３．Ｓｕｎｄａｙ Ｍａｒｃｈ ３１， ２０１９
文字数 8,198文字
"Now, here is where it gets complicated, so I will be more cautious."
Maruta now took the paper he had given him as a second sheet and added another figure or line to it. When he was about to hand it to 〈Captain〉, Kira took it instead and placed it beside him. Also leaning toward 〈Captain〉, Kira began to look at the handout with interest. Maruta resumed his story.
"As I have told you, yesterday we raided the mountain forest where the incident took place. When I entered, I turned my head to the left after a short distance. From there, I thought I could see that 'No Trespassing' forest that you talked about. In conclusion, there was nothing. It was not a place where the ghosts of suicides gather. Look at the picture I just drew.[Fig.8]"
"At the crime scene, as I mentioned earlier, there is a rutted path leading to the house. This, too, goes without saying. But there were also several side paths on the roadway, on the way to the entrance of that path. Of those, the side path closest to the rutted one actually also led to the house, surrounding it. We entered the forest yesterday between those two paths. As I have said many times, it is complicated, so I will explain it slowly one by one from here."
As Maruta was about to reach out his hand, Kira took the handout[Fig.8], saying, "Is this it?" Maruta nodded and received it, then added some more drawings and quickly put it back. "So, that picture is complete.[Fig.9]"
"There is a driveway on the west side of the house. If you go north, you will probably reach the village where that elderly man who complained to us also lives. On the day of the incident, you and Silva-san passed through this driveway. This is the only one leading to the crime scene. You didn't start out on the rutted path, but took the side one next to it. Then, of course, the location of the 'No Trespassing' sign, the entrance, and the locked door of the middle room must be as shown in the drawing. There are also several facts that explain this. When we headed to the crime scene two weeks ago, we proceeded with 'concrete blocks for slope protection' on our right. There was also a guardrail on the left. Continuing straight ahead, you will see the path leading to the house. It's already obvious. If you stand facing north in that vicinity, you can see an upslope to the east and a downslope to the west. This is a terrain often seen in mountain passes. As we stood at the entrance to the path, we could see the mountain ridge in the distance. So we were facing east at that time. However, when I checked the video to see the scene where you had just arrived at the house, as I recall, there were no mountains in the background. Shall we check now? I can say this with a great deal of certainty. When you arrived and started filming with your camera, you were in the vestibule on the east side of the house. That means the camera was facing west at the time of the shoot when you just arrived."
Kira traced the piece of paper with his index finger, reproducing the movements of 〈Silva〉 and others on that day. 〈Captain〉, who is still weakened beside him, looks on with a bored look on it.
"Silva-san and you went inside the house. Then you went into the room where Silva-san would later be holed up, and there you shot that 'No Trespassing' sign from the west-facing window[H of Fig.9]. Here, there is something that the culprit wants to hide from the 'Non culprit'. This is also obvious. The space has an entrance on the west side and a restroom on the south side[C and F of Fig.9]. If the house is rotationally symmetrical, there must be also two entrances, and two restrooms, each in a symmetrical position. I guess the culprit really had to avoid the 'Non culprit' seeing the other entrance, and the restroom. That's clever. There was the locked door in the middle room from the beginning. That was to hide the fact that the house had a rotationally symmetrical shape."
"I didn't know there was such a trick being played." Kira said somewhat excitedly.
"Let's get this straight. It is very complicated, so let's say the room on the left is 'Room A' and the other on the right is 'Room B', relative to the orientation of that drawing [Fig.9]. In this case, if we simply call them 'left room' or 'right room,' it would be difficult to describe them exactly. Silva-san and you first entered through the east entrance of the house[E of Fig.9]. Then, as I said, you all observed the No Trespassing tag from the window of Room A. However, as Kira-san pointed out earlier, one of the rooms should have been smaller and the other wider. We were mistakenly led to believe this by the 'Ground Plan' to which 〈Shaggy〉 added lines. Now, when you actually entered the house, room A was perceived as small and room B as large."
"The cardboard boxes!" Kira suddenly raised his voice.
