A row of high pine trees grew to the north of the Decagon House. There was a break in the line and the branches of the black pines on either side had connected to form an arch which the four passed through to reach the remains of the Blue Mansion.
All that remained on the site was the foundation of the building, together with a few dirty stone bricks. The desolate front garden had been covered by a thick layer of black ash, and the sight of the surrounding trees, scorched in the fire and standing decayed, was striking.
‘Completely burnt down. Must have been a tremendous fire.’
Looking over the dismal scene, Ellery let out a sigh.
‘There’s really nothing left.’
‘So, Van, is this your first visit also?’
Van nodded.
‘My uncle told me a lot about the island, but today is the first time I’ve been here. I had to carry all the luggage this morning and then there’s my fever, so I didn’t think it’d be wise to explore the island on my own.’
‘That was wise. But there’s really nothing but ashes and bricks here.’
‘I guess a corpse would have made you happy, Ellery?’ Leroux grinned.
‘Lay off. That’s something more up your street, isn’t it?’
A little path opened into a pine grove to the west. It led straight to the cliffs. On the other side of the wide azure sea, they could just make out the black shadow that was J—Cape.
‘Great weather today. Almost tranquil.’
Ellery faced the sea and stretched. Wrapping his hands in the hem of his yellow sweatshirt, Leroux also turned his small body towards the sea.
‘You’re right, Ellery. It’s almost unbelievable that only six months ago, at this very place, such a horrific incident occurred.…’
‘Horrific…that’s the word. A mysterious quadruple murder, right here in Nakamura Seiji’s home, commonly known as the Blue Mansion.’
‘I’m quite used to quintuple, even decuple murders in books, but this one was real and happened relatively close by, too. I was really shocked when I saw it on the news.’
‘I seem to recall it happened in the early morning of the twentieth of September? A fire broke out and the building burnt down completely. Four bodies were discovered in the remains: that of Nakamura Seiji, his wife Kazue and the bodies of the servant couple who lived there.’
Ellery spoke in a detached manner.
‘A significant amount of sleeping medicine was found in all four bodies, but the police also discovered that they had not all died of the same cause. The two servants had been tied up in their own rooms with rope and their heads had been smashed in with an axe. The head of the household, Seiji, had been doused with kerosene and obviously burnt to death. His wife Kazue, who was found in the same room, was found to have been strangled to death with a rope-like object. What’s more, her left hand had been cut off at the wrist using a sharp instrument. The hand was not recovered from the ruins of the fire. I think those were the main points of the case, Leroux?’
‘I think there was also a gardener who disappeared.’
‘Ah, you’re right. The police couldn’t find the gardener, who was supposed to have arrived on the island some days earlier to work there. He appeared to have disappeared completely.’
‘Yes.’
‘There are two views on that. One is that the gardener was the murderer and that’s why he disappeared. The other view is that someone else was the murderer. For example, the gardener might have been fleeing from the murderer and accidentally fallen off the cliffs and been swept away by the current.’
‘The police seemed to have gone with the “gardener equals murderer” theory. I don’t know what results further investigations uncovered, though. What do you think about the case, Ellery?’
‘Well.’ Ellery brushed away a lock of hair that had been displaced by the wind blowing from the sea. ‘Regrettably, we have too little data. All we know is the information we were given in the few days the news and newspapers were all over the case.’
‘You sound surprisingly unsure.’
‘Not particularly. It’s easy to come up with a fairly reasonable hypothesis. But there’s too little data to prove any one theory and declare Q.E.D. In this particular case, the police investigation was also rather poorly handled. But then again, this is all what was left of the crime scene. And there were no other survivors on the island. It’s quite natural that the police would consider the missing gardener the criminal.’
‘True.’
‘So the truth is hidden beneath these ashes.’
Ellery turned and walked back to the remaining stone bricks and picked up a piece of wood. Crouching, he looked at what lay beneath it.
‘What’s the matter?’
Leroux looked puzzled.
‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if I’d just found the wife’s hand here?’ Ellery said with a straight face.
‘Or maybe we’ll find the skeleton of the gardener beneath the floors of the Decagon House.’
‘You’re all crazy.’
Poe, who had been listening to the talk in silence, stroked his beard. He had a worried look on his face.
‘You have a rather peculiar sense of humour, don’t you, Ellery?’
‘I agree,’ chimed in Leroux. ‘It’s as you said on the boat: if something happened on this island tomorrow, it would be just like the “chalet in the snowstorm” Ellery loves so much. How happy he’d be if there were a series of murders as in And Then There Were None.’
‘And he’d be the first to get himself killed.’
Poe spoke very little, but occasionally gave vent to harsh words.
Leroux and Van looked at each other and laughed.
‘A series of murders on a remote island. Heh. Sounds good,’ Ellery said with good grace.
‘Precisely what I want. And then I’ll take on the role of the detective. So? Anybody want to challenge me, Ellery Queen?’