Chapter Four - Part Four

After the interviews concluded, everyone split up. Soujirou, who had left with the group, immediately ran back in with a pale face.

“My hunting rifle and ammo are missing! They're both gone from the basement warehouse!”

In the basement warehouse were a gun locker and an ammo locker, where the gun and its bullets were kept. Apparently, he and Taiga each kept keys for them. There were no other spares.

When they went downstairs to check, they found that the locks hadn't been broken. That meant the culprit was either Taiga himself, or the culprit, having taken the keys off his corpse...

If the killer had obtained a loaded gun, the threat they posed was incalculable.

In light of the emergency situation, they decided to search the villa and the wood chopping shed again. Just like last time, they split into groups of three, two, and two, and this time they also searched everyone's luggage. But they didn't find anything, not the gun, not even a single bullet.

After searching the entire interior and failing, they decided to break for a late breakfast-lunch combo. Given the circumstances, no one had any appetite, but they couldn't go such a long time without eating. Tsukie and Amamiya made rice balls, and they drank a strong gyokuro green tea.

By the time they were finished, it was already after 1:00 P.M.

Kamo wanted to reinvestigate the Dragon and Rooster Rooms as soon as possible, but Soujirou insisted that they go outside and search the Netherwood and the garden for his gun, so there was nothing he could do. It was decided that Kamo and the three people he'd been working with since yesterday, Ayaka, Genji, and Amamiya, would search the garden, and the others would search the Netherwood.

When they stepped outside, they found the rain had become a heavy drizzle. Even if they carried umbrellas, their shoes would still get wet. However, since it was summer, they at least didn't feel cold. The villa was comfortable even without air conditioning.

On the way, he heard Amamiya whisper to Ayaka.

“This is the first time I've ever gotten into an argument with Mr. Tsukihiko. I just got so angry, hearing him talk about the Master like that.”

Amamiya sounded deeply regretful of his actions, but Kamo was more sympathetic to him and his circumstances.

He was treated like a member of the family, but at the same time, he was an outsider and made to play the role of a servant. Of course, no matter how much vitriol Tsukihiko spewed, he was never allowed to fight back... Perhaps, just this once, he couldn't take it any more.

More importantly, Kamo was convinced from the word go that this search would be useless. He didn't think the culprit was dumb enough to hide their gun somewhere it would be easily found. It felt like they were just walking around aimlessly.

“That's right, why don't we go to Kojin Shrine?”

Genji turned back, a look of surprise on his face.

“Why would we go there?”

The real reason Kamo had asked was because he wanted to see the only building to survive the landslide, but he quickly made up some other excuse.

“I don't know much about guns, but I think they're sensitive to water and humidity. So I think we should look for a building with a roof.”

Seeming satisfied with the answer, Genji silently began to climb to the garden's higher levels. Kamo followed him.

At the top of the garden lay a small wooden building.

The way the tiled roof shined black in the rain was beautiful. The building had a size of about three tatami mats; it was smaller than he'd expected. It had no torii gate, just two wooden pillars erected outside. It was an unusual shrine, without the name of the enshrined deity written anywhere.

Genji pushed open the wooden door of the shrine and began talking.

“The inside has tatami mats, so let's take a break here. There's a sacred object behind the shoji door there... Hey, what's wrong?”

Kamo wasn't listening. He was dumbfounded. Genji also noticed something unusual, looked into the shrine, and then staggered backwards.

If the the rifle had been inside the shrine, they wouldn't have been nearly as surprised.

What they'd found was another lost item: Chimera. The painting lay propped up against the clay wall of the shrine. Kamo had seen it hanging in the recreation room not long ago, so he was sure it was the same painting.

Amamiya reached hesitantly out to touch the painting's frame and stammered in confusion.

“I guess the culprit took it after all...”

Kamo stood blankly and said nothing, so Ayaka nodded for him.

“That seems quite likely. Is the hunting rifle here too?”

The three of them minus Kamo began a thorough search of the shrine.

Kamo was so lost in thought he didn't even think to help... There must have been a reason why the culprit took the risk of moving the painting to Kojin Shrine. And that reason could be a clue as to the culprit's identity.

Eventually, the others finished searching from the floor to the ceiling, and it was clear the rifle wasn't anywhere in the shrine. It seemed the only reason the culprit had come was to hide the painting.

When they stepped outside, the rain had gotten even stronger. Although no one said so, they naturally started walking back towards the villa.

Around the same time team Kamo returned to the entrance hall, the three who had been searching the Netherwood also returned. Apparently, they had mostly confined their search to the path, but eventually they'd decided that the poor visibility made even that too dangerous and came back. Naturally, they hadn't found anything.

At 2:00 P.M., Kamo was finally allowed to resume investigating in the villa.

