-~*~-
Unlike Luyao and Kazuto who conduct the whole interrogation process, Yanyi stood by the side of the room. Inspecting the surrounding and peaks in a few glances at the suspect every now and then. At first, she only had the intention of not allowing any measure of lying getting out but turns out her idling around prove to be a much more better plan than expected.
"For starter, none of them mention anything about a falling ceiling plate nor did they describe of any metal clanging noise." She starts her suspicion indication with one of the most obvious clue that should be visible but no one had mention it. Even if the plate did not fall onto the body, a metal plate falling noise is not something invisible. and as far as she knows, none of them has any disability.
Yanyi — "The two bodyguards has a somewhat believable alibi. the plate might have fallen after they went out to search for help. But the secretary not hearing anything is bullshit. Even if the plate didn't fall on top of the body, how can you possibly ignore the loud noise it makes."
Yanyi — "Also, the testimony for Mr Hino is so short that it is vague enough to construct a timeline. And... I don't think that they are the only one involve in this murder. Someone must have given them a hand outside.
Luyao — "we can call the police station and the fire department that got involve for the information of their time of arrival. Using it we can construct something."
Kazuto — "Luyao you call the police station I call the fire department."
The males got up for their tasks and Yanyi got closer to Irene to whisper to her about something. After her initial conversation, Irene got up from her seat and ask Max for a mean of transportation directly to the central bank. After 15 minutes of searching for information, Luyao and Kazuto seated back their but on the sofa.
Kazuto look around the office and saw no traces of Irene anywhere. "Where's your friend?" Yanyi explain how she had given her a specific task to be completed. One that could possibly help them in contradicting a few statement of the suspects. "Got any intel that could work in our favour?"
Luyao — "Got a few. Better start of with Kazuto to make any sense of mine."
Kazuto — " Whatever. I call the fire department first and they said that the on duty leader is currently off for the day. I then call his home and he gives out a few details. At around 7:45 in the morning they got a rather frantic call and Mr Kou is frantically redirecting the information that he just got and witness."
Kazuto — "Upon hearing that a building is on fire, they rush out and arrive at the scene approximately at around 8:00 and the fire calm down and died after 30 minutes of effort. Luckily no one is injured inside and the only casualty they experience is the... you know."
Kazuto — "They got a rather emergency call afterwards and aren't able to stay behind for the investigation."
Luyao — "Now that line up with my info."
Yanyi — "What did you get?"
Luyao — "From what I've gathered, The police station got a call or rather hear a call from the front door at around 8:45 in the morning and Mr Bertham relay to them what had happened."
Luyao — "By the time they had arrive the fire had died down and they arrived at around 9:00 and the fire fighter had gone back for an emergency call for 30 minutes already. After prepping for investigation and having everyone away from the scene, the investigation begins."
With the information that they've gathered, Yanyi begins to construct her timeline on a piece of paper that randomly laying around the table. It took her a few minutes to turn everything around but eventually everything came to an end.
"My timeline is not completed yet but we'll be able to fill in a few loophole after Irene came back." Speaks of the devil, the girl emerge herself in front of the office with a glorified smiling eyes. Skipping her legs all the way to the sofa she shakes Yanyi's arms after, what Yanyi assume her success in finding the information that she requested.
Kazuto — "You have been away for almost 1 hour. Did you find an abundance amount of info?"
Irene — "Hehe, of course I do. And I even find a few other information that could lead to their motives."
Yanyi — "Please, spill you tea."
Irene — "I'll start with the beginning. First and for most, both of the bodyguards, Mr Kou and Mr Bertham, have been associating themselves into the underworld gambling club and has spent a tremendous amount of money. The chance of literally releasing yourselves from the clutch of those underworld... people are low. So with an extreme money came extreme debt. You can tell where this is going."
Kazuto — "They aren't able to pay the amount requested and has been threatened multiple times. Its quite lucky that we aren't notorious for killing people so we let them lose for a few more months."
Irene — "Wait... Your family has a hand in the underworld?"
Luyao — "Each state has a head noble and an underworld cycle, without the authority from the head noble those businesses can't be operate. But for the gambling site to be apart of the Ryuichi's business is much to my surprise."
Yanyi — "Continue Irene."
Irene — "You ask me to go to the central bank and ask about the activity of their account. And as you suspect, a transfer of a really high amount had just been made one night. And that night is the night of the incident. To be more precise, at around 6:45 in the morning."
Irene — "Tracking the account number, it turns out to be someone with the name of Arthur Peredo and I decided to dig more into his background. I went to Mr Santrick's house and ask the butler to lead me to the workers history for the reason of investigating the death of his master."
