Ch 8: Fuel and Fire

Half an hour passed. The suspects were still retained in the Church

Katashi interrogated Linda thoroughly again. He questioned very deeply about the donation incident and got few major hints.

He learnt that the van Linda was on was right next to the van the priests were on, parked very close to eachother . He also came to know that Linda not only write but also do vlog kind of contents at the scene. Linda claimed she was checking the mic for her blogs inside the van. She also took as much footages as she could from the old age home's CCTV.

"Thank you miss Linda, this really helped. " Said Katashi and confirmed his suspects.

He gathered the suspects , Fathers, workers and his team (Makoto and Yukio) to the confession table. As they came in, he was covering the confession table with a cloth fully covering it. When looked outside , no one would have a slightest hint to guess it is a confession table. Everyone entering the room saw it was a confession table . But if someone new entered ,they wouldn't know

"What happened Katashi?" Asked Fr.Rader

Katashi said "Found the wolf among the sheep ,Father" , " I mean the wolves" he added.

"More than one criminal?" Asked Father Rader

Katashi nodded . He decided to conduct a open interrogation this time , he also planned to reveal the killer before everyone.

"Well Kenji.." called out Katashi in a low scary tone

"Y-y-yes sir?" Replied Kenji nervously

"I won't bite you, Calm down" said Katashi "just bring me the chair"

Kenji put the chair and Katashi sat on it.

"Well for now, the only one safe among y'all is miss Linda Morgan, she has the perfect alibi " said Katashi

"And as I interrogated her , many truths came to light" told Katashi with low manipulative voice

"Teresa ? " Called Katashi and showed her an unsettling image of the father's death in close up .

Everyone was terrified by the image.

The image was soo particular and highly traumatizing.

"Now go and stand near the confession table" said Katashi. Teresa went and stood near the fully covered confession table.

"Can you repeat me what you claimed to me earlier about the crime scene" said Katashi

"As I said , I heard a big sound and I saw the American lady rushing towards the church. I slowly went in there and saw the corpse . That lady was examining the death body . Then Mr.Moustache came and took me to clinic.. thats it"

"Why are you lying? Miss Teresa?" Asked Katashi.

"Lying?" Exclaimed Teresa

"You said you have a condition where you forget what happened before when you see something traumatizing right?"

"Uhh ... Yes" dragged Teresa

"I shown you this picture , which was undoubtedly traumatizing plus it's close up pic of a lifeless body of someone you know covered in blood .. and then when I told you stand near the confession table, you went there without any hesitation or any thinking. And then... You said this big story which I asked you to repeat right? Well you are not repeating it , it's the first time you are telling me it" said Katashi

"Wai-- but.." Teresa was nervous that she couldn't speak up a word

"When the first time I asked you , you said you forgot these things.. but now you are telling it to me as if you told it to me before." said Katashi

"This ... This.. this is a dumb reason, you don't have any proof I killed him, you don't have proof that my fingerprint is on the knife" shouted Teresa

"Knife? Which knife?" Asked Katashi

Teresa's face was covered in fear knowing she messed up with her words.

"I didn't speak anything about knife? Did I? Do anyone of you know what knife?" Asked Katashi pointing in finger every suspect there

The suspects said "no".

"Father Vincent... You sure you don't know what knife is it?" Katashi side eyed Father Vincent

Father Vincent gulped and said "what are you taking about"

"You don't know this knife?" Said Katashi staring into Father Vincent's eyes pulling out a knife in a cover from his coat.

Father Vincent froze when he saw the knife and eventually he stared at Moustache.

Vincent and moustache looked at eachother.

"Mr. Akira Moustache... Why the long face?" Questioned Katashi

No one spoke up. Katashi took the knife out of the cover

"Well I noticed that the chandelier was suspended from the ceiling with a thick rope. Even though it is thick, it's just a rope which could be easily cut but a blade this sharp. And Mr Moustache, you said everything correctly when I interrogated you. But you missed a tiny little detail. You said you sprinkled water on Kenji and took him to clinic and then cleared out the rubble until the doors locked . And when opened , you saw the cross and the eye which you didn't see before, right?" Said Katashi

"Yes..."

