The Case-Book of Kakashi Hatake

The Murders of Silver Blaze {Part 5}

Turning onto the main lane of the town, a bright splash of green and its smaller twin caught my attention.

"Gai!"

The Inspector swiveled around to face us the moment he heard his "eternal rival" call for him.

"Kakashi," he called back, punching out every syllable. "Allow me to introduce my apprentice, Rock Lee."

The other green blob bowed as it came to a stop in front us, "Thank you, Gai-sensei! I am Rock Lee and my dream is to become a splendid policeman too someday."

He stood up straight with a smile bright enough to lead ships to port, and I noticed that he was dressed exactly like Gai: the dark green suit, lighter green vest, and maroon tie. They even had the same hair-cut and bushy eyebrows. I had the sudden urge to bring my mother out to Kuromoor just to see her reaction to the appallingly dressed inspectors.

"There's no time for that right now, Gai," Hatake said while glancing warily between the two green-clad men. "I have a lead that we need to follow before it gets too dark. Do you have a lantern?"

"Yes, I do at the station. I could get it for you in about five minutes," Gai responded with aplomb and a horrifyingly large smile.

"Good. Bring it back here and we'll head back to the Wasabi's estate. In the mean time, have your apprentice keep an eye on Ichiro Moya. Make sure he doesn't leave and take note of any visitors." Hatake glanced at Lee's green suit and amended his statement, "Subtly, watch him subtly. He'll act differently if he knows that he's being surveilled."

Gai nodded to Lee, who took off down the road, before turning in the other direction in order to grab his lantern.

"Do you think that Moya might try to run?" I asked after the green suit wearing men had left.

"It's possible," the consulting detective sighed while running a hand down the lower half of his face.

"But didn't he give you a death threat? Would someone willing to kill a detective run simply because they're being investigated?"

"Ichiro Moya is nothing but talk," Hatake sighed and slid eyes over to look at me directly. "No, there's someone else involved in this, someone running the show. Didn't you see how terrified Moya was when he opened the door? It was as if he expected a less friendly visit. And he said that if we kept pursuing this line of inquiry, we'd die, but not necessarily by his hand. If Ichiro tries to run away, it won't be from the police but from whomever hired him and his brothers to steal Silver Blaze."

"Who would want to steal a race horse?"

"Plenty of people," he chuckled dryly. "Silver Blaze has one of the best records ever. Disgruntled jockeys, other horse breeders, someone who lost a large sum of money on a race, or even anyone just trying to get their hands on something valuable could be a possible culprit."

"What about the Wagarashi family?" I suggested hopefully, "Seeing as Colonel Wasabi's bet was against them, they'd stand to gain the most."

"They are a definite possibility, but I refuse to conjecture. That's the whole point of deduction; you acknowledge every possible outcome equally unless it is proven incorrect."

"So conjecture is out, but what about guessing? Wouldn't it be logical to guess that they are responsible since they stand to gain the most from the crime?" Hatake just sent me a glare and pulled out a blue-green book from his pocket as opposed to answering. However, I was undeterred. "What is it that you always say? Oh yes, 'you must see underneath the underneath.' What if you see that underneath the murder is underneath the robbery which points to the Wagarshis?"

His book lowered from his face slowly as he sent me a very unimpressed look, "That made absolutely no sense at all. Also, conjecture and guessing are the same thing."

I narrowed my eyes, "You don't have to lecture me on the finer points of our language; I've made it this far in life just fine on my own, thank you very much. And I disagree, what I said made total sense, I think."

Gai returned, and Hatake visibly let out a sigh of relief as it signaled the end of our conversation.

"I have acquired my lantern. Is there anything else that we need in the youthful pursuit of your lead?"

"That should be all Gai, thank you. We should hurry now before we completely lose the natural light," Hatake said as he placed his book back in his pocket and set off down the road at a very brisk pace, the Inspector and I hot on his heels.

We made it back to the Wasabi's barn as the sky started to light up orange along the horizon and the edge of the sun just started to kiss the ground. Looking at where the body had been not even a full hour ago, I decided to bring up something that had been nagging me since we'd payed Moya a visit.

"Hatake," he turned to look at me and hummed, signifying that he was listening. "Why did you tell Ichiro that Saburo died slowly? He was kicked in the back of the head by a horse; he would have died almost instantaneously."

"To unsettle Ichiro further," he responded with a droll tone.

I nodded as his reason made sense and decided not to question the matter further as Hatake began scanning the ground at our feet.

After a minute, he waved Gai and I over, "The trail starts here."

We followed the consulting detective as the sunset turned to twilight, the tracks leading deeper into the moor, away from the town.

The sun had long since set and the world was grey as the last of the light began to disappear from the sky when we found Jiro Moya's body.

A/N: Happy New Year and a Merry (Late) Christmas! I have spent the last five days doing nothing but writing for this book- all stuff that's coming in later stories- and I can't wait for what's coming next. This is the part where the author rubs her hands together manically and chuckles as she lords for superior knowledge of what's coming next over her unsuspecting readers. Sorry not sorry. As we herald the dawn of 2017, my resolution is to get out a new chapter for this book every week. We'll see how well I'm able execute that.