(Background: crickets;
Setting: mid autumn late at night, on the roof of a school)

Kyoko: Yuki-kun! Misaki-chan! Come look!
Misaki: I’m glad you guys are enjoying this.
Yuki: The stars are beautiful. It’s great of you to organize this, Misaki.
Misaki: I thought it was about time the club actually saw the real night sky. Those charts were getting a little boring.
Nagisa: A light? … Misaki-senpai, is there anyone in the school tonight besides sensei and the astronomy club?
Misaku: Hn? Yes. The film club’s filming a suspense movie.
Nagisa!: Oh! The film club! Then that means Takuya-senpai is here! Perfect! Now I can spy on him without getting caught! Ohohoho!…Huh?…Ah…KYAAAAA!
Yuki: what is it?!
Nagisa: In the library…a…a body!
Misaki: The film club was filming some scenes in there; it’s probably just a dummy. Here, let me see. …Yuki, was the victim in that movie a high school student?
Yuki: No, it was a teacher. Why?
Misaki: We’d better get down there…I have a bad feeling about this.

(Setting: school library.
SFX: a door being hastily opened and feet running into the room and abruptly stopping. The sound of a light switch being flicked on)
Kyoko: Eyaaaa! It’s Kouki-kun!!!
Yuki: What…!!
Kyoko: I’ll call an ambulance-
Nagisa: Get him down! Hurry!
Misaki: He’s dead…there’s no use checking. He’s strung right up to the ceiling. In the time it took us to get down here…even if had just been done, he’d have died already.
Nagisa: S-suicide!?
Kyoko: and after what happened to Junko-chan…
Misaki: Don’t be stupid! Do you see any chairs out of place? He had nothing to step up on. You try hoisting yourself that high up to the ceiling after you’ve died.
Yuki: He could have jumped off the bookshelves.
Misaki: It’s possible…but the footprints and fingerprints here are much smaller than Kouki’s feet, and I don’t see any flour on his shoes. If he jumped off the bookshelves, he’d still have some there.
Nagisa: AhCHOO! Who put all this flour here, anyway?!
(SFX: The door opens again and more feet run in)
Ayumi: What’s happened!? We heard screaming and-and…oh…god!
Takuya: Kouki?!
Hanako: Is he…?
Misaki: He’s dead. Murdered, unless I’m mistaken.
Hanako: But this has to be suicide. Who could kill a student…?
Misaki: Another student, I suspect...
Nagisa: Couldn’t it have been someone from outside? You know…a…a serial killer or something? Through the windows?
Misaki: I don’t think so. These plants would have been knocked off the shelf if the window were opened.
Aymi: But the film club was in the library from 5 to 9 practicing and filming. After that we went back to the club room- it’s right between the students’ entrance and the teachers’ entrance. We’d have noticed if someone broke in.
Takuya: Kouki left to go to the washroom.
Nagisa: I…I saw a light in here at about 9:45.
Misaki: Which means the murder happened between 9 and 9:45, probably closer to 9:30.
Nagisa: How can you tell?
Misaki: If you saw a light in here, then someone must have been in here. Something like a hanged person is going to be hard to miss.
(SFX: the door opens once moor and a single set of footsteps come running in)
Sensei: Screaming! …
Misaki: Oh, right…sensei, Kouki’s been killed. Would you please call the police?
Sensei: Wh-what?! Kouki-? Ah! AH!! Yes! Yes, of course, right away!
(SFX: the sound of sensei running out the door and the door closing once more)
Misaki: Yes, the school remained open tonight because sensei agreed to stay with us..
Takuya: So it was impossible for someone from the outside to…?
Misaki: Not entirely, but highly unlikely. We’d have to check to see if all doors and window are closed and locked to be certain, but from the roof we could see all around the school fairly clearly.
Kyoko: Miho-chan. Miho-chan left.
Hanako: She didn’t feel well. We all walked her to the door. She hadn’t been missing before that, and besides, that was when we’d finished filming just after 9!
Ayumi: What’s more, her mother called me to let me know she’d gotten home safely.
Yuki: Is that normal?
Ayumi: I’m an easily worried person, though I may not look it, and whenever someone from my club leaves after dark I ask them to call or message me when they get home. I feel responsible for them.
Nagisa: What a tight ship…
Misaki: This painting wasn’t here his morning…
Hanako: Oh! We needed that for our movie. I just finished painting it today, so be careful, it’s a little wet…oils take a long time to dry.
Yuki: What a gruesome portrait.
Hanako: There’s a nicer version. You’ll understand when we unveil the film!
Misaki: Who was missing from club between 9 and 9:45?
Hanako: I went to go find Ayumi-senpai.
