The cherry blossom tree on campus was beautiful. Mai was so grateful to be studying at a university that held such a perfect balance with nature. The campus had been built on an old public garden, and rather than bulldozing all the way through the flora, they decided to build an equilibrium between the garden and the buildings. Lush greenery surrounded the campus building on all sides, and out back was a small pond filled with beautifully coloured koi fish. The cherry trees were Mai's favourite.

Ever since Mai was young, cherry trees had always reminded her of her mother. Her family had a cherry tree in their back garden, and as a child, she would often get stuck in the cherry tree whilst reaching desperately for the red gems of sweet fruit. After she got stuck, she would always cry for her mum to get her down, and to abate her tears her mum had to reach up and pick the precious treats for her. After her mother passed away, these sweet memories lingered, and she was reminded of her mother every time she finished her class and walked to the window.

As she was watching the tree sway in the breeze, she saw an old lady wandering around near the tree; looking rather lost. Mai had heard about an old lady, name Eden, who lived in a small cottage nearby. She would often wander into the grounds, forgetting it was no longer a public garden. Sometimes she got lost and couldn't remember her way back.

The way she was looking around and twisting the wedding ring on her finger round and round again, it was obvious to Mai that the lady failed to recognise her surroundings and it was making her nervous. She had a full fringe of wispy grey hair and the rest of her hair was down just past her shoulders with faint curls at the end. She was wearing a long grey skirt and a light pink cardigan that matched perfectly with the pink cherry blossoms.

Mai approached the lady cautiously, trying not to scare her as she approached. Mai would peg her age as in her late 80s.

'Hello, Ms. Smith?'

Even though Mai advanced steadily, the lady still gave a bit of a start as she turned.

'Oh! Hello dear, I didn't see you there. I'm glad to see a sweet, friendly face,' she looked around again. 'I appear to be lost. I live in a cottage; I swear it was near here...'

Mai knew where the cottage was located and offered to guide the lady back again.

'My nephew has come to help look after me now, I think he's at work right now.' She looked puzzled, 'I can't remember what he does though.'

The small, quaint cottage was located about half a mile or so away from the gardens surrounding the campus. It was picturesque, with small lattice windows, flowerbeds of pansies surrounding it and intricate designs were hand painted on the shutters. A spring-themed wreath hung on the door with care. The mailbox in front of the property read: Eden Smith.

'Aha!' The lady exclaimed, 'This is it!' She turned to Mai, and grasped her hands fondly and the younger lady was a bit taken aback by the sudden action, but she smiled softly at her all the same.


Mai was staring absent-mindedly at the cherry tree when a hand gripped her on the shoulder.

'There's an emergency assembly, quick, come on.'

Before she could turn around, her fellow student had already sped off down the corridor. It was then that Mai came to attention and saw that the corridor was filled with people marching down to the gym room. Mai berated herself for staring off into space.

Upon entering the gymnasium, the first thing that she noticed was a stranger standing next to the head of the university. The university chancellor rarely showed herself, so Mai knew that this was serious. It would seem though, that rather than the appearance of the chancellor causing a stir, it was actually the sight of the outsider that was causing more of an uproar.

He appeared to be young, not much older than Mai herself, at most, she reckoned, he was two years her senior. The way that he commanded the attention of the people around him though made him seem older. He had dark, almost black hair that fell over his forehead and almost obscured his eyes which were a dark blue with hints of grey. His jaw was set in a serious manner and his expression did not look like a kind one. He was wearing a dark blue shirt, black trousers, a long black coat and dark brown Oxford shoes. Despite looking young, he seemed proud and the type of person that was sure of themselves. Mai wondered distractedly if he would have an ego problem.

In spite of her estimation of his character, Mai could hear her fellow female students chatting quietly amongst themselves as they looked back and forth to the university's mysterious guest. She realised she had made a valuation of the gentleman's character before he'd even opened his mouth.

'Hello students,' he stepped forwards, his shoes made a clack against the linoleum floor that served to make everyone pay rapt attention. He folded his hands behind his back and swept his gaze across the room. 'The reason why I have gathered you here today is in regards to the disappearance of Eden Smith.'

In response to this there were a few muttered gasps of shock and disbelief. Mai looked around herself, it seemed a few of the students here were familiar with Eden.

The man continued. 'I understand that Mrs. Smith quite often wanders into the campus grounds, she has dementia and it is not surprising that she consistently forgets these grounds are no longer open to the public. She has not been seen for two weeks.'

There were more audible gasps of shock from the students.

He continued on, unfazed. 'It is my understanding that when she walks into the grounds and loses her way, sometimes you students here at the university help her get back to her cottage. It is possible that one of you may have been the last person to see her before she disappeared. It is my task now to establish who that would have been. This is my first line of inquiry.'

From what Mai could understand, he was a private detective that had been hired by the family of Eden Smith to find out what had happened to the old lady. They were concerned due to her dementia, and nearly two weeks had passed without anyone hearing from her.

The detective, Mai later learned his name was Mr. Davis, had set up a room for interviewing students. Everyone who had seen or spoken to Eden within the last couple of weeks leading up to her disappearance were to speak to the detective and provide a statement.

Mai was the last person to be interviewed.

Upon entering the room, Mr. Davis had set up one of the desks for the purpose of conducting interviews. He had a notebook open in front of him, with chicken scratches scrawled all over. Without looking up a command of 'sit' was issued to Mai. She felt her fists clench involuntarily. There was something about his attitude that she did not like, but she was also aware that it could well be the result of her own prejudice. As she wanted to assist in finding Eden, and was worried about the older lady, this was a prejudice she endeavoured to try to push aside.

