It took a good half hour, during which I could see people coming and going to their rooms, before I could finally leave the surveillance position that had been given to me without even asking my opinion.
Miss Iwakiri had managed to find the spare keys for the owner's room, while my supervisor had been able to reach the police using the landline phone on the first floor, although the news he'd gotten weren't all that good.
"Can't they come sooner?" Mister Ishibashi scoffed, sniffing loudly.
"The storm cut off the road further south," replied Mr. Nakatsuki. "Trees fell on the road due to a landslide, so by the time they clear the road, they probably won't arrive until the next morning."
"Great, really great," laughed Mister Nakai as he walked away down the hallway. "We really needed this!"
The producer seemed very upset to have his shooting schedule disrupted yet again, what's more by an outside cause he couldn't control. It was surely more important to him than the death of the person who had rented the place to them.
Miss Iwakiri, on the other hand, was busy locking the door to her ex-boss's room; the metallic click of the latch going into place in the hinge could be clearly heard in the surrounding quiet.
"The police officers I spoke to on the phone told us not to touch anything at the scene of the crime, or try to leave the premises," Mr. Nakatsuki added as he looked at the key that was turning in the lock.
" In any case, with the weather and the road closed, we probably can't leave from here, " sighed Miss Iwakiri.
"My manager is going to have one of those fits," the young singer complained in turn as he headed for his bedroom door.
"Anyway, it's a case of absolute necessity," said my colleague. "I'm sure they'll understand!"
Then he turned to me, and added with conviction:
"Well, why don't we go downstairs?"
Without waiting for an answer, he headed for the stairs, and began to descend the steps that creaked under his weight. I followed his lead, giving one last curious look at the door with the sign. I wondered if we would be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the occupant of the closed room, and if that person knew what had happened a few rooms away.
The storm was still thundering outside, and the commotion that had taken place a few minutes earlier had already faded away, giving way to a quiet and calm atmosphere in the large, almost deserted living room. If an outside visitor had entered the Onyu boarding house at that moment, he would never have guessed that someone had just died in this place.
Mr. Nakatsuki went to sit down on one of the two sofas, letting himself fall with all his weight and getting a surprised and reproving look from Mr. Manabe, already installed. Noel was sitting in the same place as before, once again with a book in her hand, but she still hadn't turned a single page of the book on her legs.
As for all the other people occupying the premises, they had taken advantage of the lull in the weather as well as the psychological situation to go and take refuge in their rooms on the upper floors.
It was a bit strange to see how everyone had slipped out of the big living room in not even thirty minutes, leaving only these three people and myself wrapped in a damp silence.
My colleague quickly tapped the last empty space on his right to invite me to sit next to him, and I accepted, silently settling on the end of the sofa.
No sooner had I sat down than the sliding door to the hallway opened abruptly, the slamming of the wooden frame against the rafters drawing the eyes of all four of us in that direction.
"Well, ready to solve another mystery?!" Kitta Kitta exclaimed, delighted and all smiles.
He had strapped a small portable camera to his chest to free his hands, now holding a kind of device with two plastic antennas that went up and down rhythmically on each side.
Mr. Nakatsuki and Mr. Manabe were annoyed, but didn't say a word, while Noel was slightly startled. I just frowned.
Faced with this general lack of enthusiasm, the young man spoke up again.
" Oh, come on! Should I remind you a murder took place here?!" The Utuber took offense. "The killer could be here, right now!"
"It could also just be a heart attack," countered Mr. Manabe almost immediately.
"Or it could be the ghost!" replied Kitta Kitta promptly. "Doesn't it excite you to think that we can find out the truth behind this case?!"
"Without me..." Mister Nakatsuki promptly blurted out, crossing his arms.
This untimely agitation annoyed Noel, whom I saw shaking nervously on the adjacent sofa. As for me, I had to admit that their animated conversation was totally foreign to me.
"Thanks to this electromagnetic current detector, I'll be able to track him down in no time!" Insisted the Utuber.
"This toy?" Mister Nakatsuki scoffed, raising an eyebrow.
"It's not a toy, okay? It's a-" Started to protest the young man, before being interrupted.
"Ah, whatever! I'm not moving from here!" swept my colleague with the back of his hand.
The young man sniffed noisily, disappointed not to have succeeded in involving anybody in his improvised adventure. Then, as Miss Iwakiri returned with a pack of batteries in her hand, he left the room, and we heard the stairs creak; a sign that Kitta Kitta was going upstairs.
The young woman sat down at the dining table and busied herself with replacing the batteries in several of the auxiliary lamps, in case the power went out again.
I took advantage of this respite to ask Mr. Nakatsuki a question.
