Case File 5

[Rukia Kurosaki 357]

Case File 5:

This afternoon, in a restroom at Beika Park, Kujyou Harima, Vice President of Shion Insurance Company, was found unconscious. Nothing had been removed from his person. He had been struck with a blunt object after entering the bathroom. For some reason, the local water fountain reacted to luminol. At 4:30, the Shogo Club, who had come to the park for a tournament, ate lunch. Takuma Rae-chan bought the fast food, and Yamamoto Shuu-kun, who works under Kujyou, handed it out. Kida Sayaka saw the victim enter the restroom at 4:42 when she used the girl's toilet. She carried a heavy purse. Sayaka-san is the daughter of Harima-san's employer, Shion Kisuragi. Takuma-chan heard the man's voice when she went to check on him and use the washroom at 4:47. She is a close friend of his, though she isn't a coworker. Rae had an umbrella on her person. Yamamoto-kun saw his boss' feet under the stall door when he used the men's room at 4:51. In his pack was a heavy box of mahjong pieces. It was decided that one of the three is his attacker. Each of the suspects' possible weapons reacted to luminol, but the victim was only struck once. Yamamoto-san claims that he bloodied the mahjong box after cutting his hand at home a few days ago. There is a small scar on the back of his right palm. Takuma-san says she swiped the umbrella against an injured cat she found recently. It was verified that on a rainy day she brought a cat into the veterinary center. Kida-san doesn't recall where her purse picked up the stain, but believes it happened when her son scraped his knee a while ago. Only one suspect is guilty.

[AJ M. 204]

I would say the culprit has to be Takuma-san. My deduction is that after bringing the cat into the veterinary center, she could use the cat as a scapegoat for the blood on a weapon she is planning to use. Not only that, it is very easy to verify that she was at the vet center, which proves her confidence that the source of blood came from the cat. It is also very suspicious that she was carrying the umbrella in the first place, since it doesn't appear to be raining at all. So before Yamamoto-san entered the bathroom and after Kida-san saw Kujyou-san enter the bathroom, Takuma-san had much time too murder him in that time frame. After killing Kujyou-san, Takuma-san washed the blood off the umbrella using the local water fountain rather than spending too much time in the men's bathroom washing it off. Then after Yamamoto-san yelled that he was dead, she blended in with the chaos. The evidence should be an examination of the blood on the umbrella (as well as everyone else's stuff with blood). I would have more evidence but I'm not actually at the crimescene and this deduction is mostly conjecture.

[Rukia Kurosaki 357]

Good deduction. (I PM'd you about it to not give anything away)

Hint: Why did I mention what time they ate lunch?