"Well but Kenji saw the the cross and the plucked out eye , when he woke up by the water sprinkled on him"

"I'm sure with that" Kenji replied

"Well how does that mean I killed the Father?" Asked Moustache

"You didn't killed the Father, but helped with it. And you were the one who cut the rope of the chandelier." Said Katashi

"How?? How is that possible" asked Moustache fiercely

"When I was checking out the CCTV, the stream was cut just before the chandelier fell, the last thing I saw in that video was few rubble , dust and few objects falling from the ceiling just before the disaster. I learned that not only the thick rope , there are also thin ropes supporting the chandelier to stay stable. And you cut the main thick rope , the thin rope couldn't hold back the chandelier's weight and they fell breaking the ceiling . This caused the rubble and dust fall down. And I saw two odd objects falling from that height when the tape ended. One is the knife which looked shiny and revealed the shape of it and another was.... A Blue coloured box. When I came into your room , I looked around and saw the blue toolbox in the shelf in which you kept your photos . I noticed it was bit damaged and scratched ,some pieces were missing , and it also had the dust on it. I asked for a coffee so you'd go off that place , then I checked the shelf closer and noticed the rock which Father Godson gave you , was near the blue box. Asking about the rock I took fingerprints from the box with the strip which the forensic department gave me. And when checked, it was yours and it was fresh prints. And we also found the missing pieces of the box in the crime scene which made us confirm that is was it. So it means you came to the spot to take away the evidence but you couldn't because of the rubble. Then you started cleaning the rubble to find the box and knife and accordingly you took the box but before getting the knife , people came over."

Moustache couldn't speak a word because he was caught red handed.

"Why? Why Akira ? I trusted you, I never expected such act from you, you sinner" said Father Rader.

"But.. Father Rader, he wasn't the killer" said Katashi

Father Rader :"What?"

"When I came here this morning , I saw fear in the face of the corpse . I'm sure he saw something and got scared of it, was scared of death, was scared of people who killed him... But if it was the chandelier which killed him , he wouldn't have had that face because he wouldn't have expected the chandelier to fall on him. So that means, when the chandelier fell on him , he was still alive ... And then was killed by the killer with that cross. You may say that the chandelier could have killed Fr.Godson but Kenji was nearer to the chandelier fall than Godson did. So if the chandelier killed Godson , then Kenji could've been killed too. But Kenji survived , which means Godson have a high chance that he could've survived . In addition, Father Gosdon has an healthy physique . But Moustache was smart enough to hold the knife with a cloth so that his fingerprint isn't there , but he touched his toolbox which made him caught. And the funniest thing is, even though Moustache didn't touch the knife, there's a fingerprint on it.

It is Father Vincent's"

Vincent's eyes widened when Katashi revealed him.

"Why should I kill Father Godson though?" Asked Vincent as expected

"Jealous... You were jealous of him. Besides, you had a problem with him involving money issues. You and Father Godson came to priesthood at the same time. But he got higher rank faster than you. " Said Katashi

Vincent was stunned how deep Katashi had gone through the case in just one short morning

"Because of his rank, Godson had more money in which mostly he'll spend in donations. During the old age donation , when he took .. ahemm I mean he GOT his money back , you asked the money from him. For that he told that God gives us money stuff whatever." Said Katashi

"Got his money back ? He was the one who took it back right?" Asked Moustache

"Don't act innocent Akira " said Father Rader

"No.. no father , he doesn't know 'bout it . The main reason moustache helped in this murder was his misunderstanding of the situation. Father Godson actually got his money back. In fact , the head of the home rejected his donation." Said Katashi

"But why?" Asked Yukio

"The head of home rejected the offer because he was paid to do so , bribed by Teresa " he said

Everyone had a jaw dropping face

"Aachewww!!!"

