28

Chapter 28 The first thing that Kaede did when she got home that evening after finishing up at school was to go to her computer, open up her music program, and start searching through all available songs relating to killing and murder, just to see if she could get any sort of inspiration as to why somebody who didn't appear to possess any extraordinary skills or knowledge in that area was trying to commit a series of murders that nobody could have ever known anything about. At some point, Kaede had already given up trying to understand the situation. She knew that she was supposed to be focusing on doing her job as a journalist, but she simply couldn't get herself to keep thinking about the case that had happened today and what could have happened to her parents' bodies. All the evidence pointing to it being an obvious mistake was right in front of her, but it seemed almost as if the whole investigation had come to a complete standstill at that very moment, just like it had that morning. No clues had turned up yet, and all they had managed to discover that day was that somebody seemed to have gotten their hands on a piece of information about Kaito, the son of a rich family, and that they believed it had led to the murder of somebody else. Kaede frowned deeply as she tried to recall every single detail about the incident that had unfolded in front of her, from beginning to end, but she couldn't recall anything that was particularly peculiar about it. At least, nothing that she could remember that would have made her question whether what had happened had truly been an accident, but the fact that nobody had shown the slightest hint of guilt or anger towards her as she told everyone the story had her questioning whether the students who had witnessed the entire scene had simply pretended not to have heard anything at all to spare themselves from further embarrassment. Either way, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had failed the class. And then, as she began to search for something, anything, that might have caused the murder to occur, a small smile crept across her lips. There is something incredibly exciting and intriguing about solving a mystery, especially when you are the one who has figured out exactly who did the deed, she thought to herself. I bet that nobody will ever forget what happened today, nor will they ever let you live it down! She sighed happily as she finally found a song to put in her computer, ready to listen to the melody as soon as the screen went dark and the room started to dim. Before long, the song began playing in the background and Kaede sat quietly on her bed staring straight ahead as she listened intently to it, allowing herself to get lost in her thoughts as she tried to focus on what was happening behind the scenes in the film that was just beginning. As soon as the last note had faded, the light suddenly came back on again, forcing Kaede to blink several times in order to adjust to the sudden change, and she immediately started to look round and inspect what had once again become the darkness of her bedroom. Everything was still as before, except that now everything was covered with blood and she couldn't even see her desk, which meant that she could no longer see the computer screen. A couple of seconds later, she saw a figure approaching the door and she instinctively reached out quickly, grasping the arm of the person who had entered her bedroom before realising that it wasn't the same person she had originally seen. This time, she recognised the figure in front of her, and felt relief flood through her body. She was sure that it was someone who had been sent to escort her home, or perhaps to bring her home early as a result of something having happened, but nevertheless, she couldn't stop the warm feelings that filled her chest at seeing that it was her mother who had come for her and whom she had been waiting for since the previous afternoon. "It's good to see you." she said, smiling softly at the woman, although the smile quickly disappeared as she realised just how pale and scared she looked. "Are you okay? You don't look so good..." "Yeah... I'm fine. I've only had a bit of an accident, but I'm okay, so... What happened?" Akane asked as her eyes moved over Kaede's face, inspecting every inch of it for signs of injury. Her expression didn't seem completely comfortable though. There were bags under her eyes and her complexion was paler than usual, making her look exhausted. But the most noticeable thing was the fear and panic that were visible on her mother's features. "Why are you alone in your room?" As the older girl looked at her daughter's face, the tears welling up in her eyes forced her to avert her gaze, unable to meet her eyes, afraid that if she did, she wouldn't be able to control herself and allow herself to burst out into tears. She felt ashamed and embarrassed of herself for being so weak, but even though she knew that she would never blame her for it, she felt like she was failing her own daughter. She felt horrible and terrible and she wished that she could make things better, but she didn't know how. "Well, um… I guess it doesn' really matter, but someone broke into my house…" As she said these words, she clenched her teeth tightly as more tears flowed down her cheeks, preventing herself from crying too much as she continued to speak. Akane raised an eyebrow slightly, puzzled as she said: "Someone broke into your house? Why would anyone want to break into your house? You're the daughter of a very wealthy man. How many people are there who'd actually dare to do such a stupid thing?" "Actually… There aren't many, but there's one person who does things like that," Kaede explained, clenching and unclenching her fingers nervously. She lowered her head as she spoke, unable to look at her mother while she talked to her. "He says that he's gonna take my father and brother away to another city tomorrow, where the police won't find them. He said that he'll wait until after we have left before going to steal my father and brother's bodies and burn them in a fire somewhere, then bury the ashes somewhere close to the city." "What?! That bastard! Where the hell did he manage to get money enough to buy those guns? And why would he say he wants to steal my father and brother away!? He must have stolen all of the money from them during the past three days, that's how he'pd the cash to buy the guns and then go to some other place where nobody can find him!" Akane exclaimed furiously. The more that she spoke, the angrier she got. "You shouldn't have trusted him! He's obviously up to something bad! We need to tell the police about this right now! They can protect you!" "I already called the police and told them what happened," replied Kaede. "They don't believe me because I said that he had broken into my house, but they're investigating the whole situation, so I think it'll be alright..." "You don't know that for sure. I can't believe that that bastard would hurt your brothers and father! They're both good men, but if he hurts either one of them, then I swear to god, I will-" "Okay Mom, I know that it's not your fault that Dad and Brother died, but don't stress yourself about it," Kaede interrupted her mother. "Please stop blaming yourself and help me clean up this mess." "Okay. Let's clean this bloody mess up then." Akane walked over to Kaede's desk and lifted the computer up, carefully carrying it over to the sink before placing it onto it's rightful spot on the counter. Then she opened the drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. After a quick glance around to ensure that they weren't being watched, Akane took a small bottle out of her bag before opening it and using it to mix up the mixture with the water in the sink. With the amount of alcohol she had poured into it, the liquid inside would turn into a disgusting red color, making it easy to distinguish between the normal and the dangerous chemicals. It would be impossible to tell what was going on without any sort of chemical analysis, so her parents should definitely have taken special precautions when they had ordered the medicine. Akane placed a couple of towels next to her as she began to prepare to wash off the blood that was stuck onto both of her hands. She grabbed one of the two knives laying on her desk and pressed down against the bottom of each hand, trying to cut them up a little bit so that she could take care of them as soon as possible. Once she was done, however, she picked up the bottle full of bleach and used it to wipe up all the blood on the knife handles, as well as taking her time to wipe away all the red spots that had formed. After she was finished cleaning up her work area, Akane returned to her side of the room and started scrubbing the floors as vigorously as she could. For some reason or other