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Before they continued the investigation, tents had been set up outside of the building for the residents of the orphanage. This acts as a temporary resident until the investigation comes to an end.
To the children this is all an act of camping outside. Doing all sorts of activities while the restroom renovation continues. It's not. It's just to keep them from coming inside is all.
Most of them are far too young to understand that there's a dead body inside.
The only person who knew it was Kairene only. Because she is the first and only child to witness the corpse.
Speaking of which she is inside of her own personal tent and is currently holding Aren in her lap. Irene came in and saw this very view. They aren't blood related but their bonds challenge some of those.
Reminds her so much of one girl.
She and Kazuto decided to split up and cover different grounds. She will cover speaking and gathering information through testimonies while Kazuto will deal with the crime scene directly. They handle their respective areas.
Irene didn't shoo away Aren and instead patted his head before asking Kairene. "Do you feel more at ease with him here?" The girl nodded but a bit stiffly. Perhaps fear that what Aren would hear could affect him.
From their provided medical check up, Aren is around 7 years old and Kairene is nearing 15 years old. "Don't worry. If it comes to a point where you wish he can't listen, you can whisper it to me, okay?"
Nod.
"Now, can you tell me what happened last night?" And so she did. She told Irene everything that had happened prior to the discovery. Making sure that she mentions all of the weird and odd situations. Even if it's just a little.
"The doors were locked?" Kairene nodded. She explained that there are some times where the bathroom is accidentally locked so she didn't make a big fuss out of it. It can happen out of an accident.
Irene — "I have to ask the other nannies then. Anyway, you can continue."
Kairene — "I wasn't able to see well without turning on the light. But I did see the person's face blue and stiff from the lightning."
Irene — "Welp. Possible lack of oxygen. Doubt that is the cause of death from what you mentioned. Anything else to add?"
Kairene — "About the scene?"
Irene — "Not necessarily. Maybe something odd that just seemed out of place while the whole thing happened. From the moment you wake up to the moment you call the nanny."
Kairene racked her brain hard and sat silently for nearly 5 minutes. Irene sat in front of her with patience. Interrupting a very focused person would deter their brain to another direction. She experienced it first hand before.
"Oh! I remember something." Irene listened in close.
Kairene — "Though I'm not really sure if I saw it clearly due to the darkness in the hallway."
Irene — "That's alright. Just spill it."
Kairene — "I saw a patch of dirt or mud in front of the boys room. Age 11-18 years old ones."
Irene — "Why do you think it's odd?"
Kairene — "Well, the storm didn't start until we all went to bed. No one should be outside during that time. Dirt is odd to be brought all the way to the third floor."
"Hmm. Nice observation. Though it may be just a coincidence, I appreciate that you mention this. Thank you Kairene." As Irene is about to leave the tent, her sleeves were tucked from where Kairene sat.
Looking down she kneels back to her eye level. When being asked what's the matter, she responded with a favour.
Because of what they had done just a few hours ago, Kairene didn't want to talk to any of the Xue's soldiers. They break into the premises and start hurling curses and anger towards children who are playing around.
She didn't want to answer to any of them.
Since she is the first to witness the scene, it is natural that they ought to write her testimony. So hiding from them is not something she can just do. She is obliged to give her testimony.
Tp this Irene reassured her and Aren to not be scared. "I will make a copy of this testimony and send it to one of the observers. They will hand it over and will be given the task to not approach you nor any of the children without valid proof and permission."
Kairene — "Can you do that though?"
Irene — "All of you are still under the legal adult age. Any contact that requires your cooperation requires the consent from your legal guardian."
Kairene — "And?"
Irene — "And aren't me and Kazuto your legal guardians now? You all are children of this orphanage that we built after all."
Seeing Irene's reassuring smile, Kairene returned it with a sigh of relief. She can't say how much she appreciated the two people that had saved them from suffering longer.
With that out of the way, Irene make way out of the tent. Leaving Kairene in her small peaceful place.
She then found one of the observers. They are the two right hand men of General Cinth. Although they aren't allowed to participate in this case race, they are required to be the observer of the situation.
If any unpleasant situation arises from the soldiers they are required to report it to Yanyi who will deal with it according to military law. In shorter words, they are here as watch dogs.
She handed over the copy of the testimony from Kairene and explained that none of the soldiers are to get near the children without any explicit approval or permission from them. This testimony will allow them to have the same information from the first witness while bearing to not go near her.
That is an order.
They salute in understanding and reassured Irene that no soldiers will get near the children camping area. All of them will be protected from the soldiers' unwanted approaches.
Getting his reassurance, Irene moves over to the nanny tent area and looks for the person in charge of last night's final check. She remembered it from the schedule they had made.
At the time, the soldiers are interrogating each nanny one by one. There are a lot of them and it will take a while for them to tackle it. Thankfully the person Irene is looking for is already done with the interrogation.
When she asked whether he had locked the bathroom door on the first and second floor he denied it with confidence. He even explained that he checks twice before closing the lights to ensure that no children are inside the room when the light turns off.
