by Hitoshi Goto
“You are too, Professor Tomii. I’ve been sitting here watching you all this time, and since you started reading you haven’t moved an inch,” Erika told him. For some reason her eyes looked blurred with tears.
Now that she mentioned it, I realised she was right. Since taking a sip of coffee when I started, I hadn’t touched the cup again. “What time is it?”
“Five o’clock.”
I must admit I was amazed at my own power of concentration. Four hours! For all that time, I’d been utterly focused on the Memorandum. I decided to use that power of concentration to plunge right into solving the mystery here and now, in one sitting.
“Before getting to the main problem of that deeper mystery to Romulus that your father couldn’t solve, first let’s look at the ten conditions,” I said, again spreading out the piece of paper on which they were written.
Someone having such remarkable deductive powers, he can solve puzzles that thwart all others and has never left a puzzle unsolved.
Someone with a peerless sense of curiosity. Such is his passion and curiosity, he will travel anywhere and go to any lengths in order to solve a puzzle.
Why is English cuisine so bad?
Thomas Beckett
U977
Hertha Rindt
Thule Society
The Gunpowder Plot
What kind of flowers grow in the planters at Potsdamer Platz?
Sankt Petershausen
“The first two are qualitative, so I’ll leave them aside for the time being,” I told her. “Number three, too, is a different type of question, so I’ll leave that for later too. That leaves numbers four and eight, which are both related to events in England, while five, six, seven, nine and ten, are to do with events in Germany. I tried thinking of these clues as three quadrants.
“What do you mean?”
“A time axis, geographical relation, and content of the clue,” I said holding up my hand with my thumb, index finger and middle finger at right angles to each other as in Fleming’s left-hand rule. “Let’s illuminate the time axis. Events related to England are from the 12th to the 17th century. The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Beckett was killed by assassins sent by Henry II, in a tragic end to the fateful confrontation between two former close friends, heads of the clergy, and the secular world.”
She nodded vigorously. “And the gunpowder plot took place against the backdrop of conflict between Protestants and Catholics in England. Both of them have Christianity as a theme, but I just don’t know how this relates to the historical puzzle.”
“Yes, exactly. Next the events connected with Germany,” I said, jotting down notes. “U977. The U stands for Unterseeboot. Your father had information that it would depart from Norway in early May.”
“Do you know what happened to the U977?” Erika asked.
“I searched for references to it in the newspapers from the time in the library.”
“Newspapers from where?”
“There was nothing in the newspapers about it having come to Japan, so the other option had to be South America. I guessed it would most likely be somewhere with a high number of German immigrants, like Uruguay or Argentina.”
“An excellent observation. And?”
“It was as I’d thought. Lo and behold, it actually travelled to Argentina. The information was correct. It arrived in Argentina on 17 August, right after Japan’s surrender. There were a lot of rumours surrounding this submarine, mostly that Hitler escaped on it. But as far as I could make out, neither Hitler nor Romulus was on board.”
Erika looked impressed at my explanation. She must have also done a lot of research. From the look on her face, I gathered she already knew this much.
“Yes, that’s right. Then, the next condition, Hertha Rindt has an answer in the Memorandum, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. It was the alias Eva Braun took when she was in the hospital in Dresden.”
Erika nodded. “And the Thule Society is relatively well known, isn’t it?
This time it was my turn to nod. “It was in your father’s Memorandum, too. Not only is it generally well known, the role it played in the occult aspect of the Nazis is an established historical fact. Therefore this probably shows that Nazi Germany or Hitler himself play a large role in the Memorandum along with the submarine. This is an allusion to Hitler’s son Romulus.”
“You already have the answer about the flowers, don’t you?”
“Yes. The Adlon’s envelope appeared in the second Memorandum too, so I knew your father had been to Berlin. In Berlin at that time, Potsdamer Platz was one of the thriving areas. It was especially gorgeous during the Weimar Republic. Growing potatoes there would be totally out of the question were it not in wartime, wouldn’t it? Entirely inappropriate for flowerbeds.”
Erika’s eyes grew round. “What about Sankt Peterhausen?”
“Hausen is a form of the plural in Old German often used in place names, like Schaffhausen, and so on. It was used for the names of towns or villages, but you don’t see it these days in Western Germany.”
“In which case, it must have been in what is now Poland or the Soviet territory that was formerly East Prussia, or along the coast of the present East Germany, or in Alsace, Lorraine, or Austria?”
“I looked in the pre-war Baedeker’s travel guides, but there weren’t any towns or places with that name. But I know the answer,” I said.
Erika’s eyes shone. “Really?”
“Yes. If it’s not in present-day Germany or in the former German territory, there are two possibilities. First, the possibility that it’s a town created by German immigrant settlers. In this case, it could be in Ohio or Wisconsin in the US, South Australia, or otherwise somewhere in South America, but in this case I don’t think it would retain the German spelling Sankt, it would be either Saint or San.”
Erika looked as though she knew the answer, but she was listening with great interest to my deductions.