Irene — "Turns out, Arthur had previously worked with the family starting 7 years ago and had work for three years before quitting his job due to a serious family problem."
Kazuto snap his fingers and turns to Irene and the other quickly. HE seem to have remembered something that he had previously stumbled upon. That's what happened when you accidentally stumble upon something and can't seem to recall them, you would somehow think about it when the situation arrives.
Kazuto — "I remembered him. He's one of the expert bomb squad leader that works for the military for 6 years 13 years ago. 3 years of disarming bombs from the Coast-Maritime war and 3 years of teaching experts for the newcomers."
Luyao — "Didn't he came from the generation of experts military family?"
Kazuto — "Yeah, but his family didn't like to have those fancy title and instead choose to live a humble life by a village near the Pioneer Ocean's Lagoon."
Irene — "And that is where it brings us."
Irene — "I've found an old newspaper from 4 years ago that has been kept inside his personal belongings that the manor kept and found out that the headline for them is about the plan and buyers of the land near the cliffside of the south east pioneer ocean, in other word, the Pioneer Ocean's Lagoon."
Irene — "I sneak around and ask the butler for the context of the newspaper and he relay that the late mistress of the house, Santrick's wife had a wish for a vacation there but her weak constitute didn't allow her. To please his wife, Santrick wanted to build a house where his wife didn't have to worry about watching the ocean and calming waves."
Irene — "Unfortunately, his wife died 2 years ago, before the construction is finished. Upon learning further it turns out that he had paid a huge amount to the villagers to sold their lands but there are those who refuse to do so. One of them is Arthur's parents. After learning of Arthur's story, Santrick let's him leave in peace and forbid his people from scouting him any longer."
The area just turn in complete silence. They have no idea on how to process everything that Irene had just spill out. A case that trails back to the olden days and had a sense of revenge that is still ignite even after four years.
Sure, now that there's another information the timeline can be revised and there's someone with an even higher motive to kill Mr Santrick. They can figure that Mr Santrick is the type of person who loves his wife dearly and would do anything for her. But after her passing he eventually went off road and lead to him always getting drunk.
Perhaps, after learning of what he had done to Arthur he decided to stop pursuing Arthur and let him leave in peace. Who would've thought that his peace would mark an end to his life.
Luyao call Max over and instructed him to capture Arthur Peredo and put him under custody. He also ask him to go with the interrogation as he saw that now one seems to be willing to work now.
"We still have some work. Let us change our surrounding. Kazuto, you and Irene o back to the manor and search for more info on our suspects. Yanyi and I will head over to the archive to search there." With Luyao moving his feet, the others are tied and follows his orders.
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-~*~-
At the archive~
"Here's the records placement that you have requested, Young Master." A man with a dark brown hair as well as a pair of caramel coloured eyes place down the yellow files onto the counter. This is Adin Saltant, the head of the archive workers. His job is to get and make sure that every documents and files are sorted throughly and to protect them from unwanted danger.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Sir Adin." Luyao relays his gratitude, taking the records into his arms. "It's my pleasure to help in any way that can provide protection to our empire, Young Master." He left the front desk and strode into his office while Luyao enters the private area in which Yanyi had seated herself in.
Yanyi — "Now, tell me where the Pioneer's Lagoon news is. 4 years back is where we shall look into."
Luyao — "Second story, third bookcase, fourth lane from the front and fifth row from the bottom."
Yanyi — "Thank you, Inspector."
Luyao sits on his chair while Yanyi go and look for the documents. He has a few question that he has been meaning to ask her and privacy is what he needs. Look now, they are alone and it's the perfect opportunity for a few... personal inquiry. Soon enough, Yanyi came down from the second story and bring with her a few documents that she plan to look through.
She notice how Luyao didn't move an inch to take a look. Instead he continue to give this weirdly curious stare towards her, which makes her uncomfortable of course. "You seem to have some question to ask. Go ahead, I don't mind answering." With permission now given, Luyao made no excuse to prolonged the situation.
Luyao — "You're the Young Marquess Xue. The only daughter of both Marquess Xue Xenzi and Marchioness Ariani Xue Valmrione. The one that went missing for nearly a month, right?"
Yanyi — "Yes. Yes indeed, I am."
Luyao — "What is your reasoning of coming here? As far as I'm informed, both Marquess house in Ashrin and Kinsel is in rivalries. Why would you seek refuge in this state?"
Yanyi — "First thing first, you got your fact a bit messed up. Yes, both Marquess house is indeed in rivalries but that only applies to the head of the family. It has nothing to do with the descendants. If it does, Kazu would have already challenge me by now."
