Chapter 18

It was almost 8 P.M. by the time Hara Masako rang the doorbell at the Nishimura house. Mai answered the door to find her friend standing there.

"Ah, Masako! It's been a while!"

"Mai, I'm disappointed in you." Masako said glaring at Mai.

Mai took a step back in surprise. "M-Masako...?"

"I heard about your propositioning Naru yesterday," she said coldly.

Mai's eyes went wide in shock. "Wh-wh-wh-who would proposition that stick-in-the-mud?!?" she asked shrieking in horror.

"Mai! Be quiet! You'll disturb the neighbours!" A cold voice rang out from the base annoyed.

Mai flinched slightly at the rebuke when reality sunk in. "How can I disturb the neighbours if the nearest one lives five minutes away on foot?!" she yelled. She stalked to the base and jerked the shoji screen open. Mai glared at Naru who glared back at her, but his gaze soon shifted to the person standing behind her.

Masako had followed Mai into the house and to the base.

"Bou-san, John, Hirota-san, come with us. And don't forget the flashlights," Naru ordered quietly. "I trust that's alright with you, Hara-san?"

Masako nodded and watched as the others set about getting ready to leave. "Mai, I will speak with you more later," she said coolly.

"Eh? I'm not coming, too?" Mai asked surprised.

Naru glared at her. "We don't have time to make sure you don't get into any more trouble tonight so you and Matsuzaki-san are to stay here with Lin. Understood?"

"......'Kay~." Mai agreed unhappily.

Bou-san drove the company van to the abandoned house first. Masako looked around but could make little out in the darkness. She slowly walked towards the house while Bou-san, Hirota, and John gathered tapes and spare batteries for the equipment that was currently running inside the house.

Masako walked around the house once, before finally indicating that she was ready to go inside. Naru led the way into the house and proceeded slowly in visiting each room there. Bou-san, John, and Hirota exchanged batteries and tapes in the various cameras while Naru checked over certain cameras checking in with Lin and making sure they were transmitting data properly.

It took Masako the better part of half an hour to walk through the entire house with everyone else following and quietly taking care of the equipment. She finally turned to Naru. "What other places did you want me to look at?" she asked.

"The barn and loft where Mai'd been locked up, and the Nishimura home although Gene said there was nothing there, and we've had no reaction whatsoever while investigating that house," Naru replied quietly.

Masako nodded. "Let's go to this barn then."

Several minutes later, the five reached the barn. This time, Hirota led the way with the stern warning that, as much as possible, they were not to disturb things.

Masako cocked her head slightly when she entered the building and started to examine the lower floor.

Naru looked at Hirota. "Hirota-san, where was the body found?" he asked quietly.

Hirota frowned. "Well, it's not like you're going to go spreading the details of this case, and it's highly unlikely you were involved in the girl's death, so I guess it's okay to tell you. He pointed to the section Masako had just left. "The actual cause of death – if determinable – will have to wait for the autopsy results, but it looked like she fell from the loft." Hirota frowned. "I'm concerned about what had been eating her though. No animals are kept in here, and nothing large enough to do the sort of damage I saw could've made its way in here either."

Naru walked over to where Hirota had indicated the girl's body had been found. Looking up, he could see the edge of the loft area. The girl had fallen close to the wall while Mai had been staying closer to the middle part of the barn. Naru examined the ground comparing where he estimated the body had likely lain to the edge of the loft.

"Hirota-san, do you know if the girl survived the fall and died a fair amount of time later, or if she died either from the fall or shortly thereafter?"

Hirota shook his head. "Sorry, not until we get the coroner's report."

Naru sighed. "You people really are very slow in your work, aren't you?" he asked exasperated.

Naru and Hirota returned to the centre of the building and waited for Masako to finish her examination of the lower level. When she finished, Bou-san went up the ladder to the loft first carefully testing the floor before indicating that Masako should climb up while the others remained below.

Masako carefully moved around in the loft but retreated back towards the ladder every time the floor creaked in protest under her weight.

Bou-san examined the floor and the marks that were still visible there while Masako carefully made her way around as much as she could. He stared at the stain on the floorboards that Naru had told him about when they found Mai. Beyond that, there was nothing to be seen in the loft except for the disturbed dust. He followed the disturbed dust marks towards the wall for as long as the floor seemed able to handle his weight, then shone his light at the wall trying to see if there was anything on the wall or on the floor there. He shook his head, he couldn't see anything, and most likely the police would've taken away anything that had been there.

Bou-san then shone his light towards the far corner furthest from where Mai was supposed to have been sitting and frowned. The light seemed to get sucked into the darkness there and he couldn't make out any details.

