‘Don’t be in such a hurry to phone the police. Let me think for a moment. I’ve made a terrible error.’
Not wasting another word on Iwase, Akechi stood there, deep in thought and seemingly unaware of the room around him.
‘Akechi-san, perhaps you could be bothered to think of my daughter? You accepted the work with confidence, and now…’
It was only reasonable that Iwase’s anger would be further inflamed by Akechi’s unfathomable attitude.
Another laugh was heard.
‘Iwase-san, poor Akechi-san doesn’t have the leeway to think of your poor daughter right now,’ came Mme Midorikawa’s boastful voice. She had moved from the bedroom back to the living room.
‘Wha–? What?’
Iwase was astonished.
‘Shall I guess what Akechi-san is thinking of right now? He’s thinking of our wager – aren’t you, Akechi-san?’
The lady thief’s enmity for the detective was unmistakable; her attitude bold and indomitable.
‘Iwase-san, Akechi-san made a little wager with me. He wagered his profession as an amateur detective. And since his defeat is now unmistakable, he’s just lost in thought, head drooping. Isn’t that right, Akechi-san?’
‘No, it’s not, madam. I was hanging my head because I was thinking how I pitied your position,’ he replied, returning her volley full-force. What in the world was he thinking, ignoring the kidnapped girl like this? Iwase was totally lost by developments, and stood looking at their faces.
‘Me? You pitied my position? Why, I wonder?’ she asked, pressing. Even the master thief was unable to fathom the smile lurking, hidden, behind Akechi’s eyes.
‘Well, madam,’ drawled Akechi, obviously enjoying his own words as he spoke, ‘that’s because the loser of our wager is not me, but you!’
‘Whatever are you talking about. Are you so unable to admit defeat?’
‘Is that what it is?’ he rebutted, obviously enjoying himself.
‘Yes, clearly. How can you say otherwise, with the kidnapper at large?’
‘Ah, so you think I’ve allowed the kidnapper to escape, do you? Not by a long shot! I’ve got the perpetrator right under my thumb!’
When she heard that, even the lady thief couldn’t restrain her reaction. This man had been in the pits of despair a moment ago; what had he suddenly started saying?
‘Ha, ha, ha! You’re a delightful man! So good at making jokes!’
‘So you think it a joke?’
‘Well, naturally! What else could it be?’
‘In that case, let me show you some evidence, shall I? Let me see… Suppose I can tell you where your acquaintance Mr Yamakawa Kensaku went after leaving this hotel? What would you think then?’
Mme Midorikawa blanched, and staggered.
‘Why did Mr Yamakawa purchase a ticket to Nagoya, and then get off before the train arrived there? And why did he take a room at the Meiji Hotel here in Tokyo? And what was in his oh-so-large trunk? Suppose I know the answers to those questions? What would you say then?’
‘Lies! It’s all lies!’
She no longer seemed to have the energy to speak properly, merely muttering denials.
‘Lies, are they? Ah, so you haven’t noticed where that phone call was from, then. Shall I explain? It was from an assistant of mine. I was merely waiting for his phone call, while I endured your insults. If Sanae was carried out of this hotel, one of my five assistants surrounding the hotel would be sure to see. You see, I told them that if anyone suspicious, no matter who, came from the hotel, they were to follow him.
‘Ah, I waited so long for that call. And now it seems that I have won, doesn’t it? You made a mistake when you assumed that I was here all alone. You decided that I had no assistants helping me. And now shall I take all of your jewellery, Mme Midorikawa? Ha, ha, ha!’
He laughed, long and loud. Their positions were reversed now, the victor and the vanquished. And the delight of victory tickled Akechi’s heart as much as it had pleased Mme Midorikawa until now, or even more. Even if he had tried to stop laughing, he would have been unable to control it. Yet Mme Midorikawa had the force of will Akechi had shown moments ago to endure the derisive laughter.
