The next day, Shiragiku returned with more intelligence.
After Shizuku went to school, Shiragiku questioned Miki again. Miki smugly explained the entire story from beginning to end. According to Hosokawa Miki, the previous victim of Death Call had been a high school girl from a neighboring city. Before she died, she had received a strange phone call, then died three days later. Everyone had believed at the time that she had received a Death Call.
She had died after being struck in the head by a falling object.
Although Hosokawa Miki's rumor was full of vague details, once Shizuku knew the girl's age and address, investigating was not difficult. Soon, she found a police record from the Metropolitan Police Department stating that a student in the neighboring city had recently died after being hit by a falling object.
So Shizuku quickly drove to the girl's home and began her investigation.
"...No matter what you say, my child is already dead."
Sitting at the table, the dead girl's mother looked grief-stricken—if Shizuku had not shown her Metropolitan Police Department identification, she likely would not even have been allowed inside.
"I know about those ridiculous rumors. If I'd known this would happen, I never should have bought that child a phone... Death Call, my foot. It's nothing but a rumor people spread in the streets."
"My condolences. But I believe you can see that I didn't come here like some gossip tabloid looking for a news story. I only want to know whether anything particularly unusual happened around the time your daughter died."
"Something particularly unusual?"
At Shizuku's question, the mother's eyes flickered.
"That's right, Ryoko! That girl! It's all her fault for babbling crazily about Death Call at my daughter's funeral. She's the reason we can't have any peace!"
"Who is