When The Snow Falls

"What makes you say that?" Amien asked curiously.

"I'm not 100% sure yet, but it isn't her. If it is her, she chose the easiest method to trace back to her," Daniel replied.

It would be very odd if her chosen method of killing her boyfriend had been to do it openly on stage herself after destroying the safety cover on the blade of the knife. It also didn't fit in as she had only been told during the dress rehearsal that she could have to actually touch his neck with the knife.

"There is an emotional element to consider," Amien reminded him. "She had found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her that day. She might have not been thinking right, hence the sloppy method."

Whilst Daniel agreed that was a valid point, he just didn't think it fitted in with what they knew.

"The director of the play has the strongest motive," Felix spoke up. "He wrote the play, Nakajima was the person his wife was cheating on him with and he made the change to the play at the last minute- he also found out his wife was cheating on him that day so there is also the 'emotional element'. His motive is the strongest after Yukari's."

"The stage technician said when he checked everyone's positions when he heard the door open, the people he thought it could be were all in position which makes it strange. He could have missed someone," Oliver said.

"Judging from the time he said it should be three quarters of the way through the main act," Daniel said after some calculations. "We know how long the play is from the front page of the script so that should be right. We can find out who was supposed to be on stage using the script- it could have been someone who was absent briefly from a scene."

Felix nodded. "I have the script with me. We can take a look, but we don't know which scene he was referring to."

Daniel's gaze shifted back to what was going on at the bottom of the hill. Yukari was walking with the Police in the direction of the theatre. There was something wrong with the case.

"Matsumoto is in every scene," Harry said with a groan after they flipped through the script. "It can't be him."

"The noise could have been unrelated to anything then," Amien observed. "We could be following a red herring."

Harry let out a groan.

"How do detectives do this?"

Daniel cast him a sympathetic glance.

"You remember all the facts, proceed with your current theory. If that theory is wrong, you reconsider and re-evaluate your facts and go with a different one. Sometimes other evidence turns up later and everything falls into place by itself."

Daniel didn't miss the glance he received from Felix from saying that.

"That's cool," Harry replied. "Yukari doesn't appear much for a couple of scenes. Neither do the maid and housekeeper."

"We need to speak to the stage technician again to see if we can narrow down the times and positions of the actors," Daniel summarised. "We're missing too many parts to come up with a conclusion."

***

"I think Oliver is annoyed that it's only us three here," Amien said with a grin.

"We can't all crowd someone," Daniel replied. "Really Felix is doing all the work here. We're just here to come up with any questions he misses."

Felix gave him a good natured smile and pressed the doorbell to the chalet. The door was opened by a middle aged man dressed very casually in jeans and a t-shirt.

"I thought it was the Police again," he said with a sigh. "Come in. I think you came to ask more questions."

They were shown into a small living room. Daniel sat in the armchair and the other two remained standing whilst the stage technician made tea.

"My name is Yuutsu-san," he said after passing out the tea. "I know who you all are. Felix is the one with the best Japanese- I know that."

Daniel felt a nudge from Felix and tried to remain professional.

"We wanted to know when you heard the door open and when you heard it close as well as when you found the footprint," Felix began.

Yuutsu sat in the other armchair and picked up a post it note from the table.

"I wrote down the times after telling the Police just to make sure I don't forget them. I do know the precise times as the runtime of the play is monitored during the rehearsals and performances to ensure nothing overruns. I heard the back door open around 6:00pm and it closed nearly a full hour later at around 6:55pm shortly after I had reset the stage. I found the footprint at 7:00pm which was just as your group turned up."

Daniel found the information very helpful and took a mental note. They had potentially narrowly missed encountering the murderer when they had arrived at the theatre.

"Who was not on stage when you heard the first noise?" Felix asked next.

"Yukari had just left the stage as her character had stormed off after the revelation. Eiichi, Akane weren't on stage either. Takuya and Saeko were in the wings waiting for their part. Otherwise everyone else was on the stage."

Yuutsu smiled wryly and added something else.

"That narrows down your suspects to three people or any third party."

Daniel appreciated that detail.

"Do you think Yukari did it?" he enquired.

Yuutsu shook his head with a sad smile.

"She isn't like that. She was very upset by the cheating, but I feel that she was more disappointed in him than out for his blood."

That was an interesting point and it was good to see that there was someone else who agreed that it didn't fit psychologically.

"Then who do you think did it?"

The stage technician frowned.

"Well, I can't think of anything. Tensions were high yesterday, but well, it's difficult to say. Things like that have happened before and didn't end in bloodshed."

"So you can't provide a suspect?" Amien asked.

"If it's anyone in the actors, maybe Matsumoto the director. He wasn't happy, however he gets like that sometimes and no one dies. He could have chosen a different method as well. He wouldn't have implicated someone else so strongly. But, he had no opportunity- he never went properly backstage during the rehearsal. He stayed in the wings taking notes and was still there just before the performance started."

It was disappointing to find that their strongest suspect had the best alibi.

"Can you remember what the shoe print looked like?" was Felix's next question.

"It looked like it had been done by a sports shoe. None of the actors wear anything like that on stage, but some of them have shoes like that casually. I think a lot of the school students were wearing shoes like the ones that made the print," Yuutsu answered. "I wear boots myself."

Daniel was glad they had found someone so willing to talk. The stage technician had been a wealth of information so far.

"I think we saw Yukari being arrested on our way here," Felix admitted.

Yuutsu winced. "It's not her, but I can see why they would suspect her. She had motive, opportunity and she often wore Nakajima's shoes when she was off stage- her characters normally wear high heels which get uncomfortable."

Now Daniel understood why the Police had wanted to question her more.

"It doesn't look good for her," Felix agreed. "The prints must have been a match."

Yuutsu sighed.

"I have no idea who it could have been. Maybe it was someone unrelated to us…"

"What about Yamamoto? Where was he during the rehearsal and before the performance?" Amien questioned.

"Yamamoto sometimes watches the rehearsals especially right before a performance to check he is satisfied with the acting and story quality. He was in the seating area during the rehearsal and was backstage talking with everyone before the performance," Yuutsu replied. "Surely you don't suspect him?"

"He has opportunity, could you think of a motive?"

"He wasn't approving of Nakajima's cheating ways and told him a few times. He helped break up the row between Nakamjima and Yukari. That's it. He isn't the type of person to kill someone over their behaviour."

***

"That was quite a rewarding conversation," Amien commented on their way back to meet the rest of the mystery club. "He knew everything."

"He is still a suspect," Daniel reminded him. "He could by lying about hearing the door open and could have planted the footprint to incriminate someone with different shoes."

"That is true," Felix conceded. "What does the human lie detector think?"

Daniel smirked at the title.

"He didn't seem to be lying. It was just odd that he would share so much information with three British teenagers- that is the only thing that is fishy about him."

"I guess that could be considered to be suspicious," Amien agreed. "I hadn't thought of that. It really is hard being a detective."

"Is there CCTV in the theatre?" Felix asked suddenly.

Daniel cast his mind back to the previous evening. Whilst he hadn't been looking for any, it was normally something noticed.

"No, not in the parts we saw. There isn't any reason for there to be any. This is a small island with not many people here after all."

"I hadn't considered that," Felix frowned. "I must confess that I am completely stuck with this case."

Amien nodded.

"The ones with the strongest motive have the strongest alibi and the person with the weakest motive had the best opportunity."

"There's a trick here somewhere or maybe it wasn't any of them...." Daniel said and he remembered what he had seen out his window the evening before. "It could have been someone else."