The Cloud Pavilion (28 page)

Hirata wondered if the enemy could read his mind and was already here, lying in wait.

A beach separated the shipyard from the village, a cluster of shacks. A crowd of men were gathered at the teahouse and food-stall. Ishikawajima had a reputation as a den of troublesome
r
nin
and vagrants. They came to the island for temporary work and shelter as well as a place to hide from the law. During his police career Hirata had come here once or twice in search of criminals.

Ishikawajima’s reputation was one reason Hirata had chosen to come here today. He hoped to accomplish more than a confrontation with the enemy. The other reason was that Ishikawajima had fewer bystanders than anywhere else in Edo, and even fewer who were truly innocent.

Hirata stood on the beach, apart from his men. Gulls picked at dead fish that had washed up at the river’s edge. Brackish water lapped at dirty sand. Hirata gazed across the water at the city, which shimmered behind the veil of rain. The ferryboat that had brought him receded toward the opposite shore; no other craft approached Ishikawajima. The sound of hammers pounding and saws rasping came from the shipyard. Hirata breathed deeply, let his thoughts float away, and calmed his mind. He aligned the forces within his body along a spiritual path toward a meditative trance.

His vision expanded until he could see in all directions, the island behind him as well as the river in front of him, red crayfish swimming at the bottom of the river, the sun through the clouds. The gray landscape took on brilliant hues, as if drenched in a rainbow. His nostrils magnified odors; he smelled horse dung, sewage, and garbage in the city, incense burning in the temples, and enough food cooking to make a banquet for the gods. He heard a million hearts beating, and when he reached out his hands, he felt their rhythm through the skin on his fingertips. Closing his eyes, he projected his inner voice across the world.

I’m here
, he called silently.
Come and get me.

He heard no answer from the enemy even though he waited and listened for what seemed like an eternity.

Instead he felt two different yet also familiar energy auras. They pulsed very near him. He opened his eyes, broke his trance. Looking toward the shipyard, he realized that even though one search had failed, the other had borne fruit. There, among the men working on the hull of a boat, were Jinshichi and Gombei, the two oxcart drivers.

Sano, his detectives, and the troops walked up to the kennels behind a pack of huge guard dogs that Sano had borrowed from a friend. Three of the friend’s dog trainers led the beasts on iron chains attached to leather harnesses. By the gate stood the troops Sano had posted there. The dogs barked and lunged at them while the trainers hauled on the dogs’ chains and yelled, “Down!”

“Is Nanbu still inside?” Sano asked.

“Yes,” said the troops’ leader. “He never left.”

“That gives him an alibi for Lady Nobuko’s kidnapping,” Fukida said.

“It doesn’t mean he doesn’t know anything about it,” Sano said.

Marume pounded on the gate. “Open up!”

First came the sound of dogs barking inside; then a man’s voice shouted, “Go away!”

Sano’s soldiers jumped off their horses, unloaded a battering ram, and charged. They rammed the gate until it sagged open. Inside it crouched Nanbu’s dogs, restrained on their leashes by two of Nanbu’s men. Sano’s borrowed dogs leaped forward. A frenzy of barks, howls, and shouts ensued as the trainers urged their dogs through the gate and forced Nanbu’s men to retreat with theirs. Sano, the detectives, and his troops walked inside.

“Talk about fighting fire with fire,” Marume said.

“If dogs are killed by dogs, that’s not against the law,” Fukida said.

As the two dog packs faced off, Sano raised his voice over their barks and growls. “Where’s Nanbu?”

Nanbu’s men didn’t answer, but one glanced at a building set apart from the kennels. Sano, his men, and his canine army stampeded toward the building. Nanbu’s men and their dogs followed. The building was a wooden shack, raised above the muddy ground on low pilings, with lattice enclosing its base; it resembled an oversized privy. The trainers and their dogs held off the other pack as Marume opened the door. Sano and the detectives drew their swords. They looked inside.

A hulking shape moved on the floor. Rhythmic thumps punctuated whimpers and cries. Sano recognized the shape as Nanbu, hunched on his knees and elbows on a mattress. Under him thrashed a girl. She shrieked and beat her fists at him while his body thrust at her and he uttered growls as fierce and bestial as his dogs’.

