Her hands had been reflexively clenched into fists; she relaxed them now. “Just who are you? Could it be that you’re associated with the angels? With the royals?”
“If I say anything further, I will reveal my shameful past, which I’d like to keep private. However...” Crow slowly rose to his feet. His cape fluttered in the wind, mingling with the sea spray and flower petals.
Octavia couldn’t see the face behind his mask, but his smile, floating in the moonlit night, was both mystical and beautiful.
“If you manage to catch me,” he said, “I won’t mind telling you.”
“Then come down—”
“Incidentally, I’ll take this as payment for saving you this time,” said Crow, producing a doll with a hole in its abdomen.
Blinking, Octavia cried, “Ah, that’s the imitation doll! When did you manage to take that?!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll return it to its rightful owner. Bye for now.” Crow kicked off from the top of the lighthouse, disappearing behind it. In a hurry, Octavia went to the other side of the lighthouse, but she saw nothing but the sea. Naturally, there was no sign of anyone beneath the cliff, either.
Hat muttered bitterly, “He teleported using the key, most likely. We may have a hard time catching him.”
“Oi, Octavia! Did you see Crow, the Phantom Thief?!”
Ashton had come to search the area around the lighthouse. Octavia’s shoulders fell.
“Sorry. He got away.”
“Ah. Then I suppose we can only count on Raven.”
Octavia suddenly looked up and around the area. She couldn’t find Raven among the search party. “Where did Raven go?”
“He said that he might know who’d procured the decoy doll. I sent a few of my men with him.”
“Is that right?” Clenching her fists tightly, Octavia looked out across the sea where Crow had disappeared. There was no one there—only the dark sea, illuminated by the lighthouse.
The man was pacing restlessly around the room. When he saw the shadow come through his window, he stopped.
The shadow belonged to a man wearing a top hat, a black cape, and a mask. At first glance, the man who had been pacing was wary of the visitor; then he breathed a sigh of relief and approached him.
“O-Oh, how did it go? Did you manage to get the doll back—”
“Good evening.”
At the sound of the visitor’s voice, the man froze. Now, it was hardly as if he could precisely remember the appearance of the one he’d hired. But this voice was clearly different. The young man who had played the part of the Phantom Thief for him had not had such a clear, debonair voice as this.
“I took the liberty of delivering the young impostor to the police.”
Impostor. In other words— The man stared at the large table in the center of the room. He was just beginning to work through the thought.
“Though I think your grudge was unreasonable,” the visitor went on, “you did quite a good job. You put a cursed doll, animated by magic, in the hands of Mrs. Smile’s darling daughter. But if the doll were switched, well—then, no one would suspect you of sending her the cursed doll. You had only to wait for people to say that Miss Colette had been possessed by a demon, and for the scandal to spread. That was your aim, wasn’t it?”
“Who are you?! Are you Crow, the Phantom Thief?” cried the man, but his masked visitor did not answer. He only sat down in the chair across the table and smiled.
“‘It’s only a little prank,’” the masked man mocked. “‘It’s ridiculous to imagine that someone could die from a curse.’ Perhaps that’s what you were thinking? But the doll really did become cursed. It absorbed the power of a Demonic Heirloom that happened to be nearby, and then it was no longer anything to be joked about. That was your miscalculation.”
“Wh-What are you talking about? I’m going to call for help!”
“So you got frightened, and you tried to recover the doll before the inquisitors came. They would be able to track the magic that had been placed on the doll. So in order to dispose of it, you tried to make everyone think that Crow, the Phantom Thief, had made off with it. Isn’t that right? You, too, must have known that it wasn’t a Demonic Heirloom. Even this doll worked hard for you, without any recompense. I feel sorry for it.” After saying all this, the man in the mask took out the doll.
It was the very doll that the other man had procured. Even though there was a hole in its abdomen and it was burned in many places, he somehow recognized it.
“I’ll return this to you. Oh, don’t worry. This doll is no longer a Demonic Heirloom. What power it had as a counterfeit was all removed by the detective.”
“Detective,” the man pronounced slowly.
“This is nothing but a plain old cursed doll now. You are its owner.”
Without warning, the doll laughed. It was a shrill, piercing laugh. The man’s knees gave way in terror, and he collapsed where he stood.
The masked man stood up.
“Wha...Wha...”
“That being said, although it was temporary, it did gain the powers of a Demonic Heirloom. It might be a bit of a nuisance, but please do try your hardest to dispose of it.”
“S-Spare me, Phantom Thief! Crow!” the man cried. He was facing Crow. He tried to stand up, but with the doll cackling at him, he couldn’t. Crawling across the floor now, he reached toward Crow. “I beg of you, if it’s money you want, I’ll give it to you! As much as you want...”
“Money? Trying to impersonate me with no knowledge of my character is what got you into this mess.”
At last, the doll stood up, managing to find its balance on the floor. It creaked as it moved.
“I wonder if you’ll manage to keep your sanity until the police come to arrest you.” Leaving the man alone with these ruthless final words, Crow left the room.
Wait, said the man, trying to cling to Crow.
Then the doll grasped his own leg.
“My...master,” it rasped. “I looked for you!” The doll grinned broadly, and the man let out a scream.
After he’d closed the door to the room behind him, Crow snapped his fingers. That was all it took. His top hat, cape, and mask—everything identifying him as Crow, the Phantom Thief—vanished without a trace.
“Marquis Osvard, I heard someone scream!”
“Ah, it came from this room. I was just about to come and call you. It appears something has happened.”
The constables had been hard at work, without even a chance to catch their breath. After he’d showed them what lay beyond the door, Raven backed away from the situation.
I can leave the rest to the constables, who I’m sure will tidy up the scene in their own way. I saw nothing. When I went ahead of them to hear what the suspect had to say, taking care not to excite him, he was already in this condition—and with that, the case will be closed.