novelhk Page 8
Page 8
"Ahori, do you know who called Dean Ishida? Or did you hear what he said?"
The boy shook his head blankly: "I don't know. The dean went to the other end of the corridor to answer the call. He spoke very softly, so I couldn't hear him clearly. I only saw that after he finished the call, his expression seemed to change, and then he agreed to take us back."
Yuki Takada silently noted down this suspicious point.
Dean Ishida's actions seem to have been driven by some external force.
"And then? How did you get in? The police should have sealed the door," Yuuki Takada prompted.
“Actually, I have a spare key,” Arori replied immediately.
"And then what?" Takada Yuki said slowly, but his gaze sharpened, fixed on Arihia's changing expression.
He could sense that the boy was getting closer to the core, and the part that terrified him the most.
At this point, Ariya's body visibly tensed up.
He glanced at Ruby subconsciously, but held back, staring blankly ahead, as if he had returned to that cold night.
“That day when we got home… it was very dark.” He recalled, his voice trembling with embarrassment. “It was very cold inside. The director only turned on a flashlight, shining it on the ground. He said… we couldn’t turn on the lights, afraid that people outside would see us. There was a strange smell in the house… a very strong smell, I can’t quite put my finger on it…”
The boy's breathing gradually became rapid.
Chapter 11 The Vanished Diary
Yuki Takada knew that the strange smell that Aya Arori was pointing to was probably the smell of blood and the smell of chemical reagents left over from the police investigation.
This definitely has an inappropriate taste for children.
"Ruby...Ruby stopped crying as soon as she went in. She clung to me tightly, her nails almost digging into my flesh."
As she spoke, Ariya's voice trembled with emotion as she said, "She was trembling and whispering, 'Brother, is Mom... is Mom still inside?' At that time, I couldn't give her a clear answer at all."
"Where will you go after you go in? Will you go straight to your room to get blankets?" Yuuki Takada asked anxiously.
"Um...we...we originally intended to go straight to our room to find the blanket Ruby wanted."
“But…” Ariaki’s voice suddenly stopped, and a look of great fear appeared on her face, “But… when we passed through the living room…”
He abruptly closed his eyes, as if trying to shut out the horrifying images.
"What's wrong with the living room?" Yuuki Takada seemed to sense that Aya Hori in front of him had changed, and immediately asked anxiously, "Aya Hori, tell me, what did you see? Or... what did you feel?"
"Blood!"
Arori suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils dilated with fear. Recalling that scene, she said in a low voice, "On the ground... there was a huge dark thing on the ground! But... but I know it's blood! It's Mom's blood!"
He finally couldn't hold back anymore, and large tears rolled down his cheeks.
Yuki Takada didn't immediately press for answers, understanding the inevitability of the child's emotional breakdown at that moment.
Impossible!
The police had already cleaned up the crime scene; there couldn't possibly be any blood left.
Or is what Ahori is saying now a memory from her mind?
He waited silently, giving Ariya a moment to catch his breath, while carefully observing Ruby's reaction.
When her brother mentioned "blood," the little girl trembled violently, buried her face in his back, and let out a suppressed sob.
Clearly, the two of them must have witnessed something that day, otherwise they wouldn't have reacted so strongly.
After a while, Ahoria's sobs subsided a little.
Yuuki Takada handed the boy a tissue, and he wiped his face haphazardly.
"And then? What did Dean Ishida do next?" Yuki Takada continued to ask, his tone remaining steady.
“The dean came over to comfort us,” Ahoria recalled, speaking slowly. “He told us not to think too much about it. Also, since this was the crime scene, any suspicious items have been taken back by the police for evidence collection. He told us not to worry and not to be afraid.”
"Are you sure?" Yuuki Takada's doubts slowly subsided. Could it be that I really misunderstood Dean Ishida? Curious, he asked, "Are you sure that's what Dean Ishida told you?"
“Yes…yes.” Ariya nodded. “The Dean pulled us along, walking very fast, almost running back to the bedroom. He…he held Ruby and my hands the whole time, which made us feel much more at ease.”
What happened in your room? Did you find the blanket?
"found it."
Seeing that Ruby had received her things, Arori Aya instantly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's on Ruby's bed."
"The dean shoved the blanket into Ruby's hand, and then...then he seemed to be frantically rummaging through the drawer of our bedside table. He was moving very quickly and forcefully."
"Searching for something?" Takada Yuuki's eyes narrowed. "Did he say what he was looking for?"
“No.” Ariya shook his head. “He just said, ‘Hurry, hurry, see if you’ve left anything important behind.’ But he was searching very haphazardly, not like he was looking for our things… more like he was looking for… something else important.”
The little boy's intuition was sometimes unusually accurate.
Yuuki Takada's doubts deepened.
Director Ishida's goal seems to be more than just getting the children to carry blankets.
What is he looking for? Is it something left behind by Ai Mizuno?
Or... what the murderer sent him to find?
"Did he find anything?" Yuki Takada pressed.
“It seems… there isn’t.” Ariya tried to recall, and continued, “He searched through the drawers, looked under the bed, and then said impatiently, ‘No, forget it, let’s go!’ In the end, he grabbed Ruby with one hand and dragged us out.”
"Did anything unusual happen when you left? Or did you notice anything unusual?" Yuuki Takada didn't miss a single detail.
