Evening and Winter (夕方と冬)

The Non-Smoking Gun

Eve finished getting ready and she walked down the stairs in her patterned dress and cardigan, to see her father getting ready to leave the house.

"Good morning, Eve." Taylor greeted her.

"Early investigation?" Eve asked her father.

"Yeah, it's an urgent one as well." Taylor puts on his hat, "I'll see you later, Eve." He smiled as he waved.

"Stay safe, Dad." Eve waves before Taylor shut the door behind him.

"Bonjour, old man." Chifuyu was on the sidewalk a few steps away from the door.

"I have to go, Tsuguha-kun." Taylor fixes his gloves as a carriage stops near them.

"Are you investigating the suicide that happened a few hours ago?" Chifuyu remembered listening to it from his radio, stopping Taylor's pace.

"You keep up with everything going on, huh?" Taylor was somewhat impressed.

"I get bored often, you know?" Chifuyu smiled, "Can I come to the crime scene with you?" he asked the investigator.

"Pourquoi?" Taylor was curious, Chifuyu never asked to go to the crime scene himself.

"I have my reasons, or should I say; suspicions." Chifuyu responded, "I need to see the scene myself to confirm, because from what I heard on the radio, something's off." He added, and Taylor raised a brow at him.

"Fine, let's get going." Taylor agreed, and went to the location with Chifuyu.

They were the a few of the first people to arrive at the scene, an officer and the man who found the victim was standing outside the house of the person who committed suicide. The first thing Taylor noticed Chifuyu did was look around the neighborhood as soon as he stepped out of the carriage, which Taylor finds somewhat out of the ordinary. Chifuyu proceeded to walk around the house and scans his eyes on every side of the house, while Taylor approached the officer and the man.

"Detective Anderson, you've arrived." The officer saluted, "The scene inside is untouched, feel free to enter and investigate." He added to Taylor.

"Alright," Taylor nodded, "Are you the man who found Zachary Jones?" he asked the man with the officer.

"Yes, I'm Michael Jones. I'm Zachary Jones's older brother," the man introduced himself, his words showing grief as he trembled.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Taylor said, "Do you might know why Zachary Jones committed suicide?" he began questioning.

Chifuyu walked around the home and stopped to scan the area when he reached the back of the house, a water tap caught his eye, the handle and spout with residues of water. Chifuyu kept his eye on it for a few seconds, glancing down to the grass to see the wet dirt under the tap.

"Our father is terribly ill currently, and he's probably stressed from the pressure of working to pay our father's medical bills." Michael responded, "But he didn't tell me anything, he didn't tell me he was stressed." He sighed heavily.

"I see," Taylor nodded as he saw Chifuyu returning to the front of the house, after circling the house. "Are you done with your little house tour?" Taylor asked him.

"Yes, sir. Let's go inside," Chifuyu smiled.

"Who's he?" the police officer was confused.

"He's working for me," Taylor responded shortly as he approached Chifuyu, "What did you find?" he asked the 17-year-old.

"Not much," Chifuyu shrugged, and he entered the house with Taylor. Zachary Jones was in the living room between the sofas, lying in a pool of his own blood from the gunshot wound on his forehead and a pistol in his loose grip. Chifuyu dazed at the corpse with an expressionless face, before squatting down to look closer at the wound and the man himself.