The Phantom Doctor, page 4
They came to a sudden stop and turned around. Right behind them was a man in his mid-thirties dressed like a chauffeur. He was wearing a company uniform. The driver’s cap on his head was decorated with a big golden insignia. He spoke with a big smile.
“Yes, that’s right. What can we do for you?”
The driver held up his right hand so they could see what he was holding.
“This is one of your Detectives Club badges, isn’t it?”
A closer look revealed that the item was indeed a Boy Detectives Club BD Badge.
Those of you who have read The Boy Detectives Club will be familiar with the BD Badge. Yoshio Kobayashi came up with the idea for the BD Badge, putting together the first letters from the English words for “boy” and “detective.” The club stamped out metal discs the size of a hundred-yen silver coin and distributed thirty or so to each club member as a kind of calling card.
It made sense for each member of the club to carry a badge on his person. But twenty or thirty? There was a reason for having such quantities on hand. If a member of the club wished to guide another to a particular place, he could drop the badges here and there along the route, relying on the glittering silver discs to mark the way.
In fact, when Yoshio himself was previously kidnapped by the Fiend with Twenty Faces and threatened with water torture, his location was pinpointed thanks to these badges. He was consequently rescued safe and sound. At the sight of this driver—that none of them had seen before—with a BD Badge in his hand, the three of them couldn’t help exchanging knowing glances.
“Yes, that’s one of our badges,” Yoichi stated in a cautious tone. “It has the insignia for our club. How did you get your hands on it?”
The curious driver answered with a disarming smile. “Oh, I picked it up off the ground.”
“You picked it up? Where?”
“Not around here. A bit further away. I’m pretty sure it didn’t fall out of one of your pockets.”
“How far away?”
“It was in Azabu, though I couldn’t tell you the name of the neighborhood. I’m pretty sure I’d recognize it if I drove through there.”
“Do you still remember the place where you found it?”
“You know, as it happens, I do. It was in front of this odd western-style house made with red brick.”
Hearing those details, the three boys again exchanged meaningful looks.
Chapter 7
Serpent Mansion
The same idea struck the three boys at the same time. Assuming the BD Badge found in front of the red brick house came from the pocket of the missing Taiji Aikawa, it was possible he was being held captive inside that house. They could be mistaken, but now they had a good reason to check it out.
“Mister,” Taro Saito said to the chauffeur, voicing aloud what all of them were thinking at that moment, “would you mind taking us to that house?”
“You don’t say. You want to see for yourselves? You know, I got to wondering if that Aikawa boy was inside the house too.”
“Yes, like you said, we need to see it for ourselves. What do you say, Mister? The sooner we get there, the better. Can you give us a ride?”
“Sure thing. I’ll drive you there myself.” The driver pleasantly agreed to their request and indicated a nearby side street branching off the main thoroughfare. “My car is parked right over there.”
With the darkening dusk descending on the neighborhood, the walls bordering the big mansions only amplified the deserted atmosphere. Passersby were few and far between. Tagging along after the driver, the boys came to the aforementioned alley. The automobile, an older model, sat by its lonely self alongside the concrete wall bordering one of the estates.
The driver opened the passenger door. The three boys clambered into the car and jostled about on the dirty, cushioned seat.
The thought may have crossed the Gentle Reader’s mind that these boys weren’t using their heads. Of course, it was necessary to see the location where the badge turned up for themselves. But checking in with Taiji’s parents and with the police first, and telling them what they’d discovered would surely have been the wiser course of action. After that, they could continue the investigation under the guiding hand of a responsible adult.
Besides, this driver was supposedly just a chauffeur. Why would he inform a trio of elementary school students about such an important clue before anyone else? Moreover, how in the world did he know they were members of the Boy Detectives Club and the BD Badge was their calling card? Had they stopped to think through the situation, they should have found it decidedly suspicious. Surely, great dangers waited for them there.
However, the boys were so eager to find out more about Taiji’s whereabouts that they ignored such reasonable doubts.
The chauffeur drove off. Five minutes later, he pulled over to the curb and pointed at an old western-style house visible from the car window. “You see that red brick wall over there? The badge must have been dropped in front of the gate to the house.”
“Okay, we’ll go take a look.” Yoichi climbed out first, followed by Toshio and Taro.
The driver got out of the car too. “I’ll go with you,” he said in a friendly and helpful manner. He led the way to the house.
When they arrived at the brick wall surrounding the grounds, the intricately woven wrought iron gate was open. They could see all the way down the path to the porch and the front door of the house. The front door was ajar. The place had an empty and abandoned air about it.
“Hey, Mister. This looks like a vacant house.”
“You know, you’re right. Maybe nobody lives here at all. Check out the nameplate next to the door. There’s nothing written on it. Perhaps that Aikawa boy got locked up in there.”
With a confident tilt of his head, the driver stepped inside the gate and gave the surroundings a good looking over.
“The place looks deserted. All the windows are closed. It doesn’t look like there’s another soul around. Boys, how about we see if anybody’s home?”
With that, he marched through the front door with determined strides. Unable to resist their own curiosity, the three boys hurried along in his wake, hearts pounding in their chests.