“And then it came to me. Your father met your French mother in German-occupied Guernsey. Guernsey’s biggest town is Saint Peter Port. It is separated from the mainland, but during the war it was the only British territory occupied by Germany. It is the same as Iwojima or Okinawa in Japan. And so the second possibility is for a territory that was not originally German but was occupied by Germany during the war, and therefore also had a German name. During the war, Saint Peter Port was probably called Sankt Peterhausen. And Guernsey is present in this Memorandum too.”
I turned to face Erika directly.
“Combined with the emphasis on ‘Why is English food so bad?’, your father’s Memorandum is organised into three main themes. Britain or England, Germany, and Guernsey. The period covers the seven hundred years from the 12th century up to the war.”
I stopped speaking for a moment and slowly sipped on the coffee that the café owner had just brought out for us.
“Next let’s analyse your father’s personality and ability,” I said, standing up for a moment and changing my position in the seat to refresh myself. I met the owner’s eyes, and he silently shook his head in amazement.
“He was a painter in the Western style, but he was full of curiosity and had a strong interest in music, literature, and history. He travelled not just to France, but various other countries too. Musically he was quite influenced by Wagner. Culturally or artistically, more Italy, I feel. At least I get an impression of Venice. The depth of his knowledge of history is fully evident in the second Memorandum, isn’t it?”
Erika nodded.
“Then there’s his proficiency in languages.”
“Thank you. My mother also said that about his language ability. It wasn’t only French and Latin, his English was pretty good too. But it seems his strongest foreign language was French.”
“He spoke English with Speer, but French with So
nnenberger and Schmidt, didn’t he? He probably spoke French with your mother from the start, I suppose. She’s from Saint-Malo, isn’t she?”
“Yes. Her family line goes back 400 years, descended from Jacques Cartier. Commissioned by Francois I of France, he sailed to what is now Quebec in Canada and announced he was making it a French territory.”
“You could be made an honorary citizen of Quebec,” I teased her. “But as for German,” I said, getting back to the subject.
“I think my father just made out he couldn’t speak German, but he could understand a lot,” she said.
“No, I don’t think so. At least assuming that he wasn’t lying in the two Memorandums.
“How do you know?”
“There are a number of proofs, for example the parade by the SS in Paris. You remember, they had the insignia of a key?”
“Yes, it seems my father didn’t know the origin of that.”
“It’s simple. Your father wrote the name of an SS general a number of times.”
“Which one?”
“Sepp Dietrich.”
“Same surname as Marlene Dietrich?”
“That’s right. She was originally born and bred a German. Anyway, the meaning of the name Dietrich is a key. A skeleton key, to be precise.”
“Oh my!”
“So the key insignia was adopted to show respect to the veteran SS division commander Dietrich. And there’s more. The conversation he had with Lieutenant Zweifel, who he met in Saint-Malo.”
“You mean where he said ‘No need to be so guarded’?”
“That’s right.”
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at, Professor,” she said, looking disappointed.
“If you look up the meaning of his name in the dictionary, it says ‘doubts, qualms,’ so with a name like that it’s hardly surprising the way he was questioning your father. But your father didn’t get the allusion, so he probably didn’t understand German well.”
Erika puffed out her cheeks a little but she nodded and said, “I see. If you put it like that, I think you’re right. So that clarifies his language ability. Next?”
“The way he gets along with people. He was surprisingly good at making friends. When he was in Japan he was a late developer, but after going to Paris he apparently had a lot of girlfriends.”
Erika puffed out her cheeks in protest again, and didn’t say anything.
“He lived in Montparnasse, breathed the scent of culture to the full, and lived freely. It seems it suited him better than Japan.”
“He knew I would read it so he probably didn’t spell it out, but I suppose it’s true. In fact, I’m sure he did have various girlfriends. It’s not fair on my mother!” she said, her cheeks still puffed out.
“Well, but that was before he went to Guernsey, wasn’t it?”
“True. He even confesses that he was attracted to my mother because her hand reminded him of that diva Marie Dubas. As his daughter, I don’t really want to see the shadows of his other women.” She pouted.
Perhaps we should leave it at that for the issue of women, I thought.
“Next, his personality. He clearly loved Japan, but he sympathised with the underdog, and hated people who rested on their authority and thought only of protecting themselves.”
“That’s right. I loved his defiance and kindness,” she said, nodding.
“He was also flexible, you know. He liked funazushi, but he didn’t appear to have any problem adapting to a French lifestyle and food in Paris. He didn’t seem to miss rice, or soba noodles, like so many Japanese people abroad do.”
“It’s probably precisely because he liked funazushi that he could develop a liking for French cheese so quickly. Washed-rind cheeses aren’t all that different.”
“I suppose it shows he was used to the smell of fermented foods.”
“But he didn’t like English food.”
I asked the café owner to bring me another coffee, and another tea for Erika.
Okay, I had to take my deductions a step closer to the point.
