An art teacher.
The answer had been in a sort of blind spot, but once he said it, I felt it’d been staring us in the face all along─it should have been my very next thought after I proposed that the paintings might be student projects.
Since they had been hidden in the crawl space above the art room, it was only natural to assume that whoever painted them had some kind of connection to the art room.
In which case it was only natural to assume that directing one’s inquiries to the school, as Sakiguchi had done, would uncover the artist’s identity.
But if that was true, why had we even bothered with this war of words, or rather, brainstorming session? Our wannabe version of the Black Widowers felt downright pointless.
Speaking of which, the Black Widowers may not have been a boy’s detective club, but it was no-girls-allowed, if I remember correctly… Somewhat distracted by this relatively irrelevant thought, I gave an internal nod of satisfaction as I grasped the likely reason for Sakiguchi’s gloomy mood.
To put it bluntly, given that he’d actually solved the mystery, I could see how he’d have a hard time introducing his excessively realistic theory into this contest where beauty came before truth, and the ruling principle was the more fantastical the theory, the higher the praise.
I could well imagine how he must have felt as he listened to each of us present our theories─no wonder he’d been tuning it out.
Or so I thought, but apparently such concerns didn’t explain his mood, because he seemed just as tense and unhappy after presenting his “solution” in that beautiful voice of his as he had before.
What was going on?
“Look, kid. Just because he figured out who painted the pictures doesn’t mean he figured out why she painted them─the mystery isn’t solved yet.”
“Sure, but if he asked around in the teachers’ lounge─”
No.
Sakiguchi had said “used to.”
Kowako Towai “used to be an art teacher at this school”─which suggested she wasn’t anymore.
I’ve said it a million times:
Electives were eliminated from Yubiwa Academy’s curriculum ages ago─which is why this room wasn’t being used, which is why a crew of weirdos called the Pretty Boy Detective Club had been able to commandeer it.
“Hey, so like, when you say ‘used to,’ how long ago do you mean?” Mr. Bare-Legs asked.
“Seven years ago,” Sakiguchi replied curtly─like his mind was on something else.
He seemed distracted by the question of how to continue with the meat of his presentation, which was still to come.
“Seven years ago, huh? So, back when your fiancée was just a twinkle in her daddy’s eye, then.”
“That is correct, but was such a comment necessary at this juncture?”
His mind might be elsewhere, but he could still manage a sharp retort─wait, his fiancée wasn’t even seven yet?
I suddenly wished we could get to work on that particular problem instead…
“So she was the artist, huh?” Mr. Bare-Legs went on. “But, Nagahiro’s the oldest, and he hasn’t even met this teacher, so obviously neither have I─doesn’t really tell us much, does it? I mean, we don’t even have any idea what kind of person this lady is.”
Well, we knew she was the kind of lady who would remove the people from famous paintings─and while the quality of her work suggested she must have been competent as an art teacher and an artist, she was also unquestionably an oddball.
Still, being a second-year myself, I obviously hadn’t known her either─never mind Sotoin, who wasn’t all that much older than seven himself.
“Interesting! So in other words, when they dropped art from the curriculum seven years ago, they let Ms. Towai go as well!” Sotoin exclaimed cheerfully.
For once his insight was a good one, though personally I try not to talk about grownups losing their jobs in such a jolly tone.
“So you think she stuffed the paintings up in the crawl space when she got fired?”
I kept the hole in the ceiling in sight as I added my own insight.
It’s possible we never would’ve noticed the removable panel if we hadn’t decided to paint a mural on the ceiling, but it made sense that the former occupant of this room─the art teacher─would’ve known about it. Though it was also conceivable that Ms. Towai had rigged it up herself.
She hadn’t known what to do with all those canvases when she left the school, so she’d hidden them up there where they’d be out of sight─hardly the praiseworthy act of a sensible adult, but plausible nonetheless.
All the more plausible if she was getting them back for firing her─although that could hardly be called a beautiful solution to our mystery.
“Um, Sakiguchi, I can see how finding out about that teacher would have been easy enough, but how did you know she was the artist? Sure, the art teacher would be a prime suspect since the paintings were in the art room crawl space, but that’s not exactly proof, is it?”
There was no getting around the fact that the thirty-three paintings were unsigned─and not even initialed.
The simple fact that Ms. Towai was the art teacher wasn’t conclusive evidence that she’d painted them.
“You’re right, I don’t even have circumstantial evidence─all I have is hearsay.”
“Hearsay?”
“Just what I gathered from asking around with some teachers I know from the student council…”
What was going on here?
That was one hell of a vague answer, coming from Nagahiro the Orator.
Or was it the answer from “some teachers” that had been vague?
Which was reasonable, given that this all happened seven years ago.
But why did Sakiguchi think he could determine the identity of the artist based on such vague evidence? Had Ms. Towai been so legendary that teachers were still talking about her seven years after her departure?
“Yes, she does seem to have been quite the celebrity.”
Everything Sakiguchi was saying boiled down to hearsay, not clear-cut fact─despite the crystal-clear voice he was saying it in. Still, Kowako Towai… It was a distinctive name, and I felt as if I’d heard it somewhere before.
She was long gone by the time I arrived at Yubiwa Middle, so if her name sounded familiar, I must have heard it outside of school─maybe I knew her as an artist, rather than a teacher?
“I doubt it, Dojima. Forget ‘sounded familiar,’ try ‘looked familiar’─I thought I recognized the name Towai, too, but it’s from inside the school, not outside of it,” the delinquent said. “You know that humongous painting in the auditorium? Wasn’t Kowako Towai the name of the person who painted it?”
It came to me in a flash.
Yubiwa Academy prided itself on the auditorium where all its gatherings took place, from ceremonies at the start and end of each year to Monday morning assemblies, all-school events, entrance ceremonies, and graduations.
And just as the delinquent said, a huge painting adorned the wall of that auditorium.
I couldn’t picture it exactly, but I seemed to recall a plaque underneath it which gave the title of the painting and the name of the artist─and if we could trust the delinquent’s memory, that name was Kowako Towai.
“Though I’m surprised a delinquent like you even knows the auditorium exists…”
“Want another cup of tea, Dojima?”
Just as the delinquent was plotting my death by poisoning, Sakiguchi stepped in.
“The auditorium, you say…” he murmured, nodding as he stood up from the sofa. “It seems Ms. Towai must’ve painted that picture while she was working here─well then. Shall we continue this conversation in front of the painting in question?”