Killing Game Quarter

Chapter 5: Burnt Bodies with No Clear Motive Part 2

“But, while I was going, I heard…something.” He added.

“Something? Whaddya hear?” Poppy interrogated, getting right up in Urkstin’s face, completely forgetting about her prying apology seconds before.

“Ah, w-well,” Urkstin gulped, backing up as much as he could, “I heard what sounded like that metal plate being moved. And… the weird part is that I heard it twice, with the second time happening like ten minutes after.”

“And you didn’t check to see what it was?” I asked.

“Well… I was busy, Aka.” He responded, looking down at his feet.

“A-ah, right, my bad.” I replied, jotting down this information, “Well thanks for the info. You and Akira should stay here or report to Mia. Poppy and I can go check the new vents.” I explained, with Urkstin and Akira nodding in reply. 

With that, I spun on my heel and made my way out of the showers, hearing Poppy follow closely behind.

Our footsteps echoed in the empty, quiet hallway as we walked. Memories of the last time we were in this situation flashed in my mind with each step, as the agony of having to relive this started to set it. 

Thankfully, this investigation helped distract me from that growing feeling of agony, and as we approached the second starting room, I sped up my walking to enter quickly.

Once inside, we looked around quickly for a vent, and were relieved to see that Akira was telling the truth.

“Well would you look at that.” Poppy reported, approaching the vent. While she approached it, I looked around, and found a scalpel laying on the ground. I wrote down that detail, and followed Poppy to the vent. When I approached, I saw her fiddling with the vent grate, opening and closing it.

“What’re you doing?” I asked.

“Well, remember how we tried to open the vent in the bathrooms a while ago?” Poppy questioned, making me remember that fun time we had. I nodded, allowing her to continue, “Well, how do ya think this vent, and the bathroom vent were opened?”

“If I had to guess, it’d be that.” I said, pointing at the scalpel. “They must’ve gotten it from the infirmary, and used it as a makeshift screwdriver.” While I explained that to her, I peered into the newly opened vent, and found exactly what I was looking for.

“Alright, and that confirms that. There’s two square pieces of the vent cut out here.” I reported, feeling a bit relieved at the explanation for the covers. However, Poppy raised the next big question.

“Ah aight, but what about that other vent?” She asked.

“The other vent?” I asked, before it hit me like a truck. When Poppy and I looked into the bathroom vent the other day, there was a split path!

“Oh you’re right! We should probably go and check where that vent led to.”I suggested, heading out of the room, prompting Poppy to follow, “Come on, we don’t have a lot of time.”

We both hurried down the hallway, and started to question why there wasn’t a cover for the third bathroom connecting vent.

“Maybe they didn’t have the time to cut out the vent piece?” Poppy suggested.

“Or maybe they didn’t think that they had to block that vent, for some reason.” I retorted, catching my breath as we ran.

“Where do ya think that vent leads anyways?” She questioned.

“Well… based on the direction it looked to be leading, to the right, then I’d guess it leads to the gym or the library.”

“Ah, alrighty. Maybe we’ll be able to catch our culprit if we find out which room!” Poppy optimistically stated, not realizing that she was hoping to be able to get someone killed.

“...” I couldn’t think of a way to respond without sounding terrible, but thankfully we had already made it to the gym. We burst inside and looked around.

… 

… 

… 

“Nope, no vent here.” I remarked.

“Yuh, don’t see anythin’ here, let’s get a move on then!” She replied, already pushing me out of there. We continued our exercise until we made it to the library, busting open the door, taking a look around the room.

… 

… 

“Vent!” I exclaimed, spotting one in the exact area where a connecting one would be. Poppy and I both rushed over there, and sure enough, there was no vent cover.

“Well well well, now we just gotta collect alibis!” Poppy proudly stated, confident that we already had our convicting evidence. I was pretty sure as well, and jot down some notes in the notepad, before opening the vent and peering inside.

From there, all I could see was Jambo’s torso, with his lower half going to the right, and upper half to the left, which I found to be strange. I jot it down, before noticing something even stranger.

“Hey Poppy?” I asked, pulling out the strange object, “I think we found the reason why the vents were so hot.”

“Is that a fuckin’ BLOWTORCH?” Poppy asked, gazing at the torch.

“Seems like it. It was standing up right next to the body, pointed at the vent.” I explained, placing the blowtorch back as an example.

“Alright, that’s all fine and dandy, but why would the culprit do that?” Poppy asked.

“I haven’t got the slightest idea.” I admitted, writing down notes in the notepad. I made sure to write down the only other person I knew had seen the blowtorch, and some of the puzzle pieces started to connect,

“Right, alibis, we should get those.” I remembered, disregarding my suspicions, “We should report back to Mia for those.”

“Roger that boss lady!” Poppy called, before marching out of the library with me.

So, do you have any suspects Poppy?” I asked as we ran our way back, curious to see how she’s doing with this case.

“I mean, nah. If I’m bein’ honest I just follow what you say and believe you.” Poppy admitted, with a goofy smile, “But that does remind me of something I wanna tell you.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, back when we was sharing videos, right before Liam and Mia started talkin’, out of the corner of my eye I swear that I saw Jambo bend down or somethin’.” She explained, sounding suspicious of things that she saw herself.

“That’s all you saw?” I questioned further.

“Yeah, afterwards I was focusing on you talkin’, and then everyone noticed that Jambo was gone.” She continued, while I wrote down her testimony.

“I see. Well it’s useful info either way. I think I might have an idea as to what happened. Just no idea on the who yet.” I admitted to her and myself, as we passed by the showers.

“Well, once we get some alibis, we should be able to shorten the suspect list, right?” Poppy asked, sounding painfully optimistic.

“Right…” I muttered, remembering the circumstances. We then reached the bathrooms, and entered, surprised to see that almost everyone had stayed there. The only difference was that Liam had left, and Akira had arrived.

“Well, how did it go?” Mia asked, leaning against a stall, “You took your time.”

“We ran all over the place collecting evidence. I can share it later, right now I just want your guys’ alibis for the time of the murder.”

“I already asked for them, but I guess you want to be able to have it all written down,” Mia stated, coldly, “So go ahead.”

“I didn’t need your permission,” I responded, twice as cold, before turning to Risa, “What were you up to at the time of the murder?”

“Ah, well… After breakfast, I went down to the library to read and calm myself. Unfortunately, I ended up cutting my ankle on one of the chair legs, and took myself to the infirmary to patch myself up,” Risa explained, showing off her bandaged leg, “Then I was heading back to the library when I bumped into Joseph darling, who helped me walk, before the announcement went off.” 

I wrote all of her words down, making sure to underline important details for myself, before turning to Joseph. 

“Can you confirm her alibi?”

“Oh, yeah I can,” Joseph started, starting off with an awkward laugh, “I was in my cell after breakfast, and then decided to go to the gym, to build up some physical strength. Then I decided to make my way to the cafeteria to refuel myself after working out. But on my way there I bumped into Risa, and helped her walk, since she was injured.”

I wrote down his alibi as well, nodding to myself, but feeling a looming sense of dread overtaking me. Something here wasn’t adding up, and I couldn’t help but question one of the three people that didn’t show up to the meeting.

Joseph.

Urkstin.

Risa.