The Decagon House Murders (7 page)

‘That is—.’

A worried look came over Kōjirō’s face.

‘I know what happened to Chiori, but I think it was just an unfortunate accident. She was my little niece, so of course it feels as though she was taken from us unfairly, but I don’t hate you for what happened. What I really can’t forgive, though, is that someone is using the name of my brother and sending these letters around as some sort of sick joke.’

‘Is it really just a joke?’

Kawaminami wasn’t convinced of that. He nodded half-heartedly and stole a glance at Shimada, who was sitting in the rattan chair with one elbow on his crossed legs and looking at him with amusement, for some reason.

‘By the way,’ Kawaminami said as he returned the letter to Kōjirō, ‘did you know that some members of the Mystery Club are on Tsunojima right now?’

‘No,’ replied Kōjirō, uninterested. ‘I inherited the island and the mansion after my brother’s death, but I sold it to a real estate agent in S—Town last month. He beat down the price a lot, but I had no intention of ever going to that place again anyway. Don’t know what they did with it after that.’

3

Kawaminami was obliged to leave because Kōjirō still had work to do that day.

Just before he left the room, Kawaminami asked about the full bookcases in the back that had caught his attention. Kōjirō explained that, beside his work as social studies teacher at a nearby high school, he was also doing research on Buddhism. With a shy smile, he explained he was researching the “emptiness of the heart” in early Mahayana Buddhism.

‘“Emptiness of the heart”?’ Puzzled, Kawaminami looked askance.

Shimada got up from the rocking chair to explain.

‘You’ve heard of the Heart Sūtra, no doubt? The one that goes “Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form”? Kō here is researching the meaning of that “emptiness.”’ He approached Kawaminami with a bouncy step and handed back the letter he had been scrutinising.

‘How do you write your family name, Kawaminami
[vii]
?’ he asked.

‘The character for “river,” as when you write “The Yellow River,” combined with the character for “south.”’

‘Aha, so
kawa
and
minami
—that’s a wonderful name. Kō, I’m going to leave you alone, too. Let’s leave together, Kawaminami.’

*

The two left Kōjirō’s house and walked down the empty street. Shimada clasped his fingers together and stretched his arms. His already lean body looked even taller and slimmer in the black sweater.

‘
Conan
. Yes, that is really a wonderful name,’ Shimada said as he raised his arms behind his head. He was using the alternative readings for the characters
kawa
and
minami
to read the name Kawaminami as
Conan
[viii]
.

‘Why did you quit the Mystery Club? At a guess, I’d say the culture  didn’t suit you.’

‘You’re right. Good guess.’

‘I could read it from your face.’ Shimada grinned. ‘So it wasn’t because you lost interest in mystery fiction, then?’

‘I still enjoy reading detective novels.’

‘That’s good. I, too, enjoy mystery fiction more than Buddhist texts. Nothing as clear-cut as a detective story. Well, Conan, what about having have a drink with me somewhere?’

‘Alright,’ replied Kawaminami, and laughed.

The road sloped gently downwards. The gentle breeze blowing from the front was filled with the spirit of spring.

‘You’re an interesting man, Conan.’

‘I am?’

‘You came all the way here just because of a letter that might well have been nothing more than a prank.’

‘It wasn’t that far.’

‘Hm. Actually, I would have done the same if I’d been in your shoes. I have a lot of spare time, you see.’

Shimada put both hands in the pockets of his black jeans and grinned.

‘And you? Do you think it’s all just an elaborate joke?’

‘Mr. Kōjirō seems to think it is, but it doesn’t add up,’ Kawaminami replied. ‘Of course, I’m not saying that a ghost wrote those letters. Someone is using the name of the dead man. But there’s been just too much effort put into all of this for it to be a simple prank.’

‘Like,  for example?’

‘For example, all the letters were typed on a word processor. Getting hold of a word processor just for a prank seems a bit—.’

‘But the writer might simply be used to using a word processor. Word processors have become popular in the last couple of years. Kō also has one at his place. He only bought the machine this year, but he’s become quite skilled at it.’

‘It’s true they’ve become popular. Quite a few of my friends have them too. And there’s one in every office room at the university for students to use freely. But I still don’t think it’s all that common to use a word processor to write letters.’

‘That’s true.’

‘You can easily avoid leaving any handwriting with a word processor, but why would you need to avoid handwriting if it was just a prank? And the text. It was just that one line. Don’t you think it’s too short? If you’re out to scare people, you’d come up with more alarming things to say. Mr. Kōjirō’s letter was like that too. So I can’t help but feel there’s a deeper meaning behind it all.’

‘A deeper meaning, eh?’

Reaching the end of the slope, they arrived at a promenade. Boats of all sizes were making their way across the sea, which glistened in the sunlight.

‘Over there,’ Shimada pointed, ‘Let’s go there. It’s a nice shop.’

Across the road was a red roof with a weather vane. “Mother Goose” was written on the shop’s signboard in fancy lettering. Kawaminami couldn’t help smiling at the sight.

4

After they sat down opposite each other at a table near the window, Kawaminami took another good look at the man he had just met.

He looked over thirty—quite a bit more than that, probably.

His cheeks appeared even hollower than they actually were because of his half-length, soft hair. Kawaminami was of tall and thin build himself, but Shimada surpassed him. A hooked nose decorated his swarthy face and his eyes drooped a little.

The first impression most people would have of the man would be that he was a bit strange. He had the appearance of a dark and bad-tempered man, but the peculiar mismatch between his appearance and his way of talking was something Kawaminami found quite agreeable. He even thought it felt familiar in some way.

