“The sink is in the bathroom, which is accessible only through that door in the back. Even if he took the shortest route, there should be bloodstains on the carpet.”
“Th-then maybe he…wiped off the blood with his handkerchief or something as soon as he got in the door, and the killer took it away with them?”
“That isn’t likely. Ishizuka’s handkerchief is here.” Kneeling beside the corpse, Shiroshi pulled a handkerchief out of the breast pocket of his suit. He whisked it open and held it up, as if he were about to perform a magic trick. “Ishizuka seems to have been using his pocket square as an ordinary handkerchief. There, you see the wine stains?”
“Oh, you’re right.”
“Since alcohol makes one’s hands tremble more readily, I would imagine he frequently spilled food and drink. It’s a breach of etiquette to use a pocket square this way, so the killer probably didn’t notice it. And there are no visible bloodstains on it.”
Huh. Then what on earth happened here?
Just as Seiji was puzzling over the matter, Tosu came back. Takamura was standing beside the door like a doorman; giving him a sidelong look, Tosu slipped past into the room.
Then he staggered, struck by a violent coughing fit.
“A-are you okay?”
Seiji ran over, but as he tried to catch his shoulder to steady him, the other man planted a hand on his side, shoving him away.
“It’s better than getting killed,” he spat.
Yikes, what a jerk. Seiji gave him a resentful look; ignoring it, Tosu walked right up to Shiroshi.
“It was the key to Room 201. That’s the only one that’s missing,” he said, as if that was important somehow.
“I see. Then there’s no longer any room for doubt.” Shiroshi nodded as if he understood perfectly.
“I’m not sure about that,” Tosu told him, glancing at Seiji out of the corner of his eye. “Sorry, but I’d like you to come to the library. All of you; Ms. Nomura and Miss Unoki, too.”
And so the four of them relocated to the library. They were now watching Tosu with bated breath. It was a lot like the “solution” scene in a mystery; everyone with a connection to the incident had gathered and was waiting anxiously for the detective to speak.
That said, Tosu’s blank face leeched a lot of the drama out of the scene.
“I should probably say who the killer is at this point,” he said. “First, though, there’s something I’d like you to take a look at.”
Just as Seiji was wondering, What would that be? a shock ran through his left ankle.
The world lurched, going off-kilter. Just as he realized the guy had swept his leg out from under him, he felt a hand close on his right arm.
Then there was a metallic click.
When Seiji looked, a deep black ring was locked around his wrist. Handcuffs.
“Wh-what is this?!”
“Handcuffs.”
“Oh, absolutely! That’s exactly what they look like! …No, I’m asking why you’ve got them!” Seiji howled, thoroughly flustered.
As expressionless as ever, Tosu locked the other handcuff around the stainless-steel handrail under the window. Now Seiji’s range of motion was limited to the length of the chain.
“I should be asking you that,” Tosu said. He flipped Seiji’s jacket open and pulled out what had been hidden beneath it: the revolver.
“H-h-how…?”
Before he could ask him how he’d known—
“Frankly, you’ve been acting way too suspicious. You kept unconsciously touching this through your jacket. More than anything, the second you learned a gun had been used in the crime, you started acting all sketchy and didn’t know where to look. So a minute ago, I faked like I’d lost my balance and touched it myself to make sure.”
“Huh? Then that was—”
Seiji would have loved to yell Dammit, you tricked me! but it would have made him sound just like every villain ever.
“To begin with, you were the only one who could have been behind Godou’s disappearance,” Tosu began. “When he vanished, no one but you claimed to have heard a scream from Room 201. If you were lying, we can hypothesize that Godou didn’t disappear from his room. He never got through the door in the first place. While he was on his way back, you caught up and killed him.”
According to Tosu, while Godou was on his way from the dining car to Car 2, somewhere in Car 3 or Car 4, Seiji had overtaken him and killed him with that syringe of nicotine. Then he’d dragged his corpse into the common bathroom in Car 4.
Next, taking the corpse’s jacket, he’d left the bathroom and used the room key to unlock Room 201. To make it look as though Godou had come back, he’d returned the key to the jacket’s pocket, then hung it up in the closet.
When he went back out into the corridor and shut the door, it had locked automatically. Then he’d waited for the other passengers to come running and had started shouting about how he’d heard a scream from inside.
Hm, yeah, that checks out… But no, come on, this isn’t funny!
“B-but the door guard was on—”
“You could have rigged that from outside with a string or something. The laces of those leather shoes you’re wearing, for example.”
“But you and the others checked the bathrooms! There was no corpse—!”
“Right, no corpse. I think Takamura cleared it away while we were investigating Room 201. He probably took it to the engine room. By the time we checked the bathroom, the body was already gone.”
“Th-then what was that puddle in front of the door?”
“I dunno… But is that really relevant?”
Daaaaaaaaaah, he’s got a comeback for everything! Seiji had hit his limit; he was raking his hand through his hair, when—
“At the very least, it’s true that you two and Takamura are acquaintances, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
How did he know? The question must have shown in Seiji’s expression.
“While we were still at the station, I took a look around the rest of the train before going to the lounge car, and I heard the two of you talking near the door to Car Three. I couldn’t catch most of what you said, but I picked out the words Takamura and traitor. Then when I got to the lounge, the crew member who greeted us was named Takamura; that startled me. So later on, I asked you a leading question.”
Seiji felt the blood drain from his face. At the same time, Tosu’s voice came back to him.
“Are you two friends with that Takamura guy?”
Who’d have thought that random question had so much intent behind it?
“I’ve got a good idea about why Godou had to disappear, too. Since ‘Godou’ was an assumed name, you didn’t realize until the day of the trip that he knew you, the executioner. As a result, you had to get rid of him before starting the game.”
“N-no, that’s…” Seiji wanted to deny it, but his voice gave out on him. His mouth was so dry that it hurt to swallow.
What Tosu was saying made sense. If you pieced the information together like that, Seiji was the only possible candidate for executioner.
“But—” Just as he tried to argue…
“I don’t think you were the mastermind, though.”
“Huh?”
What now? Just as Seiji braced himself, Tosu’s hand closed around Shiroshi’s wrist, just like a handcuff.
“Wh-whoa, wait! What are you doing?!” Seiji could tell he was getting louder.
Shiroshi put a finger to his lips, trying to calm him down; then he tapped his earlobe. Be quiet for now? Was that what he meant?
But…
As Seiji gritted his teeth, Tosu went on.
“The ‘executioner’ was two people: Saijou gave the orders, and you carried them out. The phonograph never specified that it was only one person.” He tugged on Shiroshi’s arm, pulling him closer. “Saijou, why don’t you come to Room 202 and tell me your story?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Miss Unoki and Ms. Nomura, I’ll walk you back to your rooms, so I’d like you to let me check them and your luggage. Since I found listening devices earlier, we can’t be too careful.”
Then, coughing again, he set off. Apparently, he’d been telling the truth about his cold. No, forget that. Are they just going to leave me in the library?!
“Huh?! Hey! What about me?! If you’re going to question people, take me with!”
“There’s really no point in hearing from you.”
“M-maybe not, but…! And I mean, a fake detective doesn’t have the—!”
“Man, shut up,” he heard Tosu grumble.
A second later, he’d darted back to Seiji and clamped an elbow around his neck—and even before Seiji realized it was a choke hold, he’d blacked out.
After that, he didn’t know what happened.