Samurai's Wife (16 page)

"Who is it?" Fukida said.

Sano took a cloth from under his sash. He wiped the blood off the corpse's face, revealing familiar heavy-lidded eyes, flat nose, and thin mouth. "It's Aisu," he said, startled. "Chamberlain Yanagisawa's chief retainer."

Marume said, "He was a piece of scum. I'm certain he threw that bomb at us in Tobacco Lane. He deserved to die."

"What was he doing here?" Fukida said.

"I don't know, but his presence must mean that Yanagisawa is in Miyako, because they're never far apart." Sano experienced the disturbing shock of discovering that reality had a far different shape than he'd perceived. Rising, he cursed under his breath. He'd thought himself safe from Yanagisawa, free to restore his honor and regain the shogun's favor in peace. But his enemy must have secretly followed him here. Why had Sano imagined that Yanagisawa would let him off so easily?

"But why would the chamberlain risk leaving Edo?" Marume said, his voice skeptical. "Where is he now, and what's he up to?"

As Sano stood contemplating Aisu's corpse, he realized that Yanagisawa must be the hidden element in the murder case. Yanagisawa was working another plot against him. Its exact details weren't clear, but Sano glimpsed its intent, with mounting dismay.

"This whole investigation was rigged as a trap for me at the start," he said. "Yanagisawa has been working behind the scenes, directing my every move-Aisu wasn't clever enough to manage such a tricky operation alone. Events were supposed to culminate in my death from the spirit cry tonight. But the murderer killed Aisu instead of me."

Marume and Fukida looked at him as if concerned for his sanity. "How do you know?" Marume said. "And how could Yanagisawa manipulate you? Even if he sent the message summoning you here and ordered the guards to abandon us inside the palace, how could he cause the killer to attack? And why was Aisu here?"

Sano had ideas, but no definite answers yet. A plan began forming in his mind. Whatever stroke of luck had saved his life, plus the knowledge he'd gained, gave him a chance to turn Yanagisawa's scheme to his own advantage. But he needed to act fast. Instead of replying to Marume's questions, he raised his head, listening to the night. He heard distant voices. The glow of lanterns hazed the air above surrounding areas of the palace, and he knew that soon people would flock to see what new destruction the spirit cry had wrought.

"There's no time to talk," Sano said. "Just listen, then do as I say. Fukida-san, give me your surcoat."

The detective frowned in confusion, but obeyed. Sano spread the garment over Aisu's face. "You stay with the corpse. Tell the Imperial Court that it's me, that I was the killer's victim." Ignoring his men's shocked exclamations, Sano rushed on: "Aisu was taller and thinner than I am, but the blood and filth will discourage anyone from taking a close look. You'll have to remove the corpse as quickly as possible and figure out a way to hide it. Then issue an official report of my death. Keep the real events of tonight a secret."

"Yes, sosakan-sama." Although Fukida sounded dazed, Sano knew he would carry out the orders.

"Marume-san, you come with me now," Sano said. "We have to get out of the palace before anyone sees me."

"Wait, please, sosakan-sama," Fukida said. "What shall I tell your wife?"

The question almost shattered Sano's resolve. While the voices grew louder, moving lights shone up through trees outside the kitchen compound, and precious time sped away, he imagined how the news of his murder would affect Reiko. To let her think him dead was much worse than his lust for another woman. When Reiko found out the truth, she might never forgive his deceit. But if he didn't use this chance to combat Yanagisawa's machinations, he might never solve the case or win his battle against the chamberlain. Failure would doom Reiko along with him. He had to save them both.

"Break the news to my wife as gently as possible," Sano said at last. "Not even she can know I survived, until I finish what I have to do." Any lapse in secrecy could ruin everything. The fewer people who knew about his ploy, the better. Sano added, "With luck, I won't have to deceive her for long." Then he and Marume left quickly.

As Sano and Marume raced past buildings in the imperial enclosure, dark windows brightened. Glowing lanterns moved within corridors. All around them, Sano heard voices and movement. He and Marume changed directions repeatedly in order to avoid the notice of the people converging on the murder scene. In a garden, they ducked behind a pavilion to hide from a horde of palace watchmen. They dashed through courtyards and passages until they reached the wall that separated the enclosure from the northern sector of the kuge quarter. They scaled the wall and leapt down to the lane below.

