Returner Fantasy-Chapter 172: Murder - Part 5

"Why are we back in our previous room?" Jess muttered, complaining about the lingering disgusting scent of the thief that she could still smell inside the room.

"Can’t you use that inhuman sense of smell of yours to track down the thief?" Mira said, curious about whether Jess could really do it.

"What do you think I am, a dog?"

"A pervert beast in heat, to be exact," Mina answered as she tried to shove the pillow the thief had touched while ransacking their room toward Jess, asking her to smell it—only for Jess to easily snatch it from her hand and throw it outside the balcony.

"Even if I can, why would I intentionally sniff such a disgusting scent?"

—"To catch the thief and prove your innocence, idiot!"—

While Mira and Mina were trying to even the score against Jess with another wrestling match on the king-size bed, Jeff proceeded to check what he wanted to inspect before searching the island for the possible hiding spots of the thief.

Recalling the footage recorded by his hidden extra smartphone, which showed the thief breaking the glass door of the balcony to get into their room, Jeff stepped out onto the balcony and picked up the pillow Jess had thrown.

He looked around, thinking of a way he would get into the balcony if he were the thief aiming for Jess’s undergarments.

Not that he had ever stolen one in the past, but he wouldn’t deny that the idea had always lingered in his mind back when he was secretly having fantasies about Jess.

Getting his mind back on track, their room was on the 7th floor of the hotel. There was a concrete wall serving as part of the hotel’s design and a divider to maintain privacy from adjacent rooms.

It wouldn’t be impossible to cross over for someone with enough experience in wall climbing, but Jeff couldn’t find any trace of someone gripping the walls on either side.

It was the same for the metal rails of their balcony. If the thief had climbed from the room below using a rope and hook, there would have been at least some scratches left.

What remained was to check the rooftop above their room.

"We’re done here," Jeff said as he picked up Jess, pulling her away from straddling Mira and Mina, then carrying her over his right shoulder while taking the chance to fondle her soft rear.

She wasn’t even complaining—more like she was enjoying it, Mira and Mina thought, watching Jess feign ignorance of Jeff’s touch.

"Didn’t the police already check the rooftop?" Jess said while feeling comfortable being carried by Jeff.

Luke had indeed told Jeff about traces of possible rope marks on the concrete rails at the rooftop above their room. They had even discussed the possibility that the thief had camped on the rooftop, hiding from hotel staff while searching for which room Jess was staying in.

The thief could have hidden in the vents, but when Jeff checked them himself upon arriving at the rooftop, the space inside was too small for the thief’s large body frame.

"TSK!"

Jess clicked her tongue in irritation, making Jeff put her down before asking what was wrong.

"Did the police also check that?" Jess said, pointing at a visible stain on the wall—something Jeff wouldn’t have found suspicious until he heard her next remark.

"Because that wall reeks of the thief’s smell."

"Don’t tell us..." Mira muttered, looking disgusted as realization dawned on her—which Mina had also figured out. "The scent you could smell, Jess..."

"That’s why I said it’s disgusting!"

So the thief really had camped here—and even touched himself, Jeff thought, watching Jess’s blushing face, completely embarrassed.

---

After Jeff’s inspection of the hotel, their group proceeded to search spots he knew—and ones the police might have missed.

They changed clothes, or at least put jackets over their swimsuits, and armed themselves—except Jess.

"Why am I the only one who doesn’t get a weapon?!"

Your fists are already dangerous weapons. Or so Mira and Mina wanted to say but kept to themselves, not wanting to antagonize Jess—except Jeff.

"Your fists—BAM!—Ouch!"

"Idiot," Mira and Mina said in disbelief, looking at Jeff clinching to Jess after she punched him straight in the gut.

As for weapons, Jeff had the taser gun Luke had lent him, Mira had a flashlight with a taser, and Mina carried pepper spray.

Jess couldn’t carry a weapon. After all, she was the main suspect. And even though it hadn’t been publicly announced yet to everyone on the island, the police wouldn’t let her walk around carrying another greatsword.

"That’s what Luke-senpai said," Jeff explained, which left Jess with the task of carrying their tote bags containing their takeout dinner and other belongings.

---

Their first spot to search was a ruined hut on the south coast of the island.

"Why here? There’s no way someone could hide here," Jess said, looking at the burned hut with nothing left but charred stone walls.

"Are you sure, though?" Jeff replied, grinning back at Jess.

—"Just show it to us already."—

Following Mira and Mina’s request, Jeff swept the sand away with his foot, revealing a hidden underground basement door.

However, the fact that the door was covered in sand when they arrived meant that no one was inside—unless the thief had an accomplice to cover his tracks.

"Step aside for a bit," Jeff said before opening the door, ready to shoot at the first sign of anyone inside—only to find an empty basement as he went down the stairs.

"Did you find anything, like stored pirate rum, when you first discovered this spot?" Jess asked as she followed Jeff down.

"We didn’t find the rum, but we at least found the pirate."

Jeff’s remark scared Mira and Mina, causing them to retreat back up before they could even climb down the stairs. Jess, however, only got more excited as Jeff continued retelling the story about the set of human bones their student council had found.

After the ruined hut, the second spot was the lighthouse on the hill of the island.

—"YEAY!"—

Jess, Mira, and Mina loudly cheered upon climbing to the top via the stairs inside the lighthouse, but upon being greeted by a strong gust of wind, the twins desperately clung to Jess in fear of being thrown off the narrow rails.

Jeff, meanwhile, waited on the ground after checking another underground basement beneath the lighthouse and finding nothing—not even any sign that the room had been used recently.

After the lighthouse, the next spot was a dried-up well in the northern forest near the park, where other couples got intimate at night.

"Why are you two blushing like that?" Jess asked, noticing Mira and Mina’s flustered faces.

"It’s all because of you, pervert couple!" Mira shouted, embarrassed by the memories of what they had seen the night before—which Mina quickly clarified.

"Do you have any idea how many couples we saw in the act while we were searching for both of you last night?!"

While Mira and Mina complained to Jess, telling her all the models they had recognized the night before, Jeff climbed down into the well.

Underneath was another secret passage that led to the underground route connecting the villa to the cave. But upon seeing no trace of anyone entering—not even footprints—Jeff didn’t push through and immediately climbed back up.

After the dried-up well, the last spot was the cave below the cliff on the east coast—where Jess and Jeff had done it the night before.

And since they had been there at the time of Cindy’s death, the only place they needed to check was the passage itself.

However, the footprints there belonged to many people—theirs included—from when they had explored the area during the villa staff tour on their first day on the island.

---

By dusk, their search for the thief had finally come to an end, yielding no results.

"In the end, we didn’t find anything useful," Mira said, sulking as she sat on the sand inside the dimming cave.

"What are we going to do, Jess, Jeff?" Mina cried, feeling hopeless as she sat beside Mira and stared at the already dark eastern horizon.

"Isn’t it obvious? We’re going to wait here until the moon rises," Jess replied, thinking about something entirely different than the risk of getting arrested tomorrow morning, which left Mira and Mina confused.

Meanwhile, Jeff was laying out the blanket they had brought, racking his brain on how to solve Cindy’s murder—trying to figure out who stole Jess’s greatsword, how Cindy got inside the locked villa, how the camera footage had been erased, and why Jess was being framed for murder.

"Huh?"

Right then, a sudden realization struck Jeff.

Not that he had already solved Cindy’s murder—but another case he needed to solve first, one with a very similar pattern.

"That’s it—the case of my stolen jacket!"

"I told you—I got your jacket back!"