The Decagon House Murders

by Yukito Ayatsuji

  “But Ellery—”

  “I know, Agatha. I know.”

  Ellery banged his fist lightly on the table.

  “We need to find out who the murderer is. What about it, Poe? Won’t you tell us what you found out?”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Poe pursed his lips and nodded solemnly.

  “I already told you just now, but she… Orczy was strangled to death. A length of nylon cord, the sort you can get anywhere, was still wound around her neck and ligature marks were clearly visible beneath it. There’s no doubt this was murder.”

  “Any sign of Orczy having fought back?”

  “No. She was probably attacked in her sleep, or when she was off guard. I couldn’t find any sign of her being hit on the head, so she wasn’t knocked out first. There was one thing I couldn’t make sense of, though.”

  “Which was?”

  “You all saw it too. I don’t know why, but the murderer arranged the body in a kind of dignified pose. Orczy was lying on her back with her pyjamas in order and her cardigan covering her face. That might have been the murderer’s conscience at work I guess. But one more thing…”

  Poe frowned deeply.

  “Orczy was missing her left hand.”

  “What?”

  “What do you mean, Poe?” cried Agatha.

  “Her left hand had been cut off.”

  Poe looked around the group, placed both his arms on the table and turned them over, palms up. On his fingers were several dark-red bloodstains.

  “A big, sharp instrument like a kitchen knife was used. The murderer must have found it difficult to do. The cut was horribly clumsy.”

  “It was cut off after the murder, of course,” said Ellery.

  “I can’t say with certainty, but I think it’s correct to assume that. If it had been done while the heart was still active, there would have been a lot more blood than there actually was.”

  “And you didn’t see such an instrument in the room?”

  “No. I couldn’t find the cut-off hand either.”

  “So the murderer took it with him,” muttered Ellery to himself, as he clasped his thin fingers together. “Why would he do that?”

  “He must be insane,” Agatha shrieked.

  Ellery snorted lightly.

  “He must be, or he must love bad jokes. It’s an allusion—to the incident that happened on this island last year.”

  “Ah.”

  “The quadruple murder in the Blue Mansion. One of the victims, Nakamura Kazue, was strangled, after which her left hand was cut off.”

  “But why, Ellery?” Agatha asked.

  “You mean what was the intention behind the allusion? Who knows?” Ellery shrugged. “Let’s go on—Poe, can you give an estimate of the time of death?”

  “There were some signs of livor mortis. I noticed that rigor mortis had just started when I checked for Orczy’s pulse. I could open the clenched fingers of her right hand relatively easily, so rigor mortis hadn’t reached her joints yet. Also, considering the coagulation of the blood… I’d say it was four or five hours after death. Orczy died between seven and eight this morning, or with a wider range, between six and nine. But I’m just an amateur, so don’t take it as read.”

  “I believe you.”

  Carr cackled like a monkey, his teeth sticking out of his mouth.

  “You’re the star of our beloved K— University’s medical faculty. We can trust what you say… Unless, of course, you yourself are the murderer…”

  Poe remained silent and didn’t even look at Carr.

  “Does anybody have an alibi for between six and nine this morning?” Ellery posed the question to all of them. “Anybody notice anything that could be relevant to the case?”

  Nobody reacted.

  “Anyone with an idea about the motive, then?”

  Leroux’s, Van’s and Agatha’s eyes all slowly turned to look at Carr.

  “I see.” Ellery seemed exasperated. “You all think Carr had a motive. Rather obvious, though, isn’t it?”

  “What? Why me?” exclaimed Carr.

  “Orczy turned you down, didn’t she?”

  Carr gasped and clamped his mouth shut.

  “But Ellery, if Carr was the murderer, he would never have arranged her body in such a dignified way,” Agatha cried out in a sardonic tone… “Carr’s the only one who wouldn’t have done that.”

  3

  “Damn them.”

  Carr sat down on the rocks and spat on the ground as he looked at Cat Island, floating in the sea before his eyes. He grabbed some nearby weeds and tore off the leaves.

  “Damn them,” he repeated angrily.

  The leaves he had gathered were carried by the wind and danced out to sea.

  They always go their separate ways, except when they’re out to get me—only then do they work together. That Poe, too, with his pretentious talk… And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wanted to take a better look at Orczy’s body and the inside of the room.

  Ellery in particular was all ready to investigate. Leroux, too. Van as well. We allowed Poe to do it all. Don’t they realize how dangerous that might be?

  Even the tumult of the waves below started to get on his nerves. He spat on the ground once more, pursed his lips and hit his knee with his fist.

  It’s all Orczy’s fault. Turned down? I was just bored and had a little chat with her. Hmph. She thought I was serious and got all high and mighty… Stupid woman. Who did she think she was? Hmph. As if I would kill someone because of that…

  Carr stared at the scenery in front of him, his whole being filled with anger and humiliation.