"That's right. Those multiple cardboard boxes. There was a lot of stuff in those that I honestly didn't care about. Was it a quilt or a mattress? It makes me laugh. Young people like Silva-san and Tokyo Spread members would not catch a cold from sleeping on the floor of a hut overnight in the mountains in the middle of summer. What made sense was not the contents of the cardboard boxes, but those themselves. For example, when you are about to move, you look at the room after all the furniture has been moved out and feel that it is 'bigger'. It is the same as that. At first, room A, with its many cardboard boxes, seemed smaller, and room B, without them, seemed larger, and that was all."
After saying that much, Maruta observed them. Kira is still looking at the picture Maruta drew. Seeming to have lost the will to argue, 〈Captain〉 did nothing except exhale through his nose.
Maruta considered whether there were any inconsistencies in the flow and then spoke again.
"And finally, the killing happens. Silva-san fixed the camera so that it would show the door to Room A. Perhaps it is not a coincidence. It would have been necessary to capture how that door was never opened from the time he entered until he was discovered. He ordered you to buy food and water. He then entered Room A and locked the door from the inside. The procedure for killing is this. Only Number 4-san remained in the middle room, and the others went outside to buy things, I think. First, Silva-san goes outside through the window of Room A. He then enters through the window of Room B, opened by the culprit, who was waiting there[G of Fig.9]. At this point, either Silva-san or the culprit, or both of them cooperate, swap A and B's luggage exactly. Care would have been taken to ensure that everything was placed in a position that corresponded to the rotational symmetry of where it was originally located, rather than simply replacing it. When it was completed and Silva-san again entered Room B, he was strangled to death by the culprit. This next beginning is the next most important thing for the culprit after the killing. I still won't say whether the culprit 'went out the window' or 'went out the door'. Think about it. I promise I will tell you later. First, the culprit, who gets outside by whatever method, gets under the house and rotates the middle room 180 degrees by means of that rotating device. Second, he blocks the entrance to the detouring path with that No Trespassing tag. It should not be too difficult to transfer this tag. He can pull out each of the stakes on both sides that support the tag. If two holes are drilled in advance at either end of the eastern path entrance, just enough to fit the stakes, the work can be completed simply by inserting two stakes into each of these holes. Finally, bring Number 4's shoes from the original entrance [E of Fig.9] to the other [F of Fig.9]."
Taking the drawing that Kira was looking at intently, Maruta erased some of them with an eraser. After that he placed that paper with the new drawing in front of them again.
Maruta now took the paper he had given him as a second sheet and added another figure or line to it. When he was about to hand it to 〈Captain〉, Kira took it instead and placed it beside him. Also leaning toward 〈Captain〉, Kira began to look at the handout with interest. Maruta resumed his story.
"As I have told you, yesterday we raided the mountain forest where the incident took place. When I entered, I turned my head to the left after a short distance. From there, I thought I could see that 'No Trespassing' forest that you talked about. In conclusion, there was nothing. It was not a place where the ghosts of suicides gather. Look at the picture I just drew.[Fig.8]"
"At the crime scene, as I mentioned earlier, there is a rutted path leading to the house. This, too, goes without saying. But there were also several side paths on the roadway, on the way to the entrance of that path. Of those, the side path closest to the rutted one actually also led to the house, surrounding it. We entered the forest yesterday between those two paths. As I have said many times, it is complicated, so I will explain it slowly one by one from here."
As Maruta was about to reach out his hand, Kira took the handout[Fig.8], saying, "Is this it?" Maruta nodded and received it, then added some more drawings and quickly put it back. "So, that picture is complete.[Fig.9]"
"There is a driveway on the west side of the house. If you go north, you will probably reach the village where that elderly man who complained to us also lives. On the day of the incident, you and Silva-san passed through this driveway. This is the only one leading to the crime scene. You didn't start out on the rutted path, but took the side one next to it. Then, of course, the location of the 'No Trespassing' sign, the entrance, and the locked door of the middle room must be as shown in the drawing. There are also several facts that explain this. When we headed to the crime scene two weeks ago, we proceeded with 'concrete blocks for slope protection' on our right. There was also a guardrail on the left. Continuing straight ahead, you will see the path leading to the house. It's already obvious. If you stand facing north in that vicinity, you can see an upslope to the east and a downslope to the west. This is a terrain often seen in mountain passes. As we stood at the entrance to the path, we could see the mountain ridge in the distance. So we were facing east at that time. However, when I checked the video to see the scene where you had just arrived at the house, as I recall, there were no mountains in the background. Shall we check now? I can say this with a great deal of certainty. When you arrived and started filming with your camera, you were in the vestibule on the east side of the house. That means the camera was facing west at the time of the shoot when you just arrived."
