What happened to us?

▪︎Chapter 03▪︎

Workplace  as a battlefield
(Tigger warnings: description of violence, suicide mention, cursing)

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"So? Whatcha got?" Minoura raised an eyebrow as he stood in front of the detective duo.
Ranpo cleared his throat dramatically.
'Here we go again...'  rushed through everyone's mind, yet everyone meant and felt it in different way.

"Her name, as I hopefully correctly read in files of the victim you gave me, is Linda Grace Prince. So, as you can see, she is dressed in comfortable loose clothes that would be too cold to wear outside, not even commenting on how long it takes average woman to get dressed up if she wants to go outside for even five minutes. Meaning that she couldn't have gotten shot outside but indoors, probably in her close one's place or even her own. Thing that you probably couldn't recognize is that the bullets all came from 'Glock 19', gun that is mostly used for self defence and home safety. She lives only with her husband in small apartment they can hardly pay the rent for. That supports our theory even more! Seriously, the fact you couldn't figure this out is even bigger mystery than this murder case!"
Ranpo began explaining the theory on backstory behind their case in his common self-centered way.
"Wait- so you think that she was killed by her husband?! That is load bullshit. How can you prove that? Anyone can own a handgun." Minoura denied the theory.

"What a coincidence, just yesterday I got the chance to speak with Mr. Prince. He works as a mover, just so you know. He revealed that he in fact did get his gun licence not so long ago. That guy is drowning in debts, it was obvious from the first look. He was all stressed out and absent-minded untill I payed him, just then he was all happy, grateful and communicative. It would make sense to get a gun licence if you have some amount of people you owe after you. Especially if they are people of... bit stronger and more violent character."
Poe continued as he starred at his reflection in the river without sign of emotion behind his words and light eyes. Minoura seemed shocked.
'They figured this much out in only four minutes?!'
"I'm impressed, but still it sounds absurd. How common it is to have someone after you, trying to get their debt back so badly, that you would literally have to gain permission to own a whole-ass gun?" Minoura pointed out.
"That is true. I'm not against your theory in any way, but isn't this too... unlikely? You usually aren't in that much debt that you would spend your last money on taking handgun training." Sugimoto nodded.
"It sounds kinda crazy, but the interesting part is only about to come."
Ranpo said and with raised index finger gestured Sugimoto and Minoura to patiently wait for him to explain - in other words 'shut up and listen', if you want to put it like that -. Both policemen decided to let Ranpo do his thing in sake of their own safety.

"As I said, the couple was in debts and needed any way to pay them. Mrs. Prince even worked two jobs! Therefore she had almost no time to spend at home or anywhere else beside her workplace in that matter.
That gave her dear husband great amount of time to do his immoral ways of earning money by selling drugs. The addicts can get pretty violent if they aren't high and without their daily portions of drugs. Violent to the point that they would attack anyone in any cost, so having some kind of weapon on you in this situation was a smart choice, unlike his next one. When his wife found out, she was reasonably mad and maybe even harmed by her husband a bit too. Mr. Prince fired a warning shot that wasn't meant to hit her in the first place. But as my dear colleague had said, he was new to shooting from a handgun and rushing on adrenalin, so he missed and hit Mrs. Prince in the shoulder. The injury wasn't deadly, but still harmed pretty bad. Mr. Prince was probably petrified by his mistake and didn't know what to do, so he decided to finish her off by firing two more shots, this time in her chest. Before you ask about the order of the shots, we figured it out by their positioning and how deep in the body they were. Anyway, the next part about throwing body in the river is so common and cliché, that if you didn't figure even that out, you should be ashamed of yourself."
Ranpo stated. Both Minoura and Sugimoto felt more and more dumb with every Ranpo's word. It all seemed clear as day now when Ranpo exclaimed it.