Chapter Forty-Two: When it Comes Unraveled:

Alex sat in his car at in the parking lot behind the school. He couldn’t understand why this was here. The cop had been spending the afternoon reading Midori’s diary. At first, the content just looked like typical teenage girl stuff. She talked about her friends, school, and Hiro. Alex kind of shrugged it off. That was until he got halfway through the diary.

7/12

The first time he touched me was when I was four. He wanted to teach me how to swim. It makes me sick to think about it. I used to love him so much. But he took advantage of me. I realized that now.

I can’t hide this anymore. Mom doesn’t want to believe me but she knows the truth. She just wants to keep up appearances. Everybody knows the truth. They just feel sorry for me. I can’t stand it. This whole town makes me want to vomit.

The more Alex read, the more he cringed. All of this was going on in town? Thinking back, the people did come across as shady in a way. Kara didn’t deserve to drown in this poison. When he got home, he was going to push her to leave. Maybe he could leave with her.

Alex looked up at the clock on the dashboard. Three o’clock now. Time to go. Alex climbed out of his car and began his walk up the hill. Lucky for him, he wasn’t as out of shape as the rest of his colleagues. Still, the hill was a steep climb. Alex kept his focus at the top. What would be waiting for him up there? It could be an answer for all of this nonsense. Or it could be another annoying dead end. Either way he was going to it tonight.

When he got closer, Alex saw a boy about seventeen years old pacing around with his hands in his pockets. The fort behind him looked like it would give way underneath the snow piling on top of the roof.

“Oi!” Alex shouted. The boy stopped moving and looked up. The detective jogged closer to the top. The boy waited without a sound. Alex stopped to catch his breath.

“Were you the one on the phone?” he asked. The boy raised an eyebrow.

“Who’s asking?” he asked. The detective reached into his coat and pulled out Midori’s diary.

“Did you send this to the police station?” he asked. The boy’s jaw dropped as his eyes grew big. He took a slow step back.

“Okay, what’s going on here?” Alex asked. “You sent that note to the police station too, didn’t you?” The boy lowered his eyes.

“Yes…” he said in a quiet voice.

“What happened that night?” the detective asked. “What’s with all the secrecy? Why are you doing all of this?” The boy looked him in the eye.

“Are you alone?” he asked. Alex narrowed his eyes. This boy was trembling. He looked like he was ready to run away as soon as he could.

“Yes,” Alex said in a low voice. “My name is Detective Alex Konoe. What’s yours?” The boy didn’t say a word at first. He dug his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Shinichi,” the boy mumbled.

“Okay,” Alex said, nodding. “What is going on here?” Shinichi walked back to his fort. He put his hand on the door.

“I was there,” he said. “On the night of the accident. I was trying to run away with them.”

“What?” the detective asked. Shinichi turned his head.

“Have you read the diary?” he asked.

“Yes,” Alex said.

“Then you know the things her dad did to her.”

“Yeah.” The detective cringed as he remembered everything that he read about Midori and her father. “But what does that have to do with you?”

“I helped her run away. Or rather, she used me.”

“I’m not following…”

“She needed money to run away. So, Midori and I became friends. She told me all of her problems. I understood her pain.”

“Were you molested too?”

“No. All my parents want me to do is study and go to college. They wouldn’t let me have a normal life.”

“And you thought running away was going to solve your problems?”

Shinichi sheepishly looked away. “Well… yeah…”

Alex shook his head. “What were you planning to do after you ran away?”

“I don’t know. Something.”

“Well, you’re still here. What went wrong?”

Shinichi lowered his eyes. “I showed up to join them.” He looked up when he heard crunching in the snow.

“I thought you were alone,” he whispered.

“I am,” Alex said.

“Then what was that?” the boy asked. They looked around to see a small bear wandering out of the snow-covered woods. Shinichi took a breath.

“Oh, good,” he said.

“How was you being there the cause of their deaths?” Alex asked. The boy dropped his shoulders and sighed.

“She wasn’t expecting me to be there,” he said. “She asked what I was doing there. I told her that we were running away like planned. Midori didn’t look so happy. Abe-sensei was confused. I should’ve caught on then.”

“Then what happened?”

“I just climbed into the car before Midori could shut me out. Abe-sensei was supposed to drive us to the bus station. The whole way, Midori and I broke down into an argument. She made it clear that she didn’t want me there. It wasn’t like I was going to be with her the whole way. I just wanted to ride with her to the bus station and then we would go their separate ways. It was the least she could do. That was my fucking money! I had to steal some of it from my mom. Not like she was really going to use it anyway. Stingy old bitch.”

“Sounds like you were using Kido-chan too.”

“No! I mean… sure, maybe. But she was just as bad as I am.”

“So what happened after the fighting?”

Shinichi looked up at the sky and stretch his neck. “I tried to get her to see my logic but she never did. Midori called me creepy and a stalker. Abe-sensei tried to get us to stop fighting. When he turned around to yell at us to calm down, he didn’t see this big dog standing in the road. Midori and I yelled at him to stop but it was too late. Abe-sensei swerved to miss that mutt but we crashed into the snowbank.” The boy shivered as he replayed the events of that night in his head.

“I survived with minor cuts. When I came to, Abe-sensei was already dead. He hit his head against the steering wheel and glass cut into his neck. Glass stabbed Midori in the chest.”

“Why didn’t you get them help? We did you run away?”

“I panicked. I snuck out of the house, stole money from mom, and I was running away. I wasn’t thinking straight. I jumped out of the car and got the hell out of there. I did try to get help from the local store but they were closed.” Shinichi trembled.

“What’s going to happen to me now?” he asked. “I have been paying back mom’s money. She hasn’t noticed a thing. Am I going to jail? I haven’t done anything else wrong.” Alex rubbed his forehead.

“Wow,” was all that he could say. Shinichi paced around as the color drained from his face.

“Sir?” he asked.

“Shut it!” Alex said. “This is too much for me to take.” He looked the boy in the eye.

“Who else knows about this?” he asked.

“No one,” Shinichi said. Alex put his hand on his shoulder.

“You will be coming with me,” he said. The boy gave him a confused look.

“Huh? What for?” he asked. The detective grabbed his shoulder and started walking him down the hill.

“I will deal with you later,” he hissed. “Right now, I want to get out of this cold. So shut up and come with me.” Shinichi tried to protest but Alex wouldn’t hear it. He had no idea how worse things were back to get in a couple of weeks.