Yanyi — "Second thing, my reasoning... If I say that I'm currently on a vacation, I doubt that you will feed them to your brain, right?"
Luyao — "No one in their right mind would take a vacation that would put the capital in shambles for a month."
Yanyi — "I have my reasons of coming here and I can't tell you. But I can share one of them..."
Luyao — "..."
Yanyi — "Escaping the unfair treatment and judgement of my father. Marquess Xue Xenzi, someone who values justice and fairness so much that he would apply them to his successor's training. When it comes to training, people would assume that males would be much more capable than females. With me being his successor, he vow to turn me into the first lady-man of the family. A lady that possess the strength and capabilities of a man. Therefore, he put on so much gruelling training for me."
Yanyi — "At some point, I just have had enough. I tried to think about a way to escape his grasps. If I just left and ran away into the city, I would be caught in at most 5 hours. When I heard that Irene got a chance to be an intern in news company, I lock my travel with her. Her family has no clue of where she is, only telling them that she got the internship and went with her way."
Luyao — "Aren't you worried that Marquess Ryuichi will rat you out to your father?"
Yanyi — "He wouldn't. Rumours has been circulating about my rebellious attitude and how I did so to get away from my father. I'm sure the moment he sees me away from my home, he'll take me in as a refuge for the time being."
"Are you planning on running away forever?" Her hands that has been creasing the pages of her read stops for a moment. Luyao see how she hesitates to make any other movement. He is sure that she has no clue what she should do next. Yes, taking refugee under Marquess Ryuichi is in her book. Inadvertently, her location will be found sooner or later.
She hasn't thought this plan throughly and only acted when the opportunity gives it way. "I don't plan to leave the Marquess family altogether, only for a while... until he had change his view..." The atmosphere is still as the calm water in the lake. Luyao snatch a documents from under her piles and look through them, which caught Yanyi off of her mind. "Continue reading, we have to patch up a few clues together."
I will explain the premises of where Yanyi is coming from. Xue Licia Yanyi, the first child and only daughter to house Xue. As she had explain before, the family runs in the prospect of fairness. It makes sense that a firstborn son should be the one who handle the business affair. However, the next child that Marchioness was bless by were a pair of twin boys, which makes the decision making harder.
Surely giving it to the first twin is the right choice, but the fairness in this action is clashing in the Xue's way. Therefore, Yanyi was named the heir to the family. With her gender differences than the ideal one, the head of the family put on a much more grueling training for her.
The purpose is not only to shape her into a capable leader, but to also writes it inside of the history lineage book in which future descendants can refer to if the ever encounter the same fate. To bad for him, this new record that he is trying ended up with his puppet running away. I mean, who would ever want to be controlled with everything they did. Dude! Even I don't want that!
Time has flown by for roughly 1 hour already and it was plenty for them to strike up something. Luyao shut the files he got and places them neatly in the corner of the table. After doing so, he pour out a cup of tea that Adin had prepared for them. "Finish your readings yet?"
Yanyi — "Very much so. *puts away the documents and takes a bite off of the biscuits on the table* You start your finding first."
Luyao — "We've learned that Arthur's parents has lived in that village for a long time and learn that they had been waiting for Arthur to return. Unfortunately, the four gems seem to love and cherish them even more than the world. They died during the construction plan is on field."
Luyao — " What I found is that this couple has no opposition about moving away. It's just that they wish to move with their son after he had return. While she is away in her garden at the front door, she saw how one of the crane workers almost destroyed her house and flew out in rage."
Luyao — "She attack the machine rather recklessly which cause the workers to be confused and pegged for a few short minutes. The husband eventually came out and try his best to stop his wife that is being unreasonable to a machine of all things. With the sudden shakes that came from the old woman and her husband, the rope that holds onto those iron beams snapped and killed the two underneath."
Yanyi — "It was unintentional. They contractor should have look more into the safety of each machine. Well here is what I found for 1 hour. You remember Mr Hino, the secretary of Mr Santrick?"
Luyao — "Yeah."
Yanyi — "Turns out he is Arthur's uncle. After learning of his sister's and brother-in-law deaths, he takes a leave for about 2 month without payment. I have check that during those 2 months, he is sorting out the inheritance problem that his brother-in-law has yet to claim from the military."
Yanyi — "I also learned that he is the one that introduce Arthur to work in the Santrick house. Who would've thought that tragedy struck them together."
"Now we have the motives of everyone, right? The bodyguards wish to have all of their debt be clean and avoid the cutting across the neck and the other two is up for revenge." After aligning everything inside Yanyi's little notebook, they place back the files to its designated area and left the archive in tack.
