The Prosecutor

Chapter III

Sae shifted in her seat. Xi Lun had left the room for a while to take a lunch break, and she had been left alone. Despite his assurance that he would return as soon as possible, she still felt uneasy about being in the room by herself. For starters, this room was glaringly bright, as if exposing everything she was trying to hide. And without Xi Lun here, she felt as if she'd lost her only source of communication. She could faintly make out a pair of figures in the dark tinted windows, looking in as if she was some sort of laboratory experiment. Looking down at her hands, she dearly hoped Xi Lun would come back quickly.

After an excruciating wait, she heard the door open and close, and Xi Lun's footsteps echo on the floor. He settled down in front of her, looking unsettled.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nothing. Just going through a few things."

Sae frowned, but didn't say anything. Xi Lun returned to his papers on the table, arranging them neatly. Sae then prepped herself for the questions that were to follow.

"So your sister persuaded you to stay at the house. What happened the next day?"

"Same thing as the previous night during breakfast. I left for a hotel after that."
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One day before, Tokyo, Japan

As she watched the shrinking image of her old house in the distance from the taxi's window, Sae felt as if she shouldn't regret this choice. All her childhood, she had to deal with her parents putting Mika on a glorified pedestal and ignoring her. Now, she had a choice to leave it behind, or continue to put up with it. No sane person would choose the latter option, so naturally she chose to leave. There wasn't anything you could do to toxic family, after all. That was the very reason why her father cut ties with their relatives all those years ago. Another thing about her father was that he was a hypocrite. As much as she loved him, she couldn't deny that he was indeed one. When she was a child, he would vehemently insist that he was nothing like her relatives, when in reality, he was more or less a milder version of those despicable relatives who quarrelled over everything behind the backs of their children.

The taxi arrived at the hotel. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was perfectly accomadating to her needs. Getting off the taxi, she retrieved her suitcase and walked up to the hotel after paying the driver. Checking in was a quick process, and she was soon in her room, alone. However, the peace was disturbed when her phone buzzed with messages from her sister.

Mika: Sae, I'm really sorry about what happened last night.
Mika: I know what they said was mean, but that doesn't mean you can just leave like that.
Mika: Sae, I know you're reading this.
Mika: Sae, please reply.

Sae sighed impatiently. She didn't want to deal with Mika. She just wanted to enjoy her time in Japan while she could. Her finals for psychology were coming up, and she had to quickly go back to New York to catch up on her studies. She'd even planned to take a walk around Tokyo, absorb all the nostalgia. Sighing, she typed back her reply.

Sae: Mika, I don't want to talk about this now.
Mika: You can't just leave like that. It was really rude.
Sae: How could you not when they treated you like that?
Mika: ...
Mika: Sae, you shouldn't let this get to you.
Sae: That's what you've told me since we were kids. But I've seriously reached my limits, okay?
Sae: There's nothing you can do about them. They'll always treat me like this regardless of what you say.

Before Mika could reply, Sae turned off her phone and tumbled into the bed like a rag doll. Her phone continued buzzing with messages, but she ignored them. Soon, the buzzing stopped, and Sae felt her eyelids slowly droop over her eyes.
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Xi Lun looked up from his papers. "Did you do anything after you checked into the hotel?"

Sae nodded. "I slept for a while, and then went out for lunch and did some shopping."

"How long were you asleep?"

"Err... About an hour, I think."

"And what did you buy?"

Sae's eyes twitched. Did this guy expect her to go shopping for knives to kill her family later?

"Some small souvenirs for friends back in New York."

"Such as? Please be specific, Miss Kanashiro."

"Snow globes, keychains, fridge magnets, stuff like that? What did you expect, knives?"

Xi Lun winced at her harsh tone. "Well, you can never be too cautious."

Sae huffed. "Being cautious is one thing, and being paranoid is another, Mr Wang."

"Anyway... Back to the case, did anything else happen that day?"

"No. Until the next day, when I received a call from Yuuki, telling me that he found my parents and sister dead in the house." Sae's voice shook as she confided this.

"Your sister's boyfriend? It seems we might have another suspect besides you. Do you think he might have a motive for killing them?"

Sae paused. "I don't know. I don't really know him that well."

Xi Lun simply nodded. "Alright, then. What happened after you got his call?"
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"Yuuki, what is going on?" Sae practically screamed into the phone.

"Sae, you heard me. Your sister and parents... They're dead."

"How...?"

"Like hell I know, Sae! I just found all three of them in the living room, dead. You won't believe the fiasco here..."

"Where are you now?"

"At the house. I've just been through questioning."

"I'll get over as quickly as I can."

"I don't think that's a smart choice. There's also a bunch of other people here. Your relatives, I think. And they've just identified your handwriting on a note that was found on the crime scene. If I were you, Sae, I'd avoid this place like the plague."
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"The manhunt started surprisingly quickly for a simple murder case like this. And for some reason, the Chinese authorities know about this murder in Japan as well..." Xi Lun mused aloud to himself. "And you said Yuuki told you over the phone that your relatives identified your handwriting on the note left on the crime scene?"

Sae only nodded, and Xi Lun continued to go over everything she told him.

"Your relatives seem most suspicious here. But Yuuki's not providing any proficient information as well. But assuming your relatives readily identified your handwriting, that makes them another possible suspect to the murder. But of course, there's also no hard proof that they did it. All the evidence still piles up against you, motive and all."

"I..."

Sae didn't want to say it anymore. No matter how much she tried to protest her innocence, it would always fall on deaf ears. The evidence against her was too strong. Until another piece of evidence not implicating her surfaces, she will be the prime suspect and culprit for the murder, no matter if the timing was wrong. She was telling the truth here, but Xi Lun would probably think she made up an alibi to cover her tracks.