Mai sat down on the chair and dug her nails into the soft padding of her thumb. Even though she had only met the lady once she was worried about her.

'When did you last see Mrs. Smith?' He asked this without even looking up.

'I think it was around the middle of April.'

'Middle of April, is far too vague for the likes of my investigation. You will need to narrow it down.'

Mai could feel her cheeks heating up slightly, but she fought to maintain her temper. She cast her mind back, pulling out her phone to aid her. 'It was a Friday,' she mused, 'I remember that.' She pulled up her calendar. 'Friday the 17th.'

'Friday the 17th April.' The detective wrote this down in his notebook and seemed to be comparing something for a puzzled expression drew upon his face and pulled his lips into a concerned frown. 'Eden Smith was reported missing on Sunday 19th as she was supposed to arrive at her niece's house up country on the Saturday. She was never seen to arrive, and was subsequently reported missing on the 19th.' He seemed to take a pause and finally looked up.

'What's your name?'

'Mai, sir.'

'Well, Mai, it would seem that you may have been one of the last people to see her before she disappeared. I will need you to give me a full account.'

'… Have you tried to speak to her nephew?'

'Is your last name Taniyama?'

Mai nodded.

'I believe your uncle is a police officer?'

'Yes sir, he is. I am studying criminology here.'

'My name is Oliver Davis.' He leaned back in his chair and regarded her coolly. 'Explain why you think I should be talking to her nephew.'

'When I saw Eden in April, it was the first time I'd actually spoken to her, but I remember distinctly that she mentioned that her nephew had come down to look after her. He wasn't around at the time when she wandered into the campus grounds, she said he may have been working, but could not remember what line of work he was in. That fits in with the dementia really.'

Oliver Davis cocked an eyebrow. 'Interesting.'

By the time Mai had finished giving her account to the detective, it was already getting late in the day. Mai walked out of the room and out of habit, walked over to the window and gazed at the cherry tree. The late afternoon sun warmed her arms even through the pane of glass and Mai watched as the light filtered through the trees and caught on the petals as the wind rustled them gently. Mai watched as a red petal filtered down through the pink petals. She rubbed her eyes, and looked again, but the red petal was gone.

Mai turned to the detective as he packed up, threw on his coat and prepared to leave. 'I wish you the best of luck in solving this case.'

He smirked at her. 'I solve every case. I don't need luck to do so.'

Mai could feel her anger building. 'God, you're infuriating!'

Oliver Davis raised an eyebrow to go along with his smirk. 'Work hard and maybe one day, you'll be a somewhat half decent police officer. I would advise you to do something about your temper in the meantime though.'

Mai cursed at his back as she watched him walk away.


A couple of days later Mai was heading to the local police station in town. Her uncle, in his rush, had forgotten to take his lunch with him. So, Mai, being the dutiful niece, she was, was doing him the favour of taking it to his office.

Sat upon a bench nearby she spotted someone she recognised. The detective, from before was sat with his ankle crossed over one knee a cup of tea in one hand, a copy of the local newspaper in the other. She sat down next to him.

He took one look at her, smirked, and wordlessly handed her the paper. The article on the first page ran as follows:

*Eighty-seven-year-old woman stabbed to death by nephew. Eden Smith's nephew, Matthew Daniels charged with the crime. Mrs. Smith's remains were excavated from underneath a cherry tree on the university campus. Mrs. Smith's body was found, gagged and bound, and she had twelve stab wounds to her chest and back. Mr. Daniels DNA was found under her fingernails. The day that she died, Mrs. Smith had gone to finalise her will. According to her lawyer, she had left everything to her other relatives; Mr Daniels, was left with nothing. Mrs. Smith had a very large inheritance left to her by her late husband. Mr. Daniels had been encouraging Mrs. Smith, and gas lighting her, in the months leading up to her death, to try to convince her to leave him everything. Mrs. Smith changed her will at the last moment, her lawyer confirms, and the fact he was left with nothing drove Mr. Daniels into a frenzy. Mr. Daniels has since made a full confession.*

Mai looked up at Oliver Davis, she could feel tears brimming in her eyes. He met her gaze with a grim expression.

'As far as I was aware, Mrs. Smith was living in that house on her own. It was only when you mentioned that she had confided in you that her nephew was looking after her that I looked further into it.' He took a long sip of tea.

'The rest of Eden's family live further up country, but they had been trying to work out how someone could care for Eden. Seems Matthew was the sort of black sheep of the family, and they were a bit surprised when he had agreed to look over Eden. He also hadn't been heard from in a couple of weeks, and I checked the cottage, but there was no trace of anything there. He had cleaned the place with a haunting precision.'

Oliver stretched his back. 'Once we had unearthed the body, it only took a day's work to locate his whereabouts, and he made a full confession of the crime immediately.'

'God, that's so terrible. How could he just throw her mangled corpse under the cherry tree like that?!'

Oliver shrugged. 'It is a horrible affair. Some people in this world are incredibly cruel. Working methodically towards the solution, keeping your feelings to one side, is a skill to master, if you ever wish to work in this field.' He stood up. 'We're getting towards the end of May, your exams must be coming up soon, good luck.'

'T-Thank you,' Mai was surprised to hear him wish her good luck, but she was grateful all the same. As she watched him leave, she remembered why she had come in this direction in the first place. She scurried over to the police station, and as the automated doors swung open in front of her, she cast a look over her shoulder, but the detective was out of sight.

A/N I hope you enjoyed, please review and let me know what you thought :)