The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (23 page)

“See ya, Koizumi.”

As I walked away, I had a sudden thought.

Was that whole exchange supposed to be Nagato’s idea of a joke? If that were the case, it was a pretty lame attempt at wordplay and not very funny.

Give me a break, Nagato. Your face and expression never change so I can only assume that you’re always serious. You could at least smile when you’re telling a joke. You could even smile for no reason the way Koizumi does. I guarantee you’ll look better that way.

Except that now isn’t the time to be smiling.

I took off my wet clothes and also changed my underwear before going back out into the hallway to find that Koizumi was no longer outside. I went to Haruhi’s room and knocked on the door.

“It’s me.”

The door was opened by Koizumi. I stepped inside and shut the door behind me.

“So it seems that the cruiser was gone.”

Koizumi was leaning against the wall.

Haruhi sat cross-legged on the bed. Even Haruhi couldn’t find any joy in the current situation as she looked up sullenly with a listless expression on her face.

“It wasn’t there, right, Kyon?”

“Yeah,” I said.

Koizumi spoke next.

“It appears that somebody took it and escaped. No, there’s no point in being ambiguous. The one who escaped was Yutaka.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Nobody else could have done it,” Koizumi answered coolly.

“Nobody else was invited to this island and the only guest missing from the manor is Yutaka. It doesn’t matter how you look at it. He must have stolen the boat and made a run for it.”

Koizumi continued in a smooth voice.

“In other words, Yutaka was the culprit. He probably escaped while it was still dark.”

Based on the fact that there had been no signs of anyone sleeping in Yutaka’s bed and Mori’s testimony.

Haruhi informed Koizumi of the previous conversation.

“As impressive as always, Suzumiya. You’ve already heard from her.”

Koizumi engaged in his ass-kissing while I snorted for no real reason.

“Yutaka appeared to be in a hurry as though he was frightened
of something. That would match the testimony from the last witness to see him. I also checked with Arakawa.”

Even so, heading out to sea in the middle of the night during a hurricane would practically be suicide, wouldn’t it?

“Something may have happened which created the need to escape in a hurry. Such as the need to flee the scene of a murder.”

“Does Yutaka know how to operate a cruiser?”

“I was unable to verify that information, but we can draw our own conclusion from the end result. Since the boat is gone.”

“Hold it right there!”

Haruhi raised her hand for the right to speak.

“What about the door to Keiichi’s room? Who locked it? Was that also Yutaka’s work?”

“Not necessarily,” Koizumi gently refuted her. “As Arakawa said, Keiichi possessed both the key to the room and the spare. Further investigation revealed that both keys were within the room.”

“Someone could have made a duplicate.”

I tossed that idea into the fray. Koizumi shook his head.

“This was Yutaka’s first visit to the manor. I doubt he would have had the time to make a duplicate.”

Koizumi spread his arms in a sign of defeat.

A hush fell over the room as the clashing sounds of strong winds and pouring rain faded into the background.

Haruhi and I waited in silence, unable to find anything to say, until it was broken by Koizumi.

“However, there would be a slight discrepancy if Yutaka committed the crime last night.”

“What do you mean?” asked Haruhi.

“When I touched Keiichi earlier, his skin was still warm. As though he had still been alive a short while ago.”

Koizumi suddenly smiled. And then he turned to the reticent specter who stood next to Asahina like an attendant.

“Nagato, what was Keiichi’s body temperature when we found him?”

“Ninety-seven point thirty-four degrees.”

Nagato responded without missing a beat.

Hold on, Nagato. How do you know that without ever touching him? And you answered instantly, as though you had been expecting the question… but I didn’t say any of that out loud.

The one person who might have questioned the prior exchange was Haruhi, but she must have been too busy thinking since she didn’t notice anything wrong.

“That’s practically normal body temperature. When was the crime committed then?”

“The body temperature of a human being after death drops around a couple degrees every hour. We can use this information to estimate that Keiichi died less than an hour before we found him.”

“Wait, Koizumi.”

I couldn’t hold myself back this time.

