Chapter 34: The Peculiar Villa
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Xiuping used his fatigue as an excuse to end the conversation, claiming that he needed to rest. Ji Yi could hardly force him to continue.
But getting him to return to his room and rest right away was clearly impossible.
As everyone knew, once you invited a detective inside, you could hardly expect him to stay put.
After asking the servants about the villa’s taboos, Ji Yi borrowed an umbrella and prepared to take a look around the garden.
Going outside in the rain might not seem like something a normal person would do, but aside from the servants, who in this villa was normal?
He had just reached the shelter of the eaves when—
“Why did you tell him so much?” Ji Yi suddenly heard an argument coming from one of the rooms upstairs.
See? You had to keep walking around. That was how you triggered hidden plotlines.
“Why shouldn’t I tell him? So many years have passed. Everyone has long since known the truth.” This time it was Runnye who spoke.
“The statute of limitations expired long ago. Even if we told the police, what use would it be? Besides, as long as we do nothing, Xiuping can reclaim everything.” The speaker was a woman, evidently Runnye’s wife, Harumi. “If you keep provoking Takako and the others, who knows what they might do?”
“What can they do? Kill us too? If you’re afraid, you shouldn’t have agreed to move back after Shino died.” Runnye roared. “If you’re so frightened, then do what the second son’s family did—leave the country and never come back or contact us again!”
So Tomo Ichijo and his wife had never returned after Mana’s death?
“You haven’t contacted Tomo?” Harumi’s voice sounded as though she was about to cry.
“No. I called that bastard overseas, but he refuses to come back no matter what I say.” Runnye’s tone was far from friendly. “He doesn’t seem to care about Mana’s death at all. He even kept telling me not to bring up Father’s death anymore, and urged me to treat that couple more kindly.”
Hm? Ji Yi found that rather strange.
“That man is just as spineless as ever. All he knows how to do is play the good-natured peacemaker. He doesn’t dare have an opinion of his own, not even slightly! That’s why he believed the lies Tsuruta and that couple made up.” Runnye cursed his younger brother without mercy. “If he had testified with us back then, there might have been a chance.”
Ji Yi could understand Runnye’s anger. After all, in this country—especially given the social climate twenty years ago—barring any unforeseen circumstances, the eldest son should have inherited nearly the entire estate. Yet the old man had left everything to the daughter who was least likely, and least entitled, to inherit it.
She had not even married into the family.
It was profoundly untraditional, so it was no wonder people had objected.
Still, the second son’s attitude was genuinely puzzling.
And there was something else. Twenty years ago, had a doctor named Tsuruta also been involved in Soichiro’s death?
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The conversation inside had stopped, but Ji Yi could hear only the woman’s sobs.
It seemed Mrs. Harumi had lost control of her emotions.
Ji Yi turned and left, returning to the hall before handing the umbrella to a nearby servant.
The servant had not yet put it away when Ji Yi noticed that there was already some water around the umbrella stand.
“You have my thanks. You still have to go out and inspect the grounds in weather like this.”
“You’re too considerate. The master and madam are both very kind people. Unless there’s an emergency, they would never make us work outside in the rain.” The servant answered with a smile.
“Oh.” Ji Yi suddenly understood. “Are Mr. Toshiyuki and Mrs. Takako in their rooms now?”
“Yes. Ever since the young lady passed away, the master and madam have not been in good spirits. They retire quite early.” The servant answered respectfully. “If you need anything, please wait until tomorrow.”
“I understand. It isn’t anything urgent.” Ji Yi replied and prepared to return to his room.
Halfway there, he seemed to remember something. Turning back, he asked, “What kind of person was the maid who died, Miss Satsuki Murase?”
“Satsuki was a very cheerful person,” the servant replied. “The young lady liked her very much, so she was always by her side. They were extremely close, almost like sisters.”
“I see…”
“Actually…” The servant hesitated, but decided to speak honestly. “None of us believe that Satsuki killed the young lady.”
“Hmm…” Ji Yi nodded.
“We all feel that, just as the female detective Satsuki hired said, the young lady may actually have taken her own life…” The servant lowered his voice. “Her mental state had been poor for a long time.”
“The young lady’s mental state was poor?” Ji Yi remembered that when he had spoken with Toshiyuki earlier that day, the man had also mentioned that his daughter’s mental condition had seemed unstable before her death. Even her sleep had apparently been troubled.
“Yes. Because of that, the young lady often visited Doctor Tsuruta.” The servant sighed.
Doctor Tsuruta…
“Who is Doctor Tsuruta?” Ji Yi asked, following the thread.
“Doctor Tsuruta is the family’s private physician. They say he has served the household for more than forty years, ever since Mr. Soichiro’s time.”
“That really is a long period of service…” Ji Yi calculated. Taking the usual age of graduation from medical school into account, plus forty years of service, the doctor had to be over seventy by now. “So twenty years ago, when Mr. Soichiro died, that doctor would naturally have been here as well?”
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“That should be the case, but I wasn’t working at the villa then, so I don’t know the details.”
Ji Yi looked at the young servant before him and thought that he might as well have said he had still been a child at the time.
However, as the family physician, if no one had called the police when Soichiro died, then the person who had determined that Soichiro had died of heart disease must have been this Doctor Tsuruta.
No wonder that after suspecting Soichiro had been poisoned, Runnye would suspect that the doctor had forged Soichiro’s cause of death together with the Takakos.
How interesting. He had come because he suspected that Shino’s death was a trap arranged by Runnye after consulting the man behind the curtain. Yet now he was investigating, on Runnye’s behalf, whether Shino’s parents had murdered Soichiro twenty years ago.
Still, what he investigated was not important. He was on vacation, after all, and could do whatever he pleased.
The rain outside was still coming down heavily.
Ji Yi returned to the guest room, washed up, and lay down on the bed.
He did not dare sleep too deeply.
The entire villa gave off an eerie feeling.
Even the story of Mana, as told by Xiuping, did not fit with the description given by her father, Runnye, who had called her “Soichiro’s most beloved child.”
Had Soichiro really “loved” Mana?
And it seemed that Satsuki had previously hired a female detective to investigate the villa.
Why, then, had another detective later concluded that Satsuki was the murderer?
Had so much time passed that something had happened in between?
Without a cat going berserk beside his bed in the middle of the night, Ji Yi suddenly found himself unaccustomed to the silence.
Takagi had probably gone to his house to help feed the cat properly…
With that thought in mind, Ji Yi closed his eyes.
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