The Mystery Clock

Nobody raised any objections. Needless to say, they would not be able to overturn Tokizane’s judgment, even if they objected.

All of them, driven by Tokizane, left the dining room and the kitchen for the staircase. The only one who took the elevator was Hikijii. As for Tokizane, he was observing the scene from the very back. Once they heard it again, the sound of the machine operating was fairly loud. Even if everyone was preoccupied with trying to guess the value of the table clocks, they would have noticed it.

To enter Mori Reiko’s study again, Junko had to muster up all her courage. Entering unknowingly and stumbling upon a dead body was a completely different experience from entering with the knowledge that there was a corpse in the room. Everyone else was equally tense. Should the murderer be among them, they must be even more terrified than the rest of the group. Junko was hoping that to be the case.

After entering the study, Junko turned away from Mori Reiko’s body when she spotted the crimson cocktail dress.

It made her feel guilty to leave her body in such a state. It would be too unreasonable to conclude that it was a foolish accidental death. She involuntarily placed her hand on her heart as if to express her apologies.

Junko checked the clock on the shelf when Tokizane, the final person in the room, entered the room.

“…It’s 10:49 huh.”

Junko also looked at the three-colored rings spinning in circles. At last, there was only one minute left until the time of death.

She didn’t want to be evasive and draw a strange conclusion while contemplating about Mori Reiko’s situation, but she also didn’t want to be wrongfully convicted and shot to death.

Just for now – in order to get through this, she prayed to God to uncover evidence to support her theory of the accident.

Tokizane bypassed the corpse, stood in front of the computer, and pressed the power button. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what would happen.

The Windows operating system booted up normally. If the computer had been forced to shut down due to a freeze, there should have been a menu to choose between normal startup and safe mode, but she was not that familiar with machines, therefore, she was not certain. The time display on the lower right of the screen showed 10:51. Finally, the time had passed the deadline with Junko closing her eyes.

Tokizane pressed the “Windows” key and “R” to input the word “recent”. Among the list of recently used files, there was, as expected, a manuscript that Mori Reiko had just finished writing.

“‘Poison Bird’…”

The title was rather suggestive. Upon opening it, the manuscript appeared to be almost complete. It was a short love mystery, which was Mori Reiko’s forte. 

She wondered if the poisonings using aconitine were really involved in this work.

However, despite continuous follow-up, no such scenes appeared. The “Poison Bird,” which apparently referred to a real bird in New Guinea called the Hooded pitohui, was merely a metaphor for a psychopath who preyed on and devastated the people around them without any malice aforethought.

“Unfortunately, it seems I was mistaken after all,” Tokizane murmured darkly.

“No, it may be too early to conclude that. The file ‘Mystery Clock’ before ‘Poison Bird’ has just been updated.”

Hikijii pointed to the screen, and Tokizane opened that.

A collective gasp erupted from several people. The “Mystery Clock” was not a manuscript, but rather a file of ideas and rough storylines, including the line “The Eternal Boy Seeks the Neverland. I don’t want to live in a filthy world anymore”. Furthermore, the next entry contained a few lines describing how aconitine can be dissolved in creamer and added to coffee to poison it.

“Bingo! Then, my aunt really is…”

Kawai looked at the corpse in astonishment.

“Look! There is a note at the end that says, ‘Make sure it melts well!’. Maybe she added the note after experimenting with it.”

Kumakura pointed out.

“Indeed, this is the case. After all, Mori had an unfortunate accident,” Motojima said in a choked voice. 

That’s absurd.

Junko was appalled. Mori drank a cup of poisoned coffee for experimental purposes. Is that the truth of the incident?

“The update time was 9:36 for ‘Poison Bird’ and 9:34 for ‘Mystery Clock’…”

Perhaps it was Tokizane’s nature, but he was obsessed with the time.

“I see. When I first saw this, I thought it was a suicide note.”

Kawai pointed at the notepad still on the desk.

Mystery Clock. The Eternal Boy. Neverland. I don’t want to live in a filthy world anymore.

“Hmm. So it was a sudden burst of an idea that Mori had written down.”

Hikijii nodded. Junko wanted to remain silent, but her rebellious spirit kicked in. There is something amiss, after all.

“Please wait. At that time, Mori was in the middle of writing down her ideas in a computer file, wasn’t she? Then why did she have to write all this down by hand?”

Junko’s doubt was not taken to heart by any of them.

“If Reiko was in the middle of writing ‘Poison Bird,’ it wouldn’t be out of order to write it down for later reference,” Kumakura remarked tediously.

“Or maybe she did it when the computer was freezing,” Kawai speculated.

“But this story seems strange to me.”

Junko appealed as she scrolled through the story.

“It seems to be a conventional romance novel until halfway through the plot, but then the eternal boy and the poisoning are introduced as if out of the blue. Even who they are going to kill is unclear. What would this narrative be like if that happened?”

“Of course, nobody would know. Even when I look back at my notebooks of ideas, I hardly have any idea of what I had written. It is impossible for anyone else to fathom what goes on in a writer’s mind, because not even the writer themselves have any insight into their creative process,” Hikijii bragged. 

Isn’t he suffering from a bit of dementia…

Tokizane was silent and expressionless. Only this man was completely unreadable.

“…It’s probably best not to tinker with the scene any further. Let’s go downstairs for now.”

Tokizane still would not let go of his gun. They all withdrew to the first level in groups, reluctantly.

“Shall we go to the hall instead of the dining room?”

Tokizane’s words prompted the invited guests to exchange glances. The fact that they were going to the hall, which featured a Mystery Clock and other valuable clocks, was a sign that he no longer intended to open fire. Perhaps the worst of the crisis had finally passed.

The radio clock in the hall showed 10:55. Five minutes have already elapsed from the appointed time.

“There is one more thing I want to confirm. Please stay with me just a little longer.”

Tokizane turned off the lights in the hall and turned on the footlights on the display stand.

“I’ll try to switch off the circuit breaker in the garden.”

After saying this, Tokizane went out through the window into the garden. The footlights faded and the room became pitch-dark. The only illumination in one corner of the room was the red glow of the still-burning fireplace. A faint electronic beeping sound came from somewhere. Junko wondered what that was. This was the second time she has heard this sound tonight. In another two or three seconds, the footlights would be back on.

If I act now, I can escape. With that in mind, Junko looked around, but no one made a move. That was to be expected. After all, the theory of the accident was becoming more and more solid, but if she made a strange move here, she might be accused of the crime.

“How did it go?” Tokizane returned, turned on the lights in the hall, and asked everyone.

“The footlights went out.”

When Natsumi reported, Tokizane lowered his gun and nodded.

“After all, if the circuit breaker is switched off, it’s impossible for anyone not to notice.”

Tokizane had reverted to the softer tone he had used at the beginning of the dinner party.

“I just couldn’t rule out the possibility that there was an accomplice.”

“What do you mean?” Motojima asked.