Gray Life (4)

This person obviously had no idea where the video had come from.

Only Oreki knew.

After all, Sakayanagi had sent it to him.

"I..."

"What, are you thinking of giving up this job?"

"..."

"The economy's in a downturn. Is that really a good idea?"

Oreki pressed on, exploiting the other man's weakness.

He continued:

"It must've taken a lot of effort to land this position, right?"

"All you have to do is keep an eye on the cameras."

"You can even slack off and play games."

The security guard finally decided to leave.

He headed toward the restroom on this floor.

"What... I didn't see anything."

"I'm going to the bathroom for five minutes."

"At that time, there won't be anyone in the monitoring room..."

Oreki nodded.

He put his phone back in his pocket.

--Success.

It was all thanks to the file Sakayanagi had sent him in time.

Every now and then, she actually did something useful.

Though Oreki wasn't about to thank Sakayanagi for it.

For now, he'd compromise.

You could call it a short-term partnership.

Once he had his own people, he'd naturally leave Sakayanagi.

Now wasn't the time to fall out with her.

Investigating the surveillance footage took some technical know-how.

And he didn't know the exact time, either.

But...

Oreki wasn't just planning to check the school post office.

There were clues at the art museum, too.

For example, when the anonymous letter had been dropped off.

That narrowed it down to a single month.

The letters in the art museum's mailbox were only cleared out once a month.

Most of them went straight into the trash.

All that talk about collecting public suggestions and listening to the people...

It was nothing but a façade.

Just nice-sounding words.

--February 15...

Oreki pulled up the footage from that period.

He focused on the mailbox in the corner of the art museum.

There were plenty of people passing through each day, but hardly anyone went near the mailbox.

Even at sixty-four times speed...

--There isn't enough time...

Oreki hesitated for a moment.

In the end, he took out a USB drive.

After installing a script on the computer...

"Found it."

Oreki deleted the script, then enlarged the image he'd captured.

A very fat person.

It was impossible to tell their gender.

They'd covered themselves up so thoroughly.

Sunglasses, a baseball cap, a scarf...

And the computer was ancient.

The image quality was pathetic.

There was no way he could count on facial recognition.

He had less than five minutes left.

After transferring the image to his phone, Oreki restored the computer and got up from the chair.

He quickly went downstairs.

"Overweight..."

Oreki thought as he rode his bicycle.

If that was the case, there were only two suspects who might have sent the anonymous letter.

One was the sponsor's daughter.

The other was the former curator.

Those were the only two who were overweight.

But if he was being cautious...

It was possible that one of the four had asked someone unrelated to the case to send the letter.

But then the clue would be too vague.

There'd be no clear lead.

The scope of the investigation would still be too broad.

So he'd set this clue aside for now.

He'd try another approach.

For example...

He could look for the visitor log from the day of the art exhibition.

He didn't need to track down everyone in it.

He could just check the handwriting.

If he found handwriting that resembled the anonymous letter, that would mean the sender had delivered it personally.

If not...

Then the sender hadn't been the person who wrote it.

They'd been asked by the letter's author to deliver it.

Oreki glanced at his phone.

It was almost nine in the evening.

"Will anyone still be there at this hour?"

He couldn't help wondering.

Come to think of it, why was he going to so much trouble?

He hadn't even eaten dinner.

"Of course I didn't make it in time..."

Oreki stood in front of the art museum.

The lights were still on.

But no one was at the front desk anymore.

He had no idea where the curator he'd met earlier was...

--Forget it. What does it have to do with me?

"I'll come back when I have time tomorrow."

Oreki turned his bicycle around and rode toward the nearest restaurant.

"Welcome."

He walked inside as a mechanical female voice greeted him.

This place was decent.

Chinese food, Western food...

Yellow Croaker and Fish Maw Soup, Sea Anemone Bean Noodles, Truffle Soup Dumplings...

"Could I get two bags?"

Oreki pointed at the Truffle Soup Dumplings.

He'd have these for dinner.

They were portable and filling...

"That'll be one thousand yen."

"Okay."

After paying, Oreki turned to leave.

His gaze wandered around.

Occupational habit, probably.

Whenever he went somewhere unfamiliar, the first thing Oreki did was observe his surroundings.

Everyone here was an upperclassman.

Hmm...

And they all seemed to be couples.

There was a boy and a girl at almost every table.

White Day hadn't even arrived yet.

And they were already like this...

When White Day came, the place would probably be crawling with...

The woods would likely be thick with the scent of hormones.

"Gray hair... That's unusual. I remember..."

"Hello."

Shiina Hiyori closed her novel.

She kindly invited Oreki to sit down.

--I remember now. Shiina Hiyori from Class C.

--What does she want with me?

--Never mind.

Oreki hesitated for a moment.

In the end, he sat across from Shiina Hiyori.

"I've heard all about what happened to you."

"What happened?"

"The incident in the gymnasium."

"Oh..."

"Do you have any time tomorrow afternoon?"

"No."

Oreki shook his head.

He'd already missed his chance today.

He was planning to go to the art museum tomorrow afternoon and ask to see the visitor log.

But without Sakayanagi's help, it probably wouldn't be easy.

He might even get turned away again.

His family was somewhat well-known.

But only somewhat.

They were still far from the level of those great families.

"Is that so? What a shame."

"What's a shame?"

"Ryuen wants to meet you."

"Ryuen Kakeru?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He wants to work with you, Oreki."

"Work together?"

"Classmate Sakayanagi hasn't united Class A yet, has she, Oreki?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

Oreki was speechless.

He didn't know whether Shiina Hiyori was deliberately mocking him,

or simply stating a fact.

With Sakayanagi Arisu and Katsuragi Kohei both in Class A...

there was no way the class could be united.

At the very least, it would split into two factions and they would fight each other.

Unless one of them left Class A,

even if they reached a consensus, it would only be for show.

It wouldn't last long.

Eventually, conflict would break out again.

"Since this is a collaboration, what are the terms you're proposing?"

"To help you defeat Classmate Sakayanagi."

"Give me a few days to think it over."

"Okay. I'll wait here for your answer three days from now."

"Fine."

After saying that, Oreki turned to leave.

But Shiina Hiyori quickly called out to him.

"Please wait."

"What is it now?"

"Could we talk for a bit?"

--To be continued