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May 22, 2024 10:10
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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HerpicleOmnicron5 did you ever buy that published version? If so, wanna post the ending here as I don't think OP is coming back at this point?
Otherwise I can do it, it's not a particularly expensive book.
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Oct 25, 2020 10:43
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Alright, so the book doesn't actually come out here until 3rd December.
I'll preorder it on Kindle and post up when I have the copy.
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Oct 25, 2020 18:41
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Good news: Kindle edition came out earlier than expected! I'm reading through it now. This is your chance to reread the thread if, like me, you want to remind yourself of the story so far.
E: lol I just noticed this:
Okay wow, sorry for the delay! Truth is I lost a lot of progress last month and haven't had the motivation to redo it. But anyway here I am now with a decent buffer on content! Take this as a promise that the project ain't dead. And here's the schedule for the rest of the updates:
11/11 actually tomorrow - Ch.10 part 2
11/15 - Rest of ch.10 + ch.11
11/22 - Ch.12
11/25- Epilogue
Seems fitting to post the next instalment on Sunday, exactly a year after Mr. Steak promised to do so.
EE: I've now caught up with the book and started transcribing. Rather than post the rest of chapter 10 and all of chapter 11 on Sunday, I'm going to post the remainder of chapter 10 now, as it contains a really interesting revelation that people may want to chew over.
Chapter 11 will follow on Sunday as planned.
Maugrim fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Nov 13, 2020
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Nov 13, 2020 10:00
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Chapter 10, part 3 posted:"Who are those three?" the inspector asked a nearby police officer. He had just returned from inspecting the crime scene over on Horned Island.
He had been told by a local estate agent, Tatsumi Masa'aki, the person currently in charge of the building on the island, that students from K University had been staying in the burnt-down Decagon House. They were friends of his nephew and he had given them permission to stay there a week, starting last Wednesday.
Tatsumi had a list of names of the club members who had gone to the island and the police used that list to make enquiries at the university and to contact family. Some of the students had been living away from their parents' homes, in boarding houses, so not all the families had been tracked down. Still, they had managed to identify bodies to the point that they now had a good idea of which corpse belonged to which victim. The inspector had also started to question the families of the deceased, but had obtained little useful information from any of them.
"Eh? Which three?" the officer replied, and the portly inspector pointed towards the window.
"Those three over there."
"Oh, they're friends of the deceased from the same university club. They've been waiting all afternoon to ask about the case."
"I see."
The inspector cocked his large head. The two younger men were leaning against the window and talking. Next to them stood a lanky man in his thirties looking out of the window, his back to the police.
The inspector pulled his hands from his coat pockets and walked over to the three men.
"Excuse me. You're members of the same club as the deceased students?"
The two younger men looked up quickly.
"I'm from the police. I'm--"
"Ah, hard at work, I see." The lanky man, who had been looking outside, turned around. The inspector clicked his tongue.
"I had a feeling your back looked awfully familiar."
"What a coincidence. I was hoping it would be you, though."
"Mr Shimada, do you know this man?" one of the young men asked in surprise.
"I told you I knew people in the police, right, Konan? Let me introduce Police Inspector Shimada Osamu of the First Investigation Division of the Prefectural Police."
"Shimada? Ah, so you're?--"
"As you have correctly guessed, this man here is the second son of our temple family."
"Aha."
Inspector Shimada coughed loudly once and glared at the nonchalant face of his younger brother, whose physique was the complete opposite of his own.
"And what are you doing here?"
"I've been with these two here all this last week, for a certain reason. It's a long story, so I'll just keep it to myself."
Shimada Kiyoshi then turned to the two younger men.
"This is Morisu, a member of the K University Mystery Club, and this is Kawaminami, an ex-member."
"Hm."
Inspector Shimada turned to the two with a perplexed expression.
"I'm Inspector Shimada. These are really very tragic circumstances to meet under," said the policeman formally as he dropped into a chair nearby. "Mystery... So detective fiction, I assume? A club for that, eh? Hm. I used to read mystery fiction a lot when I was young, too. What do you usually do at your club?"
"We have a reading circle for mostly mystery novels and some of us write," said Morisu, as a plain-clothes policeman arrived and gave the inspector a report several pages long. He flipped through it and nodded.
"It's the report from the medical examiner," he said to the two young men. "Just a preliminary one though. A thorough examination will be held later."
"If it's not against regulations, could you perhaps tell us more?" Kawaminami asked. "I want to know everything, no matter how insignificant it might seem."
The inspector glanced at his brother and pursed his lips.
"This guy will just come and pester me later anyway, so I suppose I might as well tell you myself."
"Thanks."
"Based on the bodies - all of them in bad shape - it appears that all of the deceased, except for one, were already dead before the fire. Very likely homicide. The remaining person actually died in the fire, burnt to death, but that one appears to be suicide. He had doused himself in kerosene and the fire probably also started in his room. We can't say for sure, but this man might have killed everybody and then committed suicide. Please keep this information to yourself. His name was..." The inspector stared at the report in his hands. "Ah yes, Matsu'ura. Matsu'ura Junya. You know him, of course?"
Morisu and Kawaminami gasped and nodded.
"Was it really suicide?" Shimada Kiyoshi asked in a rather surprised tone of voice. The inspector wrinkled his nose and scowled at his brother.
"I just told you we can't say for certain at the moment. I'm still waiting for the reports with more details on the causes of death of the other victims."
He turned back to the two young men.
"What kind of person was this Matsu'ura Junya? I'd like to hear what you think of him."
"What kind of person?" It was Morisu who answered. "He would have been in his fourth year at the faculty of law this April. Excellent grades, intelligent and eloquent, but he could be a bit peculiar."
"Thanks. And another question, Morisu."
"Yes?"
"Was this visit to Horned Island some sort of Mystery Club trip?"
"I guess 'trip' might be the right word. But it wasn't an official activity of the Mystery Club."
"Then I assume they were a group of particularly close friends within your club?"
"Yes. Well, yeah. They got along quite well, I think."
The same officer returned and whispered something in Inspector Shimada's ear.
"OK. Got it."
The inspector stuck both hands in his coat pockets and slowly got up out of his chair.
"I have some other business to attend to now, but I think I might need to meet with the remaining members of your club in the near future. Kawaminami, if you could make it, I'd like you to come along, too, as an ex-member."
"I understand," replied Kawaminami obediently.
"Well then, goodbye."
The inspector gave his brother a glance and started to walk away, but then turned back to Morisu and Kawaminami as if he had suddenly remembered something.
"Suppose this Matsu'ura Junya is indeed responsible for all this, do you have any ideas about a motive?"
"Hmm," answered Morisu, cocking his head. "I just can't believe it. To think that Ellery would do that."