“Didn’t Yutaka run off while it was still night?”

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

“But the time of death was within an hour of finding the body?”

“That’s how the numbers worked out.”

I pressed my hand against my forehead.

“So Yutaka left the villa in the middle of the night during a hurricane and hid himself somewhere before returning in the morning to stab Keiichi and escape on the boat?”

“No, that would be incorrect.”

He easily dodged that one.

“Even if we allow for a margin of error on the estimated time of death, we still have to assume that it happened around an hour before we found the body. However, we were already awake and
in the dining hall by that time. But we didn’t see any sign of Yutaka or even hear a single sound. Even with a hurricane outside, that would be unnatural.”

“What does that mean?” Haruhi said in a sullen voice.

Her arms were crossed as she glared at Koizumi and me. You’re not going to learn anything by glaring at me. If you want answers, tell the smiling boy next to me.

Koizumi continued in a light tone as though we were talking about the weather.

“This wasn’t a sinister murder. It was merely a tragic accident.”

“You don’t look too upset about it.”

“There is no doubt that Yutaka stabbed Keiichi. Or else there wouldn’t be a reason for Yutaka to escape.”

Well, that makes sense.

“I do not know the motive or circumstances involved, but Yutaka attacked Keiichi with a knife. He probably had it hidden behind his back as he came from the front. Keiichi had no time to brace himself so he was probably unable to resist at all when he was stabbed.”

He sounds like he saw the whole thing happen.

“However, the tip of the knife had yet to reach his heart. I’m not sure it had even touched his skin. The knife was thrust into the notepad in Keiichi’s chest pocket, meaning that the notepad was the only casualty.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Haruhi’s brow creased as she spoke.

“Then how did Keiichi die? Someone else killed him?”

“Nobody killed him. There was no killer in this case. Keiichi ended up that way purely by accident.”

“What about Yutaka? Why did he run away?”

“Because he believed that he had killed Keiichi.”

Koizumi answered calmly as he raised his index finger. Does he think he’s one of those famous detectives?

“Allow me to explain my thinking. The sequence of events went as follows: Last night, Yutaka went to Keiichi’s room with murderous intent and stabbed Keiichi with the knife. However, the knife was lodged in the notepad and didn’t deliver a fatal wound.”

I have no idea what he’s getting at, but I’ll just listen for now.

“However, this is when it got complicated. Keiichi believed that he had been stabbed. He still would have felt the force of the knife hitting the notepad. Furthermore, we can assume that he suffered a psychological shock at the sight of a knife sticking out of his own chest.”

I was beginning to understand where Koizumi was going with this. Come on, now. No way.

“That misconception led to Keiichi fainting. When collapsing, he would have either fallen sideways or backwards.”

Koizumi paused to take a breath.

“Upon witnessing Keiichi’s collapse, Yutaka believed that he had killed him. What followed was simple. He could only escape. This wasn’t a premeditated murder. Rather, he had merely used the knife in a heated moment of rage. So he stole the cruiser, despite it being nighttime in the middle of a storm.”

“Huh? But then…”

Haruhi spoke up before Koizumi interrupted her.

“Please allow me to continue my explanation. The actions taken by the unconscious Keiichi afterwards. He remained unconscious until this morning. We were wondering why he hadn’t woken up so we came to knock on the door to his room.”

So he was still alive at that time…?

“The knocking on the door woke up Keiichi and he stumbled to the door. However, he must have been in a daze, considering how hard it was for him to get up in the morning. He was probably unable to think clearly. He was approaching the door half-asleep when he finally remembered.”

“Remembered what?” Haruhi asked. Koizumi smiled at her.

“That his brother had tried to kill him. And once he recalled the sight of Yutaka with a knife in his hands, Keiichi promptly locked the door.”

I couldn’t hold myself back so I interjected.

“Don’t tell me that’s supposed to explain the whole sealed room deal.”

“I’m afraid so. After being unconscious for so long, Keiichi had lost sense of time. He believed that Yutaka had returned. We were probably only a second or two late. The instant I grabbed the doorknob from the outside, it was locked from the inside.”