‘So you have already recovered Sanae, then? Congratulations. And what have you done with Yamakawa-san?’ she asked in a frigid tone, struggling to hold her voice steady.
‘Unfortunately, he seems to have slipped away,’ admitted Akechi honestly.
‘You let the criminal escape! Oh, my…’
She was unable to hide her relief.
Iwase spoke up, good humour regained at the unexpected positive news. ‘Thank you, Akechi-san, thank you. I must apologize for becoming so excited without knowing that! Please forgive me. I had thought I heard you to say that you had captured the criminal, but now it seems you have let him escape after all.’
‘No, not at all. Yamakawa is not the mastermind behind this little plot. I was not lying when I said that I have captured the criminal.’
His words were enough to bring a purple flush to Mme Midorikawa’s face. Like a cornered animal, her face grew fearsome, and her eyes searched round and round the room.
But even were she to try to escape, the door was locked!
‘Then where is he?’ asked Iwase, unaware of what was happening.
‘Here. Right in front of us,’ said Akechi with satisfaction.
‘Right in front of us? But there’s nobody here but you, and me, and Mme Midorikawa…’
‘Mme Midorikawa is a terrible thief. She is the one who kidnapped Sanae!’
The deathly silence held for several seconds. The three of them stared at each other, each with a different expression.
It was Mme Midorikawa who finally broke the silence.
‘Surely you’re kidding. I would hardly have any idea of what Yamakawa-san might be doing. I merely introduced the hotel to him because we had an acquaintance in common! It’s too much, really! To accuse me! …’
But that was the enchantress’s last piece of acting.
Even as she finished speaking, a loud knock was heard at the door.
As if he had been awaiting this, Akechi quickly approached the door, and unlocked it with the key he held.
‘Mme Midorikawa, no matter how much you try to deny it, here is living evidence. And will you repeat that dreadful lie in front of Sanae-san?’
Akechi drove home the blade with his words.
There in the doorway appeared one of Akechi’s young assistants; the pale Sanae, leaning heavily on his shoulder; and a uniformed policeman guarding them.
The Black Lizard was in mortal danger! On this side, there was only a woman, and opposing her were four men (excluding Sanae)… she couldn’t possibly escape!
But what stubbornness! She yet looked as if she refused to admit defeat!
More than that, astonishing as it was, her pale cheeks were suddenly shot through with colour, and she gave a hideous smile that rapidly grew and grew.
Here, brought to bay at last, the audacious woman thief burst into bizarre and incomprehensible laughter!
‘Hah! So this is the climax of tonight’s entertainment, is it? Well, you certainly showed yourself to be worthy of your name as a famous detective, didn’t you! It seems I have lost tonight. Let us call it a defeat. And what of it? Do you honestly think you can take me prisoner? I think you’re expecting a little too much, Mr Detective. Don’t you remember? Are you sure you haven’t forgotten something? Are you sure you haven’t lost something while you were so busy? Ha, ha, ha!’
What could she be thinking of to speak such words in her situation?
What could Akechi have forgotten?
An ordinary person cannot imagine the delight a detective feels at capturing a formidable criminal. That Akechi had become a little careless due to his extreme
delight, then, was perhaps understandable. Though pushed toward defeat, the Black Lizard wracked her sharp brain to come up with a way out of the tight corner in which she now found herself. Then, in an instant, she hit on a daring idea.
The drawn expression on her face softened and she was able to laugh back at the detective.
‘So, what do you think you are going to do? You don’t suppose you can capture me, do you? That would be just a little too easy now wouldn’t it?’
What audacity! For here she was, a mere woman on her own going up against four dour males (excluding Sanae who to all intents and purposes was incapacitated), one of whom was a stern-looking policeman in uniform.
The only escape route was the door to the corridor. But standing in front of the door barring the way were the policeman and the detective’s assistant, who had just now come back. There was the window, but the room was high above the ground and the inner garden below was surrounded on all sides by buildings. So how in the world did she plan to get out of this tight spot?