Kamo was fine if he had to stay up all night, but Ayaka was already looking tired. Still, it seemed she was planning to stick with him throughout the investigation, so she went back to her room to change out of her wet clothes. She returned wearing a white blouse and a fluffy navy blue skirt. Moreover, when Kamo suggested she go to the rec room and take a break, she ignored him.

He decided to investigate the Dragon Room first. Ayaka, Genji, and Amamiya followed.

Kamo had investigated here once while searching for Taiga. Afterwards, the search for the hunting rifle had been enacted, but Kamo and Ayaka hadn't been in charge of the Dragon Room at the time. That room had been searched by Soujirou, Tsukihiko, and Tsukie.

When they searched for the gun, Kamo made everyone promise not to move anything more than strictly necessary, and if they did, to return everything to where they found it. If the three of them had followed his request, then the room should have been in the same state it had been in when the door was first broken down.

Kamo and Ayaka decided to focus on areas they hadn't checked before. Genji and Amamiya seemed content to act as witnesses to the investigation, and stood waiting in the doorway.

After they examined the bed and mattress, Kamo remembered the crooked key he'd picked up in his first search. When he took it out of his pocket, Amamiya looked at it strangely.

“What's that key?”

“I found it when you first broke down the door to this room... Come to think of it, you didn't actually go into the room, did you?”

“I just peeked in for a bit, then I stayed outside talking to Mr. Soujirou. This is the first time I've actually been in here today.”

That matched up with Kamo's memory. He had indeed not entered the Dragon Room after removing the door. Even when they'd searched the whole villa, he hadn't been in charge of this room, and since he was paired with Genji, he wouldn't have had a chance to sneak off and enter it alone.

Kamo help up the key as he spoke.

“Let's straighten out this key and see if it really fits in the keyhole of the Dragon Room.”

Borrowing a pair of pliers from the toolbox, Kamo somehow managed to force the key back into its original shape. Then he went out in the hall and inserted it into the keyhole of the door leaning against the wall.

It stuck a bit, but the key went all the way in, and when he turned it, the door locked and unlocked. Kamo nodded thoughtfully.

“It looks like this is definitely the key to the Dragon Room.”

When Genji heard that, he squirmed his shoulders a bit.

“The doors to each room can be locked and unlocked from the inside by just turning the bolt on the knob, but from the hallway side, there's no way to lock them without the key... But you found the key inside the room. That makes it look like Grandfather returned to his room after dinner. But in that case, how did the culprit manage to attack him and drag him outside without being seen by you?”

“It's possible Taiga was attacked on his way back to his room and the culprit took his key then. They could have somehow thrown it into the room from outside.”

Ayaka crossed her arms, looking unconvinced.

“Even if that happened, I don't think it explains how they got past me and Mr. Kamo's surveillance.”

Genji also nodded firmly.

“Ayaka's right. There's no way the criminal could have gotten the key into the room while you were watching from the cleaning supplies room, or when we were taking the door off its hinges. At that time, you, Mr. Kamo, were the first to enter. I was also watching from next to you, and I can confirm that nobody could have thrown the key into the room without you, me, or Ayaka seeing.”

“And I took the key as soon as I saw it, so there's no way the culprit could have swapped it with another...”

Kamo resumed his investigation of the room, still thinking.

“...By the way, I heard earlier that there's another wheelchair. Do you know where it is?”

Kamo asked that as he stared at the wheelchair next to the bed. Genji answered immediately.

“It was right next to the stairs on the second floor.”

According to his account, he found it while searching for the hunting rifle. Apparently, it had been collapsed and placed in the space behind the oil paintings. However, since Tonegawa was the one in charge of the wheelchairs, Amamiya didn't know if that was its regular storage location or just temporary.

Next, Kamo removed the dark red lap blanket from the wheelchair in the room and began examining the collapsed wheelchair itself. It appeared he's accidentally hit some sort of switch, and the wheelchair suddenly unfolded with a loud noise. At the same time, something jumped out and rolled across the wooden floor.

Genji's poker face held firm, but Kamo felt his face turn red as he heard Ayaka and Amamiya laughing. But he forgot that as soon as he saw what was on the floor.

“...What's this?”

It was a golden tie clip decorated with a large pearl. Ayaka followed his line of sight, and her eyes bugged out.

“Oh, it's Grandfather's.”

Genji also approached the clip and nodded.

“I think it was the day before yesterday Grandfather said he'd lost his tie clip. I didn't expect it to be here.”

“Yes, he also asked me to search for this, so I know the details.”

Kamo picked up the tie clip and and placed it on the bedside table. There was nothing else he could do with it. His client was already gone.

As for the jinbei on the chair, even Kamo, who had confidence in his memory, couldn't be sure if it was the same one Taiga had been wearing at dinner or a different one.

Next, he turned his attention to the open drawer. There was a pocket watch, a fountain pen, a notepad, some work papers... if he looked closely, he could see some documents from a patent attorney relating to a pharmaceutical trademark. It had “URGENT” stamped on it in red, so Taiga must have brought it to the villa because it needed immediate attention.