"Who?"
"Oh, I'm talking about Matsu'ura. Ellery was something like his nickname."
"Ellery... Anything to do with that writer, Ellery Queen?"
"Yes. It's a bit of a club tradition. Members go by the names of famous foreign mystery writers."
"Oh, all members?"
"No. Just a select group."
"All of those who went to Horned Island were members with nicknames like that," explained Kawaminami. An interested twinkle appeared in Inspector Shimada's eyes.
"Kawaminami, did you also have a strange name like that when you were in the club?"
"Well, yes."
"What was your nickname?"
"It is a bit embarrassing. I was Doyle. Konan Doyle."*
The inspector laughed.
"Haha, one of the masters. Then I guess that Morisu here is Maurice Leblanc?" the inspector asked, amused.
Morisu frowned slightly and muttered a "no".
A self-deprecating smile appeared on his lips for a brief moment; then, with downcast eyes, in a low voice, he answered:
"I'm Van Dine."
Wait, what?
*The ebook spells Konan as Conan throughout. I've retained Mr. Steak's names/spellings where there are discrepancies - e.g. the book actually calls Horned Island by its Japanese name, Tsunojima.
Maugrim fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Nov 14, 2020
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Nov 13, 2020 23:23
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Because Van was one of the last two people alive on the island.
Maugrim fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Nov 14, 2020
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Nov 14, 2020 01:32
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Chapter 11. The Seventh Day
Tuesday, 1st April 1986. From the morning edition of the A newspaper.
quote:
ANOTHER MASSACRE AT THE DECAGON HOUSE ON HORNED ISLAND
In the early morning of 31st March, the bodies of six university students were discovered in the ruins of the burnt-down Decagon House on Horned Island, S Town, Oita Prefecture. The students were staying there.
All six deceased were students of K University: Yamasaki Yoshifumi (age 22, 4th-yr Medical), Suzuki Tetsurou (22, 3rd-yr Law), Matsu'ura Junya (21, 3rd-yr Law), Iwasaki Youko (21, 3rd-yr Pharmacy), Ouno Yumi (20, 2nd-yr Literature) and Higashi Hajime (20, 2nd-yr Literature). They had been scheduled to stay in Decagon House for one week from Wednesday, 26th March.
Investigations have revealed the possibility that five of the six deceased were murdered before the fire broke out. The massacre and subsequent fire are considered to surpass even the quadruple murder that occurred last September in the Blue Mansion on the same island and [...]
From the evening edition of the A newspaper (same day):
quote:
BODY DISCOVERED IN CELLAR OF DECAGON HOUSE
[...] Subsequent investigations have led to the discovery of a further body: that of a man who met with an unnatural death in a room beneath Decagon House.
The remains are partly skeletal, with time of death estimated at four to six months ago. Age at death is estimated at mid-forties. Wounds suggest the man was beaten on the head.
The existence of the underground room was discovered after the fire. It has been suggested that the body is that of the missing gardener, Yoshikawa Sei'ichi (46), who disappeared after the incident on the island in September of last year. Efforts to identify [...]
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A short update, as noted. Only one really important detail that I can tell - which I'll mention here for those who have forgotten: it says there were only six bodies found on the island, but seven students went there at the start of the book. There is no mention of anyone being missing.
Chapter 12 has seven parts. I'll aim to post one a day over the coming week, followed by the epilogue.
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Nov 15, 2020 16:16
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Here we go! Chapter 12!
Part 1 explains the motive, if it wasn't obvious by now. I've spoilered the whole thing for obvious reasons; if you've just found this thread and have jumped to the end, I highly recommend not reading the below, and starting from the beginning!
Chapter 12 posted:
The Eighth Day
1
The large campus of K University cuts through the side of a mountain and spreads out extensively in a peculiar shape. In one corner of the campus stands the Box, a two-floor reinforced concrete building housing the circles and clubs officially sanctioned by the university. It was the second day after the six bodies had been discovered on Horned Island. On the afternoon of Wednesday, 2nd April, ten or so members assembled in the Mystery Club's room on the first floor.
Two conference tables had been crammed into the disorderly room. The students sat around them, packed close together. Among them was also ex-member Kawaminami. Shimada Kiyoshi, the younger brother of the inspector in charge of the investiation, was not present.
Maybe he is trying to be considerate. Or maybe he has something else to attend to? Morisu Kyouichi felt slightly anxious, but quickly got over it.
It doesn't matter, he knows nothing. He hasn't noticed anything and won't, either.
Inspector Shimada arrived with two officers, slightly later than scheduled.
He frowned at the smell of cigarettes lingering in the room, recognized Morisu and Kawaminami and greeted them heartily. Then he turned to the whole group.
"I appreciate you all coming here today. My name is Shimada."
After a formal introduction, he sat down in the seat reserved for him.
After all the club members had introduced themselves, the inspector explained the outline of the incident. He then moved in a leisurely manner to the main issue, periodically looking up from the notebook in his hands to the faces of the students.
"I'll repeat the names of the six who died on Horned Isl;and once more. Yamasaki Yoshifumi, Suzuki Tetsurou, Matsu'ura Junya, Iwasaki Youko, Ouno Yumi and Higashi Hajime. I am sure you all knew them well."
The faces of the six appeared in order in Morisu's mind as he listened to the inspector. Poe, Carr, Ellery, Agatha, Orczy and Leroux.
"Of these six, five are thought to have already died by the time the fire broke out. Ouno and Higashi were strangled and beaten to death respectively. Yamasaki, Suzuki and Iwasaki were likely poisoned. The last person, Matsu'ura, was still alive when the fire broke out. It appears he doused the room and himself in kerosene and committed suicide."
"So Matsu'ura murdered the other five and then committed suicide?" asked one of the members.
"That's what appears to have happened. As for how he would have obtained the poison thought to have been used on the three victims: Matsu'ura's relatives own a big pharmacy in O City and he often visited them. So that would explain it. We are working on that assumption for the moment.
"But we have been unable to find a motive. That is why I asked you to come here today. I hope you'll be able to help me."
"Could it have been someone else?"
"Very unlikely."
Morisu almost sighed with relief on hearing the inspector's answer.
"First of all, everything points to Matsu'ura Junya having committed suicide. Furthermore, the five others were murdered in different ways at different times. One of them had died more than three days earlier and each of them died under different circumstances. They say that even fishing boats rarely go out to the sea around Horned Island, and I think it highly unlikely someone would have taken a boat to the island to commit a massacre lasting several days."
"But Inspector," interruped Kawaminami. "Nakamura Seiji is thought to have been murdered and burnt to death under similar circumstances in the incident in the Blue Mansion last year."
