Chapter 5: Suspicion

The next day, Tian Yi did not wake until nearly noon. The moment he opened his eyes, he noticed something.

Noguchi Masao had vanished from the island. Tian Yi could no longer sense his “sin” at all, which meant Noguchi had either left the island or become a corpse.

Tian Yi sensed Carl, Isaac, Dale, and Lambert in the island's interior, possibly looking for food. Everyone else was on the beach. Only Noguchi was missing.

He walked straight over to Yang Gang. “Officer Yang.”

Yang Gang was hard at work trying to start a fire with a wooden drill, though judging by the sweat pouring off his head, it was not going very well. “What is it?” He kept his head down and carried on working without turning around.

“Do you know where Noguchi went?”

There was no obvious change in Yang Gang's vital signs, no significant fluctuation in his heartbeat or breathing. He merely replied impatiently, “Come to think of it, I haven't seen him all morning. I can't keep an eye on everyone here all the time. Why, do you need him for something?”

“Oh, nothing. Carry on.” Tian Yi answered offhandedly and walked away.

Tian Yi thought that if Noguchi had been murdered, the most likely killer would be either Yang Gang or Carl. Noguchi had still been awake last night, at least when Tian Yi and Jiang Yun returned, so he should have known that Yang Gang and Carl had left together and returned one after the other. Suppose there was a twenty percent chance that Noguchi had deduced they were accomplices. Suppose, further, that he had been tactless enough to confront one of them about it. That would explain his death.

But Yang Gang's reaction just now showed that he knew nothing about Noguchi's disappearance. Only a few hours passed between my falling asleep last night and the first person waking this morning. Assuming Carl killed Noguchi and hasn't had a chance to tell Yang Gang yet, the likeliest explanation is that Noguchi went to Carl in those hours before dawn, told him what he'd figured out, and got himself killed. There's also a smaller chance that Noguchi told someone else in the group and Carl found out. If so, Carl should have killed whoever else knew as well, and Noguchi's “sin” shouldn't be the only one to vanish from the island... Could he simply not have had the chance yet? Maybe one or more of Isaac, Dale, and Lambert are his targets. Have they learned from Noguchi that Carl and Yang Gang are accomplices?

At this point, Tian Yi rejected that theory too. Noguchi did not know Yang Gang was a wanted criminal, nor had he heard the conversation in the woods last night. From his perspective, how much could he possibly have deduced? Perhaps Yang Gang and Carl had merely gone into the woods for a rather unfriendly argument. Perhaps they really were accomplices. So what? Even if Noguchi could work out that Yang Gang was a fake policeman, he could not possibly determine that both men were seasoned gangsters.

Noguchi therefore had no leverage over them and would not have threatened or challenged them. The only way Carl might have killed him was if Noguchi had slipped over in the middle of the night to ask why he had left with Yang Gang, and Carl, finding it difficult to explain, had killed him to keep him quiet.

But there were two problems with that. First, if someone like Noguchi really did ask, he would ask Yang Gang, the self-proclaimed policeman, rather than the vicious-looking Carl. Second, Carl was a calculating man. Even if asked, he had several explanations available. He could say he and Yang Gang had gone elsewhere to argue, or simply insist that he had gone to take a shit and knew nothing about Yang Gang's movements. They had returned at different times, after all. Carl had no reason to rush into killing Noguchi. He was not that easily rattled.

By the time Tian Yi had walked from Yang Gang to the coconut palm he had slept against, he had already worked through several theories without reaching a reasonable conclusion. So he was back to the original question. Had Noguchi disappeared because he was dead, or because he had left? If he was dead, who had killed him? One of these thirteen people? Why would that person kill Noguchi? Or had whoever abducted them and brought them to this deserted island done it? What was he after? Was this supposed to be one of those games where someone disappeared every day? Or was the organizer hiding among them? Could it even be Noguchi himself?

Tian Yi was beginning to find things interesting. Puzzling over something without finding an answer was a diversion, at least...

