章 46: Sixth Clue
"I've never had my fingerprints taken before," Meredith chirped happily on their way back to the lodge.
It was now around midnight. The police had taken their witness statements as well as their fingerprints and shoe prints. Everyone in the theatre had been subject to the same procedures.
"There must have been a fingerprint on the knife," Daniel said. "They wouldn't bother otherwise."
He looked up at the moon in the sky. The night sky was a sight to see, the island had a good view of the moon and stars, it was a shame the trip had been ruined by a real murder.
"Wouldn't Yukari's prints be on there?" Oliver asked.
"Her character wore gloves," Felix pointed out. "The stage technician's will be on there and maybe the murderer's."
"It would be good if it gets solved just by fingerprints," Harry said with a little too much optimism for Daniel.
"They couldn't get an arrest just on that," he answered. "Other people could have picked it up backstage without being the murderer."
"Ah, the stage technician told me that Matsumoto is a clean freak and anything with a smooth surface would have to be cleaned in between performances. Matsumoto didn't want the audience to see grubby set pieces and props," Felix spoke up. "That narrows down the prints on the knife a little."
"That's convenient to know," Daniel said and the lodge came into view. "Is anyone tired?"
He looked around at all of them. Amien and Felix had coped with the police questioning the best, Meredith had been nervous, Harry had stuttered a lot and Oliver was still looking sweaty. As for himself, he hadn't been as calm as he had liked due to the language barrier.
"I'm wide awake," Meredith admitted. "I could do with some sweets as well."
"I brought a few bags to share," Oliver said. "Let's gather in our room and talk about things that aren't the murder."
The other mystery club appeared to have had a similar idea. When they walked past the dining room the other club were sitting at the table in the semi darkness. Ethan was at the head of the table with a frown whilst the rest of the club were talking quietly.
"I am surprised Ethan hasn't challenged you to solve the murder," Amien commented as they walked past. "I thought that was why he ran onto the stage earlier."
Daniel had completely forgotten about Ethan's challenge earlier and he shrugged.
"Seeing someone die for real probably threw him," he replied. "Let's not bother about the other club and our rivalry."
Once they were in the biggest room Oliver walked over to the window and drew the curtains. It reminded Daniel of seeing something outside earlier. Could it have been someone sneaking to the theatre?
Harry switched the lights on and they gathered on the floor. Daniel was amused to find that Oliver had underplayed the number of sweets he had brought with him. There were at least ten bags of different sweets.
"I was going to give you all a bag as a present when we split ways after," Oliver admitted after seeing the glance.
Amien held up a tiny bag of individually premium wrapped chocolates.
"Let me guess, this one was for me."
The leader of the mystery club scratched his neck nervously.
"Uh, well you are older and you work in a bank, I thought you would want something sophisticated. I didn't feel like jelly beans were the right thing for you."
Amien smiled and moved onto another bag.
"Is that massive bag over there for Daniel?"
The bag in question turned out to be a family sized bag of chocolate buttons. Daniel smiled, Oliver had remembered the conversation they all had once about their sweet preferences.
"Thank you, Oliver," he said.
"The bag of Percy Pigs is for Felix," Oliver said and handed them over. "They were difficult to get."
"Who is the box of chocolates for?" Meredith enquired curiously and pointed at a heart shaped box that was still in Oliver's open suitcase.
"Those are for you," Oliver replied with pink cheeks. "You can have them now if you like."
Once the sweets had been distributed, the atmosphere turned silent. Daniel was mulling over the mystery in his mind. There were a lot of people to suspect.
"No talking about the mystery," Felix warned him.
Daniel nudged him. "It's hard not to mention it."
"We solved the last mystery," Oliver reminded them with his trademark optimism.
Amien sighed loudly and opened his bag of gummy worms.
"I see the year and a half has caused you to forget the details. The mystery solving was done by Daniel and Felix, I provided the main information and you three contributed breadcrumbs."
Oliver glared at him.
"I didn't say you didn't do anything. We can all try to help equally this time as we won't be restricted in the same way we were last time," Amien continued and placed a gummy worm in his mouth.
"What's the plan of action tomorrow?" Harry asked. "I don't think we will be able to return to the theatre."
"I want to talk to Yamamoto about some things like the layout of the island. I know there are some other buildings here and I wanted his opinion on the cast," Daniel said.
"No talking about the mystery," Felix said again.
"It's hard not to talk about it," Harry groaned. "Let's watch something instead."
"Remember that time we were supposed to be going to the cinema and no one could agree on what film to see," Amien said. "This is going to take a while. Just know, I am not watching anything rubbish."
"Nothing related to blood," Meredith chimed in. "I've seen enough to last my whole life now."
"I don't like action films," Oliver added.
Daniel couldn't see any of them coming to a universal agreement on what to watch. Felix took the lead and sailed the issue to an agreeable point.
"What we have in common is that we are all British, let's watch something British," he said.
"I like to watch rubbish TV show clips on youtube," Meredith admitted. "It's nothing you would all like."
Daniel had previously noticed her watching something with very strong English regional accents in and had suspected it of being low brow.
"We're not watching that Ex on the Beach rubbish," Harry groaned.
"Let's just watch the news to learn about the current affairs in our home country," Amien suggested. "It's always good to keep up to date."
"Only you would suggest watching the news," Oliver said. "I will see what I can find on the internet."
Oliver started searching on his phone and eventually came up with a video.
"This was the local news somewhere in England last night," he said. "After we have placated Amien, we can watch something else."
They all crowded around to see his phone screen. Daniel did agree that it would be helpful to know what was currently happening in England as it would distract from what they were experiencing in another country.
"Floods are affecting the north west of England," was the first thing he heard. "The storm is set to continue until mid week."
That was very familiar news.
"At least it doesn't rain as much here," Meredith said with her mouth full of chocolate. "Unless it's typhoon season."
"In less topical news, today is the anniversary of the death of a local teenager who had been praised by the police for his assistance on many cases," the newsreader continued.
A photo flashed up on the screen and Daniel stiffened. The photo was of a brown haired teenager with a thin face and a smattering of freckles. It was him.
"Daniel Edgerton died on this day nine years ago when investigating a deserted building. Investigation revealed his death was an accident and he died almost immediately after falling from a significant height. He is sadly missed by the police officers in the area as he contributed to the resolution of many cases."
Daniel's mind went into panic mode and his hand that was holding the bag of chocolates started to shake. He couldn't look at Felix or at anyone else for that matter. If he told Oliver to turn it off, it would draw attention to it.
A video clip of him explaining the solution to a case that had stumped the police for a year started to play and he had never felt so uncomfortable in his life. It also reminded him that he had forgotten it had been nine years since his first death and subsequent rebirth the day before. He usually was more aware of his death anniversaries.
"Wow, he's like you Daniel," Oliver said and nudged him. "He speaks like you and has the same body language."
Daniel had never hated Oliver's friendly personality so much. He avoided looking at Felix and opened his mouth to say something that would dispel Oliver's observation.
"You're probably just saying that because he was called Daniel," Felix said before he could speak. "Don't make this Daniel uncomfortable."
Oliver nodded and turned his attention back to the screen. Daniel on the other hand was unable to relax from what felt like near exposure. He dared a glance at Felix and found his boyfriend was looking at him thoughtfully. His heart jumped again in fear.
Had Felix noticed any similarity between his past self and his current one?
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