“The killer wouldn’t knock on the door if he came to finish him off.”

“Keiichi’s mind was still hazy so he made a poor spur-of-the-moment judgment since he wasn’t thinking clearly.”

That’s some pretty arbitrary reasoning.

“And so, Keiichi backed away from the door after locking it. His instincts must have told him that he was in danger. That was when tragedy struck.”

Koizumi shook his head the way a person would when telling a tragedy.

“Keiichi tripped over his feet and fell to the floor. Like this.”

Koizumi bent his body as though he were falling forward.

“As a result, the knife stuck in the notepad near his chest was pushed into his body by the force of the handle hitting the floor and the blade pierced his heart, leaving him dead…”

Koizumi looked at Haruhi and me with our mouths wide open like idiots before he continued in a firm voice.

“That is what really happened.”

What was that?

Keiichi died for such a stupid reason? How could everything happen so conveniently? The whole knife perfectly missing then
not missing is one thing, but Yutaka should have realized if he’d killed Keiichi or not.

I prepared my rebuttal.

“Ah!” Haruhi suddenly shouted, which made me jump. Where’d that come from?

“Koizumi, but…” Haruhi said before freezing all of a sudden. Her face was filled with shock. Why was she shocked? Was there a part of Koizumi’s story she couldn’t accept?

Haruhi’s eyes drifted over toward me. When her eyes met mine, she quickly looked away and turned back toward Koizumi before deciding against it and looking up at the ceiling for some odd reason.

“Eh… Never mind. I’m sure that’s what happened. Mmm. How should I put it?”

After muttering incomprehensibly for a while, she fell silent.

Asahina was still asleep, while Nagato stared blankly at Koizumi.

For now, the meeting was adjourned. We returned to our individual rooms. According to Koizumi, the police would be coming once the storm calmed down so we should have our belongings packed up by that time.

After killing some time doing nothing in particular, I had come up with a number of questions so I headed to a certain room.

“What is the matter?”

Koizumi looked up from where he was folding his clothes and smiled at me.

“We need to talk.”

There was one reason I had come to Koizumi’s room.

“I can’t accept it.”

That’s right. Koizumi’s deduction hadn’t explained everything. There were gaping holes.

“If we go by your explanation, the corpse should have been found facedown. But Keiichi was lying faceup. How do you explain that?”

Koizumi stood up from where he’d been sitting on his bed and turned to face me.

“There is a simple reason for that. The deduction I revealed to everyone was a false explanation.”

I didn’t show any visible reaction.

“Figures. The only one who would have eaten up that story was Asahina and she wasn’t even conscious. I could just ask Nagato to tell me everything, but that’d feel like cheating so I’d rather not. Tell me what you were really thinking.”

Koizumi’s handsome face broke into a smile as he chuckled in a low voice that grated on my ears.

“Then I should tell you that the explanation I previously gave was true up to a point. However, the last part was different.”

I kept my mouth shut.

“Keiichi approached the door with the knife stuck in his chest… Everything up to that point was true. So was the locking of the door by reflex. That was when the story diverged.”

Koizumi motioned for me to sit down in a chair, but I ignored him.

“It appears that you’ve realized the truth. I must admit that I underestimated you.”

“Just keep talking.”

Koizumi shrugged.

“We rammed into the door and destroyed it. Or to be specific, myself, you, and Arakawa. And then the door was opened. Our momentum carried us inside.”

I kept quiet as I motioned for him to keep going.

“You should already know the end result. Keiichi was standing
right next to the door when it burst open and hit the front of his body. And the handle of the knife.”

I tried to picture that scene in my mind.

“And consequently, the knife was driven into Keiichi’s chest and led to his demise.”

Koizumi sat back down on the bed and looked up at me provocatively.

“In other words, the culprits were…”

Koizumi smiled as he whispered to me, “Myself, you, and Arakawa.”

I looked down at Koizumi. If I’d had a mirror, I could have seen the chilling look on my face. Koizumi didn’t seem to care as he continued talking.