Ayumi: I went to go buy everyone drinks. You may remember that the only drink machine with anything left in it is the one on the far side of the school. The company who delivers the school’s food products finally went under and they haven’t found a replacement yet.
Takuya: The drink machine on the second floor?
Ayumi: Yes. I also fell on the stairs on the way up. There weren’t any lights on so it was hard to see. I was carrying everyone’s change and I dropped it. Oh, and for some reason there was a pushpin. I think maybe someone forgot it on the stairs. I cut my hand.
Takuya: Are you all right? You should get some antiseptic on that!
Ayumi: It’s all right. I carry bandages with me. Like I said, I’m easily worried.
Yuki: Apparently so!
Ayumi: Oh, and I met Takuya in the hallway. We talked for a few moments, then went our separate ways.
Misaki: Hanako-chan, what happened when you went looking for Ayumi?
Hanako: I walked along the second floor until I got to the drink machine. Ayumi must have used the stairway on the opposite end of the hallway.
Ayumi: That’s true, I did.
Misaki: Then the route each of you took lead you past the library, the door on the first floor was Ayumi and the door on the second was Hanako-chan. Takuya, you also went missing in this time, and met up with Ayumi…?.
Takuya: Oh, yeah, I went to get bread, then to the bathroom!
Yuki: You took a while, too.
Takuya: Ahaha, well…Ayumi and I talked for a while…
Misaki: how are you all related to the victim….to Kouki-kun?
Ayumi: Kouki and I had been dating since middle school. He cheated on me some time ago.
Takuya: Kouki and I were best friends up until he started cheating on Ayumi-san. I couldn’t stand being friends with anyone who would do something like that. Kouki was a womanizer, always after some new girl behind Ayumi-san’s back.
Ayumi: I knew all along. I just accepted it for a while. Then I broke it off.
Misaki: I see. Takuta…why is your arm bandaged?
Takuya: I cut it on a wire from a puppet earlier today.
Yuki: As for Hanako…
Hanako: Well, uh…it’s difficult…
Nagisa: I’ve seen it. He bullies her! He calls her names and… Hanako and I walk home together often. Once or twice I had to threaten the jerk to back off!! But…but now he’s…uwaeeee…!!!
Misaki: (So violent, Nagisa-chan!)…Hanako-chan, anything to add?
Hanako: I wouldn’t go out with him. Just because I wear glasses and act shy doesn’t mean I’m socially stupid. Kouki was bad news. Anyone who knew him knew that. Still, I always just ignored him. Better called names by him than by everybody else.
Misaki: So every suspect has a motive. In your film, does anybody climb the bookcases?
Ayumi: What? No!
Misaki: Someone climbed the bookcases for props, then? There are footprints in the flour.
Hanako: nobody climbed up there. It’s too dangerous. On top of that, we were just watching the footage we shot. There weren’t any footprints in there when we were filming.
Ayumi: Tsubasa-kun, could you check the tapes to see if footprints appear there? Kyoko, could you go with him? We’d better stay in pairs.
Tsubasa and Kyoko: right!
(SFX: footsteps and the door opens, more footsteps and it closes.)
Sensei: The police are on their way.
Misaki: Thanks.
Hanako: Wait a minute, where was ---sensei?
Sensei: Me? I-I was in the music room, playing the piano!
Yuki: We could see the room clearly from the roof. S/He never left the piano. The music was nice.
Nagisa: That also explains why s/he didn’t come down right away. S/He wouldn’t have heard us the first time.
Ayumi: Who left the flashlight?
Nagisa: Flashlight? Hey, could this be wha-
Misaki: Don’t touch it!
Nagisa: Eh?
Misaki: It might be evidence.
Ayumi: Augh! There’s blood on it!
Misaki: Huh? Oh, the floor, too!
Yuki: There’s more on the end of the rope.
Misaki: hum…

(BGM starts;
SFX: photographs being taken, babbling, footsteps, etc.
Setting: a police crime scene investigation in the library)
Fuuko: So when you saw the body in the window, you came down here?
Nagisa: That’s right. Misaki thought it could be a prop, but then she realized it was wearing a school uniform so we came down to check it out.
Fuuko: That’s some good reasoning! Most people would have just left it. Okay, boys! If you’ve taken enough pictures let’s get the kid down form there!
Police man: Gross! The rope’s all slimy!
Fuuko: Well, what’s the report?
Doctor: The cause of death isn’t the broken neck; he’d been strangled before he was hung.
Fuuko: So the murder theory is correct?
Doctor: Most likely. But I don’t see how anyone could have gotten such a sturdy-looking kid tied up to the ceiling like that!
Misaki: I think I know how!
Fuuko: Oh? What’s your theory?
