They found it inside the storage space beneath the kitchen floor.
There was nothing strange about the storage itself. One part of the floor, about eighty centimetres square, could be easily lifted by pulling on a handle.
The hole was about fifty centimetres deep. White boards lined the bottom and the four sides. There was nothing inside.
‘This is it, Van.’
Ellery pointed.
‘I figured that if the room really existed, it would be in the kitchen, together with the cup. And presto!’
They shone a flashlight on the bottom of the space. There was a small hole there, just a few centimetres wide, almost invisible unless you looked for it. A groove encircled the hole.
‘Van, give me the cup.’
‘What about the coffee inside?’
‘This is important, so just throw it away.’
Ellery took the cup and crawled on the floor. He stretched his right arm into the storage space and slid the cup into the hole in the middle.
‘Got it. A perfect fit.’
The eleven-sided keyhole and key connected.
‘I’ll turn the key.’
As he had expected, the hole turned following the circular groove. After a while, he felt something slide into place.
‘Okay, I’m going to open it.’
Ellery carefully pulled the cup out of the hole. As he did so, the entire white bottom of the space started to tilt downwards noiselessly.
‘Fantastic contraption,’ Ellery said.
‘There’s a mechanism with cogwheels or something that prevents it from making any noise as the bottom angles downwards.’
It didn’t take long for a staircase leading to a secret underground room to be revealed.
‘Let’s go, Van.’
‘Should we?’ Van had cold feet. ‘What if he’s down there waiting for us?’
‘Don’t worry. The sun has just set. Seiji probably isn’t here yet. Even if he were there, it’s two against one. We won’t lose.’
‘But….’
‘If you’re scared, stay here. I’ll go alone then.’
‘Ah, wait, Ellery.’
✦ ✦ ✦
A damp, acrid smell reached their noses.
Illuminated only by Ellery’s flashlight, the two stepped down into the pitch black hole.
It was a sturdy staircase despite its age. If they went carefully, the staircase wouldn’t even squeak. Ellery led the way and, making sure not to repeat the foolish mistake he had made the day before, advanced very cautiously.
After not even ten steps down the staircase, they arrived in the fairly large room they had already glimpsed. It started right under the kitchen and stretched out in the direction of the central hall.
The floor and walls were of bare concrete. There was no furniture. The ceiling was just a little higher than Ellery and perforated with small holes. Thin slivers of light shone down from them.
‘The light from the lamp,’ Ellery whispered. ‘We’re beneath the hall. Everything we said could be heard clearly from here.’
‘So Seiji really was here?’
‘Yes. He must have been listening to our every movement. And I bet he also made a path from this room that leads outside the building.’
Ellery shone the light on the surrounding walls. Dirty concrete with black spots. Here and there some cracks and signs of repair.
‘There,’ said Ellery and he stopped moving his light. To their right, in the rear, was an old wooden door.
The duo approached.
Ellery stretched out his hand out to touch the rusty doorknob. In a subdued voice, Van asked: ‘Where does this lead?’
‘I wonder.’
Ellery turned the knob. The door creaked loudly. Ellery held his breath and pulled harder. The door opened.
Suddenly, they both groaned and held their noses.
‘What the…!’
‘What a horrible smell.’
An overpowering odour filled the darkness. It was so repellent as to make them want to vomit.
They guessed immediately what the source was, and shuddered in disgust.
It was the smell of decayed flesh.
Ellery’s hand wouldn’t stop shaking, but he clenched the flashlight tightly once more and pointed its beam towards the darkness beyond the door.
It was a deep darkness. As they had suspected, this appeared to be a path to somewhere outside.
He pointed the beam lower. As it swept over the dirty concrete floor, it fell on….
‘Aah!’
‘Uwa!’
They cried out at the same time.
It was the source of the horrible smell.
A lump of flesh of a nauseating colour, its original shape unrecognisable. Yellow-white bones sticking out. Dark, empty eye sockets.
It was unquestionably the half-decomposed corpse of a human being.