Kira traced the piece of paper with his index finger, reproducing the movements of 〈Silva〉 and others on that day. 〈Captain〉, who is still weakened beside him, looks on with a bored look on it.
"Silva-san and you went inside the house. Then you went into the room where Silva-san would later be holed up, and there you shot that 'No Trespassing' sign from the west-facing window[H of Fig.9]. Here, there is something that the culprit wants to hide from the 'Non culprit'. This is also obvious. The space has an entrance on the west side and a restroom on the south side[C and F of Fig.9]. If the house is rotationally symmetrical, there must be also two entrances, and two restrooms, each in a symmetrical position. I guess the culprit really had to avoid the 'Non culprit' seeing the other entrance, and the restroom. That's clever. There was the locked door in the middle room from the beginning. That was to hide the fact that the house had a rotationally symmetrical shape."
"I didn't know there was such a trick being played." Kira said somewhat excitedly.
"Let's get this straight. It is very complicated, so let's say the room on the left is 'Room A' and the other on the right is 'Room B', relative to the orientation of that drawing [Fig.9]. In this case, if we simply call them 'left room' or 'right room,' it would be difficult to describe them exactly. Silva-san and you first entered through the east entrance of the house[E of Fig.9]. Then, as I said, you all observed the No Trespassing tag from the window of Room A. However, as Kira-san pointed out earlier, one of the rooms should have been smaller and the other wider. We were mistakenly led to believe this by the 'Ground Plan' to which 〈Shaggy〉 added lines. Now, when you actually entered the house, room A was perceived as small and room B as large."
"The cardboard boxes!" Kira suddenly raised his voice.
"That's right. Those multiple cardboard boxes. There was a lot of stuff in those that I honestly didn't care about. Was it a quilt or a mattress? It makes me laugh. Young people like Silva-san and Tokyo Spread members would not catch a cold from sleeping on the floor of a hut overnight in the mountains in the middle of summer. What made sense was not the contents of the cardboard boxes, but those themselves. For example, when you are about to move, you look at the room after all the furniture has been moved out and feel that it is 'bigger'. It is the same as that. At first, room A, with its many cardboard boxes, seemed smaller, and room B, without them, seemed larger, and that was all."
After saying that much, Maruta observed them. Kira is still looking at the picture Maruta drew. Seeming to have lost the will to argue, 〈Captain〉 did nothing except exhale through his nose.
Maruta considered whether there were any inconsistencies in the flow and then spoke again.
"And finally, the killing happens. Silva-san fixed the camera so that it would show the door to Room A. Perhaps it is not a coincidence. It would have been necessary to capture how that door was never opened from the time he entered until he was discovered. He ordered you to buy food and water. He then entered Room A and locked the door from the inside. The procedure for killing is this. Only Number 4-san remained in the middle room, and the others went outside to buy things, I think. First, Silva-san goes outside through the window of Room A. He then enters through the window of Room B, opened by the culprit, who was waiting there[G of Fig.9]. At this point, either Silva-san or the culprit, or both of them cooperate, swap A and B's luggage exactly. Care would have been taken to ensure that everything was placed in a position that corresponded to the rotational symmetry of where it was originally located, rather than simply replacing it. When it was completed and Silva-san again entered Room B, he was strangled to death by the culprit. This next beginning is the next most important thing for the culprit after the killing. I still won't say whether the culprit 'went out the window' or 'went out the door'. Think about it. I promise I will tell you later. First, the culprit, who gets outside by whatever method, gets under the house and rotates the middle room 180 degrees by means of that rotating device. Second, he blocks the entrance to the detouring path with that No Trespassing tag. It should not be too difficult to transfer this tag. He can pull out each of the stakes on both sides that support the tag. If two holes are drilled in advance at either end of the eastern path entrance, just enough to fit the stakes, the work can be completed simply by inserting two stakes into each of these holes. Finally, bring Number 4's shoes from the original entrance [E of Fig.9] to the other [F of Fig.9]."
Taking the drawing that Kira was looking at intently, Maruta erased some of them with an eraser. After that he placed that paper with the new drawing in front of them again.