Ignoring the Black Lizard’s challenge, Akechi spoke to the policeman at the door.
‘Don’t try to bluff your way out! Officer, I am putting this woman in your charge. Please arrest her without delay. She is the mastermind of the kidnapping plot.’
Not knowing the details of the situation, the officer seemed taken aback when told that this beautiful lady was a criminal, but because Akechi was held in high regard by the police investigation unit and the policeman knew the detective by sight, he did as he was told and moved toward Mme Midorikawa.
‘Akechi-san, please feel your right pocket. Ha, ha. Empty isn’t it?’
Staring balefully at the approaching policeman, the Black Lizard spoke in a high voice.
Surprised, the detective put his hand to the pocket without thinking. It wasn’t there! The Browning that he was sure he had put in his pocket wasn’t there! The lady thief’s magical powers extended to her fingertips. During the confusion in the bedroom shortly before, she had taken the precaution of removing the pistol from Akechi’s pocket.
‘Akechi-san, you really ought to include pocket picking in your research. Your precious pistol is here!’
With a cheery laugh, the lady thief reached to the clothing at her breast and drew out the compact weapon, which she then levelled at them.
‘Now then everybody, please do me the favour of putting your hands up. And if you don’t – well I’ll just let you know that I’m as sharp a shot as Akechi. And I’ll also add that human life doesn’t mean much to me.’
The policeman, who had taken a step toward her, retreated.
Unfortunately only the officer was armed and he would not have enough time to reach the pistol at his hip.
‘Right then, I told you to put ’em up!’
Licking her red lips, the Black Lizard fixed her eyes on the four men, pointing the muzzle of the gun at each in turn. The white finger holding the trigger quivered slightly as if about to apply pressure at any second.
They put up their hands when they saw the expression on her face, which was more manic than murderous. The policeman, the detective’s assistant, Iwase, and even the master detective – found themselves in an embarrassing position for grown men – their arms up in the air as if frozen half way through a gesture of ‘hurrah!’.
Mme Midorikawa rushed to the door with an alacrity befitting her reptilian nickname.
‘Akechi-san, this is your second slip up. Look…’
Saying this, she put her empty left hand behind her, took the key from the lock where it had been left by the detective just a little while ago, and waved the shiny object in front of her face.
Not imagining for a moment that this would happen, the detective had in the bustle of the moment unthinkingly left the key in the lock. Such was the lady thief’s acuity that she had quickly thought of a way to use this.
‘As for you, my little lady!’
Opening the door and with one foot in the corridor – but not forgetting to keep the pistol aimed – she called to Sanae.
‘I really feel very sorry for you, but today just resign yourself to regretting having been born a jeweller’s daughter. Another thing – you are too beautiful! Obsessed though I am with jewels, I’ve come to desire your body even more. And I won’t give up. Do you hear that Akechi-san? I won’t give up! I’ll be back to claim the little lady again. Well, I’m off!’
The door slammed shut and the key could be heard turning in the lock outside. Sanae and the four men were now locked in the room. And there was only one key. With that taken away, their only way out was to break down the door or to climb down from the window, which was high above the ground.
Still, they had an alternative – the telephone.
Akechi sprang to the handset on the table and rang the switchboard operator.
‘Hello? Hello? This is Akechi, the detective! It’s very urgent! I want you to make sure the hotel exits are guarded. It’s Mme Midorikawa, Mme Midorikawa. She’s going to leave the hotel now and she has to be captured. She’s a major criminal. Whatever happens, she mustn’t escape. Quick now, tell the manager and everyone else. Got it? Oh, wait! Send someone up to Iwase-san’s room with a duplicate key. That’s also very urgent.’
After putting the phone down, Akechi stamped back and forth in the room before again snatching up the receiver.
