61. Bloody Honeymoon at the Haunted Hotel (5)
“He’s already dead.”
Nikolai said after crouching down to check Lantskoĭ’s condition.
The Baron had become a cold corpse with bloodshot eyes wide open, as if he’s trying to express his resentment.
Viscountess Borodin turned her head away as the eerie gaze seemed to be looking right at her.
“Given the absence of stab wounds or blunt force trauma, it appears he died from some kind of poisoning.”
“W-who would do this to the Baron…?”
Judith asked, trembling.
“Could it be suicide? The door was locked!”
Viscountess Borodin argued.
Then Katya, who had been standing back observing each person gathered here, stepped forward.
“That’s unlikely. Look at that.”
Everyone simultaneously looked where her finger pointed.
White foam mixed with blood created a pink color inside the corpse’s mouth.
Moreover, his face had turned completely red with blood rushing upward, and numerous red spots surrounded his eyes.
“It seems the blood vessels burst from high blood pressure while trying to force himself to vomit, causing the bruising. Looking at how all ten fingernails are worn down and there are scratch marks on the floor, he struggled to survive until his last moment, clawing at the floor.”
The scene vividly showed how agonizingly the Baron had died.
“People who commit suicide usually use painless poisons or take medication beforehand to reduce suffering. Given the circumstances, this is likely a homicide.”
When Katya, who had been laying out her deductions methodically, met the wide-eyed gazes of those staring at her, she cleared her throat awkwardly.
“What kind of person are you to speak so naturally about such things?”
Viscountess Borodin asked with heavy suspicion.
“I just… enjoy detective novels.”
The Viscountess let out a derisive laugh at Katya’s words.
She felt foolish for having been needlessly scared of someone so insignificant.
But Nikolai received quite a shock from those words.
“Have I mentioned it before? I used to read quite a lot of detective novels. I’ve wanted to visit a place like this sometime. Doesn’t your heart race at the setting that seems like a locked-room murder might occur?”
Her earlier words appeared to have been true.
Unintentionally, a locked room murder had occurred just as Katya had predicted.
“Was there anything particularly unusual about this guest? Even something minor would help.”
Katya asked Manager Mengano.
After hearing this through Nikolai’s translation, he pondered over today’s events before clapping his hands as if remembering something.
[Come to think of it, he paid for a year’s worth of accommodation in full today. I remember because I ended up helping with the payment since no one was at the lobby.]
Assistant Judith said that Baron Lantskoĭ loved the view of the forest and river from Room 504, so he would reserve a year’s worth of stays in advance and occasionally come here to paint.
“That makes suicide even less likely then. Someone planning to die today wouldn’t pay for a year’s worth of stays in a room they’ll never visit again.”
Katya began her own investigation while examining the surroundings.
Nikolai followed her with interested eyes.
Only one blue handkerchief lay in the trash bin.
Though its color differed slightly from the handkerchief Mengano had used earlier, the pattern was identical.
Katya searched the corpse’s outer coat pockets.
He had clearly taken out a handkerchief from his left inner pocket at the dining hall, but now it was completely empty.
Instead, two handkerchiefs were in his right inner pocket.
Including the one in the trash bin, there were three total with matching colors and patterns.
“Earlier I heard you wash and prepare handkerchiefs for him—does the number match?”
Judith nodded at those words.
“Yes. I prepared 6 this morning, but he threw away two on the way here.”
“Then including the one discarded at the dining hall, that makes 6. But does he usually use 6 handkerchiefs in one day?”
“He normally doesn’t use that many, but he seemed to have cold symptoms when leaving today so I packed a few extra. Is there… some problem?”
“No, nothing.”
Katya rubbed her chin with her thumb, deep in thought.
Just then, Viscountess Borodin suddenly threw a fit and stamped her foot.
“If there’s really been a murder, I’m leaving! How can I stay in such a dangerous place?”
“Please wait a moment. Until the truth behind this incident is revealed—”
“Don’t give me that tired old line about how the culprit must be among us! When this person died, we were all together in one place!”
Her words were correct.
At the time of the murder, everyone had been in the same place with no opportunity to act separately.
They had all provided alibis for each other.
“Nonsense! Are you telling me to stay here when a murderer could be hiding somewhere, ready to crawl out at any moment!”
Katya caught the Viscountess from behind as she tried to flee the murder scene.
“If there really is a murderer hiding as you say, acting alone would be dangerous. Viscountess, can you use a knife? A gun? Are you confident you could survive if a murderer suddenly attacked while you were alone?”
