2
After lunch the five headed out to the remains of the Blue Mansion together.
The plot which had housed the mansion was about 18 metres square and was completely black, being covered with ashes and bricks.
Surrounding the area were dark green pine trees and brown-coloured dead trees. The sky was thick with clouds and the dark, shadowy sea came and went.
It was so dark and gloomy that they felt the urge to cover everything with a coat of white paint.
The cliff to the west of the Blue Mansion overlooking J—Cape was not very high. The line of pine trees around the mansion was breached by a small path leading to a narrow concrete staircase, which in turn led down to a rocky area beneath the cliff.
Four of them stood at the crest, looking out for boats passing near the island, but one of the party was walking around the ashes and bricks on his own. It was Ellery. He inspected the ruins, walking around poking with his feet at the bricks spread there, and abruptly crouched down.
‘What’re you doing, Ellery?’ Van asked loudly. Ellery raised his head and smiled.
‘Looking for something.’
‘Looking for what?’
‘I told you last night, didn’t I? An underground room. I was just thinking that there might be one here.’
The others exchanged quizzical glances, then slowly walked towards Ellery, still crouching amidst the bricks.
‘Well there,’ Ellery murmured as he placed his hand on a filthy, pitch black piece of wood about one metre square.
‘Looks as though this has been moved.’
It appeared to have been part of the burnt wall once, and some parts of it were still covered by blue tiles. Ellery tried to lift it and it came up surprisingly easily.
‘Found it,’ Ellery cried out joyfully.
There it was, a square black hole. A narrow, concrete staircase led down into darkness. This was certainly the entrance to the underground room of the burnt-down Blue Mansion.
Ellery flipped the piece of wood over, grabbed the flashlight he had prepared from the pocket of his jacket impatiently and stepped inside.
‘Be careful. It might collapse,’ said Poe anxiously.
‘I know, I’ll be ca—.’
The answer was cut short. Ellery’s body suddenly jerked forward. With a brief cry he fell into the darkness, as if being sucked inside.
‘Ellery!’
‘Ellery?’
‘Ellery!’
‘You all right, Ellery?’
The four cried out simultaneously. Van jumped forward and tried to follow Ellery into the hole.
‘Wait, Van. It’s dangerous going in like that.’
Poe stopped Van firmly.
‘But Poe.’
‘I’ll go first.’
Poe threw away the cigarette between his fingers, searched the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a penlight. He put his foot on the staircase, carefully illuminating the inside of the hole.
‘Ellery!’
He yelled, but there was no reply. He bent his large body forwards and went down two steps. He stopped suddenly.
‘But this is….’ Poe growled. ‘There’s a thread strung across here. Ellery must have tripped over it.’
The thin, strong thread was approximately at shin height to an adult, strung between what appeared to be pipes running down both sides of the steps. It was almost invisible unless you looked very carefully.
Poe cautiously stepped over the thread and hastened down. In the dark in front of him he could see a yellow halo. It was Ellery’s flashlight.
‘Van, Leroux, come down here. Be careful of the thread—Ellery?’
Ellery was lying at the foot of the stairs. Poe picked up the flashlight lying on the floor and shone it on the feet of the two coming down the stairs.
‘Ellery, are you all right?’
‘I’m okay,’ answered Ellery, still stretched out on the concrete floor. But then he groaned and grabbed his right ankle.
‘I think it’s sprained.’
‘Did you hit your head?’
‘Don’t know.’
Van and Leroux joined them.
‘Give me a hand,’ Poe ordered the two and he took Ellery’s arm.
‘Wait, Poe,’ said Ellery as he got up gingerly. ‘I’m fine, so let’s first take a look at this underground room.’
Leroux took the flashlight from Poe and scanned the room.
Counting in tatami mats, the underground room would be tens of mats big. The four walls, the ceiling and the floor were all just bare concrete, with pipes running along them. In the back stood a big machine, probably a generator, but there was nothing of interest besides that. Some wooden plates and bars, dirty bottles and cans, a bucket, some rags… The room contained only junk.
‘As you can see, Ellery, nothing out of the ordinary here.’
‘Nothing at all?’ Ellery muttered. He stood supported by Poe and Van and had followed the light of the flashlight with his eyes. He appeared to have made a swift recovery.
‘There can’t be nothing. Check the floor, Leroux.’
Leroux did as he was told and cast the light on the floor again.
‘Ah, look at that.’
They were looking at an arc-like area of two metres radius near the staircase where the four were standing. It was completely free of any of the junk that lay in the rest of the room. And, curiously, there was no dust or ash inside the arc either.
‘Now that’s what I call strange. As if somebody wiped this part clean.’
The smile that appeared on Ellery’s pale face was almost out of place.
‘Someone was here.’