４．Ｓｕｎｄａｙ Ｍａｒｃｈ ３１， ２０１９
文字数 5,927文字
"The above work will result in the condition of the house and its surroundings being such that.［Fig.10］"
"That is exactly the situation on the ground as we, or rather the public, initially perceived it. Very clever indeed. The door, locked by Silva-san, moves to Room B with the door locked. And the door that was locked from the beginning would be moved to the east side where there is the No Trespassing tag. Besides, the camera also goes around with the room, taking video of the door locked by him. When the middle room rotated, of course, Number 4-san was concentrating on the editing process. If it was during the day, he might have found out. During the rotation, of course, the amount of light coming through the skylight will change in the middle room. However, the sun had completely set when this happened, so even if Number 4-san had looked up at the ceiling during the rotation, he would not have felt much different. It is not difficult to imagine that the rotation was done carefully to produce as little sound as possible. Although this process of building a locked room seems really elaborate and complete, something unexpected happened to the culprit. I don't even bother to mention it anymore. That is Number 4's ring. He left his ring in the restroom on the left side of the figure [D of Fig.10] before the middle room rotated. As I just said, if the room he were in rotated without his knowledge, he would think the ring was gone. After dinner, he went to the restroom [C of Fig.10], where there shouldn't be a ring."
"Can I go wash my face for a minute?" Without hearing Maruta's reply, 〈Captain〉 stood up and walked to the bathroom. Because of the lack of effort in his gait, Maruta made no attempt to follow.
As Maruta worried that the leader might not jump off, he returned.
There was no change in his feckless face, and no sign that he was upset and about to jump on them. After Maruta regained his composure, he spoke again.
"You four have returned from food shopping. Both the culprit and the non-culprit entered through the regular path leading to the house, that is, through that path which is now being cordoned off by the police. It is believed that the culprit induced them to do so. Also, if they take the longer side path that they first entered, there would be no point in having rotated the middle room. Then it was peaceful for a little while, time to eat. As I just said, the tension in the room suddenly increased after Number 4-san complained that his 'ring was missing.' You remember. Captain, you went outside once and checked the window before coming back. Then, working with Kirvy-san, you pried open the door to Silva's room. Ahead of you, that is, in Room B, you found his dead body lying on the floor. I would like to hear from the culprit how he then set the house on fire. Frankly, I still do not know how the house was set ablaze by any mechanism.
Next, the case comes to an end. As for the 'blue fire' that Number 4-san was so freaked out about, we also found this at the crime scene last night before the police arrived."
Again, Maruta pointed his smartphone at the 〈Captain〉.
"Spray cans and lighters. That blue fire was identified in the video around the 'suicide forest' behind the house. Number 4-san and I had thought so as well. But now it is clear that there was no 'suicide forest'. A local student also testified to this. No way, that was never a a will-o'-the-wisp. I found these spray cans and lighters on the slope east of the crime scene. It was some distance from the location where items believed to be Mr. Oku's daily necessities had been discarded. The slope was surprisingly steep and difficult, but I managed to get to where these were dumped. I had an idea of where on the slope from my memory of the video. I would also like to ask the culprit about his intention to show that 'blue fire' on the east slope. For my part, I think of it this way. The culprit may have wanted to burn the house and then display the eerie flames from afar to keep anyone from approaching the scene of the crime. That way, it is convenient for the culprit. Because, in addition to Mr. Oku's belongings, a toilet bowl [D of Fig. 10] that the culprit wanted to hide was dumped in the woods around the house. There were also metal balls that seemed to be components of the rotating unit, right? The culprit probably needed to get unrelated persons away from the scene and hide these items in a great hurry before the emergency services arrived. Of course, the culprit did so in order to keep people from knowing that there was a special trick in that house. I am sure that Number 4's ring was thrown away at that time, too. Because I picked up that ring near the toilet bowl that was no longer needed."
"Well," Maruta put down his smartphone and looked at them. "After all of the above, cunning and malicious matters, the culprit welcomed the emergency services, the police, and the media at the scene of the crime. Again, I must say that this is clever, even if it was a mistake to dump the ring in the woods as well. After the culprit had done all their work, the media took pictures of the burnt ruins. They entered through the rutted path and turned their lens to the east. As I recall, the blue mountains were also in the background of one of those photos. To an outsider, there doesn't seem to be anything unnatural about it, except that the murder took place in a locked room. After the incident, outsiders would naturally enter through the pathway, the regular entrance, where they would see the remains of the burned house with the entrance facing forward."
