Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 150, Nos. 5 & 6. Whole Nos. 914 & 915, November/December 2017

“Let’s call the balcony of this room A, and the end of the vertical bar of the T-corridor B. He looped the rope around the railing at point B and dragged the two ends along with him to just outside the Itois’ apartment. The corridors of the building are exposed, which helped quite a bit.

“I imagine he then tied a weight to the two ends and threw it over to balcony A while standing in front of the Itois’ door. It might have made a noise, but there was a storm going on anyway. He could get rid of the weight at any time by throwing it in the river.

“His plan was, once he’d laid his hands on the loot, to think of some excuse — something he’s very good at — to get out on the balcony. Once he was out there, he’d attach the necklace to the rope and let everything fly from the balcony. The weighted rope would swing like a pendulum at first, but the loot on the end would finish up close to his car, which he had conveniently parked beneath point B. I suspect that, if the apartment had been in another part of the building, he would simply have hung a rope down from the balcony with the necklace at the end and collected them later. But because there was a river right beneath the balcony instead of hard ground, he had to think of something else. That’s why he decided to have it fly to a point below B and set up that looped rope.

“If he’d had a chance to put the idea into action, he’d be safe no matter how thoroughly the police searched him or the apartment. He could simply think of an excuse to go down to his car. Once he was below point B, he could hide the necklace in his car. By pulling on one end of the rope, he could retrieve that as well and, once he’d hidden that, the job would’ve been finished.

“And that is why I was quite interested in admiring his supernatural experiment. I was very curious as to his talents. But, contrary to my expectations, the experiment ended peacefully and neither the necklace nor the Cartier watch had been stolen. There had been no power failure, and Kubo had come back into to the living room without having done anything, like a politician visiting a disaster area.

“I thought things over, considering the possibility that I’d just imagined things, but then I saw the surprised look on the face of our psychic here, and I knew he was very angry. Kubo had betrayed him. He hadn’t shut down the circuit breaker.

“I hoped that Kubo had betrayed Namura because he believed that justice should always prevail. But it was nothing that admirable. Kubo had got his hands on something that was worth much more than the pearl necklace, and he wanted to keep it for himself. To be honest, I hadn’t thought of that possibility. It was at that point that we started our little music performance.

“But the salesman wasn’t about to let his partner get away with it. On the balcony he asked Kubo why he hadn’t done his part as agreed, and they started arguing. The fight between the two thieves must have been even more violent than a Parent-Teacher Association meeting. In an uncontrollable rage, the salesman strangled his partner.

“When he came to his senses, he realised he was in a bad situation. Naturally, he couldn’t simply leave the body lying on the balcony. Should he throw it down into the river? But everyone knew the two of them had gone out onto the balcony, so he’d obviously be the prime suspect. What to do?

“At that moment he was struck by divine inspiration. There was the rope he’d prepared to transport the stolen goods. He could tie Kubo’s body to one of the rope ends and tether the other to the balcony at A. Then he would launch the body off the balcony. After a few swings, the body would be hanging down from point B. By pulling on the rope from where he was at A, he could haul the body up to the eleventh floor and then give the rope a good shake. The rope would loosen and Kubo’s body would fall all the way down to the ground. He could retrieve the rope by pulling it back past B to A, and then throw it away in the river. It would appear as though Kubo had jumped from the eleventh floor of his own accord and there would be no evidence to contradict that assumption.

“Namura thought this was a brilliant plan. Excited, he removed Kubo’s hat. If he’d known his partner had stolen the jade necklace he could have pocketed that as well. Be that as it may, he removed the hat and started executing his plan. It was lucky he and Kubo had been wearing similar-colored suits. Company employees all dress more or less the same. Their height was also similar. He could pass for Kubo in the dark, if he wore his hat. We were busy playing our instruments, so we weren’t likely to go out on the balcony anytime soon.

“But his brilliant scheme didn’t go according to plan. After he’d thrown the body off the balcony and the rope had started to swing, he suddenly couldn’t feel the weight of Kubo’s body anymore through the rope. He had only tied a very loose knot around the body, so he could untie it just by shaking the rope.

“Just at that moment, a power line somewhere broke, and the whole apartment building was hit by a power failure. Namura couldn’t see for himself where Kubo’s body had gone, but he figured that it must have been lying somewhere below B, near his car. He untied the rope from the balcony and, after it disappeared into the river, he moved on to the next part of his plan.

“Namura put on Kubo’s hat and ran across the living room. He wanted to make it seem as if Kubo were still alive at that point. He planned to make it look as though Kubo had then run along the corridor and jumped off the eleventh floor at point B.

“To complete the deception, he’d shouted out Kubo’s name from the balcony before he ran into the room. He decided to take the pearl necklace with him, which had been the original plan, and ran out of the door.

“We’d been absorbed in our music act, so we hadn’t fully realized what had happened and did not follow him at once.

“After he’d gone out of the door, our salesman here then climbed onto the railing in front of the apartment, and daringly jumped back to the eastern side of the balcony, to point A. He would’ve died if he had failed, but it was the only way. His standing here before us is proof he succeeded.

“After he’d landed safely on the balcony, Namura threw Kubo’s hat into the river and entered the room again, this time as himself. He’d been out on the balcony for a long time now, so he was probably soaked. I suspect he wiped his face with a handkerchief, but his whole body was wet. But the power failure had led to total darkness, and nobody noticed his appearance. I did notice it later after we’d gone out into the corridor.

“Anyway, when he came back into the living room, he pretended as if he didn’t know anything and asked us what had happened. And then he put on a wonderful acting performance. He chased after an imaginary Kubo, and he ran to point B, the corridor, exactly as planned.

“Just to remind you, he was assuming at this point that Kubo’s body was lying right beneath B. That is why he told us that he’d seen Kubo climb over the railing and jump.

“We then hurried downstairs. But there was not a sign of Kubo to be found there.

“Namura, of course, was the one who was the most surprised by that. He was the one who searched hardest for the dead body, with a look on his face as if he’d seen a ghost.

“So where did the body go? Remember it had been loosely tied in order to permit shaking it loose once it had been hauled up to the eleventh floor. The storm was still raging violently and the winds were very strong. It had swung past the point below B and, just as it reached the end of its upward swing, the rope released the body. Instead of swinging back down, it continued on the same trajectory, and flew up to the elevated railway, which was only three floors above the street. That’s the explanation of the miraculous phenomenon of Kubo seeming to have disappeared in midair on his way down from the eleventh-floor corridor.