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The Mystery of the Hanging House: 2
* SETAGAYA, TOKYO: THE PEOPLE OF THE HANGING HOUSE Famous Politicians Shadow: Now You See It, Now You Dont Amazing, Ingenious Cloak of Invisibility- What Secret Is It Hiding?
[From The - Weekly, November 21] As first revealed in the October 7 issue of this magazine, there is a house in a quiet Setagaya residential neighborhood known to locals as the hanging house. All those who ever lived there have been visited by misfortune and ended their lives in suicide, the majority by hanging.
[Summary of earlier article omitted] Our investigations have led us to only one solid fact: namely, that there is a brick wall standing at the end of every route we have taken in attempting to learn the identity of the new owner of the hanging house. We managed to find the construction company that built the house, but all attempts to get information from them were rejected. The dummy company through which the lot was purchased is legally 100% clean and offers no opening. The whole deal was set up with such clever attention to detail, we can only assume there was some reason for that.
One other thing that aroused our curiosity was the accounting firm that assisted in setting up the dummy company that bought the land. Our investigations have shown us that the firm was established five years ago as a kind of shadow subcontractor to an accounting firm well known in political circles. The prominent accounting firm has several of these subcontractors, each designed to handle a particular kind of job and to be dropped like a lizards tail in case of trouble. The accounting firm itself has never been investigated by the Prosecutors Office, but according to a political reporter for a certain major newspaper, Its name has come up in any number of political scandals, so of course the authorities have their eye on it. Its not hard to guess, then, that there is some kind of connection between the new resident of the hanging house and some powerful politician. The high walls, the tight security using the latest electronic equipment, the leased black Mercedes, the cleverly set-up dummy company: this kind of know-how suggests to us the involvement of a major political figure.
Total Secrecy Our news team did a survey of the movements into and out of the hanging house by the black Mercedes. In one ten-day period, the car made a total of twenty-one visits to the house, or approximately two visits per day. They observed a regular pattern to these visits. First, the car would show up at nine oclock in the morning and leave at ten-thirty. The driver was very punctual, with no more than five minutes variation from day to day. In contrast to the predictability of these morning visits, however, the others were highly irregular. Most were recorded to have occurred between one and three in the afternoon, but the times in and out varied considerably. There was also considerable variation in the length of time the car would remain parked in the compound, from under twenty minutes to a full hour.
These facts have led us to the following suppositions: 1. The cars regular a.m. visits: These suggest that someone is commuting to this house. The identity of the commuter is unclear, however, owing to the black tinted glass used all around the car.
2. The cars irregular p.m. visits: These suggest the arrival of guests and are probably tailored to the guests convenience. Whether these guests arrive singly or with others is unclear.
3. There seems to be no activity in the house at night. It is also unclear whether or not anyone lives there. From outside the wall, it is impossible to tell if any lights are being used.
One more important point: The only thing to enter or leave the property during our ten- day survey was the black Mercedes: no other cars, no people on foot. Common sense tells us that something strange is going on here. The someone living in the house never goes out to shop or to take walks. People arrive and depart exclusively in the large Mercedes with dark- tinted windows. In other words, for some reason, they do not want their faces seen, under any circumstances. What could be the reason for this? Why must they go to so much trouble and expense in order to do what they do in total secrecy?
We might add here that the front gate is the only way in and out of the property. A narrow alley runs behind the lot, but this leads nowhere. The only way into or out of this alley is through someones private property. According to the neighbors, none of the residents is presently using the alley, which is no doubt why the house has no gate to the back alley. The only thing there is the towering wall, like huge castle ramparts.
Several times during the ten days, the button on the intercom at the front gate was pushed by people who appeared to be newspaper canvassers or salesmen, but with no response what- ever. If there was anyone inside, it is conceivable that a closed-circuit video camera was being used to screen visitors. There were no deliveries of mail or by any of the express services.
For these reasons, the only investigative route left open to us was to tail the Mercedes and determine its destination. Following the shiny, slow-moving car through city traffic was not difficult, but we could get only as far as the entrance to the underground parking lot of a first- class Akasaka hotel. A uniformed guard was stationed there, and the only way in was with a special pass card, so our car was unable to follow the Mercedes inside. This particular hotel is the site of numerous international conferences, which means that many VIPs stay there, as do many famous entertainers from abroad. To ensure their security and privacy, the VIP parking lot is separate from that for ordinary guests, and several elevators have been reserved for VIPs exclusive use, with no external indicators of their movements. This makes it possible for these special guests to check in and out unobtrusively. The Mercedes is apparently parked in one of the VIP spaces. According to the hotel managements brief, carefully measured response to this magazines inquiries, these special spaces are ordinarily leased at a special rate only to uniquely qualified corporate entities after a thoroughgoing background check, but we were unable to obtain any detailed information on either the conditions of use or the users themselves.
The hotel has a shopping arcade, several cafes and restaurants, four wedding halls, and three conference halls, which means that it is in use day and night by a wide variety of people in large numbers. To determine the identities of the passengers in the Mercedes in a place like that would be impossible without special authority. People could alight from the car, take one of the nearby exclusive elevators, get off at any floor they liked, and blend in with the crowd. It should be clear from all this that a system for maintaining absolute secrecy is solidly in place. We can glimpse here an almost excessive use of money and political power. As can be seen from the hotel managements explanation, it is no easy matter to lease and use one of these VIP parking spaces. Contributing to the need for thoroughgoing background checks, no doubt, are the plans of security authorities involved with the protection of foreign dignitaries, which means that some political connections would have to be involved. Just having a lot of money would not be enough, though it goes without saying that all of this would take quite a lot of money.
[Omitted here: conjectures that the property is being used by a religious organization with the backing of a powerful politician]