Chapter Text
While the other two groups set off for the kitchens and the attic; Daphne, Fujiko, and Jigen went off in search of the library.
"So- just why are we lookin' for the library of all places?" Jigen asked, lighting a cigarette.
"Yeah," Fujiko walked between Daphne and Jigen. "It's not like this one of those thriller movies. I doubt there's going to be a trap door or fake book that opens a secret compartment." She sighed. "I say we should start looking for his office instead."
Daphne led the charge towards the library- or where the group had a rough idea of where the library was. "Did you guys do your research?" She asked, stopping and crossing her arms. "The library is where Kent hung himself. That already makes it a prime place for clues." Daphne nodded. "Because, why would he kill himself there if he had all of his things ready for his hop, skip, and a jump out of the reach of the United States legal system in his bedroom? If he had doubt, he'd do it there."
Jigen and Fujiko silently exchanged a glance while Daphne started to walk again.
"Oh, I like this one." Fujiko whispered excitedly before joining Daphne at her side.
It took a while, but the three finally found the library with the vague idea Jigen and Fujiko had of where it was based on what they remembered of Lupin's map.
The high, thick doors to the library were open. Yellow police tape still stuck around the handles and the place was without a single speck of dust. Inside, the tall, book stuffed shelves were visible.
The three walked into the eerily quiet library and within minutes they found themselves staring at a thick rope that had been hanging from a chandelier close by to a large writing desk. The rope was cut and hung lifeless.
"They didn't even take the whole rope." Jigen commented. "Just cut 'em down and carted him off." He took a slow drag of his cigarette and shook his head.
Unbothered by the rope, Daphne walked over to the writing desk, the clicking sound of her shoes filled the room. She squinted at the writing desk, visibly concentrating.
"What are you looking for?" Asked Fujiko, joining Daphne's side. "If you're all ghost hunters, are you some sort of medium?"
"Oh, stop that." Jigen rolled his eyes. "What she gonna do? Convene with the damned desk? Ask it why it's like a raven?"
Looking up, Daphne shook her head. "None of us do anything like that. We just do our research on the place and whatever happened with it… I was looking at the desk." She said, her eyes taking in the pristine top of the desk. There was no smudges, no dust, and no dirt to be seen on it. "Kent hung himself in this room, and we can guess that he used this desk to reach his noose, but- where are the footprints?"
Jigen and Fujiko gathered around the desk, taking in its clean surface.
"Maybe the crime scene clean up crew wiped it down after they left?" Jigen flicked the ash off of his cigarette to the floor. "They wouldn't leave it there if they were finished with the place."
"That's true…" Fujiko nodded, running her finger over the clean desk. A long smudge followed behind her finger. "The cleanup crews usually wipe these places clean afterwards so people who break in don't mess with things."
"That is true, but what about that?" Daphne pointed upwards to the cut rope. "If the clean up crew had been here, then they would've taken the rope too. They wouldn't have left any of it behind. Especially considering the details behind Kent's death and the position he was in."
Fujiko smirked at Daphne. "You're a smart girl. I see what you're saying." She paused. "This whole mansion looks pretty clean though… It's not just here where things are oddly clean."
Jigen took a final drag of his cigarette and dropped it on the floor. "When dust should've settled in by this point." He crushed the cigarette with his heel. "Not to mention, when we came here we didn't see a single sign of anyone else having visited this place. Though there were more than enough claims of people coming to look for Kent's hidden money."
"Maybe no one actually came here looking for Kent's money?" Daphne rested her chin on her fist. "Maybe.. Maybe that's just what the news was saying because that's what they were being told."
Raising her eyebrows, Fujiko shook her head. "But with all the money? Even if a few of the initial reports were fake, how would that stop people from searching this place themselves?" She asked. "That's what drew us here, the promise of the money."
"But the money isn't just sitting around, and no one knows for sure where it is. Or even if it's here!" Daphne said. "It's hidden somewhere, or it might be long gone by this point."
"It's also supposedly haunted by this dead dude." Jigen glanced up at the cut rope hanging from the chandelier above them. "This whole house is."
Sighing, Fujiko crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, but ghosts aren't real." She said. "It's only people like you, Jigen, who are stupid enough to believe in them. Lupin already proved that the stairs have a little trick to them that makes them fall. If they're supposed to be one of the haunted qualities in this place, then the rest must be fake too."
