The murdered school idol Part 1

Reiju ran outside along with the other students while Shiruka hovered alongside her.

"What the hell was that!?" Reiju shouted.

"I told you, I can somewhat foresee these things. Sadly that girl was already dead before she was strung out like that," Shiruka sighed.

"Well then doesn't that mean we'll be able to catch the culprit?"

"Not sure. I think they have an escape route in place."

...

Reiju and her classmates stood at the base of the old school building and gazed up at the victim.

"No way, that's Miyabi-chan! She was the school idol!" a male student anguished.

"Why would she end it? I thought she was happy?" a female student trembled.

"Like I told you before, this is murder. Though it will be tough to prove it considering she was strangled and killed with the very rope used to hang her. You're only hope is to tell them the TIME you saw her get hung out of the window," Shiruka stated.

"Why me!?" Reiju asked.

"Because I'm a ghost, and telling the police the EXACT time she was killed would only put the suspicion on you."

A large crowd quickly began to form as more and more students came out to take a look. Teachers and members of the disciplinary committee rushed to the front of the crowd trying to keep everyone from getting any closer to the hanging corpse as the police arrived.

"Do not step any further!" Bentaro, the head of the disciplinary committee shouted.

"Please, You guys are the ones that are almost standing underneath her. I've been here at the front and no one's gotten closer to the corpse than you guys have," Reiju grumbled under her breath.

The principal then came marching by accompanied by two police detectives. One was a young man in a tan trench coat and deerstalker, giving him a striking resemblance to Sherlock Holmes. The other detective was a young woman, who appared to be in her late 20s to early 30s.

"Kintaro, don't interfere with the student's studies, you trash," th female detective growled.

"One of them might've seen the murder!" Kintaro, the male detective argued.

"You're nothing but a mystery fanatic. Suicides happen. Its sad, but common."

"I passed my tests just fine! But my instincts are saying this is murder! Just look at the rope! I can tell even from down here that it's tied in an odd way to something inside the building!"

"So? maybe she just tied the rope to something inside then leapt out and hung herself?"

As the two detectives argued, Reiju pushed her way towards them. As soon as she tetstified that she was the first to witness the crime, all eyes were on her. She then testified that At around 11:45, she saw a girl fall out of the window with a noose around her neck. It was a bit hard to make out who it was from the classroom, but later found out it was Miyabi Homura, the school idol, upon closer inspection.

"You've got a keen eye to have noted the time you witnessed the crime at. Call forensics and have them thoroughly examine the body!" Kintaro ordered.

"This is JUST a suicide! We are not going to call the entire team just to appease your ego!" the female detective snarled.

"Then just head back! We both know all you care about is rising in the ranks!"

"I'm sadly assigned as your partner despite my numerous protests! If I return alone, I'll be blamed for letting you run wild!"

"Seriously, just change partners."

"We both know our stubborn chief will deny it and tell us to just get along!"

"Well whatever, I'll do it myself. Miss witness, please accompany me."

"NO! You're not bringing-"

Kintaro grabbed Reiju's arm and ran inside the building before the female detective could finish.

"Sorry about Nakayama. She's a cranky bitch that only cares about having a high rank. I'm Kintaro Kindaichi, Tokyo Metropolitan Police's finest detective," Kintaro smiled.

"I'm Reiju. I'm just a student here," Reiju grumbled.

"Nice to meet you Reiju. Just watch where you step, there might be clues strewn about.

Reiju and Kintaro made their way up the stairs as Shiruka floated behind. Upon reaching the second floor, Kintaro put some gloves on and pulled out a digital camera. As soon as he finished taking pictures, he made his way over to the window and examined the rope.

The rope was tied crudely to something above the window, though it was worth noting the window was quite tall. A nearby bucket was deduced to be the only possible thing that could have been used as a stool to reach the top of the window.

"Reiju! Was the window open all the time?" Kintaro asked.

"No, I looked out 5 minutes earlier and it was closed," Reiju replied.

"This window looks old. There also don't appear to be any foot prints on the still. Hey! are forensics here yet!?" Kintaro shouted out of the window.

"Not yet sir, though they should be in about 3 minutes," an officer shouted back up.

"Looks like we got 3 minutes until they arrive and about 3 more minutes for them to get up here."

Kintaro then whipped out a flashlight and shined it around the room. He then retreated towards the entry and scanned the hallways. "Reiju, are you familiar with this building's layout?" he asked.

