Rachnera sternly reminded Hurley; "Currently ,you're a suspect, but I'm cutting you some slack only for the sake of your brother. You'll not leave the town at any cost and you'll present yourself before the local police station every afternoon."

Centorea looked a bit puzzled, she was under the impression that an impending arrest of the concerned Hellhound would happen.

"Centorea, something more has been unearthed in the post-mortem report. I'll send you the copy and let's call it a night." Rachnera yawned and helped Hurley out of her binds.

Hurley bowed, "Thank you very much, Ma'am. I'll be in your debt, forever."

After returning home Centorea drew her cold bath. Today was quite hectic and she needed a warm bath to loosen up the tension in her muscles.

After immersing herself in her plus-size bathtub for 30 minutes, Centorea decided that it was enough. She felt incredibly hungry.

After satisfying her hunger with an extra bowl of vegetable salad, the Centaur girl belched with a feeling of fulfilment.

She picked up her phone and opened her mailbox, "Rachnera said that she was going to mail me the PM report, ha here it is."

Centorea opened the PM report and read it with undivided attention, "Hmm….punch marks on belly and face. The location of the bruises indicate that the assailant, who punched the victim had a stronger left hand. The stab wound indicates that the weapon used was an around four inches long kitchen knife. The stab wound was inflicted by a right handed assailant. The victim had alcohol in her stomach. Greasy machine oil was found on her right finger."

"Now, I see. That's why she didn't arrest Hurley. She's a southpaw." Centorea reasoned.

Rachnera was still in the office, she didn't want to head home as she was too tired. She had a change of clothes for the night anyways. She took a shower in the shower room, changed up and opened the phone records of Karen Kurusu.

"Hmm…..she had contacted Hurley, just before the incident ,and Hurley contacted her a bit earlier. I guess Hurley might have assured her of her brother's safety in the last call. But if the PM report is to be believed then there was someone else involved, someone whom we are missing out. The killer disposed of the murder weapon so this means that killer could have been found out from the weapon. This means it's the work of an amateur, if a hitman did it, people would have found the weapon lying on the scene Hitmen generally don't take the risk of carrying around a murder weapon if it's not a gun.." Rachnera was drowned in her thoughts.

"Ah,it's almost nine. I need find a good place to dine, nearby." Rachnera got up from her desk, even detectives need to fill their bellies.

Centorea woke up with renewed vigour. Somehow she was convinced that today would be more fruitful for their ever complicating investigation.

She got ready while humming the newest song of ANM-48, ate a heavy breakfast and wore her dress with picture perfect precision.

"I've seen the report, Rachnera. What do you suggest in this regard?" Centorea asked the detective.

"Well, as a starting point it's very likely that there was a significant third person who already knew the whereabouts of the victim and had done the deed with precision." Rachnera concluded.

"That's a generalization at best and speculation at worst. Doesn't help me to untangle this mess." Centorea puffed her cheeks with annoyance.

"When you do away with the impossible, the residue, however improbable has to be the truth." Rachnera pointed towards the flustered Centaur with a dramatic pose.

"Again beating around the bush, we have to use it, not utter it like a mystery flick cliché." Centorea gave off serious stare. (and you could have sworn that tick marks were appearing all over her head.)

"Ah, let me elaborate. There are two possible explanations, a random person appears, sees the victim, stabs her and flees from the scene, or someone kept the victim under a tight vigil. Knew when she was vulnerable and then attacked. Now the first one just gets scrapped away by Occam's razor." Rachnera explained.

"Explain it in plain language," Centorea looked more flustered than agitated.

"The first premise makes four independent assumptions viz-a-viz , a random person with anger problems, the same person is coming out with a knife, the same person finding the victim in a vulnerable state and he stabs her to death without a single motive. The second one makes only two, someone was following her closely for some reason, the reason was to murder her. Now tell me, Ms. Shakespeare, which between the two is least likely ?" Rachnera had an amount high of haughtiness in her tone.

Centorea scratched her head and then answered, "Now that you explained it, I guess the first one looks more improbable."

"So who was spying on the victim? That's the trillion-Yen question." Rachnera concluded her reasoning.

Suddenly an idea popped in her mind, "What if the perpetrator hired a private detective to spy on the victim?"

Rachnera chuckled, "And what makes you think so?"

"Well, the killer was a novice, if he was professional then there would have been no need to hide the weapon, in-fact contract killers prefer bullets over knives. If the perpetrator was an amateur then he by no means would try to tail the victim so he needed a detective to know more about the victim's private life?" Centorea looked for approval from her more learned partner.

"Ok, but if he was an amateur then why he didn't hire a contract killer?" Rachnera asked her current partner.

"Maybe he wanted to kill her by his own hands, maybe he was so enraged that he needed to see her grasping for her last breath." Centorea tried her best to reason.

"You're learning fast, not bad for an erstwhile uniformed thug." Rachnera teasingly said, poking fun towards Centorea's parental department.

"Look, Heinous Crime Prevention Department saves a lot of lives and catches killers while putting their lives on the line, we might not be great detectives but we are no thugs. You should be more respectful, else my sword will taste thy flesh." Centorea fumed with anger.

"Relax, don't get sand in your undies, it's just a joke, btw, I already have notified all detective agencies operating in Tokyo prefecture. Anyone who was handling a case concerning the victim or Hurley or both would be reporting to us." Rachnera tried her best to diffuse the situation.

The land phone in Rachnera's desk started ringing, Centorea picked it up.

"Hello, this is Inspector Centorea Shianus, how can I help you?"

…...

Centorea cupped the mouthpiece and handed it to Rachnera, "It's for you. From the Q-detective agency."

""Hello, Detective Rachnera speaking."

…

"Send in the detective to my office within another 20 minutes."

….

"Thank you."

"So I guess that we've gotten a lead?" Centorea asked the gleeful Arachne, who nodded in affirmation.