Little Black's Doomsday

"The crime scene was probably in that wetland park in Minamihara Town." Jiang Xia nodded.

"This morning, Ayumi and the others went there to catch fish and saw a suspicious person with their face covered lingering in the park. Unfortunately, some bushes were in the way, so they couldn't make out the person's build. Not long afterward, we found a cat that had been beaten to death in the park, and there were fabric fibers like these caught on its claws—"

As he spoke, he reached out, somehow produced a small plastic bag, and handed it to Sato Miwako.

Sato Miwako took it and examined it. Inside were a pink thread and a yellow thread, each darkened at the tip as though stained with blood.

Having stared at the body all afternoon, she was very familiar with those colors and immediately made the connection.

"These were snagged from the victim's clothes?!"

"Possibly. When we found the cat's body, we didn't know it was related to the Murder Case. We only thought someone had abused a cat, so we collected the fibers from its claws for comparison later. We returned the cat's body as well," Jiang Xia recalled.

"That cat was badly injured. There was no way it could have run all the way from Young Master Pavilion to the park in Minamihara Town after getting hurt. And if it went to the park after coming into contact with the victim, then got beaten to death by the cat abuser, whatever had been caught on its claws should have rubbed off long ago—or been cleaned off by the cat itself."

Officer Sato understood.

She studied the plastic bag in her hand. "If the fabric fibers in the cat's claws really came from the victim, then it means the cat, the victim,