"Not really."

"When you noticed the body, what happened afterwords?"

"Everyone gathered by the window, then we all ran out."

Kintaro then walked up to the window and called Reiju over, asking her to pinpoint her class window. Reiju did so, with Kintaro noting that it was hard to make out anyone from this distance, thus he ordered the officer below to head for the classroom and stand in front of the window.

As soon as the officer ran off, the forensics team arrived.

"Oh? hung from a window? You got another hunch Kin-kun?" the lead forensics officer smirked.

"Yeah, come on up Kaemi and bring the boys as fast as you can!" Kintaro shouted down.

A forensics officer pulled out his fancy camera as Kintaro retreated inside. Once the officerwas done taking photos, Kintaro gazed out the window again. The officer had apparently made his way to the classroom and was fairly easy spot now that he was right up against the window.

"So this means the culprit was able to see everyone staring out..."

"Huh? Why's there a student in here?" Kaemi, the head forensics officer asked as she and three men arrived.

Kaemi was a young woman with messy ginger locks. She wore round glasses, a white lab coat, red t-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

"Oh don't worry about her, she's the one who noticed the body first at around 11:45," Kintaro explained.

"11:45 huh? You get some photos?" Kaemi asked.

"Not as high quality as your guys' but they'll do."

"Everyone out of the room, take the pictures then hoist her up asap," Kaemi ordered as she put on her gloves.

Once the team finished taking photos, they hoisted Miyabi's body back up through the window and laid her on a tarp they brought.

"Hmm, looks like the rope killed her. I'd also estimate her time of death to be around 30 minutes ago, so in the range of 11:40 to 11:45. Hey witness, when you saw her was she already hanging out?" Kaemi asked.

"No, I saw her fall out. She didn't look like she was moving much," Reiju answered.

"Did you see her exit the window?"

"I saw her slide out, but she was already halfway out when I noticed."

"Did you notice her hand position?"

"It was hard to notice from far away."

"Well that complicates things. If this was a murder, they did a damn good job at masking it as suicide. Did you notice anyone running away from the building?"

"No, we were all running down through the school, and all crowded around at the base until you arrived.

"It looked like the crowd was bigger than just your class size. Hmm. Kaemi, check her hands, that should be the conclusive proof," Kintaro ordered.

"Well, you called us out here anyway. Better be something," Kaemi grumbled as she examined one of the victim's hands.

There appaered to be some stress from grabbing the rope on one hand, but that would not count as conclusive proof of murder. Her other hand appaered to be a little more clenched, and as Kaemi examined it, she suddenly went silent before frantically ordering the team to gather around and examine her nails.

"Her nails? Did she scratch her murderer?" Reiju asked.

"No, I didn't see that, it looked more like she nicked something the culprit had on them," Shiruka answered.

"You did right to call us. This could be something big," Kaemi seriously stated.

"Well what'd you find!?" Kintaro asked.

Kaemi stood up and flashed a small bag full of tiny bits of white power. "Cocaine. We found tiny traces of cocaine in her nails," Kaemi stated.

Kintaro immediately ran down to the base of the school building as a forensics officer followed.

"That doesn't look like a lot. How can you tell its drugs and not something else?" Reiju asked.

"Experience. I'm glad there was enough left stuck in her finger nails, if not the culprit might have gotten away," Kaemi explained.

"So you're saying there's enough in her nails to suggest murder?"

"We'll know as soon as those two reach the ground."

Kintaro and the forensics team member reached the base 5 minutes later. They frantically kneeled on the ground and began searching until they finally found traces of cocaine on the ground.

"And I'm leaning toward murder. We'll need to take her to the lab to make sure, but I think this confirms it's a murder," Kaemi smiled.

"Wait, how do you now know it's murder? Reiju asked.

"Because we didn't see any traces of coaine in her mouth or nose. Plus if she was really snorting this stuff before her death, then where's the bag? I'm assuming she managed to slash a bag or stab her hand into one with her nails. However, the culprit couldn't mess with her hand as it could risk exposing the murder, so they let it be and dropped her out the window after strangling her. The cocaine would fall to the ground and they could easily make it disappear by mixing it in with the dirt. More nefarious was the fact that they could have used us to unknowingly erase the evidence. Well now that we know that, better lock down the school. Our culprit is likely still here."