"Well, there are all kinds of strange circumstances tied up with that case." The inspector shot him a sharp glance. "At the time, the disappearance of the gardener caused us to suspect that Nakamura Seiji had been murdered. One person who should have been on the island wasn't there, so suspicion naturally fell on that person. We assumed he was the murderer.
"But now we have found a secret underground room beneath the burnt-down Decagon House with the body of a murdered man inside. I think it was in yesterday's newspaper. Based on the time of death, age and physique, we suspect it's the body of the gardener."
"Aha, I understand."
"So we were forced to change our assumptions about the Horned Island incident. We now suspect that Nakamura Seiji's death was a suicide by burning and that the whole tragedy was a murder-suicide carried out by him."
The inspector gave Morisu and Kawaminami a meaningful look.
"We got hold of some new facts that support this theory from a certain source."
Shimada Kiyoshi must have talked, thought Morisu.
But he had clearly stated he had no intention of passing any of the facts he knew, or the suspicions he had, on to the police. Morisu had believed him when he'd said that. Even if Shimada's own brother was a police officer. But that would mean that...
Was it Nakamura Koujirou who had talked?
"But anyway." Inspector Shimada looked at everyone in the room. "How many of you knew those six were going to the island?"
Morisu and Kawaminami raised their hands.
"Hmm, just the two of you. Do you know who came up with the plan to go to the island in the first place?"
"They had been talking about it for a while," answered Morisu. "And then, thanks to some connections, they managed to make the necessary arrangements."
"Connections, you say?"
"Yes. My uncle - his name is Tatsumi - is an agent handling a large variety of properties. He bought Decagon House from the previous owner. So I told them I could ask my uncle."
"Oh. Tatsumi Masa'aki, eh? So you're the nephew he was talking about. But you didn't want to go to the island yourself?"
"No. I didn't feel like going to a place where such a horrible tragedy had occurred just six months earlier. They all seemed happy about the trip, but I thought it distasteful. And then there was the problem of the number of rooms."
"Number of rooms? But there were seven guest rooms?"
"Practically speaking, there were only six rooms. You can ask my uncle, but one of the rooms was not in a usable state. Rainwater had ruined it completely."
There was nothing in that room except for some built-in shelves and some old pieces of furniture in need of repair. The room was covered in stains and the ceiling looked as if it might fall down at any moment. And one part of the floor had rotted away, leaving a hole.
"I see. And who of those six was the - how do you call it - organizer of the trip?"
"I told Leroux about the house - sorry, I mean Higashi. Because he was scheduled to become the new editor-in-chief - basically the leader of the club. But he also asked Matsu'ura for advice."
"So Higashi and Matsu'ura."
"Yes, that's correct."
"Besides their own luggage, I saw they had food, blankets and other stuff with them. How did they arrange that?"
"I helped with transporting the supplies my uncle had prepared for them. I had a fisherman's boat help me bring the stuff to the island the day before their arrival."
"Hmm, I shall need to check that out as a matter of routine, of course."
Rubbing his flabby cheek, the inspector turned his gaze upon the whole group once more.
"Does anyone here have an idea what Matsu'ura's motive could have been for committing these murders?"
Voices started to murmur. Morisu joined the discussion too, but he was thinking of something else.
A fair face.
A fragile body that would break if hugged too strongly.
Long black hair gliding down her neck.
Thin eyebrows, always with an expression of embarrassment. Almond eyes, turned away in sadness.
A small mouth with a little smile. A frail voice like that of a kitten.
Chiori.
Timidly avoiding the eyes of other people, the two of them had loved each other. Silently, but deeply.
Oh, Chiori, Chiori, Chiori...
He had not told anyone of this, not any member of the club, nor his friends, and neither had she. It was not because he was hiding it, nor was he embarrassed about it. It was simply because both of them were afraid. Afraid that the tiny cosmos they shared with each other would shatter if anyone knew about it.
But all of it was suddenly crushed that fateful day. That night in January last year. It was evident that those six had robbed her of her life.
If only I had been at Chiori's side to the end...
How often had he blamed himself, chastised himself. And how deeply he hated those six who had been there.
He had lost his father, his mother and his little sister in the past in the same way. Without any warning, the selfish, cruel hands of unknown persons had taken the warmth that was his family away to a place he could never reach. And just when he had finally found someone to love in Chiori, that night had come.
It was not an accident.
She was not a girl to drink irresponsibly. She knew her heart was weak. Intoxicated and helpless, she was forced to carry on drinking.
She was killed by them.
She was killed.
"Morisu," asked Kawaminami from the adjacent seat.
"Uh, yes?"
"What about the letters?"
"Hmm? What's that?" Inspector Shimada asked when he heard what the two were talking about.
"Actually, that's something we forgot to tell you last time," Kawaminami replied as the took the envelope with the letter out of his pocket. "This was delivered on the day the group went to the island. Morisu and I each got one."
"A letter from Nakamura Seiji?"
"Y-yes."
"Both of you got one?"
The inspector took the envelope from Kawaminami and checked the contents.
"The exact same letter was delivered to the homes of all of the victims - including Matsu'ura," he said.
"Could it be related to what happened on the island?" asked Kawaminami.
"I couldn't really say," replied the inspector. "But it might well have been just an unrelated prank. I mean, it was signed by a dead man."
Inspector Shimada gave a wry smile, showing his yellow teeth.
Morisu joined in with a chuckle, but he was silently reaching back into his memories.
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Nov 16, 2020 14:44
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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I agreed with your guess, but it was clearly a clever misdirection on the writer's part!
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Nov 16, 2020 16:31
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Chapter 12, part 2 details the murderer's preparations prior to when the story begins. Italics are the book's, not mine.
Chapter 12 posted:
2
He had known that Nakamura Seiji was Chiori's father even before she had told him. He had also heard that Seiji was living a somewhat peculiar live on a little island called Horned Island off the coast of S Town. More than six months had passed since losing Chiori, in which he spent his days as a half-invalid, filled with unrelenting sadness and anger. He was shocked when, one autumn day, he heard how Chiori's parents living on Horned Island had met their tragic death. He could not have imagined at the time that this case would help him release his own frustrated anger in the future.
Confronting the six men and women who had driven Chiori to her death was constantly on his mind. But he would not be content with just accusing them, shouting in their faces that they had killed Chiori. He had been robbed of someone irreplaceable, someone he had needed in order to live. They had stolen her from him.
The only thing he wanted was revenge. But he had only been able to channel this feeling into a concrete plan - for murder - when he learnt that his uncle, Tatsumi Masa'aki, had purchased Horned Island.