Masako sighed tiredly and slowly made her way back to the ladder and down to the ground. She was a bit pale and wavered a bit on her feet for a moment. John reached out and steadied her for a moment and she gave him a wan smile in thanks.

When Bou-san moved to follow Masako down from the loft, however, Naru stopped him. Instead, Naru climbed part-way up the ladder and passed a camera up to him.

"Bou-san, aim this towards the far corner of the loft. I want to see if there's any reaction to be seen in here as well. Just in case whatever Mai described has some sort of real connection to this place," Naru said quietly. "I trust that's okay with you, Hirota-san?" Naru asked.

Hirota grimaced but nodded. "I'm pretty sure no one's coming back here now that they've all left."

Bou-san set the camera making sure it was secure and running properly before he finally climbed down from the loft. He found the rickety floor to be unnerving so he was more than happy to finally get back down to firm ground again.

Naru contacted Lin at base making sure that all the equipment that had been set up was running smoothly before indicating that everyone should leave.

Hirota locked the barn with a new padlock and the Irregulars all headed back to the van for the drive back to the Nishimura residence. Naru stared at the building for a moment longer before finally turning to follow the others.

Masako looked tired by the time she returned to the base with the others. Mai and Ayako quickly got up to make everyone tea when Naru stopped Ayako.

"Matsuzaki-san, accompany Hara-san as she takes a look around this house."

"Naru-bou, I realise you want to finish this investigation as quickly as possible, but don't you think you should give her a moment to rest?" Bou-san asked incredulous. All the Regulars and Irregulars were familiar with how much of a workaholic Naru was, but Masako had just finished taking a look at two buildings, so she'd more than earned a break before looking at the place of least interest in the case.

Masako shook her head. "I'm alright," she said. "Matsuzaki-san, if you would please lead the way."

Ayako shrugged as she led Masako first through the upstairs and then through the main level of the house.

Masako didn't spend much time looking around the Nishimuras home, and she and Ayako soon made their way back to base. Inside, they found Mai finishing up serving tea to everyone, and they noticed that there was some Darjeeling for Ayako and gyokurou for Masako.

Naru sat at the table waiting impatiently as Masako and Ayako made their way inside the base.

"Hara-san?"

Masako took a sip of her tea as she collected her thoughts. She sighed. "First, I'll start with this house: there's nothing here." she stated firmly. "Despite the murders, there are no spirits wandering around lost here."

Masako paused as she considered the other two places. "As for the abandoned house, I could faintly sense a presence there, but I couldn't see it clearly," she admitted. "It's as though..." her voice trailed off as she considered what she saw.

She cocked her head slightly before looking up at Naru. "It's as though it were hiding itself away," she said finally. "While I couldn't see the spirit clearly, I sensed that whatever it is, it's not very strong."

A faint frown crossed Masako's face briefly. "It's presence was strongest in the room you mentioned finding Mai's handset, the room off the kitchen, and the room next to the laundry area."

Masako looked at Mai. "Mai, did you really remain in that loft for several hours?"

Mai looked at Masako in surprise before nodding slowly. "I couldn't get down from there, so I had to stay up there until Naru and Lin-san found me."

Masako shook her head. "You should think about going to a shrine or temple and have the monks and priests pray over you for an hour or maybe a year."

Mai blinked. "Masako?"

"I don't know how you could stand being in there for so long." Masako glanced at Naru. "I don't know what I saw in there," she stated flatly.

Naru frowned at Masako's statement. "Could you be a bit more specific, Hara-san?"

Masako looked tired as she stared into her cup of tea. "I couldn't see any spirits in the building, nor did I sense any presences. But that loft..." Masako shivered as she remembered the atmosphere of the loft. It had a graveyard-like morbid chill. "There's something strange about that loft, but I'm not sure what. I couldn't see part of it at all."

Masako frowned as she tried to find the right words to describe exactly what she saw. "Do you remember the Morishita house? When I looked at that well, it was as though I were looking into the depths of hell itself. It's rare to see something so horrible, but there were many spirits trapped there." She paused for a moment. "But that loft... I couldn't see the very corner of it. It was as though... it didn't exist at all; not on this plane and not wherever spirits normally go to."

Naru drummed his fingers on the table lost in thought as he considered Masako's words. He glanced at Mai and Ayako. "What about the two of you, what did you find out this afternoon?"

Ayako and Mai looked at one another. Mai shrugged gesturing for Ayako to give the report. Ayako grimaced slightly.

"We went to the house like you told us," she began. There was no mistaking the look of distaste in her expression. "That guy living there, he's lucky I didn't hit him. He just kept going on and on and wouldn't shut up."

"I'd appreciate if you wouldn't go on and on and would get to the point, Matsuzaki-san," Naru interrupted coldly.