Misaki: See those footprints on the bookshelf? Tsubasa-kun and Kyoko-chan checked the videos: they weren’t there before. I think that the murderer strangled Kouki-kun, climbed up the bookshelf with that end of the rope in their hands, already thrown through that bar up there, then just grabbed the rope and jumped back down. That would explain how the neck broke after he was strangled, wouldn’t it?
Fuuko: It’s a solid theory. Now, how do we use it to find the murderer?
Misaki: We have three suspects: Ayumi, the president of the film club. Easily worried and cares a lot about her underlings. Her character is against murder, but the cut on her hand gives us an angle. There was blood found on the flashlight and the floor around it, right? That would seem to indicate her as the murderer.
Fuuko: But we don’t even know why the flashlight was here. It could have just been coincidence.
Misaki: But Nagisa saw a light sweep through the room, revealing the body. I think it’s possible that the murderer lured Kouki-kun in here by making him think that someone was still in the room, or messing with the props or something. The flashlight would have been perfect, inconspicuous. But Ayumi-san couldn’t have gotten blood on the flashlight, because her hand was bandaged and a cut on a hand from something as small as a pushpin isn’t going to drop blood on the floor. I think that the blood must be from the murderer. A blood test should clear that up easily. But Kouki-kun was a strong guy. He would have struggled and lashed out.
There’s also that slimy, red substance on the rope. That seems to indicate-
Fuuko: Ayumi again?
Misaki: No: Hanako-chan, the props designer and the one who painted that portrait.
Fuuko: I see…so on the rope, it’s oil paint.
Misaki: Right. Blood takes about 15 minutes to dry. It’s already been about an hour. I can’t think of anything else it should be.
Fuuko: I don’t see where you’re taking this…
Misaki: Just give me a few moments to explain my reasoning.
Ayumi-san and Takuya-kun can confirm each other’s alibi for about 3 minutes when they had been talking. Hanako is the only one who wasn’t seen. All of them took paths that crossed the library, and all were gone for more than 10 minutes during the projected time of death, so really, any of them could have done it, but only one of them could have dropped the blood on the floor. Takuya.
Takuya: What? Me? Sure, my arm was cut, but aren’t those footprints too small to be mine?
Nagisa: But Takuya…the shoeboxes don’t lock…
Misaki: Exactly. You play the guitar, don’t you? You’d be used to gripping things with the tips of your fingers. Perfect for framing someone else. Someone female. I’m sure we would find your fingerprints on a girl’s shoes and shoebox somewhere in this school. It would just be a matter of finding the pair with flour on the soles.
Ayumi, what did you and Takuya talk about in the hallway?
Ayumi:…He asked me about Junko-chan.
Misaki: And at what time was this?
Takuya: It was at 9:30.
Misaki: Ayumi?
Ayumi: Uh…I don’t know.
Misaki: Exactly- because there as no light on in the hallway. Remember you said you tripped up the stairs because it was dark? So then, Takuya, how could you be so certain of the time? You weren’t wearing a watch. No, you left that on the roof with us, nobody else brought a watch today.
Ayumi: Come to think of it, he went running off after a few minutes. I kept refusing him.
Misaki: The murderer wouldn’t have noticed blood in a dark room.
Nagisa: But he had light, I saw the light from the flashlight!
Misaki: Look at the layout of the room- the windows are directly opposite one another. A car passing around the corner would look like a flashlight from up on the roof! The body wasn’t meant to be found for a while more. Using the flashlight again would be to risky- he could get caught. So tell us, Takuya. Did Kouki-kun injure you?
Takuya: …My blood could have gotten on the flahlight earlier in the day.
Tsubasa: I took that flashlight to the film club’s room when we were done filming! I left it on a table in the hall, but when I came back, it was gone! There wasn’t any blood on it then.
Misaki: Just admit it.
Takuya: You’re good. Can you figure out my reasoning?
Misaki: I’m going to guess something to do with this Junko-chan?
Takuya: My little sister. Kouki set his sights on her. I tried to get him to stop, but I couldn’t, and I was too afraid of what he could blackmail me with to tell anyone. He harassed Junko into depression, but he didn’t care. He drove her to commit suicide. Every time I looked at his face after that, I felt like I wanted to rip it off. So I killed him.

Misaki: So in the end, I solved the case. The police later matched the blood on the flashlight with Takuya’s blood, and found the pair of shoes with is fingerprints on them and flour on the soles- Junko’s shoes, still in her locker. His trial hasn’t taken place yet, but I’m pretty confident of the verdict
Oh, and Fuuko, that policewoman, invited me to job shadow her any time I want. I guess that means more mysteries for me to solve. It’ll make a good reference on a resume, too. With any luck I can skip those grueling years of parking tickets and jump right into inspector. Inspector Misaki. Nice ring to it.