The Blue Mansion on Horned Island, where Chiori had been born. The tragedy with her parents. Six sinners who would go tot he island just to satisfy their own curiosity. This mental image fuelled his urge to purge them, to paint a brand-new picture without the existence of those six.
He had first thought about killing all six of them on Horned Island and then dying there as well. But that would have meant burying himself among those sinners, as though he were one of them.
He needed to pass judgement upon them. Revenge in the name of judgement.
After long contemplation, he settled on a plan.
A plan to kill all six of them on the island, but also a plan where he would stay safe and alive.
He fired the first shot in early March, certain his prey would walk into his trap.
"My uncle just bought Horned Island. If you'd like to visit and stay in Decagon House, I could ask him. How about it?"
Naturally, they swallowed the bait.
After it was all settled, he took responsibility for the preparations. He selected the days of their stay based on their schedules and the long-term weather forecast.
For his plans to succeed, he absolutely needed days with clear weather and calm seas. Luckily, the forecast for late March didn't show any bad weather. It was risky to bet on forecasts, but he could always just cancel the trip on the day itself if the conditions weren't right.
And so a one-week trip was agreed upon, starting on 26th March.
He prepared bedding, food and other necessary supplies. He rented bedding for six persons. He was very careful to make the six think he was going to the island with them, while leaving the impression with everyone else that only six people were going and he wasn't one of them.
He wrote nine letters under the name Nakamura Seiji. The letters had two purposes.
The first was naturally "accusation". He wanted to let someone, anyone, know that those people had murdered a girl called Nakamura Chiori. As for their second purpose, the "letters from the dead" were the perfect bait to get Kawaminami Taka'aki moving.
Sending one of those letters with Nakamura Seiji's name to Nakamura Koujirou had been a strategic move on his part, anticipating that Kawaminami would eventually pay him a visit. He knew Kawaminami very well. Receiving the letter, he would go sniffing around and finally turn to him, Morisu, for advice. Morisu was expecting him. Even if he had to contact Kawaminami himself, the strange letters going around would be the perfect excuse.
He used a word processor, which was available for student use in a laboratory at the university, to type the letters. He also made two sets of the murder-announcement plates with materials he bought at a supermarket.
On Tuesday, 25th March, the day before their departure, he posted the nine letters in O City, went to S Town and took the supplies over to the island in a fisherman's boat he had reserved in advance. He then returned to S Town, lied to his uncle that he was going to Kunisaki and borrowed his uncle's car. In the boot, he had prepared a rubber dinghy with an outboard motor, a cylinder with compressed air, cans of petrol and other items.
His uncle used the boat for fishing. He had secretly taking it out of the storage in the back of the garage, but as his uncle only used it in season, between summer and autumn, there was no fear of him finding out.
Few people make their way to the other side of the J Cape, even during the day. After hiding the boat and cylinder in some bushes near the shore, he returned the car after enough time had passed. He lied about his plans once more to his uncle, saying he was going back to O City that night and would go to Kunisaki again tomorrow. In truth he only went to O City to get his motorbike and return to J Cape in the middle of the night.
It takes about ninety minutes for a car to travel from O City to J Cape in the afternoon. But you can make it in less than an hour if you go fast on a 250cc motorbike at night. And with an off-road bike, you can also cut across the empty fields and thickets next to the roads. He hid the bike in some woods near the shore, covering it with a brown sheet, so there was no need to fear someone would find it.
Next, he set up the boat he had hidden and changed into a wetsuit. And so it was that, by the light of the moon and the unnamed J Cape lighthouse, a lone figure made its way across the sea towards Horned Island.
The wind wasn't strong, but it was terribly cold. The visibility was bad at night, too. He had borrowed the boat several times in the past and was used to handling it, but because of his bad state of health, the trip proved to be much harder than he had expected.
As for why he was in a bad state of health, he had not drunk any water since the day before. His plan called for him to abstain from consuming water.
It took about thirty minutes from J Cape to Horned Island.
He landed on the rocky area. He needed to hide the boat here. He folded it up and used a rope to tie it into a bundle, together with the air cylinder and the outboard motor, which he had first wrapped in a waterproof cloth and then sealed inside a plastic bag. He then placed the package underwater between the rocks, where it would not be directly exposed to the waves, and weighed it down with a big stone. He also tied the package to a rock to stop it from floating away. Finally, he hid some reserve petrol cans among the rocks there, just as he had on the other side in the thickets of J Cape.
With a large torch hanging from his shoulder, he made his way beneath the moonlight to the Decagon House. He took the room to the left of the entrance - the room with water damage and no furniture - as his own. He slept in a sleeping bag he had brought there in the afternoon.
And so the trap to catch the sinners was set.
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Nov 17, 2020 12:29
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Chapter 12, part 3 starts really getting into the details.
Chapter 12 posted:
3
The next day, 26th March, the six arrived.
They didn't suspect anything. They knew there would be no way to contact the mainland, no matter what happened on on the island during the week. Even so, they showed no signs of anxiety and were all enjoying their adventure.
That night, he retreated to his room early, saying he wasn't feeling well because of a cold. This was the reason he had not been drinking any water.
He knew that the symptoms of mild dehydration resembled that of a cold. He couldn't have just faked an illness. That wouldn't have fooled Poe, who was studying to be a doctor. On the other hand, any suspicion about him would disappear if Poe examined him and declared him to be ill.
Leaving the cheerful chattering behind him, he changed into his wetsuit, put everything he needed in a knapsack and sneaked out of the window. He went down to the rocky area, set his boat up and went back over to J Cape in the night. Then he raced his motorbike back to O City, returning to his own room around eleven.
He was exhausted of course, but the crucial part of the plan was only just beginning.
He made a phone call to Kawaminami. He needed him as a witness to the fact he was in O City.
There was no reply, but if Kawaminami was going around investigating as planned, then he was sure to call on Morisu eventually. He might even have called for him several times already. If so, Kawaminami would probably ask where Morisu had been, but he had prepared an excuse for such an eventuality. The painting.
He had prepared it to prove what he was doing on the mainland, while the six were on the island. The painting of the stone Buddhas. Or, to be precise, paintings, plural. He had made three paintings.
One was a charcoal sketch that he had only started to colour. In another, he had applied colour to the whole painting with a palette knife. And the third was a finished article. The three paintings were all of the same scene, of course.
It was a scene he had come across last autumn, when he had been wandering around with a broken heart and happened to arrive in the mountains of the Kunisaki Peninsula.
From memory he prepared three paintings in different stages, changing the colours of the light and vegetation to those of early spring.
He put the earliest stage of the painting on the easel as he looked at the letter he had sent to himself, waiting for Kawaminami's call. If he didn't manage to get in contact with Kawaminami, he would need to find a different "witness". He tried to quell the restless anxiety lurking in his feverish mind.
