Prologue: Three Years and Four Months After Japan's First Locked Room Murder
A locked room is romance, art, and fantasy all in one.
A long time ago, a short mystery story written by a friend of mine began like that. This is a common opinion among mystery fans, but while locked room murders are certainly glamorous, beautiful things, there is no reason to commit them in real life. I've never stopped believing that. But it seems that our belief and our lack of thought brought about a huge misunderstanding.
In reality, locked rooms are not only things of glamour and beauty, but incredibly valuable to those committing real crimes. What proved that was a perfect locked room created by a genius criminal, and a sentence handed down by a foolish judge.
It was the most shameful ruling in the history of Japanese law, and at the same time, the most sincere. The judge must have been so embarrassed.
In the winter of three years ago, the first locked room murder in Japan was committed. In a country where not a single locked room murder had taken place since the dawn of history, an unprecedented crime had been committed. Thus, the judiciary was forced to make a decision. The scene of the crime was a perfect locked room, and no one from the police or the prosecutor's office could solve it. Naturally, the question of how to handle that situation was the focal point of the trial.
Would they acquit the defendant because it was impossible for them to commit the crime
Or, like so many mystery novel critics before, would they dismiss it as an illusion and pass the guilty verdict?
In the end, the judge's conclusion went as follows:
“Proof of non-resolution of a locked room is equivalent to proof of absence from the scene of a crime.” On the grounds that it was impossible for them to have committed the crime, the defendant was acquitted. It was the same as acquitting a suspect with a perfect alibi.
After that day, the number of locked room murders rapidly increased.
In the first year, 70 people were murdered in locked rooms. The year after, 92 people were murdered in locked rooms. The following year, the number increased to 140. Japan had become a beautiful vision of hell – It was the Golden Age of Locked Rooms.
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