There was a slight ripple of laughter.
“I know it contradicts everything I’ve said up to now, but I can’t see any of you as the murderer. And that’s my problem. I’m talking about motive, of course. There are very few of you who were even acquainted with Kazuya Ueda before yesterday. With the exception of the people from Kikuoka Bearings, this was only the second time for most of you to meet him, following his visit here last summer. That would be Mr Kozaburo Hamamoto, Ms Eiko Hamamoto, Mr and Mrs Hayakawa, Mr Kajiwara, Mr Togai, Mr Sasaki and finally, Yoshihiko Hamamoto, is that right? And I’m sure you hardly spent any time with him, given what a taciturn type Mr Ueda was. I can’t imagine any of you having known him well enough to even think about murdering him.”
There was another outbreak of nervous laughter.
“Murder isn’t a profitable business. Someone with a good name and status in society, who lives in such a good house, if they commit murder they lose all that and are thrown in jail just like anyone else. I can’t imagine there being anyone so reckless among you. And Mr Kikuoka, Ms Aikura, Mr and Mrs Kanai are in practically the same situation. To put it bluntly, I don’t see anyone having any reason to kill Kazuya Ueda, a simple chauffeur. That’s my conundrum.”
That makes sense, thought Togai, Sasaki and also Eiko. Ueda had been the kind of man that nobody had given a second thought to. If he’d been a little more handsome, he might have had women troubles, or perhaps if he’d been outspoken or arrogant, he’d have been a more likely candidate for murder. But he was without money or status, or anything in his personality to cause someone to hold a grudge.
Detective Chief Inspector Saburo Ushikoshi watched the expressions on the faces of the assembled guests and wondered for a moment if there’d been a mix-up. Perhaps the murderer had mistaken Ueda for someone else, for someone he meant to kill? Perhaps Ueda was just an accidental victim?
But then again, Ueda had been given Room 10 from the outset, and everyone staying in the house that night knew it. There had been no switching of rooms at the last minute. Room 10 was a unique room because it could only be accessed from the outside of the building. It would be a mistake to think that someone had intended to enter Room 9, for example, but had accidentally ended up in Room 10.
He couldn’t figure it out. Still, this man, Kazuya Ueda, was the most unlikely victim ever. There was nothing for it but to assume that someone else had been the intended victim.
“If the murderer is indeed one of the people here in this room, then I fully expect you to try to do a runner tonight. So I’m going to speak more quickly.”
Ushikoshi didn’t sound entirely as if he were joking. Then, almost as if talking to himself,
“There is always a reason for everything, especially for murder. No one kills another human being for no reason. It seems that this investigation is going to hinge on discovering the motive. Before I begin to ask each of you uncomfortable questions, there is one more thing I want to put to everybody. Last night, around the time of the murder, did any of you see or hear anything unusual or odd? A cry or scream that might have come from the victim, or… well, anything at all, however small or insignificant? Did you notice something that was a little different from usual? Anything you glimpsed, even for a moment? Often this kind of thing can be vital to an investigation.”
There were a few moments of silence, and then Kumi Aikura spoke up.
“I did.”
She had hesitated because what she had to say did not exactly fit into the parameters suggested by the detective. Her previous night’s experience couldn’t possibly be classified as something she’d “glimpsed just for a moment”, or “small and insignificant”.
“Ms… er… Aikura, isn’t it? What is it?”
“Well, lots of things, actually.”
Kumi was excited to find someone who was ready to take her story seriously.
“Well I’ll be, love, what did you see?”
The local detective, Okuma, seemed mesmerized by Kumi’s adorable face.
“Well, saw and heard.”
“Could we have the details, please?”
Kumi needed no more encouragement. She wasn’t sure where to start though, and went with the less shocking part of her story.
“I heard a scream. In the middle of the night. It was… it could have been the dead man, Mr Ueda. I mean, it sounded like a man’s voice, it was like he was in pain, a kind of strangled roar.”
“I see.”
Ushikoshi nodded, apparently satisfied with Kumi’s story.
“And do you know what time that was?”
“Yes, I looked at my watch. So I know exactly what time it was. It was just after five past one.”
Suddenly everyone felt a little sorry for the detective.
“What do you mean, just after 1.05? Are you sure? You must be mistaken, surely?”
“I’m absolutely certain. Like I just told you, I checked my watch.”
“But…”
The detective turned around and his whole chair tilted sideways, looking as if it were going to fall over backwards. It was one of the optical illusions created by this mansion.
“But that’s absolutely ridiculous! Are you sure your watch isn’t broken?”
Kumi took off her watch. She was left-handed, so wore it on her right wrist.
“Here. I haven’t touched it since.”
Almost reverentially, Ushikoshi took the expensive ladies’ wristwatch from Kumi’s outstretched hand and compared it to his own cheap watch. They showed the exact same time.
“It’s supposed to lose less than a second a month.”
This was Kikuoka’s addition to the conversation. Of course, he was the one who had purchased the watch. Ushikoshi nodded his thanks and returned the expensive timepiece to Kumi.
“That’s fine. However… this creates a fresh problem. I think everyone is aware, so I really don’t need to repeat it, that Kazuya Ueda’s estimated time of death, or in other words, the hour that the crime was committed, is, as I told you earlier, between 12 and 12.30. If the scream that you heard was indeed the victim’s, then it was made more than thirty minutes after that time frame. This new information is about to cause us no end of trouble.
“So how about the rest of you? Did you hear this noise like a man screaming? Would anyone else who heard it mind raising your hand?”
Mr and Mrs Kanai, then Eiko, then Kozaburo, all raised their hands. Kumi glanced at Eiko and felt rather put out. What the hell? Now she was saying she’d heard it?
“Four of you. Hmm. Five, including Ms Aikura. Mr Togai? Didn’t you hear it too? You were sleeping in the room directly beneath Room 10.”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Mr Sasaki?”
“Me neither.”
“Mr Kanai, you were staying in Room 9 on the top floor, weren’t you? Not necessarily that close to Room 10… Did any of you happen to check the time?”
“I didn’t look at my watch,” said Kozaburo. I heard Ms Aikura screaming and rushed over right away to see what was wrong.”
“Mr Kanai, how about you?”
“Let me think, it was…”
“It was just after five past one,” Hatsue Kanai interjected. “Six minutes past, to be precise.”
“I see.” Ushikoshi sounded perplexed. “This is a very worrying problem. Anyway, is there anyone else who saw or heard anything else strange last night?”
“Just a minute. I haven’t finished yet,” said Kumi.
“There’s more?” asked Ushikoshi warily.
Kumi felt a bit sorry for the policeman. If he’d got so upset over the scream, how was he going to react to the next part of her story? However, she decided not to pull any punches and recounted the whole story exactly as it had happened. As she’d expected, Ushikoshi listened open-mouthed.