The Decagon House Murders (27 page)

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 that close friends with Chiori, she might also know that Tsunojima was Chiori’s home. She might even have noticed that he and Chiori had a relationship.

His initials and Chiori’s had been carved on the inside of the ring. “KM & CN.” Even if Orczy had not heard about it from Chiori herself, 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 of the hall and went straight for 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 the Decagon House. He used that to get inside her room. Being careful she wouldn’t awaken, he quickly wrapped the cord around her neck and pulled it with all his strength.

Orczy’s eyes opened wide and almost seemed to pop out. 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 because he simply felt sorry for her.

He tried to remove the ring from her finger. He wanted to keep it as a memento to 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 wasn’t removed from 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 last year. 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 the hand 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 the window and the door. And then, the final touch. He took out the plate 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 plates 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 only 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 just happened to have been handed it, but he realised he could use it.

On the morning of the second day, after arranging the plastic plates, 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 eleven-sided cup.

The poison he had brought with him had been stolen from a laboratory of the science faculty. Prussic acids—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 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 the hand in the bathtub. It was to stay consistent with his “allusion” and to camouflage the real reason for cutting off Orczy’s hand. He then picked the plastic plate with “The Second Victim” from his own spare set and glued it to the door.

Then he went to the remains of the Blue Mansion.

He could still hear the words Ellery spoke just before Carr collapsed:
There might be an underground room there
.

His uncle had told him there was an underground room there. The plastic tanks with kerosene he had transported, together with the other supplies on the fisherman’s boat, had been hidden there amongst the rubbish.

Ellery seemed to suspect someone was hiding down there. It was obvious he would go there to look around.

He wiped the floor with pine leaves and made traces, to leave the impression someone had been there. He borrowed some line from Poe’s fishing gear and spanned 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 unbelievable careless and stupid. The glorious title of “Detective” hardly applied to someone who would joyfully dive into a suspicious underground room without taking precautions. Ellery got away with just a sprained ankle and nothing serious. But even if Morisu had silently hoped for a deadlier outcome, he had not seriously been expecting to add to the number of bodies with such child’s play.

What had been unexpected, was the situation with Agatha’s lipstick. After a good look, he’d realised that the lipstick she was using was of a different colour than the one he had smeared poison on. If she was still unharmed by 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 plates, glue and knife were hidden in the thickets 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 say that he took the worst room because it was his responsibility as the one who arranged everything, but it was 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 for Kawaminami’s room.

5

A light rain fell during the night, but it did not interfere with his plans and on the morning of the fifth day, March 30th, 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 thought he heard a short cry. He felt the eyes of someone on him and looked up. Standing in the middle of the staircase, looking down at him with an alarmed expression, stood Leroux.

He was seen! He must kill him
, Morisu thought instantly.

There was no time to think calmly about what the timid Leroux was doing here alone at that time of the day. He might have seen the rope tied around this rock at one point and, thinking it suspicious, have come here to investigate. Anyway, Leroux had seen him. He probably hadn’t figured it all out, but he knew more than enough to realise what was going on.

Morisu picked up a rock that was lying around 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 the 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 forwards. Morisu picked the rock up again 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 his way over already, he feared.

He swiftly checked whether the footprints had any characteristics. He saw nothing that could connect the footprints to any particular individual. It wasn’t the police who would be coming, so 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 arrive here at that very moment. 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 space between the pier and the water surface, so he manoeuvred the boat there for the moment and gauged the situation. Nobody was up. He had been lucky.

He climbed onto the pier, folded the boat up and hid it in the boathouse near the pier. It was risky, but it would even be more risky to return to the rocky area.

He sneaked into the Decagon House and glued the plate 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 in 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 limits.

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 decagon table together with the remaining two, Ellery and Poe. They were nearing the last act.

The situation appeared to have turned for the worse for Poe. Ellery denied it afterwards, but at that rate, Poe might have been fingered as the murderer.

He thought his heart would stop beating when Ellery looked obviously interested at the footprints at Leroux’s murder scene.
Don’t panic. It should be okay. Don’t panic, don’t panic
… he kept telling himself, as he fought with the urge to throw up again. Ellery quickly turned away. Morisu sighed out of relief.

However Ellery raised the subject of the footprints again.

He thought he might have made an oversight. Perhaps a fatal oversight. He ran after Ellery to the Blue Mansion and was told to memorise the footprints as they were. It was then when he realised his mistake. He cursed at his own stupidity and thought it was all over.

As the number of victims grew, the number of suspects would narrow and he had anticipated it would become more difficult to move around. He had some things prepared in case the situation called for him to take drastic measures. In the worst case, he might need to fight with multiple persons. 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, then it would all be over. At this point, it was still not sure whether he would be accused of being the murderer.

He felt the pressure as he shrank listening to Ellery’s clear voice, thinking about the best way of dealing with them.