Mirror Mirror (self-insert #9)

Chapter 13

"Tea break!" Mai announced, placing a glass of iced tea next to my hand. "How's it going?"

"How much does a ticket to England cost at the moment?" I asked weakly.

"Ah."

Yasuhara hadn't been exaggerating. Aside from the initial report, there was no other information about the case. We could look for relatives both families and interview them, but that would take a lot of time. Instead, I'd spent the last few hours trying eke out whatever extra information I could find out about each individual member from the internet. I sipped the tea appreciatively. "It'd be a great help if we could see the actual report." I mused. "No doubt there's information that the police didn't publish. Naru, do you know if there's a way we can get our hands on it?"

"A hefty bribe."

He really knew how to hold a grudge.

The conversation tapered off as Hirota poked his head inside, his eyes serious. "Do you have a moment?" Without waiting for a response, he entered and sat across from the others. "I brought the incident's record."

I choked on tea. "What?" I croaked.

"I made my colleague search for it. She tracked the report down from the public prosecutor's office."

Bou-san swallowed. "Is it okay to take that out?" He asked uncertainly.

"It can't be shown to you. For now, as I look over everything, I'll summarize and explain. Well then, please bear with me."

"What's gotten into you? You didn't believe in things like psychic powers, right? Ow!"

"That was paper, not steel." I snapped, wadding up another paper ball. "Why are you complaining? Be quiet and let him read."

Hirota cleared his throat as he flipped open the report, his expression losing a bit of its frost. "It seems that the incident happened at approximately 2 a.m. of October 11. As expected, the cause is the trouble over land. A year before the incident, the Kawanabe family purchased this land and built a new home. The following summer, the neighbor's house...it's the Sekiguchis who purchased and moved over where the Sasakura family currently is. There, their house was constructed beyond the plot's boundary line. The building is just on the plot, but the eaves are perfectly transgressing the border for the Kawanabe family. For this reason, the Kawanabe family complained to the Sekiguchi family, but it was a troublesome conversation even for Sekiguchi." Hirota turned the page. "Sekiguchi only purchased the brand new house, and he wasn't concerned about the architecture itself. Even if he would say such a thing, they would still complain. They wanted to stop the construction, but the contractor didn't respond to them. In fact, if they made him stop it, they would have to buy the house and they were told they must compensate for the part that would be reconstructed. In addition, he even intimated a relationship with a yakuza lord. The Kawanabe family had no choice but to be silent and watch the house be built."

"No way..." Mai breathed.

"And then there came Sekiguchi. Sekiguchi was said to be a gentle salaryman, and, as a matter of fact, somewhat timid. He couldn't financially afford to fix the construction."

"Is that why he couldn't take responsibility for it?" Bou-san inquired.

"Of course, Sekiguchi was taking the discussion in that direction. Besides, even if they confront him, the contractor would say that he 'didn't know'. It was on October 10th, before the incident, that both families had their last discussion. Conferring during their day off, the Kawanabe family cut off the deadline up to the last day of October. If the construction wouldn't stop, they were claiming they would sue Sekiguchi."