44 Case File N°2: The Ghost In The Window - The Fifth Guest.

In the darkness of the grand salon, Mr. Nakatsuki and I stared at the strange black spot darker than the darkness outside the room where the picture was taken.

For the two of us, it was just that: a spot with a strange shape.

But to the other people in the room, it was much more.

The weak ambient light provided by the lens of the overhead projector had partially illuminated the fascinated and envious faces of several people; starting with the woman called Noel, and Kitta Kitta. It was surely a moment they had been looking forward to, given their gaze fixed on the image projected on the wall. They seemed to be possessed, as they remained motionless without blinking.

The storm was rumbling more and more outside, and light raindrops began to pound on the glass of the windows. The daylight visible through the thick curtains had faded, making the square window patterns drawn by the sun on the fabric disappear.

I wasn't too worried about the current downpour, but I could feel Mr. Nakatsuki fidgeting in his chair as it creaked slightly under his weight. Maybe he was worried about the state of the roads?

The singer was already a bit calmer, and was probably on the side of the skeptics, just like Mr. Nakatsuki and me. Even the young employee and Mr. Yazawa remained unmoved. Although... It seemed to me that one of them had a satisfied expression.

Which finally made me realize something: there were four guests on the show, and two of them seemed very interested in the supernatural. This logically meant that the other two guests, the singer and Master Osagawa, were nonplussed and had been invited because of their perplexity about such events. Counterbalancing popular beliefs with logic. That was rather clever.

"We will begin individual interviews in a few minutes, so if you don't have your rooms yet, ask Yazawa-san and Iwakiri-san to show you," Mr. Sakai explained.

This was apparently the signal for each of us to start filling our assigned roles.

Mr. Nakatsuki then got up to leave the room where the lights were quickly turned back on, and I followed him.

The camera crew was already setting up a fixed camera, directional lights, and a microphone on a small tripod on top of the dining table. They were probably going to conduct the interviews in the grand salon, taking advantage of the large indoor space they had available.

Besides, I suspected that they wouldn't be able to shoot directly outside, given the persistent rain that was falling there.

In turn, the old man named Mr. Yazawa, followed by the young employee, came out of the large lounge. My supervisor asked if we could see our rooms, and the young woman nodded her head and went to the counter near the entrance to fetch a key.

We followed her up to the third floor to one of the rooms overlooking the parking lot where our minivan and the production crew and guest vehicles were parked. All the way up, the old wooden floor had squeaked under our feet, a creaking sound that sometimes reached the beams above our heads, reminding everyone that this was a very old building.

We had apparently been relegated to this floor as assistant staff, as the second floor was reserved for guests and the film crew.

I had seen on one of the fire evacuation plans that the second floor consisted of five single rooms on the garden side, and 2 double rooms on the parking side; while the third floor where we were currently located consisted of three double rooms on the garden side, and two double rooms on the parking side, with the last door serving as a closet for maintenance equipment.

I was surprised to see that one of the rooms had a "do not disturb" sign hanging from the handle.

"Did the guests' managers stay behind?" I asked the young employee, puzzled.

They weren't supposed to be there, so I wondered what could have made them change their minds.

The young woman then shook her head before answering me.

"The owner did allow some customers to stay during the shoot," she explained. "Regulars, if I understood correctly..."

Oh, I see...

So there were people outside the production on the premises.

"Anyway, I don't think you'll see them, so they won't bother you," she added with a smile.

Why is that, exactly?

It seemed that Mister Nakatsuki had the exact same question, because he in turn asked her a question.

"Not that I want to play police, but the producer of the show seems to be quite strict," he said. "Although, are these people going to stay in their rooms for the next five days? I'd go crazy, having to stay locked up like this..."

"Yazawa-san asked me to bring their meals directly to their door," she replied. "But if it's any consolation, I haven't seen them at all, even when they arrived. So I think they're really not planning to go out and just enjoy the view from their window."

Not going out, despite the stroll-friendly surroundings? That was pretty puzzling.

But what was even more surprising was that the young employee named Iwakiri hadn't seen them at all.

