Hyouka - Volume 03 - The Kudryavka Sequence - Welcome to KANYA FESTA! (1)

Originally, I would not have been able to seek out the truth using my
database alone. However, right now, in order to be able to look up to my
friend's eyes, I decided to mimic him. I am well aware of how shameful this
is. All this talk about how this is to "promote the name of the Classics Club,"
that's all just an excuse.
That I understand very well.
Well, even a grade school student would be able to come up with excuses like
that.
Now then.
The potential suspects for the phantom thief "Juumoji" are numerous. As
expected from Houtarou's sharp observation, "How many people do you
think have entered and left the school grounds during the Cultural Festival?
And that's not counting that we have nearly a thousand students."
This kind of scenario is often found not just in detective novels, but also in
real life investigations as well. This is true even for a small scale crime. In
order to pinpoint the identity of the culprit, we must first narrow down the
suspects.
From within the six billion people in this world, suspects would be narrowed
down by first investigating into details like travel patterns or personal
circumstances. For example, if there were a murder within a mountain
mansion that was surrounded by mountain fire, the killer would no doubt be
someone within the mansion (provided no one heard any helicopter taking
off). If a rich young lady gets killed in her holiday retreat, then the killer
would be someone who went to the retreat with her. Going along these
patterns, the culprit could be narrowed down to around a dozen, by which we
could begin investigating their alibis.
However, the "Juumoji" incident was different.