hoped.

“Dammit!” grunted Hellen and kicked the wall but it didn’t move either.

“But this proves it, right? The attacker has to have come from this side using this entrance” said Fushichin.

Aldart and Vernonia looked at the gapped part of the wall with confusion.

“Why is something like that here?” asked Vernonia.

“Urgh, and are you sure it opens? You can’t open it yourself. Maybe the people who were building this part of the wall just made a mistake?” pondered Aldart.

“Enough of that copium logic. This is definitely suspicious!” grunted Fushichin.

“But the screws were blocking the bookcase from moving. I didn’t pay much attention to this bookcase during body discovery. But after the cops left, Garron, me and Aldart checked everything and the bookcase was still screwed down.” said Vernonia.

“Hmm. If you wouldn’t mind my intrusion, I also cleaned this room, not very often but sometimes. If I remember correctly on September 20th and September 8th, when there were no inmates in any of the rooms, I cleaned the rooms. Back then I couldn’t move the bookshelves. I saw the screws had tied the bookcase to the ground so I didn’t bother moving it.” said Hannah.

“That doesn’t mean anything. The time gap is too wide. Someone could have easily unscrewed the screws before Hori was placed here or even after she was placed.” said Hellen.

“Not a chance. Only me, Vernonia and Garron can enter the confinement rooms. If someone enters the room by using a spare key or something, the guard keeping an eye on the cameras will report it to us and higher ups” said Aldart.

“So, when did these confinements start then?” asked Kyong.

Vernonia looked at her notebook and said “Hori’s started from September 10th, Fasha’s from September 11th, Blaire from September 11th, Yulia from September 12th, Saran from September 12th.”

“Between September 8th, when Hannah cleaned the rooms and September 10th when Hori was incarcerated, that is enough time for someone else to have entered and unscrewed the screws on the vent cover and the bookshelf. Hannah was allowed to enter it, why can’t other people?” said Hellen with a frown.

“Because Hannah is special. She is a janitor, she is ordered to clean certain places that are supposed to be confined in a certain schedule. Nobody else should be able to run amok.” said Aldart.

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. On September 9th, I was ordered to check the rooms and make sure everything that is listed was inside the confinement rooms. I put some hand sanitizers, flashlights, toilet paper, pencils and pens in these rooms as requested.” said Garron.

“All right, so maybe someone else could have easily come here to unscrew some screws!” said Kyong with a smirk.

“Gah, fine, you win. Let’s check up on the camera security guard, maybe he can tell us something useful.” grumbled Aldart.

“Ahh, can I get back to cleaning or?” asked Hannah.

“Please, go with us. There might be something we need to ask you too” said Hellen.

The detectives and the prison employees walked up the stairs and arrived at the fifth floor. There was a door at the hallway that had the label surveillance room on above its top rail.