It was already past four in the afternoon. Kawaminami remembered he had not eaten anything since the morning, so he ordered pizza toast with coffee.

He took a look through the large glass window at the blue sea which formed a giant arc on the other side of National Route 10. It was Beppu Bay. The shop was the kind of cosy little place you’d expect to find on the outskirts of a town filled with students. The “Mother Goose” inspired paintings and dolls spread around the shop were probably a hobby of the owner.

‘Conan, let’s continue our talk,’ Shimada said casually as he poured a cup of Earl Grey from the pot that had just arrived.

‘You mean, about the letters?’

‘Of course.’

‘But I’ve already told you all my thoughts—Mind if I smoke?’

‘Not at all.’

‘Thanks.’

He lit a cigarette and the smoke stung his eyes.

‘As I just said, I don’t think it’s all just a prank. But if you ask me what it’s about, I don’t have any answers. To be honest, I can’t think of any reason why anyone would do it. But.…’

‘But?’

‘I might take a guess.’

‘Pray do.’

‘Well, if I look at the letter sent to me, for example, and try to read the sender’s intention from it, I think can detect about three different messages.

‘First, the letter is above all an accusation: “Chiori was murdered.” The second message follows from the first: I hate you, I’ll take revenge on you because you killed Chiori. So therefore, a threat. The name “Nakamura Seiji” was used to sign the accusation-cum-threat because he would have the best reason for doing so.’

‘I see. And the third message?’

‘For the third message, we have to look at the letter from a different angle: the hidden meaning behind sending the letters, so to speak.’

‘The hidden meaning?’

‘Yes. Why is the sender using the name of Nakamura Seiji, the name of a deceased man, now? It might seem terrifying at first, but nobody in this day and age would take it for real. Can you imagine a ghost using a word processor? So I think it might be telling us in a roundabout way to take a good look at the incident that happened a year ago on Tsunojima. Or could I be overthinking this?’

‘No, it’s very interesting.’

Shimada’s eyes shone in amusement and he reached for his cup.

‘Truly interesting. Another look at the Tsunojima incident. I do think that case needs more consideration. Conan, what do you know about it?’

‘I only know what I read in the newspapers about it.’

‘So I’d better tell you what I know first.’

‘Please do.’

‘You know the outline of the case, I assume? It happened in September of last year. Location: the house known as the Blue Mansion on Tsunojima. The four victims were Nakamura Seiji, his wife Kazue and the servant couple. The gardener disappeared. The fire that broke out after the murders destroyed the mansion. The murderer has not been caught.’

‘I believe the police had their eyes set on the gardener as the murderer?’

‘Yes, but there was no conclusive evidence. I think he was considered suspicious simply because he’d disappeared. And now for the details of the case—.’

Shimada spoke in a low voice.

‘First, I have to tell you more about the master of the mansion, Nakamura Seiji. He was three years older than Kō, so he was forty-six at the time. He’d retired by then, but he used to be a genius architect, highly regarded by those in the know.’

Nakamura Seiji was the first child of the Nakamuras, a family of considerable means living in Usa in the Ōita prefecture. After graduating from high school, Seiji moved on his own to Tōkyō. He won a prize at a national-level contest while he was studying architecture at T—University and drew the attention of everyone in his field. After he graduated, his supervising professor strongly advised him to enter graduate school, but the sudden death of his father forced him to return home.

‘His father had left the Nakamura family a great fortune. Having inherited the money together with his brother Kōjirō, Seiji proceeded to build a mansion of his own design on Tsunojima and basically retired there.

‘…His wife Kazue—her maiden name was Hanabusa—had been his childhood friend during his time in Usa. They say their parents had arranged for the two to be married early on. They married around the time Seiji left for Tsunojima.’

‘Did he do any architectural work after that?’

‘A little, but Kō said Seiji mostly did it for his own entertainment. He only took on requests that interested him, and then only when he felt like it. He had a peculiar love for designing the most bizarre buildings. But those buildings were loved in turn by other people with unusual tastes. Many clients came from afar to the island. But Seiji had been refusing basically all requests for the last ten years and he seldom left his island.’

‘Quite a character.’

‘Kō himself is a bit strange too, studying Buddhism as a hobby, but even he agrees his brother was odd. Then again, I got the impression the two didn’t get along very well.

‘Anyway, the Kitamura couple was also living in the mansion on Tsunojima. The husband did odd jobs around the house and piloted the motorboat that connected the island to the mainland. His wife did all the housekeeping. And then we have that gardener. His name was Yoshikawa Sei’ichi and he lived in Ajimu. He would come over once a month and stay several days. He happened to have arrived on the island three days before the fire. And that’s it for my introduction to the cast of characters.

‘Now for the circumstances of the case. Four bodies were discovered in total. They had been burnt black because of the fire, so forensics had quite some trouble with them. They eventually discovered the following facts.’

The Kitamura couple had died in their bedroom with their heads bashed in. The murder weapon was very likely the axe found in the same room. Both bodies showed signs of having been tied with rope. The estimated time of death for both of them was the afternoon of September 19th—the day before the fire.

Nakamura Kazue had been strangled to death, on the bed in her bedroom, with a rope-like object. The left hand of the body was missing from the wrist down, and had been cut off after death. The whereabouts of the hand are still unknown. Her estimated time of death is sometime between September 17th and 18th.

Nakamura Seiji had been completely doused in kerosene and burnt to death in the same room as Kazue. Large quantities of sleeping medicine had been found inside his body, and this was the same for the other three victims. Estimated time of death was the early morning of September 20th, when the fire broke out.