‘And here you are. Sugar and milk as well.’
Agatha put the tray with six moss-green cups down on the table.
‘Sorry we ask you do it every time,’ Ellery said, as he took the cup closest to him. The others also reached out for cups. Agatha took one for herself and pushed the tray with the last remaining cup to Van, who was sitting next to her.
‘Ah, thanks.’
Van placed his half-smoked Seven Stars cigarette in the ash tray and placed his hands around the cup, warming himself.
‘How’s your cold, Van?’
‘Ah, much better. Ellery, we didn’t really talk it over, but is there really no way of contacting the mainland?’
‘Doesn’t appear to be one.’
Ellery drank his coffee black.
‘There’s a lighthouse in J—Cape, so I thought we could try waving a white flag from here. But I think it’s an unmanned lighthouse.’
‘Yes, I think you’re right.’
‘Then one of us would need to risk his own life to swim to the mainland, or we could make some sort of raft.’
‘Neither of those plans sounds much good.’
‘We could make a fire,’ Poe said.
‘But I don’t think the outside world will notice us if we just burn some pine leaves.’
‘We could also just burn down this Decagon House if necessary.’
‘I think that would be going too far.’
‘It would be stupid and dangerous. However, Poe, Leroux and I weren’t just looking for a means of communication just now.’
‘What were you looking for?’
‘We didn’t find what we were looking for, even though we searched pretty much the whole island…No, wait.’
‘What?’
‘The Blue Mansion—we didn’t search the ruins of the Blue Mansion,’ Ellery muttered as he put his fingers to his forehead.
‘There might be an underground room there.’
‘An underground room?’
It happened just at that moment.
Cutting through the discussion between Poe and Ellery, someone groaned in horrible pain as he fell on the table.
Agatha screamed.
‘What’s wrong?’
Everyone stood up. The table trembled. Brown liquid flew from the half-drunken cups. He thrashed about and kicked his chair to the floor as his legs jerked like a broken mechanical doll’s. His upper body finally slipped off the table onto the blue tile floor.
‘Carr!’
Poe shouted and ran to his side. Thrust aside by Poe, Leroux stumbled and pushed over his own chair.
‘What happened to Carr?’ Ellery exclaimed. Poe examined Carr’s eyes and shook his head.
‘I don’t know. Anyone know whether Carr has some chronic disease?’
Nobody answered.
‘This is bad.’
Carr’s weak breathing continued, making a shrill wheezing sound. Poe put his large arm around Carr’s upper body.
‘Help me, Ellery. We need to make him throw up. I think it’s poison.’
Carr’s body convulsed strongly, pushing Poe’s arm away. Only the whites of his eyes were visible as he lay on the floor, doubled over like a shrimp. After a while there was another heavy convulsion. Brown vomit came out of Carr’s mouth, accompanied by a terrible cry.
‘He will live, won’t he?’ Agatha asked Poe with a terrified look.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Can’t you help him?’
‘I don’t know what poison it is. But even if I knew, there’s little I can do here. We can only hope it wasn’t a fatal dose.’
✦ ✦ ✦
The same night, half past two in the morning.
Carr died lying on the bed in his room.