The Decagon House Murders (23 page)

‘Nakamura Chiori. Remember her?’

Silence reigned in the gloomy hall, except for the distant noise of the waves. The rain had eased to a noiseless drizzle.

‘Nakamura Chiori. You mean…?’

Van’s voice had become weak.

‘Yes, our junior member, who died because of our carelessness in January last year. That Nakamura Chiori.’

‘Nakamura—Nakamura Seiji, Nakamura Chiori.’

Poe muttered the words as if he were chanting a spell.

‘But it just can’t be.’

‘It can be and it is. It’s the only reason I can think of. Nakamura Chiori was the daughter of Nakamura Seiji.’

‘So that’s it.’

Poe frowned deeply, tapped a Lark cigarette out of his cigarette case and put it straight in his mouth. Van closed his eyes, his hands on the back of his head. Ellery gathered the cards, placed them on top of the case and continued:

‘It was Nakamura Seiji who committed the murders that happened here on this island six months ago. He burnt someone to serve as his body double, either the missing gardener or maybe he found someone else of similar age and build and the same blood type. Nakamura Seiji is still alive and now he is acting out his revenge for his daughter—.’

At that moment, he was interrupted.

‘Uuurgh!’

An unnatural sound escaped Poe’s throat.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Poe?’

His chair made a loud noise. Poe’s large body tumbled forwards and fell on the floor.

‘Poe!’

Ellery and Van rushed to him, trying to get him back up. Poe, doubled up with pain, pushed their hands away. And finally, it was over.

In one last violent convulsion, his four limbs thrust out stiffly in the air and he crashed back on the floor face up. That was the fall of Poe.

The Lark cigarette Poe had thrown away after just a single puff was lying on the blue-tiled floor, smoke rising from it. Ellery and Van could only look in shock at the now motionless “Last Victim.”

9

It was nearly dusk and the sky was still covered with grey clouds, but it didn’t look as though it would rain. The wind stopped shaking the trees and the noise of the roiling waves had also softened into a melancholic melody.

Poe’s body was carried to his room by the two survivors. On the floor lay the jigsaw puzzle, which had hardly been touched since Van last saw it. The cute, upturned faces of the fox cubs looked terribly sad.

Ellery and Van made sure not to disturb the puzzle and placed Poe’s large body on the bed. Van covered him with a blanket and Ellery closed Poe’s eyes. From his painfully contorted mouth rose a hint of almonds.

After a moment of silent prayer, the two left the room without saying a word.

‘Another time bomb. Damn.’

Ellery’s voice trembled in fury as he trampled on Poe’s cigarette, which had turned to ashes on the floor.

‘One of Poe’s stock of cigarettes was poisoned with prussic acid. He probably sneaked into Poe’s room and injected one of them with a syringe.’

‘Nakamura Seiji?’

‘Who else?’

‘So we were in danger too.’

Van dropped into a chair. Ellery walked to the table and lit the lamp. In the flickering light, mysterious shadows started dancing on the white walls.

‘Nakamura Seiji…,’ muttered Ellery as his eyes focused on the flame.

‘Now I think about it, Van, Nakamura Seiji used to be the owner of this house. He’d naturally know all about the geography of the island and the layout of the buildings, and I’ll bet he also possesses spare keys to all the rooms.’

‘Spare keys?’

‘A master key perhaps. He took it with him after burning down the Blue Mansion and going into hiding. He can enter any room whenever he wants. It was the easiest thing in the world to poison Agatha’s lipstick, or kill Orczy. The same for Poe’s cigarettes. He made sure to stay out of sight and flitted around this building like a shadow. We’re just the poor insects who flew into the trap called Decagon House.’

‘I remember reading somewhere he used to be an architect.’

‘So did I. He might even be the one who designed this place. He was certainly the one who had it built… Perhaps—hold it a second!’

Ellery looked keenly around the hall.

‘What’s wrong, Ellery?’

‘I was just thinking about that cup which was used to poison Carr.’

‘The eleven-sided one?’

‘We now know it wasn’t used as a mark, but do you remember, Van? You asked the question.
Why was that cup there in the first place
.’

‘Ah, yes, I did.’

‘I answered it was just Seiji’s joke. But I added that
it might also have another meaning
.
Hiding a single eleven-sided object in a house of decagons
. Doesn’t that suggest something?’

‘Something eleven-sided inside a decagon? If it is an allusion to anything…’ muttered Van, and his eyes suddenly opened in surprise. ‘It might mean
there are eleven rooms here
.’

‘Precisely.’ Ellery nodded grimly:

‘I have the same idea. Apart from this central hall, the building consists of ten trapezoidal rooms of equal size. The toilet, bathroom and washstand are one room, the kitchen, the entrance hall and the seven guest rooms make nine more. If there’s one more room hidden here somewhere besides those ten.…’

‘You mean Seiji wasn’t watching us from the kitchen window, but from that secret room?’

‘Precisely.’

‘But where could it be?’

‘Considering the layout of this building, I think it could only be underground. And I have a little idea….’

A smile appeared on Ellery’s lips.

‘…
that the eleven-sided cup is the key to the secret room
.’

*

They found it inside the storage space beneath the kitchen floor.

There was nothing strange about the storage itself. One part of the floor, about eighty centimetres square, could be easily lifted by pulling on a handle.