Ayako glared at Naru briefly before continuing her report. "Anyhow, basically what it came down to is that he bought his mother a dog several months ago to keep her company, but the dog disappeared after several weeks. While a bit unusual, he figured maybe the dog ran away or got hit by a car, so he bought her a new one. A number of weeks later, it too disappeared. Thinking that maybe his mother didn't like dogs, and that she'd been doing something to chase them away while he wasn't there, he decided to get her a cat instead. Same story. Having had three pets disappear in the course of some months, he then bought her a new cat but leashed it so that it couldn't get out of the yard. Several days later, he found the cat to be missing; it had been released from it's leash. Since it's highly unlikely his mother would've been able to undo the leash's clasp, he realised that the missing pets weren't due to his mother's actions, but were likely the acts of someone else in the area. However, since he's usually at work during the day, he doesn't know what's going on at his house while his mother's alone."

Ayako frowned. "Then things get a little weird. About a month or so after the pets disappeared, the guy needed to go away for several days on business, so he arranged for a care worker to visit during that time and take care of her and the house. He made sure to call in regularly so he knew that everything was fine at home. Anyhow, the day before he was to return home, he called the care worker as he wasn't sure what time he'd be able to get home and wanted to make sure everything that needed to be taken care of would be done before he returned. That part was fine. However, when he actually got home, he found the place to be a bit of a mess. Nothing was missing, but basics chores weren't done. There were dishes left out, laundry left undone, his mother hadn't been fed dinner or had her bath..." Ayako shrugged. The man had delineated every last task that had been left unfinished that day. "Anyhow, he discovered a mess at home, and no care worker in sight. Since the person's personal belongings weren't in the house, he figured the person must've left as soon as evening came around and left his mother alone for several hours before he'd been able to get back late that night."

Naru frowned. He glanced over at Yasuhara who was sitting in a corner of the base with an odd expression on his face. "Yasuhara-san?"

Yasuhara cleared his throat as he flipped open his notebook. "As you requested, I went to speak to everyone that lived up the road from here. Most of them couldn't think of anything particularly significant when I asked about any unusual occurrences in the area other than the crimes that had been reported, but I think it was Yoshi-kun who mentioned that people out here tend to be a bit insular and that no one keeps pets. When I asked him about that, he said that when they first moved to the area, they had a dog, but after several months, it disappeared and they were so heart-broken over it that they never got around to getting a new one." Yasuhara frowned. "Come to think of it, he also said that one of the bunnies that he brought home over the summer holidays from school one year disappeared from its cage, but his mom replaced it so that he wouldn't get in trouble with the rest of the kids at school. No one noticed the change because it'd been a new bunny. He said he'd always wondered what happened to the original bunny and how it got out like that."

Yasuhara flipped to the next page in his notebook. "I then managed to get in contact with the Sengokus," he said sounding mildly amused.

"Ehh?! You managed to get in contact with them?" Mai asked shocked. "How did you manage that?!"

Yasuhara laughed at Mai's reaction. He remembered her description of her last attempt to speak to them, so he'd gone there prepared. "You mustn't underestimate the Shounen Tanteidan, Taniyama-san, especially if you're going to be a member."

Mai shook her head. "I couldn't get anywhere near communicating with them, so I don't know if I'm qualified to be a member."

Yasuhara pulled several papers from his notebook and handed them over to Naru. "I wrote the Sengokus a note explaining who I was, why we were all in the neighbourhood, and the questions I wanted to ask them. Hirota-san mentioned residents told the police to speak to them by phone, so I figured indirect contact might work. Since I suspected they were inside and kept a close eye on what happened outside, I was fairly sure they'd see me if I put something in their mailbox. In the note, I said I'd be back in a couple of hours and that I hoped to be able to talk to them then. However, when I returned, I found a box with a bunch of things and some papers sitting out on the front porch for me."

Mai struck her hand in her palm. "I see! That's the leader of the Shounen Tanteidan for you! You're very smart!"

"Not at all, Taniyama-san," he said with his usual inscrutable smile. "Anyhow, the papers are proving rather interesting. The Sengokus have been living in this area for quite some time, perhaps longer than any of the other people living on this street. I suspect they didn't have a problem revealing that much since it's easily determined by going to the ward office and checking the records there. Anyhow, according to them, this area used to be a pretty typical rural area. Since there was very little out here originally, most people knew one another and some kept small animals like chickens, dogs, and cats along with growing rice and vegetables. As the city developed however, the area changed, but since they were still fairly distant from the train station itself, there wasn't much change in people's lifestyles out here. That all changed some...thirty or so years ago. According to the Sengokus, looking back on things now, the start to the strangeness was fairly distinct. The first thing to happen was that there was more crime in the area. At their home, someone threw a rock through their front window. However, they didn't think too much of the incident as they figured it was one of those very rare things that could happen to anyone."