Hearing this small testimony from him, the initial suspicion that she had on the locked door is slowly building up. How come the door is locked?
Keys are only with the nannies. Children would not be able to lock the door. From the outside that is.
Not the inside.
She noted the suspicion in her notebook before her eyes wandered again to yet another suspicion in Kairene's testimony. The dirt patch in front of the bedroom door. "I will have to check on that." she mumbles to herself.
She was about to enter the main entrance before her eye caught sight of an oak tree located on the side of the building. Coincidentally enough it is located on the side of where the second floor bathroom is located.
As she walks closer and closer she finds a rather suspicious trace. The grass patches are uneven. Mud patches.
"If what Kairene said is true, the storm should not have occurred until bed time. So there shouldn't be any uneven mud patches in the premises. That is if no one is walking around."
She bit the tip of her thumb before looking up to where the second floor bathroom is. It is located north east of where she stood. Her biggest fear of this case is coming a bit too close for comfort.
"Not one of them right?" She doubts her own judgement. She didn't want to end with the worst outcome here.
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On the other hand with Kazuto. After every irrelevant party went away, he made his way back up to the second floor hallway. The forensic workers are still handling the body and have taken the corpse out of the bathtub and onto a tarp on the floor.
He asks for a pair of gloves before going in for a check himself. His first target is the neck. Where the supposed cause of death occurred.
Twisting the stiff neck a bit, he found the hole mark that they had explained this morning. "The hole went through from the right to the left. Straight through the main blood vessel." He commented.
The forensic worker nodded. Adding that the victim died because of immediate blood lost from the overwhelming amount.
Kazuto also found the strangling mark from the neck that wrapped around the top of the neck. The fact that there is a struggle mark means that the victim is conscious during the attack. At least for this one.
And from the cause of death this is not meant to kill the victim but merely to put them back down. "Must be something they hadn't anticipated in the process." The victim regained consciousness I mean.
His eyes then move towards the limbs. Dislocated limbs. "Are they dislocated before the tie or get dislocated during it?"
"During it. The limbs move due to the two forces of gravity and are tied up. It pulls the joints away from each other causing dislocation."
Kazuto — "So they didn't dislocate the limbs beforehand. Just restraining the victim."
He was about to inspect the legs and take off the tarp above before a female forensic worker immediately slapped his hand away. She explained that a man can't view a woman's private area if not married to them.
Kazuto apologises and asks about the condition of the legs. "There exists a tear in the tissue of the private area. As we had explain briefly in the morning, the victim seems to be raped at the time of the crime.
Kazuto — "Is she unconscious during the process or aware of the rape?"
"She is unconscious. We are able to trace her remaining blood sample to a substance. Though we have yet to have the official report from the lab yet, it is highly likely that it was sedative used on the victim."
Kazuto — "How long ago did this happen?"
"From the stiffness level of the victim and the oxidation level of the blood, we conclude that it would be 2 hours before the first witness found her."
"Rounghly 3 in the morning then." He roughly have the timeline and basis of motivation of the suspect. Though that part isn't quite clear yet.
The suspect had sedated the victim, brought her to the bathroom or sedated in the bathroom.
Tied her to the bathtub feets before raping the victim.
At some point during the process, the victim regains consciousness and the suspect chokes the victim.
She loses consciousness and the suspect kills the victim with something that can create a hole through the neck.
His motive would be to rape before killing the victim. The choking is something they had to do.
Now all he needs to figure out is the killing tool. He then walked over to the document table before picking up a copy for him to read. All of the information inside is similar to what he had deduced and told about.
Something did, however , catch his attention. Particularly a photo of the drilled hole. His eyes are sharp to find the pattern on the side of the hole. One that is easy to distinguish the tool for.
Confirming this himself, he snatched a flashlight before going to the side of the victim's neck and flashing the light through the hole. As he had suspected there's a pattern on the side of the victim's neck.
And he knew what caused it.
"Is there anything else that you find, Young Marquess?"
Kazuto — "There exists a pattern on the side of the hole. A possible tool of murder is a screw drill. Check the diameter of the hole and put it in the file."
"Yes, sir!"
Kazuto leaves the body and enters the crime scene. He walked around the area before stopping before the window. The only escape route that they have. And it was locked.
From a normal perspective.
He notices Irene is looking around a tree located north east from the window. She is inspecting the ground under the tree.
He was about to unlock the window when his finger stopped the moment it touched the lock. It was slightly tilted inwards. It would be normal for an old run down building.
But this was newly renovated.
It suddenly clicked to him.
He looks towards where Irene is standing and calculates the angle between the tree and the window. A perfect hit towards the lock would collapse it and lock it in place. Not only that, the powerful force would be the cause that pushes the lock to be tilted inwards.
"Wow… We have an accomplice it seems…"
He then looked around the floor to find something out of the room. Something that can be used for shooting and closing the lock. Low and behold he finds it under the sink on the side of the room.
A pebble.
"Jackpot."
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