Near midnight, the phone finally rang.
Kawaminami had taken the bait according to plan. He said he had gone to the home of Nakamura Koujirou in Kannawa that day. Morisu had felt slightly uneasy about the appearance of Shimada Kiyoshi, however, the man Kawaminami had met in Kannawa.
He decided it would be better to have more witnesses. But he couldn't have someone sticking their nose in too much. When they asked Morisu to join their little detective game, that was just what he had been hoping for.
Fortunately the two were focusing on the past rather than the present, so at least he didn't have to worry about them following the six to the island. To suggest as strongly as possible to the pair that he was part of the investigation, he used the phrase "armchair detective", saying he would play that role in their group. After telling them that he would be going to Kunisaki the next day, he asked them to call again that night. His suggestion that they visit Yoshikawa Masako in Ajimu was designed to distract them from the current events on Horned Island.
After the two had left, he slept for a while. Before dawn he rode his motorbike back to J Cape again and hurried to Horned Island in the boat he had left tied up at the coast.
Returning to Decagon House, he made sure nobody was out in the main hall and arranged the plastic boards on the table.
What were those boards for?
Did he wish for them to reflect on what it meant to become a "victim"? Was he bound to some sort of weird sense of duty, thinking it would be unfair if he did not announce their "punishments" in advance? Or perhaps he simply relished the irony of these pretend detectives becoming real victims. The answer his twisted mind had come up with was a combination of those three reasons.
*
The second night, he managed to retreat into his room even earlier than the night before. There was a tricky moment when Carr accused him of being behind the plates, just as he was leaving the hall, but he managed to get out of that.
He was suffering badly from dehydration by now. Before he put on his wetsuit, he drank all of the water in the jug Agatha had given him to take with the medicine, leaving not a single drop. He was not planning to make any trips to the mainland after the third day, so he wouldn't need any more excuses for going to bed early. He needed to rehydrate and restore his health as quickly as possible.
The trip from Horned Island to O City was even harder than the night before. At many points he felt like giving up on his plan halfway through. Looking back, it was a mystery how all that energy could have been stored inside that dehydrated body.
After returning to his room on the mainland, his first thought had been to rehydrate further. Even after Kawaminami and Shimada had arrived and started discussing the case, he still continued to drink several cups of tea.
He had no intention of returning to O City from the next day on, so, after performing his role of armchair detective, he acted dismissively towards their plans. He declared that he was withdrawing from their investigation, thus making sure they would not try to reach him again.
The harsh words he had spewed against Shimada did, however, reflect his true feelings. He was truly angry when he discovered they were digging around in to the circumstances surrounding Chiori's birth.
Just as on the previous day, he returned to the island before dawn. He went back to his room in the Decagon House, where he calmed his anger in the darkness.
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Nov 18, 2020 11:47
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Where did he store the boat on the island?
That was described in detail in part 2:
quote:
He landed on the rocky area. He needed to hide the boat here. He folded it up and used a rope to tie it into a bundle, together with the air cylinder and the outboard motor, which he had first wrapped in a waterproof cloth and then sealed inside a plastic bag. He then placed the package underwater between the rocks, where it would not be directly exposed to the waves, and weighed it down with a big stone. He also tied the package to a rock to stop it from floating away.
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Nov 18, 2020 17:52
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Chapter 12 part 4 - time to start murderin'!
As always, MASSIVE MASSIVE spoilers if you haven't read the book/thread yet.
Chapter 12 posted:
4
There were several reasons for choosing Orczy as his first victim.
First of all, it was something like an act of mercy. If she died early, she would be spared the subsequent fear and panic that would affect the other five.
Orczy had been good friends with Chiori. There was something about that girl, always looking away, that resembled his love. Orczy had also probably not actively contributed to the murder of Chiori. She had been a mere onlooker. But even so, that didn't mean he would exclude her from his revenge.
Another important reason was the golden ring he had seen on the middle finger of Orczy's left hand.
He had never before seen Orczy wear a ring on her finger. That is why he had noticed it. It was the ring he had once given Chiori for her birthday.
He remembered Orczy's tear-filled eyes at Chiori's funeral. She had probably been given the ring as a memento.
If she had been such close friends with Chiori, she might also know that Horned Island was Chiori's home. She might even have known about his and Chiori's relationship.
His initials and Chiori's had been carved on the inside of the ring. "MK & NC". Even if Chiori hadn't told Orczy about it, she might have noticed the engraving in the ring after Chiori's death. Once the murders on the island had actually started, there was a good chance she would figure out the motive and the identity of the murderer.
That's why he killed Orczy first. He had no other choice.
He sneaked out into the hall and went straight to Orczy's room. He'd kept it a secret from the others, but his uncle had given him the master key to all the doors in Decagon House. He used that to get inside her room. Being careful not to wake her, he quickly wrapped the cord around her neck and pulled it with all his strength.
Orczy's eyes opened wide and seemed about to pop out of her skull. Her mouth contorted. Her face lost colour before his eyes, her strength to fight back ebbed away. And finally she breathed her last. He arranged her body neatly simply because he felt sorry for her.
He tried to remove the ring from her finger. He wanted to keep it as a memento of Chiori, of course, but he was also afraid someone might notice the initials on the ring. But Orczy's fingers were swollen, perhaps because of the island's new environment she wasn't used to, and he could not get the ring off.
As long as the ring stayed on Orczy's finger, the initials weren't visible. But he couldn't just leave behind this precious memory he shared with Chiori.
He decided to use brute force and take the whole hand.
If he only cut off the middle finger, he'd be calling attention to the ring that had been there. Also, the act of cutting off the left hand would serve as an allusion to what happened in the Blue Mansion the year before. He thought that this connection might lead to interesting reactions. In the words of Shimada Kiyoshi, it would suggest the idea of Nakamura Seiji to the gang on the island.
Using the knife he'd prepared as one of his murder weapons, he managed, after a struggle, to cut off the hand from the body. He buried it behind the building for the moment. He would dig it up and take off the ring after everything was over.
To suggest the possibility that an outsider had done it, he unlocked both Orczy's window and her door. And then, the final touch. He took out the board with 'The First Victim' from the cupboard drawer in the kitchen and glued it to the door.
*
He'd smeared prussic acid on Agatha's lipstick the day before, in the afternoon of the second day, the 27th. The boards had already made their appearance on the stage, but nobody was acting very cautiously yet and he found a chance to sneak into her room.
He'd imagined his trap would yield results around the same time that Orczy's body was discovered. But he was in a hurry and he could only smear the poison on the one lipstick he found. His "time bomb" took much longer to go off than he'd expected.
The eleven-sided cup was next in line.