Maruta's throat was completely dry. He rambled on and on, but still had a few things left to say. When Maruta broke off, 〈Captain〉 did not speak.
"That is exactly the situation on the ground as we, or rather the public, initially perceived it. Very clever indeed. The door, locked by Silva-san, moves to Room B with the door locked. And the door that was locked from the beginning would be moved to the east side where there is the No Trespassing tag. Besides, the camera also goes around with the room, taking video of the door locked by him. When the middle room rotated, of course, Number 4-san was concentrating on the editing process. If it was during the day, he might have found out. During the rotation, of course, the amount of light coming through the skylight will change in the middle room. However, the sun had completely set when this happened, so even if Number 4-san had looked up at the ceiling during the rotation, he would not have felt much different. It is not difficult to imagine that the rotation was done carefully to produce as little sound as possible. Although this process of building a locked room seems really elaborate and complete, something unexpected happened to the culprit. I don't even bother to mention it anymore. That is Number 4's ring. He left his ring in the restroom on the left side of the figure [D of Fig.10] before the middle room rotated. As I just said, if the room he were in rotated without his knowledge, he would think the ring was gone. After dinner, he went to the restroom [C of Fig.10], where there shouldn't be a ring."
"Can I go wash my face for a minute?" Without hearing Maruta's reply, 〈Captain〉 stood up and walked to the bathroom. Because of the lack of effort in his gait, Maruta made no attempt to follow.
As Maruta worried that the leader might not jump off, he returned.
There was no change in his feckless face, and no sign that he was upset and about to jump on them. After Maruta regained his composure, he spoke again.
"You four have returned from food shopping. Both the culprit and the non-culprit entered through the regular path leading to the house, that is, through that path which is now being cordoned off by the police. It is believed that the culprit induced them to do so. Also, if they take the longer side path that they first entered, there would be no point in having rotated the middle room. Then it was peaceful for a little while, time to eat. As I just said, the tension in the room suddenly increased after Number 4-san complained that his 'ring was missing.' You remember. Captain, you went outside once and checked the window before coming back. Then, working with Kirvy-san, you pried open the door to Silva's room. Ahead of you, that is, in Room B, you found his dead body lying on the floor. I would like to hear from the culprit how he then set the house on fire. Frankly, I still do not know how the house was set ablaze by any mechanism.
Next, the case comes to an end. As for the 'blue fire' that Number 4-san was so freaked out about, we also found this at the crime scene last night before the police arrived."
Again, Maruta pointed his smartphone at the 〈Captain〉.
"Spray cans and lighters. That blue fire was identified in the video around the 'suicide forest' behind the house. Number 4-san and I had thought so as well. But now it is clear that there was no 'suicide forest'. A local student also testified to this. No way, that was never a a will-o'-the-wisp. I found these spray cans and lighters on the slope east of the crime scene. It was some distance from the location where items believed to be Mr. Oku's daily necessities had been discarded. The slope was surprisingly steep and difficult, but I managed to get to where these were dumped. I had an idea of where on the slope from my memory of the video. I would also like to ask the culprit about his intention to show that 'blue fire' on the east slope. For my part, I think of it this way. The culprit may have wanted to burn the house and then display the eerie flames from afar to keep anyone from approaching the scene of the crime. That way, it is convenient for the culprit. Because, in addition to Mr. Oku's belongings, a toilet bowl [D of Fig. 10] that the culprit wanted to hide was dumped in the woods around the house. There were also metal balls that seemed to be components of the rotating unit, right? The culprit probably needed to get unrelated persons away from the scene and hide these items in a great hurry before the emergency services arrived. Of course, the culprit did so in order to keep people from knowing that there was a special trick in that house. I am sure that Number 4's ring was thrown away at that time, too. Because I picked up that ring near the toilet bowl that was no longer needed."
"Well," Maruta put down his smartphone and looked at them. "After all of the above, cunning and malicious matters, the culprit welcomed the emergency services, the police, and the media at the scene of the crime. Again, I must say that this is clever, even if it was a mistake to dump the ring in the woods as well. After the culprit had done all their work, the media took pictures of the burnt ruins. They entered through the rutted path and turned their lens to the east. As I recall, the blue mountains were also in the background of one of those photos. To an outsider, there doesn't seem to be anything unnatural about it, except that the murder took place in a locked room. After the incident, outsiders would naturally enter through the pathway, the regular entrance, where they would see the remains of the burned house with the entrance facing forward."
Maruta's throat was completely dry. He rambled on and on, but still had a few things left to say. When Maruta broke off, 〈Captain〉 did not speak.