Soon enough, Irene and Kazuto meet up with them in the office and the boy toss over the thing that Yanyi had requested early on. "That is the private will from each former military forces. I'm pretty sure Arthur's parents will is inside here. We can make this to at least lower his guards before putting him behind bars."
After a quick look, Yanyi deem that everything has already been completed and is ready to be presented to the crowd. She showed them her timeline that she has been working on and they deem it on point. Instead of discussing things in the office and bringing all suspect to this area, they decided to conduct this last step at the crime scene.
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-~*~-
After 30 minutes of waiting, everyone is finally where they are meant to be. Soon to be is different. This include Arthur Peredo who interview didn't reveal anything that they can use against. But with all the evidence pointing towards him, I don't think it is necessary anymore. The moment Hino saw Arthur came out of a police vehicle his pupil dilated for a short 10 seconds. Yanyi didn't miss this tiny details, making it clear as crystal that they had indeed knew or at least met each other before.
Luyao nudge her shoulder lightly, pointing his chin towards the suspects and the crowd that is slowly building p. It is coming to an end of the day and it makes sense how people pass by this area often. She leans into Luyao's ears a little and whisper "Can you start things first? I'm not really good with an introduction to cases."
'Are you kidding me?' is all he cold muster inside his noggin. Clearing his throat, he starts the inspection quite professionally you could say. He introduce the base of the cases and why the four are gathered here. You can hear from his tone and fluctuation that he is someone that is highly respected among the circle.
Despite his young age only 2 years older than Yanyi, he still manage to climb quite easily. If Yanyi were to describe what he reminds her of is probably off to being the crown prince when it comes to serious matter. She is quite close with him and saw each persona that he had thrown into the world. Including his charismatic and serious side.
"Now, the explanation will be given out by my partner." Realizing that her name is being brought up, she put on a rather serious features. Underneath a bring sun, you can see her silver eyes shines at its brightest, but with a lower eyelids her shines died down and only left with this fearsome look inside.
Yanyi — "I will introduce each evidence and suspicion we have gathered so far. To make this more fair, you all are free to go against these evidence and find an alibi of your own."
Kou — "..."
Bertham — "..."
Hino — "..."
Arthur — "..."
Kazuto — "No counter? Continue, Yanyi."
Her eyes darts towards the central bank direction and behind those buildings are located the nearest police station and fire station. "Max, could you do me a favour and drove to the fire station? After that, fire up a flare to show that you had arrive."
"One of you, ran to the nearest police station and do the same." She request for the help of four police officers that is currently working alongside them. One is to drove to the fire station, two is to ran to the central bank and one is to ran to the nearest police station. After arriving at the central bank, the guards shall take their place and ran towards both the police station and drove to the fire station.
Luyao — "What are you doing?"
Yanyi — "Proving timeline."
They wait for approximately 15 minutes and two flares cut through the sky. It was Max who is by the fire station and the two by the central bank. After another 10 minutes another flare sore through the sky, it was the police station. another one shot through in 5 minutes, the one by the fire station. And lastly, 15 minutes of waiting the last flare sore the sky. The police station.
"So it only took them 25 minutes to reach the police station by feet. Something really is a miss." Luyao comments under his breathe. He is clearly glad that someone can be so calculative and scheming as him in this field. He throw a glance at Yanyi who is grinning in excitement.
Yanyi took out her notebook and a piece of transaction records that Irene had snatch from the central bank. "I don't think that the incidents happen at 7:30 in the morning because of this records. Instead, I think it happened prior to 6:30 in the morning."
Yanyi — "After the incident occurs, you two went to you respective direction but ended up meeting at the central bank. I figure that you met up at around 6:45 in the morning and spent your time there, Mr Kou you are tasked to fetch the fire station and you went away at 7:30 in the morning, making it possible that you arrive at the station at 7:45 in the morning."
Yanyi — "Mr Bertham, you stayed behind longer than Mr Kou until 8:25 and finish transferring the money into your bank account before going to the police station for a report. This is also to make sure that any information from the head firefighters are hard to come by."
"The rest follow the flow." Yanyi wait for any counter measure but there doesn't seem to be any. It's as if they had already accepted their fate... which is weird. Luyao took over for a second and move to the making of the murder scene.
Luyao — "We will take that the accident take place at 6:30 in the morning. Mr Hino, you are the secretary of Mr Santrick and after seeing the state and trouble that had occurs, you command them to their respective job that didn't turn out properly."