They entered the foyer and raised their voices. No one answered.
“Yeah, I guess the house is empty. But it wouldn’t hurt to take a closer look. There’s nobody here to tell us otherwise, eh?”
Not bothering to remove his shoes, the driver strolled down the dark hallway like he owned the place.
The boys felt a bit uneasy, but the thought that Taiji might be confined inside the house hardened their resolve and stopped them from running away. Keeping the driver in front of them, they ventured deeper and deeper in.
The driver opened the door to a small room. “Now, here’s a suspicious looking room,” he muttered. He beckoned to the boys and stepped inside.
The three followed him into the room. It was a small, dark, windowless space less than ten by ten feet, with no furniture or rugs covering the bare wooden plank floor. It had the feeling of an unused storage closet.
Except after examining all the nooks and crannies, they didn’t spot anything suspicious in the room at all. They turned to return to the hall, only to find the driver blocking the exit. He grinned down at them, a telling look in his eyes.
“What’s going on, Mister?” Taro Saito said in a scolding tone of voice. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here. What are you standing in the doorway for?”
The driver answered the question by bursting into an uncanny cacophony of laughter, only interrupting his howls of glee to say, “Hey, kids, who do you think I am? This house belongs to me!” And he went on laughing.
The creepy, cackling voice so startled the three boys they couldn’t rightly grasp the true implications of what he was telling them.
Gathering his wits first, Taro shot back, “You’re the owner? You’ve got to be kidding me! Then why are we sneaking around like it’s somebody else’s place? Besides, didn’t you say you were a chauffeur or something? You couldn’t afford a house like this!”
That prompted another round of laughter. “My, my. How precious. Hey, aren’t you supposed to be boy detectives? Haven’t you heard of going undercover? Of course, I’m not a real chauffeur. I donned this disguise to lure you here.”
“Then—who are you really?”
“I am the master of the house. Otherwise known as Doctor Hiruta. Hoh, take a good look at this face.”
He doffed the driver’s cap, tossed it aside, and slid the palm of his right hand across his face. In a single stroke, the once kindly face disappeared. His features transformed into a more ominous visage. Long and disheveled hair, a creased and towering forehead reflecting the fiendish disdain of the mind within—eyes narrow as threads and gleaming like cut glass—deep red lips pressed into a thin crescent line—
A sight that made the hair of their arms stand on end. Caught in the glare of those eyes, the boys stood there unable to move, as if bound hand and foot.
“Ha! You are all looking rather green around the gills. Scared? It’s too early to get panicked about something like this. Calm down and be good little boys. Because right now I am going to put on a far more interesting show for you.”
No sooner had he spoken but the driver that was Doctor Hiruta flew out of the room and slammed the door closed behind him. A key clicked in the lock from the outside. A moment later, as the boys stood there rooted in place, strange things started happening beneath their feet. As if in the midst of an earthquake, the floorboards shuddered up and down.
The shaking grew more violent. All at once, the floor split down the center of the room. With a loud clang, the floorboards swung downwards like a double door. Tossed off their feet and lying in a heap, the boys crashed into the cellar beneath the floor. What a frightening contraption the Doctor had contrived, turning the entire room into a trap door.
The three slid down the floorboards to the bottom of the cellar. They lay there, dazed and confused, before gritting their teeth and clambering to their feet. They looked around and found themselves in a gloomy basement space about twice the size of the room above. The only other thing in the room was a big barrel in the middle of the concrete floor. A European-style candlestick sat on top of the barrel, holding two candles whose flickering flames licked the air like the tongue of a goblin.
The candles provided enough light to illuminate the high ceiling of the enclosure. The floorboards that dropped open like a door returned to their original position, shut so tightly that not a crack of light remained. There wasn’t a ladder or anything resembling one in the basement. With the exit blocked above, there were no other means of escape.
The boys still hadn’t fully wrapped their heads around this frightful and unforeseen turn of fate. They could only exchange nervous glances.
That was when eerie laughter echoed from somewhere in the murky shadows.
“Heh, heh, heh. Caught you by surprise, didn’t I? Poor things. But we’re not done! There’s another act to come! What do you think is inside that barrel? If you’ve got the courage, open the lid and take a look. Heh, heh, heh. If you can.”
That voice sent cold shivers down their backs. They directed their attention to the curious barrel in the middle of the room. Ah, what was waiting for them inside it? As if by mutual agreement, each of them called to mind the same terrifying image—the corpse of a cruelly slain Taiji Aikawa.
The barrel was just big enough to hold a child of twelve or thirteen. Looking more closely through the gaps in the staves, they were sure they could make out Taiji’s pale form, crouched in a ball inside the barrel.
The three again exchanged cautious looks, as if searching their hearts for an answer.
“Taiji is definitely being held inside there,” Yoichi stated with conviction. He couldn’t bring himself to use such a terrible word as “corpse.”
“I think so too. Let’s open it and see,” said Taro Saito.
Toshio Ono added with an air of desperation, “Yeah. Darn it all, let’s do it.”