Yasuhara quickly went through the copies he'd made for Naru of the various incidents that happened in the area, and pulled out one newspaper article. "When the incident of a teenage boy attacking his mother with a hammer occurred, they wondered if maybe there were family troubles and that the boy may even have been responsible for the rock through their window. In any case, they still weren't too concerned that anything was wrong, and thought that the area was just having a bit of bad luck. However, when the vandalism didn't stop, they started to wonder if maybe something was wrong in the area. That's when the first murder took place."

Yasuhara paused and took a sip of tea. "A few weeks after that, their daughter talked to them about wanting to go away for university even though it was still a few years off. The Sengokus were against it since they didn't have that sort of money, but their daughter said she didn't want to stay in the area and that something was wrong. The parents dismissed her arguments saying she was being foolish and selfish wanting to do something so costly when they couldn't afford it, and they refused to discuss the issue any further."

Yasuhara pulled out another page from his notebook. "About a month or so later, their daughter was arrested for the murder of her childhood friend. Unfortunately, for her parents, she then committed suicide. This is a copy of her suicide note."

The hand-writing on the sheet was slightly rounder suggesting a female wrote it. The words on the paper were simple: 'I'm sorry. I should never have done it. Things haven't been the same since we did silly things as kids. I just hope that everything will end with my death even though it won't bring Kaori back. I just hope nothing else happens that is my fault.'

"I should mention that the murder the Sengoku's daughter was arrested for wasn't originally reported as a murder in the papers but was listed as an accidental death, and there was never a follow up report on it in the papers either. Apparently the friend had fallen from the loft of their barn, but some animals had gotten to her body during the night causing a great deal of damage. For some reason, the accident was later considered not to be accidental, and that's when their daughter Megumi was arrested," Yasuhara explained before resuming his rundown on the results of his search.

"When the Sengokus first learned of their daughter's suicide and her note, they thought that that was the end of the affair. Even though they were horrified at the thought that she'd been capable of murdering someone at such a young age, let alone a childhood friend, their daughter was dead, so they expected the problems in the area to end. However, that didn't happen and problems continued. The second major incident that they took note of was the accidental death of a neighbour and the father of their daughter's childhood friend. The older Sengokus were never particularly close to the family, and given what'd happened between their two daughters, they weren't exactly on the best of terms at that point. In any case, they heard that the man's dead body had been found in their barn a few days after having fallen badly from the loft. At this point, the Sengokus wondered about the bad karma that seemed to have fallen on their area what with the murders and death, but when they heard that their neighbours barn also had a number of dead animals in it, that's when they started to wonder if there wasn't a curse instead."

Yasuhara tapped the page in front of him. "This is all just their speculation, but they couldn't help wondering if the latest death might not be tied in with whatever their daughter's suicide note seemed to be referring to. However, they couldn't think of any way that their daughter could be causing anything since she was already dead."

Yasuhara pulled out a small newspaper clipping from the papers the Sengokus had given him. "This is the article about the dead animals. At that time, the police suspect there was a build up of some toxic gas which caused the animals in the barn to die. They thought the man, who'd been up in the loft, was overcome by the gas and ended up falling to his death. However, there's no mention of what that gas might have been or how it could have built up in the building in the first place. Only that it must have dissipated in the days before the bodies were discovered."

Yasuhara frowned slightly. "The rest of the papers essentially follow the major incidents in this area, most of which I've already reported. I haven't had a chance to go through the rest of the box's contents though."

Naru nodded. "Mai, help Yasuhara go through that box and see if there's any other useful information in there."

"Oka~y."

Naru looked over at Lin where he was monitoring the cameras. "Lin, anything to report?"

Lin glanced at the monitors before turning to face Naru and the others. "The data from the thermographic camera in the barn is giving some unusual data. Also, there have been some temperature fluctuations occurring inside the abandoned house. The changes at the house aren't extreme, but they are significant."

Naru nodded. "Any sounds or anything else in that house?"

Lin cocked his head slightly. "Some rapping sounds have been recorded in the far room where Taniyama-san's handset was found. I haven't found anything else, but I still have several tapes to review."

"Bou-san, John, Hirota-san, you three are in charge of changing batteries and tapes in all the cameras. Hara-san, how long will you be able to stay here?"

"If you need me, I can have my grandmother call and say that I'm sick tomorrow," Masako said as she considered her schedule. "However, it would probably be better for me to return to Tokyo first thing to take care of the essentials and have my grandmother re-schedule the rest."

Naru considered their situation briefly. "Go with that," he decided finally. "If possible, I'd like you to check out the loft before you leave as well as when you get back."

Masako nodded slowly. "Very well."