“T-that…”
“Then let’s all leave together. We all need to give statements about the incident as witnesses anyway, so let’s stay at another lodging together and visit the magistrate first thing tomorrow when the sun rises.”
Eventually convinced by Katya’s persuasion, Viscountess Borodin nodded like an obedient puppy with her mouth shut.
When she thought about it, she felt scared to travel alone in the middle of the night.
Though her husband was usually useless, spending his days drowning in alcohol and women, today she keenly felt his absence.
In truth, Viscount Borodin was lucky to have her as his wife.
When Grand Duchess Oksana first offered her the position of principal, her timid husband tried to stop her, saying she would become a scapegoat, but the Viscountess saw it as an opportunity.
Though noble in status, her in-laws were from a branch family of the Borodin house that always got pushed back in the succession order and struggled to get by.
She had built up the family by taking on money laundering and all sorts of dirty work, yet her husband, trapped by his inferiority complex, spent his time wandering outside.
So when she felt stifled from sleeping alone every night, she would occasionally come out to stay at hotels like this.
Her in-laws couldn’t even open their mouths about her staying out overnight, as they had to tread carefully around the daughter-in-law who had raised up the family.
She would have to end this deviation here once she returned home.
Viscountess Borodin made this internal resolution as she followed the others outside the building.
But her small glimmer of hope was completely shattered.
The river had overflowed from the storm, and perhaps from that impact, the bridge had collapsed in the middle.
[There’s a ferry boat over there! Let’s head that way!]
Mengano shouted in the rain, feeling a sense of duty to safely escort the guests to shore.
The four people followed him through the harsh rain and wind to reach the dock.
The ferry boat, their last hope, greeted them in pieces.
There were signs that someone had deliberately damaged it with something sharp like an axe.
“This can’t be happening! This can’t be!”
The enraged Viscountess shouted, looking up at the sky.
It didn’t take long for the four people to realize they were completely isolated here tonight.
Eventually concluding they would request rescue in the morning when the weather calmed somewhat, the four returned to their respective rooms.
Katya and Nikolai weren’t too worried about being unable to leave, as Boris and the Grand Duke’s knights would come to pick them up in the morning and discover the broken bridge, bringing help.
The important thing was how to get through tonight while the murderer’s identity remained unknown.
“Do you think it was done by an outsider, Grand Duke?”
Katya, who had bathed first and was sitting on the sofa, asked Nikolai as he came out of the bathroom.
“Do you think the culprit is among us?”
He threw back a question instead of answering.
“The culprit must be one of the three excluding Your Highness and me. Right now, Judith is the most likely suspect.”
First, there was Judith, who served closest to the victim as his assistant and appeared to have been continuously sexually harassed by him.
Coincidentally, Judith had many opportunities and a clear motive for the crime.
“But the other two also have suspicious aspects. The Viscountess seemed to be waiting for someone earlier in Room 404.”
“If that person was Baron Lantskoĭ, that would change things.”
“Then we could view it as a crime of passion.”
“They clearly knew each other while pretending to be strangers, so even if they weren’t lovers, they definitely had some kind of secret relationship.”
“Mengano is equally suspicious.”
Nikolai spoke while recalling the suspicious manager.
“Even if he temporarily covered duties because there were no staff at the hotel, shouldn’t he have properly contacted someone to send people later? Not keep working alone like this.”
“Right. And on his first visit, without any handover, he knew the exact location of the hotel’s emergency ferry boat. He shouldn’t have been able to properly understand the manual since it was written in Hersen.”
Katya, who had been rubbing her chin with her thumb, blinked when she noticed Nikolai staring at her.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”
“I find it fascinating.”
“What?”
“Your deductions flow so smoothly.”
“That’s because I enjoy detective novels… But Your Highness also seems very natural with this kind of situation, huh?”
“Well, I’m used to seeing people die. As the Grand Duke in the capital, you end up seeing and hearing about all sorts of incidents.”
Cases that magistrates couldn’t resolve would occasionally be passed up to the Grand Duke.
For example, when boyars of higher status than magistrates got into disputes, they wouldn’t listen to the magistrates so cases would be sent to the Chief Justice, and if even the Chief Justice or Supreme Court Justices couldn’t mediate or their rulings were rejected, they would ask the Grand Duke to settle things.
“Then how do you resolve cases that come to you as Grand Duke?”
“When they each claim the other committed crimes, I tell them I’ll cut off one finger for each crime they’re accused of, and suddenly they remember there must have been some misunderstanding and make up.”
“That’s so like Your Highness.”
Katya shook her head and chuckled.
Just then, someone knocked on the door of Room 404 from outside.
