The Danish cold case (5)

"So a girl swung by the embassy asking for me? Quite the odd timing, especially since she seemed to know my codename. And did you detain her?" Marzi asked.

"Um, no. We just kicked her out and she went on her way," the attendee in the line stated.

"Poor judgement. You should have detained her."

"But we don't know who she is."

"All the more reason to detain her for questioning. Physical description?"

"A young woman with large breasts and shoulder length platinum blonde hair."

"What direction did she head in, and how was she garbed?"

"Towards the mountains, was dressed like she was from the late 60s-early 70s."

Marzi clicked her tongue and hung up in frustration as she vanished in a flash.

                                                                      ...

Kintaro arrived back at the station to find Chika, Reiju, and Reika all gathered together.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"Pleased to meet you, my name is Reika Yuzume and I am here to request you take me as an apprentice," Reika stated.

"And why would I do that?"

"You are lacking a prosperous successor yes? I also intend to become a detective upon graduation from High school, but wish to get an early start. I believe I can also help crack the murder that occurred at the cryogenics lab, I also implore you to enter the interrogation room. It sounds like this Senator Thrasher has-"

"Thrasher!? The hell'd he get here before me!?" Kintaro shouted as he stormed into the interrogation room.

"*Tch* Why're you here?" Thrasher growled.

"That's my line, how'd you get here so quickly!?"

"I flew through traffic, that's how," Thrasher growled as he got up to leave.

"If you wanna talk to him, he's all yours, I'm tired," Kaemi groaned as she left the room.

"And she was kinda cute too. Now what do you want?"

"If you want to speak with the head researcher so badly, I can grant you an audience-"

"Inside a bugged room right?"

"This is a police station, naturally we'd listen in on a suspect's conversation," Kintaro glared.

"Then I'm done. I'll go hit up the reporters while I wait for his release," Thrasher growled as he stormed out.

                                                                               ...

"And that's what she told us," Reiju explained.

"I have a hypothesis," Reika declared.

"Why are you still here?"

"The killer is indeed a professional, but lacked the physical strength necessary to properly finish off their target, due to their age."

"AGE!?"

"Yes, likely an adolescent assassin from the underworld. Youth would explain the anomaly perfectly."

"What if it's an adult midget?"

"Unlikely, someone like that would have more experience and muscle mass than a child. Since there were no shoe prints or excess dirt on the victim's lab coat, I deduce that the killer likely leapt to stab the victim, which would explain why the victim's blood was found to the left of where their body was. Though an intriguing point no one seems to have brought up is the empty container. Why didn't the killer simply stuff the victim in the empty vat? Them leaving the body on the ground likely triggered the safety mechanisms to open the door and thus expose the crime. Sure, the researcher would have stood out amongst the other three men, but if only the head researcher knew about the room, that wouldn't be much of a problem."

Reiju scowled as Kintaro applauded Reika.

"Spectacular, but unfortunately I've already got one protege in training. Taking another, especially one only in middle school might complicate things. Though your deduction was brilliant. I also remembered something I overheard that might prove useful to cracking the case," Kintaro stated as he began to leave.

"Hold on, who exactly are all those guys that were frozen? I know one's a president, and one's a king, but who's the 3rd and what are their names?" Reiju asked.

"King? The only three there were the former American president, Fred Dixon, the former British prime minister William York, and former Soviet leader Dimitri Siberia. None of those men were monarchs."

"But, there was a woman from the Danish embassy claiming one was a former Danish king."

"Impossible. I'm quite confident in my knowledge of foreign leaders, have been ever since I was young. That, and I saw representatives from all the countries I just mentioned."

"Then that woman was lying. It did seem a bit weird for her to ask about how many containers there were."

"That must be it!"

Kintaro ran off before Reiju could utter another word.

"Ugh, now what," Reiju groaned.

"Maybe Obake-kun knows?" Chika suggested.

"Obake-kun? Who's that?" Reika asked.

"Shit, she's still here. Um, an informant of sorts, a fan of Chika that somehow gets pics of the crime in action, we call em Obake-kun or just ghost," Reiju grumbled.

"Noted," Reika skeptically glared as she walked away.

Reiju then checked her phone and was shocked by all the messages and photos she received.

"The hell's he sending me pics of a young woman and a little girl!? Creep."

"A girl!? Let me see!" Reika shouted.

"Oi! Hands-"

"Looks to be around 9 or 10 years old, height and muscle mass appear to match... She's the killer."

"How do you-"

"The young woman with her. She looks like she jumped out of a different time period and country. She's probably the reason this whole murder occurred the way it did."

"Then we gotta find em."

Suddenly, Reiju got a call from Shiruka.

"What-"

"REIJU! BAD NEWS!" Shiruka shouted.

"What happened!?"

"I'm en route to the cryogenics lab. What happened was..."

Reiju's eyes widened as did the eyes of Chika and Reika whom were listening in.