The department store owners wife called Nutmeg about a month after the event, inviting her out to lunch. After they had finished eating, she suggested that they go to her home, where she said to Nutmeg, I wonder if you would mind putting your hand on my head the way you did before. Theres something I want to check. Nutmeg had no particular reason to refuse. She sat next to the woman and placed her palm on the womans temple. She could feel that same something she had felt before. Now she concentrated all her attention on it to get a better sense of its shape, but the shape began to twist and change. Its alive! Nutmeg felt a twinge of fear. She closed her eyes and thought about the Hsinching zoo. This was not hard for her. All she had to do was bring back the story she had told Cinnamon and the scenes she had described for him. Her consciousness left her body, wandered for a while in the spaces between memory and story, then came back. When she regained consciousness, the woman took her hand and thanked her. Nutmeg asked nothing about what had just happened, and the woman offered no explanations. As before, Nutmeg felt a mild fatigue, and a light film of sweat clung to her forehead. When she left, the woman thanked her for taking the time and trouble to visit and tried to hand her an envelope containing money, but Nutmeg refused to take it-politely, but firmly. This is not my job, she said, and besides, you paid me too much last time. The woman did not insist.
Some weeks later, the woman introduced Nutmeg to yet another woman. This one was in her mid-forties. She was small and had sharp, sunken eyes. The clothing she wore was of exceptionally high quality, but aside from a silver wedding band, she used no accessories. It was clear from the atmosphere she projected that she was no ordinary person. The department store owners wife had told Nutmeg, She wants you to do for her the same thing you did for me. Now, please don't refuse, and when she gives you money, don't say anything, just take it. In the long run, it will be an important thing for you-and for me.
Nutmeg went to an inner room with the woman and placed her palm on the womans temple as she had done before. There was a different something inside this woman. It was stronger than the one inside the department store owners wife, and its movements were more rapid. Nutmeg closed her eyes, held her breath, and tried to quell the movement. She concentrated more strongly and pursued her memories more vividly. Burrowing into the tiniest folds she found there, she sent the warmth of her memories into the something.
And before I knew it, that had become my work, said Nutmeg. She realized that she had been enfolded by a great flow. And when he grew up, Cinnamon became his mothers assistant.
21 The Mystery of the Hanging House: 2
SETAGAYA, TOKYO: THE PEOPLE OF THE HANGING HOUSE Famous Politicians Shadow: Now You See It, Now You Don't Amazing, Ingenious Cloak of Invisibility- What Secret Is It Hiding?
[From The - Weekly, November 21] As first revealed in the October 7 issue of this magazine, there is a house in a quiet Setagaya residential neighborhood known to locals as the hanging house. All those who ever lived there have been visited by misfortune and ended their lives in suicide, the majority by hanging.
[Summary of earlier article omitted] Our investigations have led us to only one solid fact: namely, that there is a brick wall standing at the end of every route we have taken in attempting to learn the identity of the new owner of the hanging house. We managed to find the construction company that built the house, but all attempts to get information from them were rejected. The dummy company through which the lot was purchased is legally 100% clean and offers no opening. The whole deal was set up with such clever attention to detail, we can only assume there was some reason for that.
One other thing that aroused our curiosity was the accounting firm that assisted in setting up the dummy company that bought the land. Our investigations have shown us that the firm was established five years ago as a kind of shadow subcontractor to an accounting firm well known in political circles. The prominent accounting firm has several of these subcontractors, each designed to handle a particular kind of job and to be dropped like a lizards tail in case of trouble. The accounting firm itself has never been investigated by the Prosecutors Office, but according to a political reporter for a certain major newspaper, Its name has come up in any number of political scandals, so of course the authorities have their eye on it. Its not hard to guess, then, that there is some kind of connection between the new resident of the hanging house and some powerful politician. The high walls, the tight security using the latest electronic equipment, the leased black Mercedes, the cleverly set-up dummy company: this kind of know-how suggests to us the involvement of a major political figure.
Total Secrecy Our news team did a survey of the movements into and out of the hanging house by the black Mercedes. In one ten-day period, the car made a total of twenty-one visits to the house, or approximately two visits per day. They observed a regular pattern to these visits. First, the car would show up at nine o'clock in the morning and leave at ten-thirty. The driver was very punctual, with no more than five minutes variation from day to day. In contrast to the predictability of these morning visits, however, the others were highly irregular. Most were recorded to have occurred between one and three in the afternoon, but the times in and out varied considerably. There was also considerable variation in the length of time the car would remain parked in the compound, from under twenty minutes to a full hour.
These facts have led us to the following suppositions: 1. The cars regular a.m. visits: These suggest that someone is commuting to this house. The identity of the commuter is unclear, however, owing to the black tinted glass used all around the car.
2. The cars irregular p.m. visits: These suggest the arrival of guests and are probably tailored to the guests convenience. Whether these guests arrive singly or with others is unclear.
3. There seems to be no activity in the house at night. It is also unclear whether or not anyone lives there. From outside the wall, it is impossible to tell if any lights are being used.
One more important point: The only thing to enter or leave the property during our ten- day survey was the black Mercedes: no other cars, no people on foot. Common sense tells us that something strange is going on here. The someone living in the house never goes out to shop or to take walks. People arrive and depart exclusively in the large Mercedes with dark- tinted windows. In other words, for some reason, they do not want their faces seen, under any circumstances. What could be the reason for this? Why must they go to so much trouble and expense in order to do what they do in total secrecy?
We might add here that the front gate is the only way in and out of the property. A narrow alley runs behind the lot, but this leads nowhere. The only way into or out of this alley is through someones private property. According to the neighbors, none of the residents is presently using the alley, which is no doubt why the house has no gate to the back alley. The only thing there is the towering wall, like huge castle ramparts.