He'd discovered the existence of the strange cup the night everyone arrived on the island. He was handed it by chance, and realized he could use it.
On the morning of the second day, after arranging the plastic boards, he had taken the cup with him to his room. There were extra cups in the cupboard, so he took one out to replace the one with eleven sides.
The poison he had brought with him had been stolen from a laboratory at the science faculty. Prussic acid, potassium cyanide and arsenous acid. The poison he smeared on the cup was the odourless arsenous acid. At some time before dinner on the third day, he managed to switch the poisoned cup with one of the six cups set on the kitchen counter, unseen by the others, who were all still in shock.
There was a one-in-six probability he would end up with the eleven-sided cup, but he would simply not drink from it if that happened. It turned out that there was no need for that and Carr became "the Second Victim".
Carr died of poisoning in front of his very eyes. That was more visceral, more horrible than Orczy's death. He was committing a terrible crime. This realization made his heart ache. But there was no turning back now. He would need to set body and soul to it and cold-bloodedly and daringly complete his revenge.
The group finally split up before dawn. He waited until everyone had fallen asleep to sneak into Carr's room, cut off the left hand of the corpse and throw it in the bathtub. This was to stay consistent with his "allusion" and to camouflage the real reason for cutting off Orczy's hand. He then picked the plastic board with "The Second Victim" from his own spare set and glued it to the door.
Then he went to the ruins of the Blue Mansion.
He could still hear the words Ellery had spoken just before Carr collapsed: There might be an underground room there.
His uncle had told him about the underground room. The plastic tanks full of kerosene that he had transported to the island along with the other supplies on the fisherman's boat had been hidden there among the rubbish.
Ellery seemed to suspect someone was hiding down there. It was obvious he would go to look around.
Morisu wiped the floor with pine needles and left traces to suggest that someone had been living there. Next, he took some line from Poe's fishing gear and strung it across the staircase. As he had expected, Ellery got caught in his trap the following day.
Oh, foolish Ellery.
Ellery did indeed have an extremely sharp mind. But he was also unbelievably careless and stupid. Nobody who would cheerfully dive into a suspicious underground room without taking any precautions deserved the glorious title of "detective". Ellery got away without any serious injury, just a sprained ankle. But even if Morisu had silently hoped for a deadlier outcome, he had not seriously been expecting that adding to the body count would be such child's play.
One thing he had not anticipated was the situation with Agatha's lipstick. Watching her closely, he'd realized that the lipstick she was using was of a different colour from the one he had smeared poison on. If she was still unharmed the following day, he would need to think about taking other measures.
He became slightly anxious when Poe suggested they search all the rooms.
He had, of course, reckoned on such a possibility. The boards, glue and knife were hidden among the trees outside and he had buried the clothes that had been covered in blood when he cut off the hands. The tanks of kerosene were in the underground room and he was carrying the poison on his body. It was unlikely they would do a body search. The only thing left in his room was his wetsuit, but even if they saw that, he could just make up an excuse for it.
But he definitely did not want the others to know about the state of his room. He could just have said that he took the worst room because it was his responsibility as the one who arranged everything, but it would be better if they didn't find out. That's why he objected to Poe's suggestion at the time.
And that night, due to Agatha's hysterics, everyone went back to their rooms unexpectedly early. He had not planned to leave the island that night, but there was no reason for him to spend one whole night doing nothing. If he could go back to O City and meet up with Kawaminami, he could make sure his alibi was airtight.
He was feeling really ill. The cloudy sky worried him, but the weather forecast on the radio said there was little chance it would rain and that the waves were peaceful. He made up his mind to make his way to O City as he had done the previous two nights. First he went back to his own room. Then he set his canvas holder on his motorbike to make it appear he was on his way back from Kunisaki and only then headed over to Kawaminami's place.
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Nov 19, 2020 11:55
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Chapter 12 part 5 is a little later than usual because I wanted to finish my playthrough of The Witcher 3, begun in 2015. 285 hours total, and that's just the base game. What a ride.
Anyway!
Chapter 12 posted:
5
A light rain fell during the night, but it did not interfere with his plans and on the morning of the fifth day, 30th March, he managed to return to the island safely around the time the sky started to lighten.
He stopped the motor as he approached the rocky area and paddled to the coast. He had just tied the boat to a rock and was pulling it on to the shore when it happened. An unforeseen incident.
He heard a short cry and felt someone's eyes on his back. He looked up. Standing in the middle of the staircase, looking down at him with an alarmed expression, was Leroux.
I have been seen! I must kill him, Morisu thought instantly.
There was no time to think calmly about what the timid Leroux was doing there alone at that time of day. He might have seen the rope tied around the rock at some point, and now, thinking it suspicious, have come back to investigate. Anyway, Leroux had seen him. He probably hadn't figured it all out, but now he knew more than enough to work out what was going on.
Morisu picked up a stone from the ground and ran after Leroux as fast as he could.
He was in a panic, but Leroux was panicking even more. He stumbled over his own feet as he tried to run away and the distance between the two quickly shortened. Leroux cried out loudly for help from Decagon House. Morisu had almost caught up with him by then and threw the rock at the back of Leroux's head. It hit its target with a dull sound and Leroux fell forward. Morisu picked the rock up once more and aimed for the crack in Leroux's head again and again...
After making sure Leroux was dead, he hurried back to the rocky area. He had noticed the footprints, but he was in too much of a panic to handle that problem coolly. Someone might have heard Leroux's cries and be on their way over already, he feared.
He swiftly checked whether the footprints had any distinguishing characteristics. He saw nothing that could connect the footprints to any particular individual. They would only be inspected by amateurs, not the police, so leaving footprints like these should be fine. With that conclusion, he forgot about the problem of the footprints.
What he feared the most was that someone would come running down from the house. If his boat were seen, all would be over.
He first moved the boat away from the rocky area towards the inlet. There was plenty of room under the pier and the water surface, so he manoeuvred the boat there for the moment, then waited out of sight, listening. Nobody was up. He had been lucky.
He climbed onto the pier, folded the boat up and hid it in the boathouse. It was risky, but it would be even more risky to return to the rocky area.
He sneaked into the Decagon House and glued the board with "The Third Victim" on the door of Leroux's room. After that he finally managed to slip inside his sleeping bag.
His excited nerves only allowed him a light sleep. His whole body felt numb and tired. He felt sick to his stomach. Awoken by the alarm of his wristwatch, he left his room to drink some water and discovered Agatha's body. She had changed lipstick colours that morning.
He'd had enough of murders. He'd had enough of seeing corpses. He cried out in his heart. He lost control over himself and couldn't suppress the sudden urge to throw up. He knew that both his body and mind were at their limit.
But he couldn't just give up now. He couldn't run away.