While Jigen grumbled insults at Fujiko, Daphne spoke up. "Even if this ghost situation isn't real, it can still scare people. In what my friends and I see, a lot of places are close to shutting down or being sold because of supernatural allegations." She said, "And the stuff that is said to be happening at this house is prime spooky material for people to avoid it."
Jigen didn't look satisfied with this conclusion. "All of this is just a load of speculation though, we actually haven't found anything besides a lack of footprints to back up this little theory." He leaned against the writing desk. "We need to actually find something before I believe it. Either way, if there ends up not being any money here I'm wringing Lupin's neck for wasting my time."
Fujiko gave a curt nod. "That's something I can agree with." She gave a long, drawn out sigh. "I'd rather be doing just about anything else than rummaging around in this place."
The three then started looking in different sections of the library for just about anything that could be considered a clue. They didn't happen to find much, that was until Fujiko called Daphne and Jigen over to the far end of the library where she was standing in front of the largest bookshelf in the room. The shelf took up the entire back wall and reached from the floor to the ceiling.
"Did you find something?" Daphne asked.
"I don't know…" Fujiko mused. She looked from Jigen to Daphne and then pointed at a smaller novel on a shelf just above her reach. "It might be nothing, but- something about this book just seems off." She stared at the book with a frown. "It looks so plastic-y compared to the other books on the shelf, and I don't know what it's about, but the title of it makes me think it's out of place with all the business and history books I saw here."
Jigen turned his head to the side at a crude angle and squinted at the book. "' 1,000 Faces Under the Sun'." He read. "There's no author?" Then he glanced at the other books along the same shelf as it. "Yeah… I'm with you, it seems out of place compared to the other books."
"Can you reach it?" Daphne asked at Jigen's side, she put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "It might have something helpful in it."
Jigen stared at the book a moment longer before shrugging off Daphne's hand. "I don't see how we have time for light reading when we're supposed to be looking for money." He grumbled this, stepping towards the shelf. He reached up as high as he could and put his hand on the spine of the book, trying to tug it out of its nook. "It- won't budge."
"Try grabbing it from the top!" Fujiko urged. "Tilt it down that way!"
"How in the friggin' hell am I supposed to do that when I can just barely reach it as is?" Jigen snapped at her over his shoulder. "Honestly, how did I even get stuck with you two of all people?"
Despite his audible complaints, Jigen held on to his hat with one hand, and with the other he climbed on top of the lowest shelf of books. This gave him the height needed to grab the odd book by the top of the spine. It tilted back under his grasp. Nothing more happened.
With a huff, Jigen left the book on the shelf laying on its side and hopped off the bookshelf. "See? Nothin'. Trick bookcases just aren't a thing."
Fujiko, too, looked disappointed. "I really thought something was going to happen." She said, sighing as she leaned against the large bookshelf. "But I guess-"
Before Fujiko had been able to finish her sentence, the section of the shelf she was leaning on turned inwards and parted. She gave a little scream of fright and jumped away as the shelf revealed a small, dark space and a dangerously curling stairway that went down into darkness.
Jigen lifted up the brim of his hat an inch and stared, open mouth at the space that just appeared. "What the fuck." He breathed.
Fujiko, also appeared surprised, but breathlessly excited as well. "Aside from the fact that I nearly fell down that neck breaking set of stairs- I knew that book led to something!"
"Weren't you also just saying earlier that trick doors and fake books weren't real?" Jigen grinned. "Get off your high horse and accept that we were both wrong."
"I found the book," Huffed Fujiko. "So I can't be wrong."
While Jigen and Fujiko bickered, Daphne creeped towards the staircase that led down a steep spiral of steps. "Should we check it out?" She asked, shining her light down the stairwell. All that could be seen were more steps. It was an endless metal spiral where one wrong step would mean breaking your neck.
Slowly, Jigen and Fujiko gathered near the edge of the steps. Jigen gripped the flimsy looking handrailing.
"We should go." Fujiko said at once. "Lupin and the others will find us eventually. We should see what's down there. That's probably where the money's hidden!"
"Yeah…" Jigen said, still looking a little weary about going down the staircase. "We should probably get a jump on things. It'll be day soon and Zenigata will be on our ass if we're not out of here by then." He sighed.
With all three of them in agreement, the group began their descent down the stairs with their weapons and (in Daphne's case) flashlights drawn.