Kamo looked at the beautiful dragon pattern on the pocket watch.

“Come to think of it... this watch is quite similar to the one that Ayaka has.”

Ayaka searched her pocket and pulled out her own smaller watch.

“Twenty years ago, Grandfather gave hand-wound pocket watches to everyone in the family as presents. This one I have was the one Mother gave to me.”

She said this as she held the watch tightly.

The watch Ayaka had inherited seemed to be a woman's watch, a size smaller than the one in the drawer. Kamo asked Genji for more details.

“Does everyone here have a watch like this, by any chance?”

He gave a small nod and a sad smile.

“I have one, though I don't usually keep it on me. ...I'm sure even Grandfather occasionally used a wristwatch.”

“Yes, I've heard him say he usually didn't carry his pocket watch, either,” Ayaka interjected.

Genji continued.

“In fact, these watches are special items that symbolize the bond between the Ryuuzen family. That must be why Grandfather brought his here to this villa and kept it in his room.”

Kamo opened the lid to reveal the dial, marked with Roman numerals. The hands still indicated 6:46.

Kamo suddenly remembered the hidden space in Ayaka's watch, so he checked if this one had a similar opening. The watch's elaborate construction made its joints nearly invisible, but he managed to find a protrusion he could hook with a fingernail. With a soft crack, the lid opened.

“...Nothing, huh?”

He had expected to find something, but the space of 1 cm x 4 cm x 2 cm was empty. Genji looked at him in surprise.

“You found that hidden medicine pouch pretty easily.”

“Oh, I just knew it was here because Ayaka offered me her konpeito.”

Just a Kamo was about to put the watch back in the drawer, he heard a strange “chaka-chaka” noise from somewhere. It was a light sound, similar to a chime.

As Kamo looked around, Ayaka smiled embarrassedly.

“I think... I might have forgotten to wind it.”

She took out her pocket watch and began to wind it. The gentle sound it made was soothing to the ears.

“That chime works a bit like an alarm, doesn't it?”

“Yes, the mainspring of this watch can only run for 12 hours, so it lets you know where there are only 30 minutes left. It's one of the functions Grandfather had installed.”

Kamo nodded and returned the larger watch to Taiga's drawer, then decided to go upstairs and check behind the oil paintings before investigating the Rooster Room.

Behind the largest painting was the collapsed wheelchair, just like Genji had said. A dark red lap blanket had been casually draped over it. He pulled out the wheelchair and inspected it, but found nothing new.

...Thinking back, he remembered seeing them before hiding in the cleaning supplies room. Though at the time he'd only recognized them as “something metal” and “a red cloth” and hadn't though much of them.

Kamo took a few steps towards the window.

All of the oil paintings were leaning against the wall on the lift side, so the gap behind them was visible to anyone passing by. Practically speaking, there were no blind spots where a person could hide next to the stairs.

If there was any exception, it was behind the collapsed wheelchair. However, it was only about 30 cm wide, so an adult couldn't hide there.

Remembering where the wheelchair had been when he saw it last night, he decided to confirm whether or not person could hide behind it. As a result, he discovered that the wheelchair had been placed directly against the wall, and there was no space behind it... That also eliminated the possibility that someone had been lurking in the space next to the stairs before he started monitoring the area from the cleaning supplies room.

Tonegawa's clothes and luggage, which had been left in the Rooster Room, were the bare minimum for a person. She didn't have any notepads in her room.

Just to be certain, Kamo inserted the key with the chicken netsuke into the door and confirmed that it was actually the key to the room. Then he re-examined the glass and the medicine packet, but found nothing. However, Tonegawa's body was still in the room... Kamo couldn't shake the feeling that she was staring at him the whole time.

To conclude the investigation, they left the building to inspect the pizza oven.

The rain-soaked oven was by now completely cold, and the ashes inside were starting to harden due to the moisture. The pizza oven was large enough for a person to fit through the entrance.

Kamo once again shined his flashlight on the body, but even the arms and chest, which had escaped with relatively little damage and weren't completely charred, didn't feature any details that would tell him whether or not this body was Taiga.

Summoning all his courage, Kamo moved his face closer to the corpse.

He smelled the horrible odor of burnt flesh, but there wasn't any smell of rot inside the entire kiln.

“Is that some sort of wood?”

When Genji raised his voice, Kamo looked in the corner of the oven and saw a piece of varnished wood. When he moved the body out of the way, being careful not to damage it, he found that it was rounded. However, it was difficult to guess what it had originally been from the fragment of less than 5 cm.

Not willing to give up, Kamo dug around in the ashes, and he found objects that sparkled even in the soot. They were two small keys. Genji recognized them as the keys to the gun and ammo lockers.

Kamo stared at the charred, legless body, mind full of unanswered questions.

If they'd found the keys here, did that mean this was Taiga's body after all? Or had the culprit left the keys here to mislead them?

 

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