In his mind, distorted by pain, flashed the face of his love who would never return.
He was sitting at the decagonal table together with the remaining two, Ellery and Poe. They were nearing the last act.
For Poe, the situation seemed to have taken at turn for the worse. Ellery denied he had been serious about it afterwards, but Poe was close to being fingered as the murderer.
Earlier, Morisu had thought his heart would stop beating when Ellery was so interested in the footprints at the scene of Leroux's murder. Don't panic. It should be OK. Don't panic, don't panic... he kept telling himself, as he fought the urge to throw up again. Then Ellery turned away and Morisu sighed with relief.
But now, as they sat round the table and the rain began to fall outside, it was clear Ellery hadn't forgotten the footprints at all.
Morisu began to worry that he might have made an oversight. Perhaps a fatal one. He ran after Ellery to the Blue Mansion and was told to memorize the footprints as they were. It was then that he realized his mistake. He cursed his own stupidity. It was all over, he thought.
As the number of victims grew, Morisu knew that the number of suspects would narrow and he had anticipated it would become more difficult for him to manoeuvre. He had some things prepared in case the situation called for him to take drastic measures. In the worst-case scenario, he might need to fight multiple people. He always carried a small knife in the pocket of his coat just in case.
As Ellery proceeded with his examination of the footprints, he thought several times of attacking Ellery and Poe there and then with the knife. But if he acted rashly and was taken down by them, the game would be up. At this point, he still couldn't be sure whether he would be accused or not.
Morisu felt the pressure rise as he listened to Ellery's clear voice outlining his theory, all the while thinking about how he could deal with his two opponents.
Thankfully Ellery's thoughts had gone off in another direction and reached the wrong conclusion. He thought the murderer was an outsider, not one of the three surviving Mystery Club members.
Ellery was thinking of Nakamura Seiji. He really believed that Seiji was still alive. Morisu had never thought that his suggestion of Nakamura Seiji would come back to protect him at such a crucial time.
His head cleared.
Ellery ran out of cigarettes and Poe passed his cigarette case to Ellery. Morisu decided that this was the perfect opportunity.
He quickly took a certain object out of his coat pocket. It was a small, thin box. Inside it was a single Lark cigarette that he had laced with potassium cyanide. He had been carrying this weapon around from the start, planning to use it on Poe if the chance arose.
He also said he wanted a cigarette and was passed the cigarette case. He made the switch underneath the table. He took out two cigarettes, put one of them in his mouth and the other in his pocket. Then he placed the poisoned cigarette in the cigarette case.
Poe was a heavy smoker, so he would probably smoke another one the moment he got the cigarette case back. There was a chance he wouldn't smoke and the cigarette case would be passed on again to Ellery, but it did not matter as long as one of them died. He could work out some way to deal with the last remaining person.
It was Poe who smoked the poisoned cigarette.
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Nov 20, 2020 16:07
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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We're nearly there, folks.
Chapter 12 posted:
6
And then only two of them were left in the hall.
Even now that Poe had died, Ellery was still convinced that Seiji was the murderer. He showed no sign of suspicion towards Morisu at all.
It did not seem as though Morisu would need to finish the job quickly. He decided to await his opportunity calmly. For, if possible, he wanted the last person to commit "suicide" for him.
Foolish Ellery...
Ellery helped him all the way until the end.
Ellery thought himself the great detective, but he was nothing more than a helpless clown. By chance, Morisu had actually predicted this outcome. "The Detective" and "the Murderer" were the final two survivors.
But Morisu had to admit he was impressed by Ellery's masterful reasoning, starting from the eleven-sided cup, which led them to the eleventh room inside the Decagon House. He himself had been puzzled by the existence of that cup. He could never have dreamt that it was the key to a secret room, even though he had been told about Nakamura Seiji's love of gimmicks by Kawaminami on the mainland.
Even so, this development did not endanger Morisu's position. The discovery of the hidden room had actually helped solidify Ellery's theory that Seiji was the murderer.
The two of them entered the underground room. Ellery started searching for a path leading outside. Then they discovered that horrifying corpse.
It came to him the moment he saw the body. It was the body of the gardener who disappeared, Yoshikawa Sei'ichi.
Yoshikawa had been murdered six months ago. Attacked by the insane Seiji, he had fled from the Blue Mansion to this place, where he had died. Or perhaps Seiji himself had dragged the gardener here to kill him.
He said this to Ellery, who stood quietly in front of the body. Ellery nodded several times, his hand still covering his nose, saying:
"Indeed. So that means that Seiji got his body double from somewhere else, in the incident last year."
He continued.
"Let's go, Van. We need to see where this passage leads."
They walked around the body and stepped deeper inside the passage. I'll just accompany you to the end, then, Morisu thought.
He also started to wonder whether Ellery might actually be suspicious of him now.
It was, for example, obvious from the dust lying on the floor that neither Nakamura Seiji nor anyone else had entered this place for a long time. So perhaps Ellery was merely pretending to suspect nothing and waiting for a chance to take him down.
Morisu followed Ellery into the darkness, his right hand holding the knife in his pocket.
The passage ended at a door. They could hear the sound of waves nearby.
Ellery opened the door. The sound of waves grew louder.
They were standing halfway down the cliff facing the inlet. Outside the door was a little ledge like a small terrace. Beneath it was only deep darkness. It was quite a distance to the water surface.
Ellery carefully watched his feet as he took a step outside and let the light of his torch check their surroundings. He turned round with a satisfied expression and said:
"This door is at an angle that makes it hard to spot from either above on the cliff or below from the sea. And with a little effort, it would be possible to make one's way to the stone steps running along the rock face. Seiji must have used this way to get into the Decagon House."
*
"I'm sure Seiji will come again tonight," said Ellery as they returned to the hall. "And we found the secret passage. Whether he comes through that passage or the front door, we have nothing to fear as it's two against one. Let's try to capture him."
Morisu nodded as he made coffee for two. He had secretly taken a number of sleeping tablets from the bottle the day Poe handed them out and he slipped several of them into one of the cups, making sure Ellery didn't notice.
With an innocent air, he placed the cup in front of Ellery. Without a hint of suspicion, Ellery drank all of it.
"I'm a bit sleepy. Yes, with much of the tension gone now... Van, would you mind? I need to take a little nap. Just wake me if something happens."
That was the last line spoken by the great detective before he left the stage.
Soon Ellery was lying with his face on the table, sleeping innocently. Morisu made sure Ellery was fast asleep, carried him to his room and laid him on the bed.