‘Hello? Hello? Have you done it yet? Did you tell the manager what I said? Oh, good, good. Thanks. Right, now tell them to hurry up with that duplicate key.’ Then he turned to Iwase and said, ‘The switchboard operator seems to be on the ball. She did everything very quickly. All the exits are being watched. No matter how fast that woman runs, there’s still a fair distance from here to the stairs and it would take a while to descend them and then reach an exit so I think it should be all right – perhaps. The famous Mme Midorikawa wouldn’t happen to have somebody in her employ that we don’t know about, now would she?’
But in making these prompt arrangements Akechi had slipped up again.
For, while the Black Lizard had swiftly descended the stairs, she had gone not toward an exit but to her own room.
Three minutes passed, exactly three minutes.
And lo and behold, when the door to her room opened again, a young gentleman stepped out. Sporting a felt hat, a brightly patterned suit, aristocratic spectacles, and a thick moustache, he carried a snake-wood cane in his right hand and an overcoat on his left arm.
Only the Black Lizard – in keeping with her description of herself as a magician – could perform the astounding feat of putting on a disguise in just three minutes. (She always carried clothes for changing her guise in the bottom of her travel bag.) Avoiding even the slightest oversight, she had also put every last one of the jewels from the trunk into her coat pockets.
When the young ‘gentleman’ came to the corner, he hesitated slightly. Should he exit from the front or the rear?
Meanwhile, the duplicate key had arrived in time and Akechi and his companions had descended the stairs. However, supposing that Mme Midorikawa would not try to escape by the front entrance they had left this for the manager and split up to guard the rear exits. The Black Lizard, though, had apparently got wind of this, for in a show of daring she went out the main entrance holding her head high, and swinging the cane as her shoes clacked loudly on the floor.
The manager and three doormen were guarding the main entrance in a very nervous state. However, considering that there were nearly a hundred guests staying in the hotel, each with visitors from outside, the manager and his assistants could not recognise each guest by sight. Moreover as they were looking for Mme Midorikawa they focused their attention on the female guests. Accordingly, it never occurred to them that the young man who smiled and bowed as he passed out could be Mme Midorikawa and they actually bowed politely as they saw him out and wished him a good evening.
&nb
sp; The young gentleman’s shoes clacked on the stone stairs as he descended. Then, whistling as he went, he strolled leisurely out through the hotel gates.
Walking along the shadowy pavement beside the hotel’s boundary fence, the young gentleman came across a man in a suit who for some reason was standing there smoking a cigarette.
Surprisingly, the young gentleman suddenly slapped the man on the shoulder and spoke to him with an air of bonhomie.
‘I expect you’re one of Master Detective Akechi’s men aren’t you? What are you doing loafing around here? There’s a great commotion going on in the hotel at the moment because they’ve just caught a thief. You’d better get a move on and see.’
And indeed it appeared the man was one of Akechi’s assistants for though he replied with extreme caution, ‘I’m afraid you’re mistaken. I’ve never heard of a “Detective Akechi”,’ the young gentleman had not taken more than one or two steps before the man, belying his own words and gestures, scurried off toward the hotel.
The Black Lizard turned around to watch him run off. Overcome for a moment by the comicality of it, she forgot herself and let out an eerie laugh.
Although Akechi had been beaten, we can at least say in his defence that he had fulfilled the task he had undertaken – protecting Sanae.
Iwase was simply grateful that his daughter had been saved, considering the fact that the lady-thief had escaped to be of secondary importance. He did not praise the private eye’s abilities. But then it would seem that the majority of the blame for the way things had turned out rested with the jeweller, for it was he who had slipped up by being taken in by the Black Lizard’s disguise and falling asleep in the adjoining bed rather than seeing through the thief’s ruse.
However, this was no consolation to Akechi. The frustration he felt at having been defeated by a mere woman was too much for words. And when he learned that thanks to a quick change of disguise his opponent had escaped right under the nose of his lookout, the detective involuntarily shouted angrily at his assistant ‘Fool!’
The Black Lizard and Beast In the Shadows Page 6