A sudden sneeze snapped everyone to their consciousness. They all stared at that one guy , of course , you know who

"Oopsie, my bad" said Yukio putting up a not-so-funnh laugh on his face

"Coming to Teresa's story , her father once started a physical fight inside church and he even killed a man accidentally. When the police came here , they asked the witness who's fault was all this . The witness was Father Godson. Teresa pleaded Godson not to point out her father. But he did, which wasn't his fault either , he was being true to himself. That bought Teresa's hatred on him. Then the police sentenced Teresa's father imprisonment. From then Teresa tried to degrade father Godson's position and status. And thus she bribed the head of the home. And the death of the old man in that home is bribed by her too, she assigned a man to mentally torture the old guy leading him to suicide "

"What could she possible get from that" asked Kenji

"Impression.. the impression of people that Godson is faking his donation. Rumours spread like wildfire, you try to pour water into it , it spreads more.

So as directed the head rejected the donation and forcefully giving it back to Godson, when Vincent saw them. So Vincent asked for the money and Godson denied. That irritated Vincent and the words Godson said deeply wounded Vincent's heart . He decided to end his life , why ? Vincent has anger issues haha. That's when he asked help from moustache on hurting Godson, at that time moustache believed in the rumour. But Moustache didn't know about Vincent true plan, moustache only agreed on cutting the chandelier causing Godson damage but not killing him. So Vincent used Akira to cut the chandelier from the ceiling and when he got down , he started clearing the evidence and at certain time Vincent closed the church from inside and stabbed the cross on Godson's body. The plucked out eye, actually no one did pluck it out but-"

"A - a- a-aacheewwwwww! (Snorts).. dust allergy " Yukio said

"Well , no one plucked it out but the eye came out in the force the cross was strucked on him. And I doubted than more than two people would've carried the cross but it was only Vincent, and ofcourse we got his fingerprints... " Katashi concluded

"I didn't knew bout this.. what have I done " sobbed moustache

Vincent was left speechless

Teresa fell onto the chair knowing there's nothing she can do now.

"Nice little butterfly effect right ?" Asked Katashi

"Teresa gathered the sticks, Vincent set the fire , Akira accidentally poured oil in it.. I meant , Teresa started this rumour to bring down Godson, using that Vincent wanted favour from Godson but was rejected so he prepared to kill him and moustache unknowingly helped him kill .

Three different criminals , three different perspectives, three different reasons , but only one target" said Katashi

"But-" a stammering voice was heard

"But you don't have any proper proof yet" said Teresa

Suddenly Makoto rushed in the room saying "got it , sir.. got the tape"

"Just in time , Makoto" says Katashi as he takes the tape and plays it

"This is Linda's tape , the fact she was there at the old age donation event made the case easier. Here you can see everything clear and what actually happened " said Katashi

The tape was just as Katashi said before . And because Linda mostly recorded revolving around Godson all the time in the event, resulted in the clear proof. The tape covered Godson during donation , in the head's office and voice of Vincent and Godson in van.

"And did you call them , Miss Linda?" Asked Katashi

"Oh here they are " replied Linda as a police car entered the church gates

Everything was sorted out. The three criminals were taken to police custody.

Katashi thanked everyone in that place especially miss Linda and Father Rader.

"Finally , I was right , that girl was the criminal" said Kenji proudly

"Aaacheww!!" , duh

Everyone was sent home as Katashi, Makoto and Yukio walked out of the church

"Whooo nice case" exclaimed Yukio

"Can't believe all these happened within 4 hours" said Makoto

"That's life" said Katashi "ages pass away within the blink of ey_"

"Aachooo!! Oh sorry .. let's end man , readers don't like advices (breaking fourth wall)" said Yukio

"Where are we going next ?" Asked Makoto to Katashi as they were walking along the road

"It's been a long morning , I'm going to take some rest, so yeah bye" said Katashi when a taxi collided with a transformer behind them causing a great explosion and a loud sound.

"No way!! The gods must be crazy" said Katashi to himself after seeing this accident live

(Chapter 9 - to be continued)