CHAPTER NINE: THE FIFTH DAY
1
He felt as though he had seen one nightmare after another last night. He couldn’t remember what the dreams were about, but he knew he’d cried out in his sleep.
He’d kicked away his blanket, which lay next to his bed now. His shirt had become wrinkled from his restless sleep: he hadn’t undressed before getting into bed last night. His body was covered in perspiration, but his throat was completely dry. His lips were cracked and painful.
Leroux sat upright and, arms clutched around his torso, rocked his head slowly from side to side.
His headache had calmed somewhat. But in return, his mind appeared to have stopped working. A light mist seemed to be covering his whole consciousness. The distance between his body and the faculties which commanded it felt further than usual. No sense of reality.
The light that leaked through the gap between the shutters told him that the night was over.
Leroux’s heavy arms lifted the blanket up and put it on his lap.
A square screen came down in his foggy head. The four corners were black, the centre white, like an exposed film. On the screen were close-ups of all of the friends with whom he had arrived on the island four days ago.
Ellery, Poe, Carr, Van, Agatha and Orczy. Everyone, seven persons including himself, was enjoying this little adventure, each in his own way. At least, that’s what Leroux had done. Freedom on an uninhabited island. Their interest in a case which had happened in the past. A vague sense of thrill. Even if they came across a bit of trouble, it would prove to be a good stimulant and the week would pass quickly, he’d thought. It had turned out differently though.
Short hair with no thickness. Big, shifty eyes beneath thin but wide eyebrows. Red cheeks with freckles. Her face suddenly became bloated and purple, it trembled, it twisted and finally it went limp. The thin cord wrapped around her neck changed into a poisonous black snake, slithering around.
Oh, Orczy, Orczy, Orczy….
Leroux clenched his fists and hit himself on the head. I don’t want to remember anything anymore.
But as if another person’s will was at work, the projector started rolling again. The screen wouldn’t go black.
A sardonic laugh, the corners of someone’s lips raised. A badly shaven chin. Hollow eyes, with white between the iris and the lower eyelid. Carr was next. His big-boned body twisted in pain. The shaking table. A chair kicking over. The violent convulsions, the vomit and finally, it was all over.
‘Why?’
He whispered.
‘Why all of this?’
The figure of Ellery falling into the darkness of the underground room. The grim voice of Poe. The pale face of Van. The hysterics of Agatha.
There is a murderer among the surviving friends. Or could someone else be hiding on the island?
Ellery had suggested that Nakamura Seiji might still be alive. Why would a man they’d never met, a man whose face they’d never seen, start trying to kill them?
A black shadow appeared on the screen in his mind. The figure’s outlines were vague, rippling as if under water.
Nakamura Seiji—the man who had built the Decagon House. The man thought to have been burnt in the Blue Mansion in September of last year. If he were still alive, he would be the one behind the murders now.
Nakamura Seiji… Nakamura…Nakamura.
‘Ah.’
A gasp escaped from his mouth.
‘Nakamura?’
Slowly, the black shadow started to take form. He searched for a thread tied to his memories within the maze of his blurry, half-sleeping mind and the shadow finally changed into a small, fair-skinned woman.
No, it can’t be.
Was he still dreaming? Could it really be possible that Nakamura Chiori was the daughter of Nakamura Seiji?
Leroux hit himself with his fists again.
The city at night. The hustle and bustle. The cold wind. The bar of the after-after party. The light reflecting from their glasses. The sound of ice. The smell of alcohol. Cheers. Intoxication. Cacophony. Insanity. And then…from comedy a sudden change to drama. Confusion. The sound of sirens troubling their consciousness. The revolving red lights.
‘It just can’t be,’ he said more loudly.
He wanted to drown out the threatening buzz that became louder and louder in his ears.
But the buzz didn’t become less, only louder until it turned into a furious noise. His restless anxiety and impatience made his whole body perspire. The revolving red lights that symbolised all that had happened screamed and drove nails into his nerves.
Leroux held his head in his hands. He couldn’t handle it anymore, he wanted to cry out.
Suddenly a different scene was projected on the screen. The noise and light disappeared.
What’s this? thought Leroux, regarding the scene from afar.
What’s this? Where is this? It’s the sea. He could hear the sound. Close by. The smell of the tide. The rippling water surface. The waves climbing the black rock surface and receding again, leaving behind a white line. This is, this is….
…This happened yesterday.
Leroux pushed his blanket away. His fear had gone, as if the heavy curtains that covered that part of his mind had been lifted.
He saw this scenery yesterday. They were all standing on the cliffs near to the Blue Mansion, looking out for boats. It was the rocky area he had seen then, beneath the cliffs. He had climbed down there with Ellery two days ago, too. If he remembered correctly, at that time he also….
He felt like something had taken possession of him.
He knew he was not completely conscious yet. It’s dangerous to go alone, he thought for a second, but that thought was quickly engulfed by the fog in his mind.
Leroux slowly stepped out of bed.