"Which way?" Marume asked, panting.

Sano didn't know a direct route out of the palace, and he couldn't risk getting lost or being seen in the kuge quarter. He said, "We'll take the overhead shortcut."

He and Marume climbed the fence opposite the imperial enclosure and pulled themselves onto the low eaves of a villa. Rooftops spread around them like an eerie gray landscape of tiled peaks. They sped across this, and Sano hoped that if the residents heard them, they would be far away before anyone got a good look at them. They jumped from house to house and over narrow lanes. At last they surmounted the main palace wall and halted in the darkness of Imadegawa Avenue.

"What now?" Marume said.

"Go to the gate we went in by and get our horses," Sano said. "Ride away, then double around and meet me in the alley across Teramachi Avenue and two blocks north from the gate. Don't let the palace guards see you come back."

Marume hurried off to obey. Sano's own path took him through the deserted city streets around the palace, past dark houses and closed shops. By the time he reached the rendezvous spot, Marume was already there, waiting for him beneath a balcony with the horses.

"Care to let me in on what's next?" Marume said.

Sano quickly outlined his plan. Then they stood in the alley, watching the avenue. After a brief wait, Marume said, "Look, here he comes."

Just as Sano had predicted, Yoriki Hoshina rode up to the gate, accompanied by a group of other policemen. The group dismounted and went inside the palace.

"Let's go," Sano said.

They mounted their horses and rode to Miyako police headquarters, which was in the city's administrative district, near the mansions of local officials. A stone wall enclosed stables, barracks, and a main building that housed offices. Torchlight flared within the compound. Sano had interviewed Lady Asagao here in her prison cell earlier. He'd also met with Hoshina to discuss the arrest, so he knew where Hoshina's private quarters were. Now he and Marume left their horses in a side street. Marume went to the gate to tell the guards he wanted to talk to Hoshina about the murder at the palace. Sano crept around to the rear of the complex.

Pairs of idle, bored-looking sentries manned gates at intervals along the wall; clearly, they didn't expect anyone to break into police headquarters. Sano climbed over the wall, dropped into the deserted compound, and located the barracks, four long, single-story buildings with narrow verandas in front and privy sheds behind, arranged around a courtyard. Hoshina had a corner suite in the east unit. Just as Sano reached the rear door, he heard voices at the front of the building: Marume, talking with the guard who had escorted him into headquarters to wait for Hoshina. Presently Sano heard a door open and noises inside; the windows of Hoshina's quarters lit up. The broad silhouette of Marume appeared on the paper panes and moved toward Sano. Then the door slid open.

Marume looked out, saw Sano, and nodded. Sano entered silently, following Marume into a bedchamber where Hoshina's futon lay on the floor, through paper partitions to an office furnished with a desk and cabinets, then a parlor where a lantern burned above floor cushions and a low table. Marume knelt in the parlor and Sano on the other side of the partition in the shadow of a cabinet to wait for Hoshina.

Reiko heard the spirit cry from her room in Nijo Manor.

After Sano had left for the Imperial Palace, she'd lain down on the futon while waiting for him to come back, and had fallen asleep. The chilling scream jarred her into alertness. Around her, floors creaked as the inn's other guests stirred; voices clamored.

"Did you hear that noise?"

"What was it?"

But Reiko knew instinctively what it was. She also knew for certain now that Lady Asagao wasn't the killer, because the spirit cry had come from the direction of the palace. In the moonlight that shone through the windows, she saw that she was alone; Sano hadn't returned. A rush of panic agitated Reiko. The spirit cry had heralded death once before. Not much time could have passed since Sano left; he could still be inside the palace. She had to make sure he was safe.

She dressed hurriedly, then ran out to the corridor. The innkeeper's wife appeared, clad in a night robe.

"That was the same noise we heard the night the imperial left minister died," said the woman. "Everyone knows he was killed by a ghost with magical powers." This, then, was how the superstitious townspeople explained the scream and the murder. "You must stay in your room where you'll be safe."

"I have to see if my husband is all right." Reiko started toward the door.