Putting his determination on display, Toshio rushed over to the barrel. Before the other two could join him, he threw his arms around the slats. As he wrestled with the lid, the barrel rolled over on its side.
As the barrel tipped over, the lid popped off. The candlestick fell to the ground. The candles flared. The bright orange glow illuminated the interior of the barrel, revealing what appeared to be a twisted mass of dark blue cords. The tangled ball tumbled onto the floor.
Certain they were going to find Taiji inside, the three boys were instead completely taken aback by the unexpected contents of the barrel. They stood there and blinked. At last comprehending the true nature of these dark blue, rope-like things, an entirely different kind of fear and surprise left them pale and trembling.
A myriad number of snakes in all sizes spilled from the barrel. Their slippery scales glimmered in the candlelight. Upturned eyes glistened with an uncanny glow. Tongues flicked in and out like dark red flames. The snakes slithered across the floor in search of fresh prey.
More snakes emerged from the barrel, one after the other, spreading out across the cellar with remarkable rapidity until the undulating waves covered the concrete floor. A snake or two wouldn’t turn the three boys into lily-livered cowards. But being surrounded by so many of the reptiles scared them silly.
The snakes kept coming. The boys clung together and retreated until they had backed into the furthest corner in the cellar. Whether they considered the humans a meal or simply chased whatever fled from them, the reptiles raised their heads, flicked their crimson tongues, and advanced like a line of soldiers into battle. In the face of such a force, the boys had no place left to run. In the end, they could only cling to each other and scream for help.
Ah, what a heartless villain was this Doctor Hiruta! Not satisfied to make Taiji Aikawa alone suffer, he had imprisoned three more youngsters in this serpent mansion.
The Doctor’s goal was clear in Taiji’s case. But what grudge did the Doctor hold against these three boys? Having inflicted such a cruel fate upon them, what evil deeds was he planning next?
Doctor Hiruta’s methods and means defied normal human comprehension. But behind that mysterious behavior must be hiding the deep and dark secrets of his crimes.
So, Gentle Reader, who do you imagine this Doctor Hiruta is anyway?
Chapter 8
The Two Detectives
On top of the kidnapping of Taiji Aikawa and the theft of the secret documents from his father, Taiji’s schoolmates Toshio Ono, Taro Saito, and Yoichi Kamimura subsequently went missing.
Needless to say, these events inflicted considerable distress on their parents and caused a great commotion at school. The police responded with a sweeping mobilization to track down the culprits. The newspapers printed pictures of the four boys alongside the stories, whipping up a frenzy of interest.
The case was soon the talk of the town.
Among the concerned parties, none was more distressed than Taiji’s father, the chief engineer at Toyo Manufacturing. Classified documents about the production of critically important machine parts were stolen along with Taiji. While deeply apologetic that such an inexcusable blunder had taken place under his own roof, he was too worried about Taiji to sit still.
The police, of course, were doing their utmost in the manhunt for the criminals. In the meantime, Toyo Manufacturing was not about to retire to the sidelines and leave everything up to the authorities. Especially when it came to the loss of official papers that involved national security, the company had a duty to do everything in its power to resolve the issue.
At a meeting of the Board of Directors, acting on a proposal from Chief Engineer Aikawa, they resolved to put renowned private detective Kogoro Akechi on retainer and have him take up the ongoing search for the perpetrators in cooperation with the police. Aikawa had already visited Detective Akechi’s office and asked him in person.
Detective Akechi readily agreed to the company’s request, with the understanding that the clues were so thin on the ground that this would likely prove a difficult case. No matter how famous the detective, the investigation was unlikely to bring the offenders to justice quickly.
Under this cloud of mental anguish, two and then three days went by without any good news from the police or Detective Akechi. Aikawa and the rest of the employees grew more frustrated and increasingly on edge.
Five days had passed since the classified documents were stolen. That afternoon, a curious individual came to the front lobby of Toyo Manufacturing. He requested a meeting with Chief Engineer Aikawa, saying he wished to discuss the theft. The business card brought to him by the secretary identified the visitor as “Private Detective Kozo Tonomura.”
This was the first time Aikawa had heard of the man, but he decided to hear him out and instructed his secretary to show him to the conference room.
He went to the conference room first and waited for his guest there. When Kozo Tonomura arrived in the company of the secretary, Aikawa had to stop himself from staring wide-eyed at the man.
Kozo Tonomura appeared to be a man in his fifties with a severe case of kyphosis, commonly known as a hunched back. Indeed, the large protuberance swelling along his spine bent his body nearly in two. His head jutted from his shoulders as if perched at the end of a gooseneck, with only his face turned upwards.
Not only his stature but his visage was no less intimidating. His wild head of hair must have last been cut many years before. Thick and twisted brows perched above bright and goggling eyes like a pair of caterpillars. A permanently curled upper lip exposed badly projecting front teeth, and an unkempt beard covered his cheeks and chin. It was the sort of face that couldn’t help but freeze any onlooker in his tracks.
He was wearing an old black suit that had last been in fashion several decades before. Leaning forward, using the crooked branch of a tree as a cane, he tottered into the room, raising the immediate question of whether he was physically fit to do the job of a detective.
