The murdered school idol Part 2

As Reiju returned to the main school building, a thought suddenly occured to her; since everyone had changed out of their school shoes when they ran outside, perhaps there might be traces of cocaine on the shoes of the culprit.

The officer that escorted her back also thought it was good thinking. "Did you notice anyone directly walking under where the body was hanging?"

Reiju thought back to what happened. "My class was the first group to arrive. None of us walked directly under the body. As more and more students came, the teachers and disciplinary committee members began pushing us back. I don't think the detectives or the officers that arrived first ever walked directly under the body."

"Still not enough to go off of. Like Miyanishi-san said, it's possible someone accidentally spread to cocaine amongst the dirt."

"Just narrow it down to the teachers and disciplinary committee members. I saw three teachers and 4 members of the committee at the front."

As Reiju headed back to her class, she bumped into the female detective Nakayama.

"And what were you doing out in the halls young lady?" Nakayama glared.

"Public service. Heck, you should be thanking me for helping you guys out," Reiju smirked as she tried to get past Nakayama.

"I've heard the details. Regrettably this looks to be a murder case with narcotics involved. Though I will not thank you. We now have more work thanks to you. I also think you are the most suspicious amongst the students."

"And why would I help you out so much if I did it? Besides, me, my classmates, and teacher were all in the classroom when she was murdered. Don't let your grudge allow the murderer to get away."

"Reiju Ginkawa. You hail from the wealthy Ginkawa family and have a history of delinquent behavior."

"But no criminal record. Besides I'm an honors student."

"Yet you act like a degenerate instead of making yourself a productive woman. Not every woman was gifted your academic intellect."

"Don't care about your life story. Now move bitch, I gotta get to class like a good girl."

"I'm sure you know that due to the actions of the scum assigned to be my partner, you will not be permitted to leave until the investigation concludes. Also do NOT give me attitude. Women like you that foolishly waste their talents are those I despise the most."

"And if I solve the case, then you'd be the foolish woman?"

"You think we'd allow a student and potential suspect to taint our investigation?"

"Already have," Reiju smirked as she flipped off Nakayama and walked away.

...

In class, Shiruka passed a new note to Reiju which read, "I was able to see a clearer version of the original vision.. Apparently, the murderer was retrieving a stash of drugs and was caught by Miyabi. They strangled her with some nearby rope, but failed to prevent her from stabbing her hand into an open bag of cocaine. She then died, and the culprit quickly tried to make the scene look like a suicide. They ran down out of the building, carefully waited until everyone was focused on the body, then joined in the crowd of students."

"So you're saying it could be anyone then? Plus there's no way I can tell this to the police. It'd sound like I'm the culprit!" Reiju whispered to Shiruka.

"Hoh? You WANT to solve the case?" Shiruka smirked.

"Ugh, It's sunk cost fallacy!"

"Alright, then allow me to use my perks as a ghost to investigate. I'll check everyone's shoes without anyone noticing."

"That sounds so wrong. Ugh, just don't give me anymore trouble you foot fetish ghost."

Shiruka nodded and floated down to the shoe locker. There, his eyes widened as he noticed a peculiar sight. The figure before him was completely darkened out and looked just like culprits were depicted in mystery novels when the author didn't want you to know who they were.

It turned out that this was a drawback of his foresight ability as in order to avoid spoiling the mystery, he would be unable to see the culprit's face when they were committing misdeeds, unless Reiju herself witnessed it as well. But he was able to still clearly see what they were doing and watched as the culprit opened a locker and placed bags of cocaine in it.

...

Reiju walked through the hall as she went to lunch, grumbling to herself about events in class. However, she was confronted by the disciplinary committee president, Bentaro and dragged into the disciplinary committee's club room.

"So what do you want?" Reiju asked as she lounged with her feet on the desk.

"First take your damn feet off the desk!"

"Want me to put my feet on you perv? Bet you'd get hard if I did," Reiju smirked.

Bentaro slammed his hand on the desk and approached Reiju. "Why were you hanging out with those detectives!?"

"Why're you so worried? You guilty of something Hentaro?"

"It's Bentaro! Just because you're a woman doesn't mean I won't slug you like everyone else that pisses me off."

Reiju let out an impressed whistle. "Well someone wants to brawl. I could beat you up though."

"Even though you're a delinquent, you have never been recorded directly physically assaulting someone in school."

"Doesn't mean I can't fight, or that I haven't beaten someone up out of school. Say, you have any beef with Miyabi?"

Bentaro paused before confirming he didn't know her due to being in different grades, before dismissing Reiju.

...

In the cafeteria, Reiju ate alone.

"Loner type right?" Shiruka asked as he floated by."

"Find anything foot fetishist?" Reiju growled.

"The culprit is trying to frame someone."

"Oi, that's pretty serious!"

"But if you word things poorly, all suspicion will be thrown on you. I also got something we could use as evidence, but I'm not sure if others would be able to see it even if I sent it to your phone."

"Phone?"

"It's best not to over-rely on it. Tripping up the culprit is the best way we can win this. But we have to be quick. First off, let's discuss the students. I was there with you when everyone gathered. There were 2 male students, 2 female students, and 3 teachers that stood in the front."

"Yeah, Bentaro, Hayato, Chibi, and Hoshi are the students."

"We'll focus on them. I was able to confirm that there was cocaine, a fair amount in the grooves of the heel of a shoe. That means they intentionally spread it around in the dirt. I bet they didn't think it would get stuck there. However, the key will be getting the culprit to trip up."

"What about their hands? They might have signs of trauma from the rope."

"Only if they didn't wear gloves."

"You mentioned how Miyabi was only murdered when she noticed something right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why she was there?"

Shiruka thought back and revealed Miyabi had been following someone. She then saw the culprit unearth their hidden cocaine stash, let out a gasp, before being caught and strangled by the rope lying around. This seemed to suggest the murder was unplanned.

The next question Reiju posed was how the culprit hung Miyabi.

Shiruka revealed the culprit first stood on the bucket and tied the rope to the top of the frame crudely. They then opened the window as stealthily as they could and dumped Miyabi out before booking it with the cocaine.

"Was there any excess cocaine left in the building?"

"Maybe, their whole plan was likely to have the case written off as suicide, and have the body taken away. Worst case scenario, the cocaine would be found during the autopsy, but it wouldn't change a thing."

"Could you go check on the investigation?"

"Sure, I'll also test out whether we can communicate via phone, so give me your number."

"That just makes you sound like a creep."

"Wanna catch the criminal or not!?"

...

As Shiruka floated into the old school building, he noticed Kaemi and Kintaro.

"No finger prints, like, none at all not even from the victim. It's 100% murder," Kaemi stated.

"So now the question becomes why was she killed. Was she a customer? The dealer? or just an unfortunate witness?" Kintaro mused.

"I couldn't find anything on the bucket, though the culprit undoubtedly had to have stood on it to reach the place they secured the rope to. Our victim is about average height at 150 cm tall,  but would have just barely been able to feasibly do this. Though what's more interesting is that on the window still I noticed a small patch where the dust was gone. I'm assuming it's due to the culprit raising their arms up to secure the rope, and likely pressing them against the still. Judging by the angle, I'd say it was likely their right arm that pressed into it, but the real kicker is how clean the area is. Just normally pressing your arm into a dust-covered still doesn't take away THIS much dust. "

As Kaemi explained what she saw, Kintaro received a call.

"It's from HQ. Hello. HUH!? In which locker!? Alright we'll check it out."

"Looks like our culprit is going all in on their getaway bet. Well I was able to get that detective's number. Now let's see if I can call Reiju," Shiruka smirked.