  “There’s not a boat to be found here. And we don’t have the tools to cut down trees and make a raft. Even if we could improvise one, I doubt we could make it all the way to the mainland—want a smoke, Van?”

  In search of a way to communicate with the mainland, the group—except for Carr—had decided to split up into two teams and explore the island. Poe, Van and Agatha formed one team. They were exploring the area between the southern and eastern coasts.

  Poe gave Van a cigarette, took one himself and then crossed his arms in silence.

  “The only thing we can do is to start a fire and hope they find us.”

  “Would they really notice something like that? Also…” Van gazed up at the sky as he lit a cigarette. “The clouds don’t look so good. It might rain tonight.”

  “That’s bad. Why didn’t we think of a method of making contact before we came out here, just in case?”

  “It’s too late now. Who would have expected something like this?” Van’s shoulders sagged. “And my fever had just dropped too. I can’t believe this is happening…”

  “I haven’t seen a single fishing boat this whole time,” said Agatha, plainly distressed.

  The heavily overcast sky threw a dark shadow across the sea.

  “But a boat might come eventually,” said Poe. “We’d better have someone on watch here. Teams of two, in three shifts.”

  “Poe, no!” Agatha cried. “I don’t want to be left alone with someone who might be the murderer.”

  “Teams of three, then,” offered Van.

  “We might as well come all together then,” said Poe. “The only time a boat will pass by here is when it leaves or returns to the harbour, so probably around dusk or dawn.”

  “But there’s a chance they might pass by at other times,” said Van.

  “Maybe, but if you ask me the chance is very small. The old boatman told us that when we came here. The fishing grounds in this area are further south, so boats hardly come this way at all.”

  “But there’s not much else we can do,” said Van. “Do we have something we can use as firewood to light a
signal fire?”

  “That might be a problem.” Poe looked back at the forest. “Just pine trees. They don’t burn well when fresh. We could gather dry, fallen pine needles and burn them, but there aren’t that many, so they wouldn’t be able to see the fire from the mainland. The only thing we can do is wait for a boat to pass by.”

  “What’s going to happen to us?”

  Agatha looked terrified.

  “We’ll be all right. Somehow.”

  Poe placed his hand on Agatha’s shoulder and smiled awkwardly through his beard. But Agatha seemed unconvinced.

  “You say that, but for all I know you, or perhaps Van, might be the one who killed Orczy.”

  Poe took out a new cigarette in silence.

  “Or Carr, or Leroux, or Ellery…”

  Agatha was deathly white and was visibly trembling.

  “One of you killed Orczy. Killed her and then cut off her hand.”

  “But you’re one of the suspects too, Agatha,” Van said with a solemn look, unusual for him.

  “It wasn’t me.”

  Agatha turned back towards the forest and buried her head in her hands.

  “Aah, I can’t believe it. Is this real? Van, Poe? Is Orczy really dead? Is there really a murderer among us?”

  “You know, Leroux, I was thinking of another possibility.”

  “Another one?”

  “It’s obvious. There might be someone besides us on this island.”

  “What?”

  Ellery and Leroux had first gone to the inlet with the pier, then to the rocky area near the burnt-down Blue Mansion, and were now walking along the little path through the grove. They were heading for the northern cliffs that overlooked Cat Island.

  Leroux stopped in his tracks and asked again.

  “What do you mean, Ellery?”

  “There’s a possibility the murder was committed by an outside party.” Ellery smiled. “Or do you prefer to think that one of us is the murderer?”

  “D-don’t make jokes about that. But who could be hiding on the island?”

  “Oh, if you ask me…” Ellery said nonchalantly, “I’d say Nakamura Seiji.”

  “Oh!”

  “Why so surprised?”

  “But Ellery, Nakamura Seiji was murdered last year.”

  “So they say, but I think that a mistake was made there. Have you never considered it, Leroux? The body of Nakamura Seiji, which was found six months ago, was the textbook example of a ‘headless corpse’. And then there’s that gardener who disappeared at the same time.”

  “You mean that Seiji was the murderer and the body thought to be his was actually the gardener’s?”

  “Precisely. A simple switch.”

  “And so Seiji is still alive and has now come to the island.”

  “A possibility. Though perhaps he actually lives on the island.”

  “He’s living here?”

  “Remember the story the old fisherman told us two days ago? That sometimes the lights of the Decagon House are on? Seiji might’ve been the one who lit them.”

  “You can’t believe all those ghost stories. The island was crawling with police and media after the murders. Where do you suppose Seiji was hiding then, and where is he hiding now?”

  “That’s why we’re exploring. We just took a look at the little boathouse in the inlet, but there was nothing suspicious there. Of course our first priority is to find a way to contact the mainland, but I think we should look for traces of someone living on the island too. That’s also why I said we need to take a look at Cat Island.”

  “But still, I can’t believe that Seiji’s the murderer.”

  “Really? Don’t you remember that the window in Orczy’s room wasn’t locked? Isn’t it reasonable to suppose she forgot to lock her window and that someone came in from outside?”