"Say, Nakatsuki-san..." I said while looking him straight in the eyes. "Why did you think it could be murder earlier?"
There was a brief and frank silence, a sign that I had probably asked an unexpected question, and my colleague frowned; knowing full well that several pairs of ears nearby would be listening to us intently.
"Say, you don't beat around the bush, you..." He answered me by gulping down with a worried air.
I remained silent, not knowing if I should answer, or repeat my question in another form. However, Mr. Nakatsuki took the lead.
"To tell the truth, I don't really have any proof of what I'm saying, eh..." He apologized, confused. "But let's just say that I refuse to believe that a ghost could have done it..."
I watched carefully as his sweaty hands clenched and unclenched, and the movement of his adam's apple rising and falling, and I understood what made him uncomfortable.
"Are you afraid of ghosts, Nakatsuki-san?" I asked frankly.
"Ha ha ha..." He laughed nervously. "I've... Never liked those kinds of stories."
"Then why did you come for this show?" Noel asked, finally speaking up.
Mister Nakatsuki and I glanced at the young woman, who had just closed the book on her legs.
"It's not like I have a choice..." Mister Nakatsuki justified himself. "Even though I hate scary stuff, I can't refuse an order from my own boss..."
Hate? If he was going to use such a strong word, I understood why he was so nervous and flinched at the slightest power cut.
Faced with Noel's and my scrutinizing looks, he felt embarrassed, and wanted to cut the discussion short.
"A... Anyway! If I think it's a murder, it's because the owner says he saw someone! And I don't want it to be a ghost, okay?!" He exclaimed hurriedly.
"But that's just your reason..." I said passively. "However, Noel-san also seemed to have come to the same conclusion..."
"Hmm... That's right..." he pondered aloud while massaging his chin. "Now that I think about it, she immediately said the same thing as me."
Then he turned to the young woman, waiting for her to decide on her own to explain herself. The latter rose, and after having put her book on the broad back of the sofa, crossed the arms.
"I don't think a ghost could have killed a living person either," she said. "However, I'm also sure that someone doesn't die so suddenly for no reason."
"Um, it's true that the owner didn't seem the type to be a weak and sickly old man," Mr. Nakatsuki conceded. "After all, he had quite a temper."
Noel was about to add something, when a scream rang out, frightening us all.
I felt my left arm being suddenly gripped in a stranglehold, and a shiver ran down my spine.
Could it be that I was feeling what was called fear?
With some apprehension, I turned my head to my left, and saw that Mr. Nakatsuki had grabbed me with all his strength, wrapping his own arms around mine. He must have been startled by the scream, and didn't even dare to open his eyes again.
"What... What was that?" Mr. Manabe stammered as he straightened up, his pupils trembling.
Miss Iwakiri had also risen from her chair, looking anxiously at the door that was left open to the hallway.
"We'd better go check right now," Noel decided. "I'm sure everyone must have heard that scream."
Who couldn't hear it, indeed?
Someone had let out a frightened scream so loud that I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been audible even outside the building.
However, as much as I wanted to follow the people who were starting to climb to the second floor, I couldn't move. I had to get rid of the person hindering my movements first.
Gently, I put my hand on Mr. Nakatsuki's arm - which made him jump again - and patted his forearm.
"Nakatsuki-san? Do you want to stay here?" I asked cautiously.
He shook his head sharply, still with his eyes closed.
To me, he must have been terrified, and probably thought that being left alone would be even worse for his nerves. I decided to get up, and with my colleague still clinging to my arm, I walked up the stairs with annoying slowness.
However, I was rather relieved that my arrival was delayed, because a new crowd had formed in front of Mr. Yazawa's room; and more precisely, in front of a wide open door.
I frowned.
How come the door was open again, when we had locked it earlier?
Without any care, and without even answering the derogatory remarks of the people I was pushing without any qualms, I broke through the crowd, dragging Mr. Nakatsuki in my wake, and when I arrived at the door, I finally saw what was agitating the people here so much.
A few steps away from Mr. Yazawa's body, the young Kitta Kitta was sitting on his buttocks, a sign that he had surely fallen backwards in panic. Which left no room for doubt: he was the one who had just screamed at the top of his lungs.
"What are you doing here?" I asked without delay.
Regaining courage, Mr. Nakatsuki finally opened his eyes and looked withj fear around the room, not letting go of my arm.
He then froze, and pointed to the body of the owner, still lying on the floor.
"Hey... What's that?" He asked with concern.
The people present then started to look at the place that my cowardly manager was pointing at, and observed the neck of Mr. Yazawa.
Two red lines were visible there, standing out clearly against the now pale skin of the body.