Содзи Симада - Murder in the Crooked House

“You mean while guests were staying in the room?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Just in case, the detectives proceeded to search the main building of the house, the garden shed and Kozaburo’s room at the top of the tower one more time. But there was nothing unusual anywhere.

“I don’t get it. What could have made that light?”

The detectives had drawn their usual blank.

About an hour after that incident, the door from the salon opened and Hatsue Kanai came out. She made her way towards the west wing stairs with the intention of fetching something from her room.

The wind was getting louder. As she climbed the stairs, Hatsue happened to glance over the banister down to the basement corridor. She normally bragged about having psychic powers, and what happened next might well have been because of her special abilities.

The basement corridor was poorly lit, and looking down felt like lifting a tombstone and peering down into a crypt. In one corner Hatsue could see a faint light, which gradually took on a human form.

All of the living human beings were currently in the salon. Hatsue knew because she had just left them there.

A numbing terror took hold of her, and her gaze fixed on the form as if held there by a powerful magnetic force. It was the hazy figure of a person (or what appeared to be a person) who made no sound, not even so much as the slight rustle of paper that falls to the floor, as it glided along the corridor. It was heading towards Room 14, where Kikuoka had been murdered, as if headed for a meeting of all the spirits of the house.

As if by some prearranged signal, the door to Room 14 opened, and the glowing figure continued inside. Right at that moment, it turned its head to the side. And the head continued to turn until it faced backwards, and Hatsue caught a glimpse of its face. For a moment her eyes and those of the mysterious being met. That face! It was definitely the smirking face of the Golem doll!

Hatsue felt her hair begin to stand on end and her whole body turned to goose pimples. She realized that she was screaming, but the voice didn’t seem like her own. Like the raging storm outside it went on and on, as if propelled by a will that wasn’t hers, gushing forth. Eventually out of fatigue and exhaustion, she fell into a faint. Her screams became distant to her own ears until finally they were merely an echo on a distant mountain.

The next thing Hatsue knew was that she was in her husband’s arms and surrounded by anxious faces. It seemed that not much time had passed. Everyone was there. Her husband’s normally feeble arms had for once proved sturdy.

For the next few minutes, Hatsue answered the questions thrown at her by the bystanders, and explained the terrifying scene she had just witnessed. In her own mind she felt that she was describing everything clearly, but it seemed that nobody around her could grasp what she was saying.

How can they all be so useless? she was cursing inside. That’s it, I’ve had enough of this house of horrors, as she babbled on like a deranged lunatic.

“Bring her some water!” somebody shouted. She didn’t want anything like that, but when it arrived and she put the glass to her lips, the sensation of the water on her throat was strangely soothing.

“Do you want to lie down on the sofa in the salon?” her husband asked, his voice full of concern. She nodded weakly.

However, as soon as she was safely on the sofa and began to explain again exactly what she had just seen, infuriatingly her husband returned to his usual obstinate, petty bureaucratic self.

“Dolls can’t walk.”

No one was surprised that this was Michio Kanai’s opinion.

“You must have dreamt it.”

And as she feared, this was his final conclusion.

“Those stairs aren’t normal,” she insisted. “There’s something there!”

“There’s definitely something wrong with you,” continued her husband, ignoring her protests.

“Now, now,” said the detectives, quickly inserting themselves between husband and wife. They suggested checking on the doll in Room 3 and the status of Room 14 right away, but it was clear from their attitudes that they didn’t believe a word of Hatsue’s story either.

Kozaburo opened the door to Room 3, and Ozaki flipped the light switch. Golem was sitting in his usual spot, leaning against the window-side wall, just by the south Tengu mask wall.

Ozaki marched briskly up to the feet of the doll.

“Was this the face you saw?”

Hatsue, who was hovering in the doorway, couldn’t bring herself to look at the doll. And anyway, there was no need for her to look.

“There is absolutely no doubt about it. It was him!”

“Please take a close look. Was it definitely this face?”

There was an almost sarcastic smile on Ozaki’s face.

“Absolutely, definitely!”

“But the doll is right here.”

“Don’t ask me how that’s possible!”

“Was it wearing that hat and those clothes?” asked Ushikoshi.

“Huh… I’m not sure about that. But it was that face. That sneering, grinning, creepy face. But now that you mention it… I don’t think he was wearing that hat.”

“He didn’t have the hat on?”

“No, I can’t say. I don’t remember that clearly.”

“That’s what I’m saying. There’s something wrong with you,” said Kanai again.

“You can shut up!” said Hatsue. “After going through what I’ve just been through, anybody would forget the minor details!”

The detectives didn’t interrupt. She had a point. But nobody had a clue what they ought to say next. That is, except for my friend.

“Well, I told you all so!”

Kiyoshi was absolutely elated. Ozaki and the other detectives immediately rolled their eyes.

“He’s the killer. He looks like a doll, but he’s been deceiving us all. He’s been perfectly capable of walking around by himself all this time. If he undoes his joints, he can get in and out through tiny openings. And he can kill without feeling remorse. He’s a brutal murderer. You were about to check Room 14, weren’t you? Go ahead. And when we get there, I’m going to tell you the whole story, all about his evil deeds. Officers, it’s better not to touch him, if you value your lives.”

Oozing confidence, Kiyoshi turned to face the detectives.

“Mr Kajiwara, you were just about to pour some tea, weren’t you? Please get Mr Hayakawa to help you to bring it to Room 14. I think that will be the ideal location for the big reveal.”

The clock on the wall of Room 14 showed exactly midnight. Kajiwara and Hayakawa had brought trays of tea and were currently circulating and making sure that everyone was served.

Kiyoshi grabbed two cups from the tray and handed one to me. He politely offered the other to Eiko beside him, after quickly grabbing a saucer and placing her cup on it first. Then he finally served himself. His behaviour was rather untypically gallant.

“The service is unusually good tonight,” I remarked to him.

“This way there will no grounds for complaint from her ladyship,” he replied.

“Hurry up and reveal the trick behind this bloody case. If you really can, that is,” said Togai, who was standing drinking his tea. He was expressing what everyone felt, and all eyes were immediately on Kiyoshi.

“The trick?” Kiyoshi looked puzzled. “There’s no trick here. Just as I’ve been saying all along, this is a series of murders committed by the doll Golem, who has been possessed by the vengeful ghosts of the dead.”

Kiyoshi’s performance was painful for me to watch. His habitual teasing tone was back and I was sure he wasn’t being honest.