The innkeeper's wife held her back. "But you can't go out alone at night. Outlaws will attack you."

"I'll take my husband's guards with me," Reiko said, eager to reach Sano.

"You must stay." Concern gave the woman's manner authority. "Let me send a manservant to the palace to see what happened."

Reiko reluctantly consented, less because of fear for herself than the thought that Sano was probably busy investigating another murder and would be upset if she interrupted him. The innkeeper's wife dispatched the servant. Reiko lit a lamp in her room and sat drinking tea, wondering who had uttered the spirit cry and why the killer would strike again.

Alter an hour, the innkeeper's wife reappeared and said, "The servant just came back. He spoke to the guards at the palace gate. All they told him was that there had been another death. They wouldn't say who it was."

Reiko felt a sudden stab of fear. "Thank you," she said.

Alone in her room, she told herself it couldn't be Sano who had died; she would have sensed if anything had happened to him. But wouldn't he know she would hear the spirit cry? Wouldn't he send a message to reassure her? Dread mounted in Reiko. The inn quieted as the other guests settled down to sleep, and in the stillness, the thudding of her heart echoed in her ears. The room was hot, but Reiko's hands turned cold from an inner chill. She thought of sending one of Sano's guards into the palace for news, then reconsidered. She wanted to know, yet she did not want to know.

Time dragged on. Then Reiko heard footsteps approaching her room. She threw open the door. There stood Detective Fukida. One look at his haggard face told her what she'd been dreading. She had a sensation of a black void absorbing all the light and warmth and joy in the world.

"No," she whispered.

"We were on our way to see the emperor." The young samurai's voice trembled. "The killer ambushed us inside the palace, and-"

"No, it's impossible. When he left, he said he would see me later." Reiko heard herself forestalling the inevitable truth. She backed away from Fukida, glancing wildly around the room. "His things are still here. He can't be-" She could not make herself say it.

Fukida came to her and grasped her hands. Because he would never touch his master's wife under ordinary circumstances, the gesture convinced Reiko and pierced her heart. She pulled her hands out of Fukida's and hunched low, arms clasped around herself.

"Honorable Lady Reiko, I'm sorry," Fukida said, looking ready to weep. "Your husband is dead."

"Where is he?" Now Reiko experienced a consuming need to be with Sano. Although she remained outwardly calm, emotion began building inside her, as if her spirit stood in the path of a violent storm. "Take me there."

Fukida shook his head. "I can't," he said wretchedly. "There was such great injury to him..." The young detective gulped, then continued: "Before he died, he used his last breath to order me to spare you the sight of him. I'm sorry."

"But I'm his wife. You can't keep me away." The storm inside Reiko gathered power; she could hear the gusting winds of grief and the thunder of outrage coming closer, and see the turbulent black clouds of despair lowering upon her. "Where is he? I demand that you take me to my husband immediately!"

Now the storm overpowered Reiko. Falling to her knees, she howled, "No. No. No!" Raised in samurai tradition, she'd been trained to value stoicism and practice self-control, but this terrible moment taught her that training was inadequate preparation for tragedy. She didn't care if she compromised her dignity. With her beloved husband dead, what did social standards of behavior matter anymore?

Through the tears that streamed from her eyes, she saw Fukida standing by, helpless and shamefaced. He said, "I'll get help," then fled. Soon Reiko's maids came. They hugged her, murmuring words of comfort that she barely heard above her own sobs and moans. They held her still while a local physician poured a bitter liquid down her throat. It must have been a sleeping potion, because the world grew hazy, and Reiko drifted into unconsciousness.

Temple bells tolled the next hour, and the next, while Sano and Marume waited for Yoriki Hoshina. At last Sano heard brisk footsteps cross the courtyard and mount the wooden stairs to the veranda. He stood in the shadow of the cabinet, braced for action. The front door opened. Now the shadow of a second figure appeared opposite Marume's on the paper partition.

"Ah, Marume-san," said Hoshina's voice. "The sentries just told me you were here. I'm sorry you had such a long wait, but after I finished at the palace, I had to go to the shoshidai's mansion to report what had happened."

Both shadows bowed; Hoshina's knelt. Marume said, "It's I who should apologize for coming here without notice."