Arori remained silent for a few seconds, her brows furrowed, as if trying to unearth a vague fragment from the depths of her memory.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, he abruptly looked up at Takada Yuuki, a hint of uncertain fear in his eyes:
"Uncle... when we ran past the living room door... I think... I think I accidentally bumped into the white drawer cabinet in the living room, and a notebook fell on the short table in the living room. It looked like Mother's."
"Could it be... that diary?" Takada Yuuki leaned forward slightly, holding his breath. "You found that notebook, but Dean Ishida shouldn't know, right?"
“I don’t know.” Arori nodded, a glint in her eyes, and said, “At the time, Dean Ishida was only focused on getting Ruby away quickly and didn’t notice my actions behind him…”
"...This is the only thing my mother left me. I was afraid that Dean Ishida would confiscate this notebook if he found out, so I carefully hid it when I left home."
"A notebook? Is it a pink-covered diary?" Yuuki Takada felt as if his heart was being squeezed by an icy hand.
That pink-covered diary—which Mizuno Ai might have kept secrets, clues, or even be the key to the truth of the murder—was actually in the hands of this terrified child!
It was not discovered by Dean Ishida, nor was it taken away by the police. Instead, it was hidden by Arihia in a state of extreme fear and confusion, out of her instinct to protect her mother's belongings.
"Yes!" Ariya said, her voice trembling slightly. In addition to fear, her eyes seemed to hold a complex emotion of entrusting a secret to someone else.
“It’s pink… Mom often writes in that notebook when she’s resting.”
Yuuki Takada took a deep breath, trying to suppress his surging emotions and keep his voice steady so as not to frighten the child again:
“Ahoria, you did a great job, very bravely. It was right to protect Mom’s things. That notebook… where is it now? It’s very important, it might help us find out the truth.”
Ariya instinctively hugged Ruby, who was still sobbing behind him, his eyes flickering as if he was weighing whether to give up this last thought.
He looked at Yuki Takada's earnest and serious face, then looked down at his sister's trembling shoulders. Finally, he whispered, "It's in my schoolbag... in the inner compartment. I... I don't dare leave it at home."
A huge weight lifted from Takada Yuki's heart, and at the same time, a strong protective instinct surged within him.
“Ariya, believe me, I will protect it well and use it to help find the culprit who killed your mother. Can you give it to me?” His tone was extremely solemn.
Chapter 12 The Diary is in Hand
Arori hesitated for a few seconds before finally nodding slowly.
He gently released Ruby, gesturing for her to stand still, and then awkwardly took off the small backpack he had been carrying.
Ruby seemed to sense something, and raised her tear-streaked face, looking blankly at her brother's actions.
Ariya fumbled for an inconspicuous zippered compartment at the bottom of her backpack, her fingers trembling slightly with nervousness.
He struggled to unzip the bag and carefully pulled out a book-shaped object that was meticulously wrapped in a supermarket plastic bag.
The plastic bag was opened, revealing the familiar pink-covered diary, and the password was given to Takada Yuuki.
This diary—it was the very one I had seen on the short table in the living room at the crime scene, but which I couldn't find after searching everywhere!
There was still a faint, dried, and dark stain on the cover.
Yuuki Takada stretched out his hands and solemnly accepted the diary from Aya Hori's hands, as if receiving a rare treasure.
The cover feels slightly cool to the touch, carrying the unique fabric scent of the backpack's inner lining.
After all, quite a few people are looking for this.
But Yuki Takada seemed to be able to feel the warmth of Ai Mizuno's writing through it, and the intense heartbeat of Aya Ahori when she hid it.
"Thank you, Ahori." Yuuki Takada gently patted the little boy's head and whispered, "That's great, you've really helped me a lot this time."
Yuuki Takada carefully put the diary into the evidence bag he carried with him, and gently put the evidence away.
He knew that this might hold the key to unlocking the whole mystery.
Looking at Aya Hori in front of him, Yuuki Takada leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Don't worry, as long as I find out the culprit, I will keep letting you know the truth."
Turning around, he looked at Sato Miwako, who was guarding the door, and shouted, "Sato, thank you for your hard work. You can let Dean Ishida in now. I have a pretty good understanding of the situation. I didn't get anything out of the two children, so I was just overthinking it."
Sato Miwako nodded quickly, and after a brief question to Dean Ishida, she let him in.
Dean Ishida walked over and gently took Ruby's hand, then put his arm around Ahori's shoulder: "Come on, children, let's go over there."
Watching the child being taken away by Dean Ishida, Aya slowly turned her head to meet his gaze, her eyes filled with unease and a hint of anticipation.
"It's getting late, we should probably head back," Yuuki Takada said casually, glancing at his watch.
"Ah..." Sato Miwako asked in confusion, then subconsciously replied, "No, Inspector Takada, in the end we didn't get any questions and just left like that."
“Yes, yes, yes.” Takada Yuuki winked at Sato Miwako. “It’s getting late, we should probably head out now. Otherwise, do you want to stay and have Dean Ishida treat us to dinner?”
Seeing this, Sato Miwako quickly understood what Inspector Takada meant: "In that case, let's go and say hello to Director Ishida first."
Dean Ishida did not seem to have gone far outside the door.
His voice, which had been comforting Ruby and Ariya all the way, could be faintly heard, carrying a professional yet unsettling gentleness.
As Ariaki was led away by Dean Ishida with his arm around her shoulder, her last glance back at Inspector Takada was filled with unease mixed with a faint hope.
It was crystal clear in Yuki Takada's mind.