Chapter 6.2 write-up
Having determined, from the zodiacal chart, that the key to the mystery was to be found “behind the stairs”, Norimizu et al. investigate. There are only two rooms which fit this description : the room where the Thérèse doll is, and an adjacent room, fully bare an empty. However… there is a noise there, as if Thérèse was again walking. From this, Norimizu determines that what they are looking for is actually… a space in the walls between the two rooms !
However, after breaking down the walls, all they fund is an old book, a rare edition of Holberg’s Totentanz. Within is a crazy retelling of Genesis, written by Claude Digsby. Extrapolating from this, Norimizu determines that there was a love triangle between Santetsu, Thérèse, and Digsby. This explains the apparent falling-out between the two men, and the “curse” Digsby laid on Santetsu. This whole case goes back much further than they previously thought.
Ou detectives go back to the living room and there confront Hataro, and Doctor Oshikane, Tsutako’s husband. Oshikane is Santetsu’s estate administrator, the will hasn’t been released yet. Norimizu accuses Oshikane of having replaced the real will by a blank sheet of paper.
Oshikane explains how he witnessed Santetsu writing the will, a year before, then sprinkling it with gold powder, and locking it for the night in the safe. The next day, in front of everyone, he ripped and then utterly destroyed one of the two pages that made up the will, and locked up the remaining one. Norimizu still think that page has been replaced, and is blank… and that this has to do with the thread that was to prevent Santetsu’s from being buried alive (his “alarm system” in such a case) being broken. Oshikane is visible shaken but agrees to open the will right then and there, even though he promised Santetsu not to do it for a year. He and Norimizu go to retrieve the will, but when they come back and open it : there is no blank page, but a perfectly normal will. Which says that the estate will be split between Hatarō and the ’ members of the string quartet, including Grete Danneberg, provided that the rules of the manor (no leaving, no love affair between them, no divulgating what’s in the will) are upheld. If someone breaks these rules, he or she forfeits her share of the estate, which will be share equally between the other.
Even though Oshikane seems to be innocent, he is still visibly shaken and nervous. And Hatarō, who already knew the contents of the will, says how furious he was that he couldn’t be free of the manor and its rules.
Our detectives then go back to Nobuko. The night before Grete Danneberg died, she and Nobuko quarelled. Or more precisely, Grete Danneberg shouted at Nobuko, apparently because she broke a vase, by mistake. It seems that Grete Danneberg was especially violent and insulting towards Nobuko. Norimizu asks if she remembers the moment Grete entered the room, but it turns out Nobuko wasn’t there : she had left to fetch the butler, and found Grete in the room when she came back. Norimizu is certain Grete was actually hiding in the room before; and he also seems to harbor suspicions about Ottokar Revesz.
黒死館殺人事件 