He had decided that Ellery would need to commit "suicide by burning" for him. The sleeping pills could be discovered from an autopsy of Ellery's corpse eventually, but he reckoned that the police would discover the corpse of Yoshikawa Sei'ichi, come to the conclusion that Nakamura Seiji's death last year was suicide and see this as a copycat case. The circumstances of that case were similar to this one, so that would no doubt also influence the police's opinion.
The rain finally stopped. It didn't seem as though it would start again soon.
He went down to the inlet and prepared his boat, then returned to the ruins of the Blue Mansion to retrieve the kerosene from the underground storage. He dug up Orczy's buried left hand, removed the ring and returned the hand to her room.
The remaining boards, clothes with bloodstains, the poison, the knife: everything he needed to destroy, he moved to Ellery's room. He opened the window and doused the room in kerosene. After pouring it around the other rooms too, he carried the propane-gas tank to the hall and opened the valve. He went outside, moved to the open window, soaked Ellery with the remaining kerosene and threw the empty tank inside.
That seemed to rouse Ellery. But by that time Morisu had already thrown an oil lighter at the kerosene-soaked bed.
He jumped several steps back and closed his eyes.
The after-image of the fire on the back of his eyelids danced and swirled violently.
*
The next morning, after a long, almost eternal sleep he was awakened by a phone call from his uncle telling him about the incident. He called Kawaminami and arranged to meet him in S Town.
But first he went to his uncle's house and borrowed his car, saying he was going to J Cape to see what was happening on the island. He hurried there, as he said, and put the boat and gas capsule he had hidden there in the boot [Ed: the trunk, for US readers]. At that time, everyone had their eyes on Horned Island, not on J Cape.
After returning the car to his uncle, he put the boat back in storage in the garage. Having finished everything, he went to the harbour to meet with Kawaminami and Shimada.
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Nov 21, 2020 12:43
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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Both chapter 12 section 7 and the epilogue are very short, so I'm doing them both today. This is the final update.
If you've forgotten the contents of the prologue, it's worth reading again before the epilogue.
Chapter 12 posted:
7
After the meeting in the box room of the K University Mystery Club had ended, Morisu Kyouichi quickly hurried home alone.
Ellery, or Matsu'ura Junya, had killed his five friends and committed suicide by burning, because of some unknown motive or possibly insanity. It appeared that the police had settled on that. A definite motive had not come up in that day's meeting, but several suggestive tales about the kind of person Ellery was seemed to have caught the interest of Inspector Shimada.
Everything had gone even better than he had hoped.
He had already got rid of two of the paintings he had made to prove his alibi on the mainland. He had done everything that needed to be done. He had nothing to fear any more.
Everything was over now, Morisu thought.
It was finally over. His revenge was complete.
*
Epilogue
The night sea. A time of quiet.
The waves, shining red in the setting sun, came from far away to wash against the shore and retreat back whence they came.
Just has he had once before, he was sitting alone on the breakwater, starting at the sea at sunset.
Chiori...
He had been repeating her name in his mind for a while.
Chiori, Chiori...
He closed his eyes and the fire of that night came back to vivid life. A giant fire of remembrance, which enveloped the decagonal trap that caught his prey and burned through the night.
Her image joined that sight in his mind. He tried calling out to her. But she was looking away and did not answer him.
What's wrong, Chiori?
The flames danced more furiously and burned brighter. The image of his love was caught in the fire, until its contour was swallowed completely and she disappeared.
Silently he stood up.
Several children were playing in the water. He stood there, staring at the view through narrowed eyes.
"Chori."
He muttered her name once again, this time out loud. But she did not appear any more, whether he closed his eyes or looked up at the sky. A fathomless sense of emptiness tortured him, as if something had been ripped away from his heart.
The sea was about to blend in with the night. The waves carrying the last light of the setting sun lapped silently.
Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around in surprise.
"Hey, it's been a while."
A tall, lean man with a friendly smile was standing there.
"I asked the caretaker of your apartment building and he told me you often come down here to the shore."
"Oh."
"You look down. I've been watching you for a while, but I didn't want to disturb you. You looked as though you were thinking about something."
"Not really. But why did you come looking for me?"
"Oh, nothing important." The man sat down next to where he was standing. He put a cigarette in his mouth as he muttered: "One a day."
"It's been a while since everything that happened," the man went on. "The police seem to be all done with their investigation. What do you think?"
"What do I think? Ellery did it."
"No, no, I am asking you whether you think there might be a different truth behind it all."
What is this man trying to tell me?
He looked out to the sea in silence. The man looked up at him as he lit his "one a day".
"I told you once I thought that Kou might be the murderer, but as I have an abundance of spare time, I tried casting the nets of my imagination wider and I caught an interesting idea. And I'd like you to listen to it."
Could he have seen through everything?
He didn't answer and turned away from the man's eyes.
This man... Impossible.
"Don't be so cold and please listen to me for a while. It's a rather incredible idea and you might even laugh at it. You might even scold me again, but just consider it simply a product of my imagination."
"Please keep your ideas to yourself," he said in a flat voice. "Mr Shimada, it's a thing of the past now."
He turned around, ignoring the man's calls, and went down to where the children were playing.
He thought it pitiful how disconcerted he felt.
Impossible.
He shook his head heavily and tried to calm himself.
Impossible. He could not have noticed it. Even if that man's fertile imagination had by chance brought him to the truth, so what? There was no evidence. There was nothing he could do now.
Right, Chiori?
He asked his girlfriend. But she didn't answer. She didn't even show herself.
Why?
His anxiety turned in an instant into a tsunami. The heavy, wet sand clung to his feet. And then, there at his feet, he saw something glistening.
This is...
He crouched down with a stunned expression on his face. His mouth twitched and he let out a deep sigh.
It was a small green glass bottle. It had been half buried in the sand at the water's edge. There were several pieces of folded paper inside.
Oh.
He picked the bottle up with a faint, bitter smile. He turned round to the man who was still sitting on the breakwater, looking at him.
So this is to be my judgement?
The children were about to go home. He slowly walked to them with the bottle in his hand.
"Hey, kid."
He stopped one of the boys.
"Could you do me a favour?"
The boy looked up at him with puzzled eyes. Smiling as calmly as the sea in the evening, he gave the bottle to the boy.
"Could you give this to that man over there?"
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Nov 22, 2020 16:20
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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May 22, 2024 10:10
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- Maugrim
- Feb 16, 2011
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I eat your face
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You're welcome, I'm glad I could finish the thread and that it was of interest to someone besides me!
I have high hopes that some of Yukito Ayatsuji's other mysteries will be released in English in due course; there's a whole series of other "mansion mysteries" like this one. I feel a bit stupid for not figuring this one out - like all good murder mysteries the clues seem so obvious in retrospect!
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Nov 22, 2020 18:52
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Apr 19, 2020 00:47