  “Then why was the door also unlocked?”

  “The murderer opened it from the inside after the murder. To get into the hall and glue the plastic plate on the door.”

  “But that doesn’t make sense. How could anyone from the outside know that you’d placed the plates in the kitchen drawer?”

  “The one who left those plastic plates could have been someone from the outside in the first place, couldn’t he? The lock on the front door is broken, so anyone can go in and out as they please. Yesterday morning Seiji could have left those plates on the table, waited until we got up and observed us through the kitchen window. Or someone among us might be working with him.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “I’m just discussing theories, Leroux. For a big fan of mystery fiction, you’re not showing much imagination.”

  “Ellery, mystery novels and reality are two different things. Anyway, what motive could Nakamura Seiji have for wanting to kill us?”

  “Who knows?”

  They had reached the end of the path and come out on the cliffs where Carr was sitting. Seeing them, Carr stood up and looked the other way.

  “Hey, you’d better not go off alone all the time.”

  Ellery was speaking to Carr, who had not said a word. He ignored Ellery and walked off into the grove.

  “Difficult guy.”

  Ellery clicked his tongue lightly.

  “Everybody’s on edge right now. I’m afraid I might’ve said too much, too. But he seems to be holding a grudge against me personally.”

  “I think I know what’s bothering him,” said Leroux, and he glanced to where Carr had vanished. “Even at a time like this, you always remain so calm, Ellery, as if you’re observing us normal people from a place far away.”

  “That’s how I appear to you?”

  “Yes. I’m not sure whether it’s a compliment, but I do feel some kind of respect for you for that. Carr is the opposite, and I think he’s jealous.”

  “So that’s all it is?”

  With an uninterested look, Ellery walked in the direction of the sea.

  “There are too many shrubs here. Not a good place to view the island.”

  He was talking about Cat Island, which lay in front of them. Leroux stood next to Ellery and said, while paying attention to where he put his feet: “It does seem like two or three people could hide there. But then there’s this cliff.”

  “He might have a boat. It’s not far, a rubber dinghy is probably enough. Leaving from the rocky area over there and then… Hey, look, Leroux.”

  Ellery pointed.

  “That slope on the island, do you think it’s climbable?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  Staring at the dark Cat Island floating on the white waves, Leroux tried to make sense of all the thoughts inside his confused mind.

  True, the possibility of another party being present on this island could not be dismissed altogether, as Ellery had pointed out. Someone else could be out there, hiding, and after their lives. But to assume that person was Nakamura Seiji would be jumping to conclusions. What were the chances of Nakamura Seiji still being alive? Even if he were, why would he want them dead?

  It’s just impossible.

  Leroux slowly shook his head.

  It’s just impossible, he thought.

  But there was something in his memory that nagged at him. There was something he needed to remember.

  The waves washing the cliffs at his feet also washed his mind. Every time a fragment of memory appeared, the waves immediately took it away.

  Leroux gave up thinking and looked at Ellery next to him. Ellery had nothing more to say and was looking coolly at the sea.

  The wind brought the scent of dusk.

  4

  “…Due to low pressure, the sky will become cloudy over a large region, starting tonight and lasting until tomorrow night, but it
will stay dry. The weather will recover, starting the day after tomorrow. And now, the weather forecast for each area in Kyūshū…”

  Eventually, the voice coming out of Leroux’s radio cassette player was drowned out by a loud female DJ.

  “I’ve had enough. Switch it off, Leroux, I don’t want to listen to it any more,” said Agatha irritably. Leroux hastened to comply.

  Their simple dinner had been conducted in a heavy silence, illuminated by the oil lamp. The six were sitting around the table, all avoiding the spot directly across from the door of Orczy’s room. The plate with “The First Victim” was still on the door. It appeared to have been stuck there with strong glue, and they couldn’t get it off.

  Agatha said in a deliberately cheery voice: “Hey Ellery, show us another of your magic tricks.”

  “Hmm? Oh, sure.”

  Ellery, who had been playing with his cards in silence, did a riffle shuffle, gathered the cards into a case and put the deck in his coat pocket.

  “Why are you putting them away when I asked you to show me a trick?”

  “Easy there, Agatha. I put them in my pocket because you want to see a magic trick.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This is how the trick starts.”

  Ellery coughed softly, and then peered into Agatha’s eyes.

  “OK, ready, Agatha? Think of any of the fifty-two cards, any one you want, except for the joker.”

  “Just think of it?”

  “Yes. Don’t say it out loud—done?”

  “Yes.”

  “OK…”

  Ellery took the case from his coat pocket again and put it on the table. It was the blue bicycle deck.

  “Now take a good look at this case. Then think really hard of the card you chose and repeat the name of the card in your head.”

  “OK,” said Agatha. “Just think of it hard, right?”

  “Yes. That’s enough.”

  Ellery picked up the card case with his left hand.

  “Now Agatha, what card did you think of?”

  “I can tell you now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Queen of Diamonds.”