Mr. Nakatsuki was now also perplexed, because he pouted, before recovering the key of the room that was handed to him, and thanking the young woman.

The latter hastened to go back down the wooden stairs, the noise of her steps fading away more and more until it completely disappeared.

I took one last look at the door at the end of the corridor where the yellow sign was neatly hung, before entering the double room that had been assigned to us.

Mister Nakatsuki had already opened the curtains, revealing a much heavier rain than in the previous minutes.

"Ah, this is the worst. If it gets as bad as this, I might not be able to go get Osagawa-sensei right away..." He grumbled, displeased.

"Do you want me to go?" I offered, not really wanting to go out again or stay put.

"Are you kidding? I'm not going to send the novice I have under my wing out in this kind of weather!" Mister Nakatsuki replied. "I'm the one in charge, so it's my responsibility to go."

This was a rather unusual reaction, since I was used to having to listen to every whim and order of Mr. Chiba.

Mr. Nakatsuki seemed much more calm and reasonable; and was staring at our white minivan whose windows had fogged up with the sudden change in temperature brought by the rain.

I was sitting on the bed closest to the door, when, still positioned in front of the window, Mr. Nakatsuki spoke again.

"Say, do you think it exists?" He asked with a worried tone of voice.

I wasn't sure what he meant by that, so he waited a few seconds in silence, before turning to me.

"There's no such thing as ghosts, right?" He clarified.

Ah, that's what he was talking about, so...

"I don't know," I replied, saying the first thing that came to mind.

After all, the encounter I had had several days ago had been enough to shake my knowledge of the tangible, physical world. So how could I know that ghosts weren't real too?

Mr. Nakatsuki was rather annoyed by my vague answer, but also probably by the inexpressive look I was showing all the time, even in this situation.

"I don't believe in this nonsense," he finally said. "All I saw in that picture was black, and nothing more..."

That's what I saw, too. Black, on black. Nothing concrete.

"You know, I did some research before coming here, to understand what we were getting into," said Mr. Nakatsuki. "And I think I know where this crap is coming from..."

I waited patiently for him to explain, as the rain and storm continued to grow in intensity outside. The branches of one of the big pine trees leaning against the facade must have been heckled by the wind, because I heard several times something scratching briefly the outside wall.

"Apparently, Yazawa-san is not the first owner of this boarding house, he took over the business five years ago," explained Mr. Nakatsuki. "And by looking at the press articles from that time, I understood why. The former owner apparently hanged himself in one of the rooms on the second floor..."

I have to say, I didn't expect that.

Someone had died here after all. And this ghost story suddenly became much more believable.

"People who say they've seen something here have always described a shape hanging in the air in front of the second floor windows overlooking the garden," he continued. " So I guess they must think they saw the previous owner..."

"But you don't believe it, in spite of that." I observed.

"Of course not!" He exclaimed vehemently. "I don't believe in foolish things! I think it's more of an urban legend, or a publicity stunt for the boarding house."

It made sense, for both hypotheses he was making. I wasn't one of those people who only believed what they saw, but I was relatively skeptical when faced with an obvious lack of evidence. I even found Mr. Sakai's amazed look ridiculous when he showed the photo he had in his possession - an exclusive, according to him.

Suddenly, we both heard our phones ringing briefly at the same time.

Looking at each other, we both pulled out our smartphones, only to discover that a weather alert message had been sent to us.

"Hey, they are announcing a storm until tomorrow in the early evening..." Mister Nakatsuki grumbled. "Sakai-san is going to throw a fit when I'll tell him that we can't get Osagawa sensei here until tomorrow night..."

He was right about that. We would surely incur the wrath of Mr. Sakai, and with a bit of bad luck, Mr. Chiba's as well.

However, getting reprimanded was the last thing on my mind at the moment.

I couldn't stop thinking about that picture.

There wasn't much to see in it. Nothing really. But seeing the excitement of Mr. Sakai and some of the guests, I couldn't help but think that maybe they were right.

Maybe there really was a ghost.