Luyao — "In between the arrival of the fire fighters and them leaving, you have 2 hours and 30 minutes window of opportunities. Instead of performing any sort of medical advances, you leave a surprise for you former master, didn't you?"
Hino — "Whatever do you mean, Inspector?"
"With that man." Luyao points towards Arthur who had been listening to the whole story. With eyes moving towards him, he felt flustered for a quick second. Kazu takes the lead and explain who this man that is standing with a flushed face is.
Kazu — "Arthur Peredo, 37 years old. Former member and instructor for Kinsel military bomb squad. You have an exceptional skill in infiltration and swift movements. Your small body gives you the advantages to sneak into the small crevasses. Just like that ceiling there. *points towards the ceiling hole*"
Hino — "Young Marquess, I don't mean to be rude, but don't involves people who has no idea in what is happening."
Irene — "Oh I'm pretty sure that he knew exactly what is happening. After all, who wouldn't be curious when their own uncle is involves in a big case, right?"
Hino — "..."
Yanyi — "Enough. Arthur Peredo, you have the knowledge of a leader when it comes to bombs and explosive. And I'm more than sure that you knew about this particular one."
Yanyi took out all the evidence to the dynamites that they had collected and handed it over to him. The bulging eyes tell her more than enough that he knew what this is. "T-Thi-This is..."
"Your bomb, no. Your dynamites. These are the pieces that survive that massive explosion you created." Arthur's eyes follows the bag as Yanyi gives it away to a member of the police forces. Everyone can see how he had indeed been involves in this case.
Yanyi — "Mr Hino. You stay by Mr Santrick side and must have notices how he is still breathing and twitching at the least. During that time, you instructed for Arthur to fall down from the ceiling and crush his heart using the bending metal plate. Striking him deep inside his heart."
Yanyi — "The victim died at that exact moment and you act as if the metal plate is merely an accidents. With the massive explosion and shakes, it made sense how the metal plate will fall on its own."
Yanyi — "You instructed Arthur to return to his residence and to play things normally. With the remaining time left, everything in the hallway is sure to turn to ashes. I don't know whether to congratulate you or not. You really has a gifted nephew."
It was silence for 5 minutes. Yanyi had given out everything that they tried to fabricated and turn it against them. With them constantly replying how Arthur and him are close, they must've find out about his relationship. "I reckon that you have found our motives?"
Yanyi pass the baton to Luyao. She really has no interest to involves herself in someone else's family problem. "Mr Hino, your sister and brother-in-law is the father and mother of Arthur. After learning about their death by the lagoon project 4 years ago, you find Arthur to take care of him."
"You should know that though what Mr Santrick was doing is wrong, it is not intentional. What I mean is that the death is an unfortunate incident that happen during construction working." He pass the documents that he had taken away from the archive for Hino and Arthur to read them. It details the occurrences that came to take their relatives lives.
He then turn to the two bodyguards and handed over the receipt that Kazuto had taken from the manor. It proves that their debt underground is the motives of involving themselves in this case. With not being able to pay the gambling debt, they are sent to work with the underground guards. Instead they choose a more cruel methods and ended up in prison.
Kazuto came forward to the uncle and nephew and handed over the info that Yanyi had request of him early this day. The will that Arthur's parents has left for him. I can't really detailed by defaults but I can give you a few premises which I don't think they mind.
Inside the will, both Mrs and Mr Peredo never wish for their child to take revenge and continue to live a normal life. His father detailed how his mother's temper has gone quite crazy lately and he's afraid how they might ended up with something unfortunate in the future.
They left all the will and treasure transaction to Hino and for him to take care of their only son. Their only wish is for him to live a peaceful life and never seek revenge or go to the wrong path. If only he had read this sooner, nothing like this would happen. But he kept on running away from the problem.
With a heavy heart, Yanyi ask for the uncle and nephew to be brought over to the Kinsel prison center. The bodyguards will be dealt with the Ryuichi so Kazu will take care of them.
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-~*~-
*Plop!*
Yanyi plays with her soap bar inside of her bathtub, still thinking about what had happened and what she could've done to prevent this outcomes. Yes, she is someone who values justice very much. But this keeps on coming to her that someone did something for a reason.
Revenge is not a right reason but if she were in the same shoes as them, wouldn't she had done the same. If she were born in another universe and had encounter the same fate as Arthur and Hino, she wouldn't be afraid to stain her hands red.
After all, in people's eyes, revenge is the right for justice. But revenge is not justice. It a mere play of word from the concepts of justice. A mere manipulation that twist people's perspective.
Thankfully, she is not born to seek revenge...
Is she?
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-~*~-