The hole was about fifty centimetres deep. White boards lined the bottom and the four sides. There was nothing inside.

‘This is it, Van.’

Ellery pointed.

‘I figured that if the room really existed, it would be in the kitchen, together with the cup. And presto!’

They shone a flashlight on the bottom of the space. There was a small hole there, just a few centimetres wide, almost invisible unless you looked for it. A groove encircled the hole.

‘Van, give me the cup.’

‘What about the coffee inside?’

‘This is important, so just throw it away.’

Ellery took the cup and crawled on the floor. He stretched his right arm into the storage space and slid the cup into the hole in the middle.

‘Got it. A perfect fit.’

The eleven-sided keyhole and key connected.

‘I’ll turn the key.’

As he had expected, the hole turned following the circular groove. After a while, he felt something slide into place.

‘Okay, I’m going to open it.’

Ellery carefully pulled the cup out of the hole. As he did so, the entire white bottom of the space started to tilt downwards noiselessly.

‘Fantastic contraption,’ Ellery said.

‘There’s a mechanism with cogwheels or something that prevents it from making any noise as the bottom angles downwards.’

It didn’t take long for a staircase leading to a secret underground room to be revealed.

‘Let’s go, Van.’

‘Should we?’ Van had cold feet. ‘What if he’s down there waiting for us?’

‘Don’t worry. The sun has just set. Seiji probably isn’t here yet. Even if he were there, it’s two against one. We won’t lose.’

‘But….’

‘If you’re scared, stay here. I’ll go alone then.’

‘Ah, wait, Ellery.’

*

A damp, acrid smell reached their noses.

Illuminated only by Ellery’s flashlight, the two stepped down into the pitch black hole.

It was a sturdy staircase despite its age. If they went carefully, the staircase wouldn’t even squeak. Ellery led the way and, making sure not to repeat the foolish mistake he had made the day before, advanced very cautiously.

After not even ten steps down the staircase, they arrived in the fairly large room they had already glimpsed. It started right under the kitchen and stretched out in the direction of the central hall.

The floor and walls were of bare concrete. There was no furniture. The ceiling was just a little higher than Ellery and perforated with small holes. Thin slivers of light shone down from them.

‘The light from the lamp,’ Ellery whispered. ‘We’re beneath the hall. Everything we said could be heard clearly from here.’

‘So Seiji really was here?’

‘Yes. He must have been listening to our every movement. And I bet he also made a path from this room that leads outside the building.’

Ellery shone the light on the surrounding walls. Dirty concrete with black spots. Here and there some cracks and signs of repair.

‘There,’ said Ellery and he stopped moving his light. To their right, in the rear, was an old wooden door.

The duo approached.

Ellery stretched out his hand out to touch the rusty doorknob. In a subdued voice, Van asked: ‘Where does this lead?’

‘I wonder.’

Ellery turned the knob. The door creaked loudly. Ellery held his breath and pulled harder. The door opened.

Suddenly, they both groaned and held their noses.

‘What the…!’

‘What a horrible smell.’

An overpowering odour filled the darkness. It was so repellent as to make them want to vomit.

They guessed immediately what the source was, and shuddered in disgust.

It was the smell of decayed flesh
.

Ellery’s hand wouldn’t stop shaking, but he clenched the flashlight tightly once more and pointed its beam towards the darkness beyond the door.

It was a deep darkness. As they had suspected, this appeared to be a path to somewhere outside.

He pointed the beam lower. As it swept over the dirty concrete floor, it fell on….

‘Aah!’

‘Uwa!’

They cried out at the same time.

It was the source of the horrible smell.

A lump of flesh of a nauseating colour, its original shape unrecognisable. Yellow-white bones sticking out. Dark, empty eye sockets.

It was unquestionably the half-decomposed corpse of a human being.

10

It was past midnight.

There was nobody left in the decagonal hall. The lamp had been extinguished and only darkness remained.

The faraway booming of the waves played a melody from a different dimension. The stars peeked inside through the decagonal skylight, resembling an open mouth in the darkness.

And suddenly a sharp noise came from somewhere inside the building.

It was followed by a completely different sound, the noise of a living thing sighing. The sighing turned into whining. The whining into a roaring noise which enveloped everything.

The Decagon House was on fire.

The white building was wrapped in a crimson light. Smoke rose in thick clouds. A roar rumbled through the night sky. The gigantic blaze burnt on furiously, trying to scorch the passing clouds.

The extraordinary light was even visible in S—Town across the sea.

CHAPTER TEN: THE SIXTH DAY

1

He was awakened by the shrill ring of the telephone.

He finally managed to lift his heavy eyelids and glance at the clock next to his pillow. Eight in the morning.

Morisu Kyōichi raised his body sluggishly and stretched his hand out to the receiver.

‘Hello, this is Morisu speaking. Yes...Eh? Could you repeat what… Yes. The Decagon House on Tsunojima gone up in flames? Are you sure?’

He threw off his blanket, clutched the receiver more firmly in his hand and demanded forcefully:

‘But what happened to everyone? …Ah…’

Energy drained from Morisu’s body as he nodded his head heavily.

‘…Yes. And I am to…Oh, okay. Understood. I’ll be there. Thanks.’

He put the receiver down and reached out for his cigarettes. His sleepiness had been dispelled completely. He lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply and concentrated on keeping calm.