Copyright Notice: This story is an original work by VANTA_kun. All rights reserved. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.
4th December, 2023
Japan's Tokyo
The signs of winter had started to appear. It was a cold day. Cold breezes flowing along the city. A girl named Yun Shuhi, was enjoying her pastime during her year-end break. Staring at the winter sky from her balcony. Just looking at the clouds might be weird to others. But it was calming to Shuhi. She felt a strange sort of joy as she watched the clouds move slowly. She occasionally saw shapes in them. A ship, a dragon, and a bird soaring through the skies. While she was doing it, she felt like the entire world was silent.
Her odd habit was never questioned by her parents. She was often referred to as lazy by her teachers but never in a negative manner. To her family, Shuhi was just a quiet, young girl with a unique way of seeing the world.
Her father was a bank officer. His life was all about numbers and schedules. But once in a while, his friend Paul Loren, who was a detective, visited them. As the name suggested, his nationality was not originally Japanese but American.
Paul treated Shuhi in a friendly way. He often shared stories from his job by turning his cases into puzzles and riddles. Sometimes they were funny. Sometimes they were strange. But Shuhi could usually solve them.
_____
"Shuhi chan, answer me this mystery."
"Eh? What is it?"
"Last night, at 10:37 PM, Mrs. Eleanor Greaves—a concert violinist—called me. She claimed her old priceless violin had been stolen from her locked study. Only 650 of them were produced. It can cost over millions. No broken windows. No forced entry. The security alarm never went off. And only three people had keys: Her husband, a retired doctor, her apprentice, a 21-year-old cellist and her housekeeper who's worked there for 15 years. I found the humidity in the room was unusually high. A faint smell—like cloves and damp wood—lingered near the violin case. The lock was intact… but there were tiny water droplets around the keyhole. And most curious… on her desk calendar, yesterday's date was circled—with "C.D." written beside it. She insists she didn't write that note herself. So who, how and why did he or she steal it? Trust me, all the clues are inside the story I wrote."
Shuhi took a few seconds staring at the floor and then replied, "Umm…I think I got it. Her apprentice did it! At first I thought it was the housekeeper. Clove is used as a herb to put in tea. Very…housekeeper work. But 15 years of working career…that's too trusting and a housekeeper needing millions of dollars sounded very weird to me. Clove can also be used to make a person sleep faster. The apprentice used clove that made Mrs. Eleanor fell asleep and used that time to steal the violin. He marked "C.D" in the calendar. It could mean a ceremony or an event's short name. He wrote it to make a false alibi. He would say that Mrs. Eleanor told him to join that event, completely destroying the possibility of him being present at the crime event when it occurred. Even if Mrs. Elanor denied, he would ask her alibi of that time when she was asleep. She won't be able to tell anything since she was asleep and he would just say she told him and she just forgot it."
"Okay, going well till now…" Paul commented.
"He somehow controlled the humidity to make it look like the housekeeper did it. He put droplets in the keyhole so we think that she used clove to cover the odor of the violin to and successfully stole it. It is obvious to suspect the housekeeper since a housekeeper would have no knowledge that high humidity is bad for a wooden violin and its maintenance rules. But the apprentice would have. But this is what the apprentice wants us to believe. Oh and Mrs. Elanor's husband is innocent."
"Are you done?" Paul asked.
"As for why stole it…this entire case is a few hundred years old isn't it?" Sushi confidently said.
This made a surprising face appear over Paul. He surely wasn't expecting this.
"The red wood here, it was rare at that time. Only 650 violins were made. The wood must have gone extinct. So the violin isn't expensive. It's the wood. That's why it costed millions. Young violin apprentice, must have had an obsession for these kind of rare gems. You are the protagonist of this story, a detective of that time, aren't you?"
Paul, finishing her explanation confirmed that every single uncovering of her was true with some minor truths here and there. She still remembered it.
_____
Another time, Paul brought up a theft case, just for fun. Shuhi suggested an idea which he never thought of. The idea turned out to be useful. Paul followed her logic and used it in the real investigation. The case was solved successfully.
On this cold December day, Paul came to visit again. He arrived without warning, wearing his usual long coat, with a friendly face. Shuhi's father welcomed him like always.
Shuhi was in her room, upstairs. when she heard voices downstairs. Curious, she walked into the living room.
"Hi, Shuhi chan! How are you doin? Paul smiled at her.
"I'm all right, uncle. How about you?" She replied.
"All good. But this time, I've got something you can't solve." He said.
"You always say that. Don't you have anything new?" Shuhi said.
Suddenly Paul's expression changed. He became serious.
"This time, I promise… it's different."
Shuhi's curiosity instantly woke up. It looked like the thing he was going to tell wasn't going to be simple. Not like a joke this time.
"It's a murder case," Paul said quietly.
Shuhi felt a strange type of feeling. "Murder?" She thought.
"What's the story this time?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
Paul looked at her with sharp eyes. "You know the rule, Shuhi. I'm not dragging you into any of my mess."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she said quickly. "I'll just treat it like a game, like always."
He leaned back in the chair and began to explain.
"There have been four murders. First one on 11th October, second on 19th October, third on 23rd October, and the last one on 21st November."
He told her a few more things which are small details, like the time of death, locations etc. Shuhi listened carefully. Her mind started to connect the dots.
"Four victims… dates spread out but not random… was there a pattern? Were the victims connected? What about the locations? What did the killer leave behind? Did Paul tell me everything, or was he testing me?"
She stared at the floor, deep in thought. But nothing clicked. The dots didn't connect. There was no clear answer. No clever twist to spot.
"I…. I don't know," she finally responded with a confused and frustrated face.
"See? Told you." Paul said smilingly.
Shuhi sat in silence. Paul later did some gossip with Shuhi's father. Meanwhile, Shuhi served him a cup of green tea.
About half an hour later, Paul left their house. She couldn't solve it. For the first time, she had failed. It wasn't just a puzzle this time. It was real. And she couldn't crack it.
"Why couldn't I do it? Did I miss something? Or… am I just not good enough?"
She wasn't used to failing in front of Paul. That night, she couldn't sleep properly. Thoughts of the murder case were continuously bouncing in her head, keeping her awake at night.
"It's different this time."
The next morning, she woke up with half dead eyes and the face of a person with zero sleep. Not in a good mode either. Little headache could be felt. Maybe sharp minds actually need proper sleep or it will go dull. After getting fresh and having breakfast, she started doing research.
She opened her laptop and started searching every source available to the public that she could think of. News, websites, crime forums, archived newspaper articles, anything that had information about the murders. She watched TV reports, read between the lines, wrote down every clue she could find.
It wasn't about impressing Paul anymore. Now, she needed to solve it. Even if it meant getting involved. Curiosity started getting the best of her. She needed answers.
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International