“Room 13 and 14 don’t have any hidden tricks, then?”
“Of course not.”
I tried to work out how he could be so sure, but nothing came to mind. In the end I asked another question.
“You really know just about everything about everything, don’t you?”
To which my friend just stared up at the ceiling and reprised his mutterings. It was very strange.
“Are you saying you’ve solved the whole thing?”
“Far from it. I’m very confused right now.”
His voice sounded hoarse.
“Do you at least have an idea what direction you should be looking?”
Kiyoshi turned and looked very seriously into my eyes.
“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
I felt strangely uneasy, and then a little fearful. Eventually, I decided I should man up a little.
“Do you think I should go and talk to them? Perhaps I could be of help.”
“No point. Better solve it than talk about it… But that’s too difficult. There’s an up and down staircase… So which one would he be standing on?… That’s the problem. There may never be an answer. I’m going to be forced to gamble…”
“What are you talking about?”
Kiyoshi tended to ramble this way when he was close to solving a case. It often freaked people out. To me it always sounded as if he were just one step short of being completely off his rocker.
“Never mind,” I said. “Right, now I’ve got a question for you. Why do you think Kazuya Ueda’s body was arranged the way it was? Like he was dancing?”
“Ah, I think if we spend the whole day in this room, we’ll find the answer.”
“In this room?”
“Yes. The answer is in here.”
I looked around. The room was filled with bookshelves.
“Could you be a bit less vague? Okay, how about this? Sasaki’s murder yesterday—you’re feeling responsible and it’s made you depressed. The way I see it, you had no idea what’s going on and yet you promised that there would be no more deaths—”
“That couldn’t be helped!”
Kiyoshi sounded distraught.
“Besides him… but… well… I don’t think that can be… anyway now…”
My friend didn’t seem to have a grasp on reality at all. But whatever the case, I had never before heard him describe a murder as something that couldn’t be helped.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said. “And now, listening to what you’re saying, I’m confident I’m right. I think Sasaki committed suicide.”
To which Kiyoshi seemed to react with shock. He was dumbfounded for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Suicide… I see. I didn’t think of that. Well, that’s one way…”
His shoulders sagged.
Not to have thought of such a simple thing… I was worried about him. But then,
“That’s a great idea,” he continued. “If we tell them that it was suicide, it’ll confuse them even more.”
I suddenly felt angry.
“Kiyoshi! Have you been plotting this the whole time? Because you don’t really know what’s going on, you’ve been spending your whole time pretending to be some kind of famous detective? Wow. That’s low even for you. If you don’t know, then just say you don’t know. The professional detectives have been racking their brains over this case, but still don’t understand it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But because you’ve been faking it for so long, your shame is going to be all the greater.”
“I’m tired. I need to rest.”
“Then please just listen to my thoughts.”
He didn’t respond, so I began to speak. I’d also given this case plenty of thought, and I was trying to develop a theory of my own.
“Even if we decide that Sasaki killed himself, it’s still all wrong. There was that letter pinned to the wall. One which showed a definite lack of writing ability.”
“Meaning?”
“That message was really poorly written, right?”
“You think?”
“And you don’t?”
“I don’t think that it could have been written any other way.”
“For a dramatic letter that announces an intention of revenge, it was third rate. There are so many better ways it could have been said.”
“For example?”
“Well, how about a more literary flavour? Let’s see… ‘I vow to rob you of your life’, or ‘I will not rest until I’ve exacted my revenge upon you’, or ‘My blood runs like fire in my veins’ or something?”
“Well, that’s poetic.”
“There are so many other phrases like that the writer could have used, like—”
“Okay, I get it. What’s your point?”
“I mean regarding this whole revenge thing, if the killer wanted to get revenge on Kozaburo Hamamoto for something, the theory that Sasaki was the killer and then took his own life doesn’t work. He had no reason to take revenge on Hamamoto. He only met the man very recently and the two of them seem to have got on very well. And anyway, to kill himself before killing Hamamoto could hardly be counted as revenge… Or possibly he’s set up some trick that’s going to take Hamamoto’s life.”
“Well, the police are investigating all possibilities for that. They said they were going to thoroughly check the room in the tower as well.”
“And how are the deaths of Ueda and Kikuoka a form of revenge against Hamamoto?”
“Right. They’re not.”
“And yet, if we drop the theory that Sasaki was the killer and look at who’s left, there are the three members of staff and then the daughter, Eiko, Kumi Aikura, the Kanais, Yoshihiko and finally Togai. That’s it. There doesn’t seem to be anyone among them who might have a grudge against Hamamoto.”
“No, nobody.”
“And really when you think about it, the act of murdering Sasaki can hardly be said to exact revenge on Hamamoto.”
“I agree.”
“Unless of course because, as there was some sort of relationship between Eiko and Sasaki, the act of killing Sasaki would cause grief to the daughter, and therefore also grief to the father by association. A bit of a roundabout way to achieve it though.
“It’s such an impossible case! Starting with that horrible grinning doll, it has so many weird elements. Like those two stakes stuck in the snow—”
At that moment the library door opened to reveal Eiko Hamamoto and Kumi Aikura. At first the two women appeared perfectly calm as they strolled over to the window, but if you looked more closely you could see there was some kind of simmering tension between them. They didn’t seemed to notice the two of us.
“You’re really going for it,” said Eiko, as nonchalant as if she were talking about the weather.
“What do you mean?” asked Kumi carefully. I was wondering the same thing. But Eiko’s next response made it clear. She was referring to the other woman’s pursuit of Sasaki, Togai, Kajiwara and the other men.
“There’s no point in beating about the bush,” said Eiko with a sweet smile. “I think you understand what I’m talking about?”
Eiko’s condescending attitude never faltered.
“I’m sorry, no. I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” Kumi answered loftily.
I held my breath.
“Look, I can forgive you everything else. Perhaps you can’t help that you’re such an irresponsible fluffhead. I’m just different, that’s all. I can’t live the way you do. But what I can’t forgive you for is Sasaki. Do you understand?”
“What do you mean by ‘irresponsible fluffhead’? You say you can’t live the way I do, but you certainly seem to know a lot about that way.”