“In your father’s Memorandum, he emphasises the unsolved puzzle of the two-layer secret to Romulus, but in fact there are a number of strange cases in the Memorandum that haven’t been solved. That’s true of the second Memorandum I read a while ago, but there are many things I’m not sure whether he deliberately put them in or not.”
“For example?”
“When he was in Saint-Malo en route to Guernsey, your grandfather told him that the rats didn’t come out, so there was no need to worry, but what did that have to do with your mother having gone?”
“Ah, well, I think I understand that one.”
“You do?”
“My mother’s birthday is on 17 March. Do you know what day that is?”
“Um…”
“The day Gertrude of Nivelles was born.”
“Ah, Saint Gertrude.” I tugged at the thread of my memory. “An abbess who passed away in 659, she is worshipped by many people in Germany and France for protecting them from damage caused by rats. Many girls in that region are named Gertrude after her.”
“You’re on the right track.”
“So what your grandfather meant was that even though the auspicious Saint Gertrude—your mother—who kept the rats away wasn’t there, still the rats didn’t come out and he was doing well.”
“Top marks.”
“There are others. Something Manteuffel’s wife said on Guernsey. There were some unusual types of flowers arranged in a vase. And what did she mean by it being best to place those flowers under a willow?”
“Yes, now that you mention it, I have no idea.”
“I doubt they have anything to do with the Romulus secret, but still it’s nagging at me.”
“Come to think of it, those flowers in the vase, I somehow recall having either seen or read about them.”
We were both sunk in our own thoughts for a while. The answer just wouldn’t come. Then I heard someone clearing his throat.
I looked up to see the café owner carrying a tray with some tea and coffee on it. We each took our cup.”
“Some of those flower names were ones that you don’t really hear nowadays,” I muttered, pouring cream into my coffee. I tried to pour it to form a circle, but it didn’t come out very well.
“If this was a TV drama, it would make a perfect ring. I heard that they actually use soy sauce instead of coffee,” Erika said.
“A ring?”
Suddenly we both shouted together, “Got it!”
I gave way to Erica and let her speak.
“It’s Shakespeare. Those flowers are in Hamlet, the same ones as Ophelia used in her flower garland. She must have hung it on a willow branch when she entered the water.”
Suddenly an idea came to me.
“Now that you mention it, it’s true. Likewise in Hamlet, when Hamlet stabs Polonius, he is calling him a rat. That’s how much rats, which ate precious food and caused the plague, were hated. There are probably lots of other similar hidden tricks. Speer, for example.”
“Why?”
“Speer is the German spelling.”
“But it’s similar to the speare in Shakespeare?”
“That’s right. In terms of origin, Shakespeare was probably Saxon, which was originally Saxony, in Germany. Speer and Spear(e) are probably of the same etymology, as Speer is German for spear. If your father didn’t understand any German, though, that might have gone over his head.”
“But you’re on the right track, I’m sure of it. Is the key Shakespeare?”
“There’s certainly something about Shakespeare, as your father probably realised. That’s why he was curious as to why he was sent the edition of Henry V.”
“That’s right. It was like it was further connected to Romulus.”
I folded my arms and thought a bit more.
“It’s true that we get glimpses of Shakespeare here and there. But it’s not like your father planned it. It’s historical fact that when Shakespeare himself wrote his works he reflected social conditions of the times and I think his work had a major influence on the history of Britain, particularly England. It’s even one name of the weapons.”
“You mean Lysander, don’t you? The character in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” said Erika.
I was delighted she’d hit the mark with her example. “That’s right. Which means the biggest puzzle is deeply rooted in the history of Europe, like in the second Memorandum.”
Here the café owner ostentatiously cleared his throat, and I naturally closed my mouth. Well, that was as far as we could go for now.
The café owner had brought us some of his homemade food, although I hadn’t ordered any. He placed some spaghetti carbonara before Erika, and the egg yolk-covered pasta really did look tasty. In front of me he placed a simple ham sandwich. I didn’t know whether the difference in fare was deliberate. Erika and I started eating.
“Well, shall we get on to the Romulus secret?” Erika proposed, wiping her mouth with her serviette looking satisfied, and I agreed.
“The key is the Manteuffels’ suicide, isn’t it?” I said, and she nodded.
“There are quite a few things that are strange about that. First, Romulus was being raised in southern Germany, so why was there a connection with the Marquis von Manteuffel on Guernsey? I suppose that’s what you mean?”
“Yes, I had wondered about that.”
“Could it be possible that Romulus was kept on Guernsey for a short time? That discussion about the room in the Manteuffel’s house on Guernsey.”
“That’s right. The description makes it sound like an infant had been kept in the room next to the couple’s bedroom.”
“The reason they were in such low spirits might have been because Romulus was taken away from them and sent to southern Germany. But why had he been taken to Guernsey in the first place?”
I folded my arms again. “I can’t get Sonnenberger’s last words out of my mind. He said, ‘Die Wol—’ Die is the article used either for a feminine noun or plural. If it were a male wolf, it would be der Wolf. So it must have referred either to a female wolf, or multiple wolves.”