Tian Yi did have a way off the island. He just did not want to use it yet. Finding out whether the remaining eleven people knew anything would also be easy. He could subdue them all and torture the answers out of them. Of course, he had no plans to do that for the moment either.

Since someone wanted to play, he would follow the rules, crush his opponent, then list all the holes in those rules and explain how shitty the game was. That was Tian Yi's kind of victory.

...

At noon, the four “hunters” returned. They had actually caught a badger. Unfortunately, though the man making the fire had been at it all this time, all he had worked up was a stinking sweat.

The dozen or so people sat there staring helplessly at one another. It looked as though they would have to fall back on their last resort again. Coconuts.

Tian Yi heaved a long sigh. Sometimes he was very particular about food, but most of the time he could eat junk food with relish. Here on this island, the one thing he could not stand was living on fruit.

He grabbed a handful of dry leaves and walked over to Yang Gang. “Officer Yang, let me try, if you don't mind.”

Yang Gang had been panting like an ox for some time and was only too happy to oblige. “Go ahead.” He was feeling thoroughly put-upon. Apart from the four who had gone hunting in the woods that morning, the old lecher was nowhere to be found, the pedophile and the little boy were no use, and Gavin, who loved to hold forth, was about as useful as a comb to a monk. Leaving the women out of it, that left only this bookseller.

Yang Gang thought this Tian Yi fellow had some nerve. So far, he had done nothing worthwhile except chat up women. He spent all day looking half asleep, then slept like a dead pig, not stirring until the sun was high. That morning, even Carl hadn't had the heart to wake him when he saw him like that. Could someone in that state really get a fire going just like that?

Tian Yi examined the two pieces of wood Yang Gang had been drilling away at for hours, then crouched down. He crumbled the dry leaves in his hand, mixed in a little sand, and stuffed the mixture into the hole already drilled deep into the wood. Picking up the other piece, he spun it rapidly between his palms for a dozen seconds or so, then lowered his head and blew into the hole a few times. Smoke rose...

Tian Yi repeated the process three times, and a flame sprang up on the wood. He casually grabbed the dry twigs Yang Gang had prepared beside him, tossed them onto the fire, then stood up and addressed Isaac, who was holding the catch. “I'll take care of the badger too. These things have nothing in their guts but earthworms, ants, and shit...”

And so, at noon on the second day, after going hungry for a full day and night, Tian Yi finally got the few mouthfuls of meat he wanted. He felt no satisfaction at all. It was just pathetic, in every respect...

As everyone sat together tucking into their allotted pieces of meat, Tian Yi spoke again. “I don't know whether you've noticed, but Noguchi is missing.”

Judging by their expressions, some really had only just realized it. Tian Yi continued, “My guess is that he either fell into a bottomless pit in the woods and died, or jumped into the sea and killed himself.” He spouted this nonsense without the slightest restraint. “The good news is that, starting with this meal, there's one less share of food to hand out. The bad news...” He looked up at the sky and paused for two seconds. “Can't think of any yet.”

Morally speaking, this was quite an outrageous thing to say. Several people immediately gave Tian Yi strange looks, as though showing such cold indifference to someone's death were a truly vile act.

Tian Yi merely sneered at their expressions. A moment ago, you hadn't even noticed the old lecher was missing, and now you're all playing saints. The truth is, most of you would love a few more people on this island to die, as long as the best-looking member of the opposite sex survived. They might still be “useful,” after all. Of course, if food ran short, being the sole survivor would be best.

Ignoring their looks, Tian Yi went on, “There's another possibility. Noguchi was murdered. In that case, his killer is either whoever brought us to this island, or one of us.”

This made everyone nervous. Their heartbeats sped up noticeably. But even that did not help Tian Yi rule out the possibility that the game's organizer was hiding among them.

“Which of the two it is doesn't really matter. Whether the killer is among us or hiding somewhere on the island, our lives are equally at risk,” Tian Yi said. “Of course, I'm only suggesting possibilities. You're welcome to think Noguchi is still alive and wandering around somewhere on the island, or that he jumped into the sea himself.”

Beside him, Gavin said coldly, “If Noguchi really was murdered, wouldn't that make you the prime suspect?”

Tian Yi looked straight into Gavin's eyes behind his glasses. Gavin immediately averted his gaze. Tian Yi sneered. “What makes you say that?”

“You're the first person to mention that Noguchi is missing, and you've clearly implied that he's very likely dead. Normally, a killer wouldn't be eager to remind everyone that someone had been murdered. You're exploiting that assumption with that brazen attitude you showed just now. It seems to clear you of involvement while making the rest of us suspect each other. But no one will suspect you, because subconsciously we all think of you as the one who ‘reminded’ us.”

Tian Yi smiled, looking very pleased. It was naked mockery. “There are two stupid things about your little theory...” He went straight into insults. “First, all other things being equal, by your so-called ‘deflecting suspicion’ logic, you're more suspicious than I am. All I did was clear myself. You're clearing yourself by pinning it on someone else. According to you, a killer wouldn't normally remind everyone that the victim was missing. You fit that description yourself. Yet the moment I brought it up, you concluded, without a shred of evidence, that I was the prime suspect. Either you've got a guilty conscience or you've got something filthy to hide.

“What I actually said was ‘one of us,’ not ‘one of you.’ Us. I didn't exclude myself, yet that's the conclusion you reached. Why?”

Gavin had no answer for the moment. Tian Yi continued, “The second stupid thing, heh...” His smile became chilling. “If I really did kill Noguchi... wouldn't a madman like me, who can kill someone and then sit here bullshitting with you so calmly, find a chance to bash you to death with a rock when you weren't looking...?”

Tian Yi liked to make you think he was a good man with one sentence, then a devil with the next. It was his conversational habit. In truth, he never changed. He was merely a mirror. In each person's heart, he reflected their own base, sordid thoughts, and humanity's misgivings about its own sins.

Gavin was angry, but frightened too. He did not dare lash out, so he gave a cold snort, shut his mouth, and went back to eating.

Tian Yi suddenly turned to Yang Gang. “Officer Yang, when there's no hard evidence, a criminal suspect who uses brutal methods and holds the law in contempt poses an enormous potential threat to witnesses and investigating officers alike.”

Caught off guard, Yang Gang answered on instinct. “Huh? Ah... yes... yes, that's right...”

Tian Yi smiled at everyone. “So please don't go around suspecting the people beside you without any basis. It won't help you find the real killer. It will only put you in greater danger. If your suspicions are wrong, you've lost a friend. If they're right and you can't prove it, you'll die sooner.” By the time he said “die,” he was no longer smiling.

...

The decent meal of roast badger had done nothing to restore their morale. Instead, everyone sank into a gloomy, oppressive mood. That afternoon, they rested apart from one another. Only Jerry and Rude, and Dale and Lambert, still exchanged a few words.

Tian Yi knew that the more he warned and intimidated them, the more they would think. He had planted the seeds of mutual suspicion in their minds. If any of them knew anything, they should soon give themselves away, before the day was out.

Yang Gang was deeply agitated. He had thought he could keep the situation under control by posing as a policeman and making a show of doing things for everyone. Yet he had less influence than Tian Yi wielded with a few casual remarks.

In human society, offering people something to gain was one way to control them. Threatening their safety worked just as well.

Unfortunately, Yang Gang had already taken on the role of the nice guy, while Carl did not dare behave as Tian Yi did. The two could not communicate openly during the day either, and had no idea what was going through everyone else's minds.

That afternoon, even Jiang Yun did not dare come over to speak to Tian Yi. He felt she had finally learned a little sense. That would make it much easier for him to go about his business.

He quietly left the beach and headed inland alone. Everyone there noticed his departure, and their suspicions deepened. Was this man really a bookseller? Had he killed Noguchi? What was he going off to do now? Dispose of the body?

No one asked. No one dared follow. And no one was considering the possibility that Noguchi was still alive anymore...