“Stop!” Sano shouted.

Marume and Fukida burst into the shack, grabbed Nanbu, and dragged him off the woman.

“Hey, what is this?” Nanbu protested. His face was dripping sweat, engorged with lust. His erection showed under his clothes. “Let me go!” As he struggled to break free of the detectives, he saw Sano and exclaimed, “How did you get in here?”

Sano ignored Nanbu and stepped over to the girl. She wept as she tried to cover herself with her torn kimono. He said, “Are you all right?”

Gazing up at him in speechless fear, she pushed long, tangled black hair away from her face. Bruises surrounded both her eyes. Her nose was bleeding.

“Where is the shogun’s wife?” Sano asked Nanbu.

“How should I know? Why don’t you let me finish?” Nanbu cursed as the detectives hauled him outside and threw him on the mud. The trainers and their dogs surrounded him. “She’s just a girl who cleans the dog cages.”

“You can go,” Sano told the girl. “For your own good, don’t come back. Find another job.”

She scrambled out the door and ran. Sano left the shack and stood over Nanbu, who said, “I didn’t do anything wrong. We were just having a little fun.”

“You hit her,” Sano said.

“So what?” Nanbu said. The dogs barked and snapped. He cringed. “She got wild. I had to show her who was boss.”

His attitude disgusted Sano. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Nanbu looked honestly surprised. “Why? The girl works for me. Besides, she asked for it. She led me on, and then she changed her mind and started fighting.”

Sano spotted new variations on the theme. Servants were at their masters’ disposal, and Nanbu had only done what countless other men did every day. And many men justified forcing women into sex by saying the women wanted it. However, those excuses didn’t make Sano any more favorably disposed toward Nanbu.

“Is that what you told yourself when you violated my cousin?” Sano said.

“I didn’t,” Nanbu protested. “I told you already.” The dogs strained their chains, slavering at him. “Now please, call off your dogs!”

“What’s the matter, don’t you like a taste of your own medicine?” Marume laughed.

“What about Fumiko and the nun?” Sano said.

“Not them, either!” Nanbu was livid with anger, his hands and knees soiled by the dog feces that littered the ground. “And not the shogun’s wife! I’ve never even laid eyes on her. Why are you looking for her, anyway? Doesn’t she always stay inside the palace?”

“She’s missing,” Fukida said. “We think she’s been kidnapped.”

“Well, not by me,” Nanbu declared. “Search this whole place, search my house, too, if you want—I haven’t got her.”

Just because he, like Joju and Ogita, indulged in dubious behavior, that didn’t mean Nanbu had committed the crimes under investigation. Sano couldn’t ignore the possibility that none of the three was behind the disappearance of the shogun’s wife.

Then a thought occurred to Sano. What if the oxcart drivers had kidnapped her for another client and hidden her in a secret place? The suspects would know where it was. Sano thought up a deal that might induce Nanbu to cooperate.

“You’re in trouble even if you don’t have the shogun’s wife,” Sano told Nanbu. “If she’s not found, or if she’s hurt, the shogun will blame me. I’ll be looking to pass the blame to someone else. You’ll make a good scapegoat.”

“That’s not fair.” The horror on Nanbu’s face weakened his pose of defiance.

“You want me to be fair? All right, here’s a chance to save your life.” Sano said, “You tell me where Jinshichi and Gombei take the women they kidnap. I’ll let you off the hook.”

“I told you I don’t know those people,” Nanbu whined, but Sano heard the lie in his voice. “You’re trying to trick me into confessing.”

“Let the dogs have at him,” Marume suggested.

“Not yet,” Sano said, then addressed Nanbu. “Let’s just suppose there have been rumors about two oxcart drivers: They kidnap women and take them to a certain place. Let’s suppose you’ve heard the rumors, even though you’ve never met Jinshichi or Gombei. Just tell me where the place is. That’s not a confession. Nothing will happen to you.” Sano hated to play games with a man who might have committed four serious crimes, but he continued: “What do you say?”

Nanbu hesitated. Sano knew that if Nanbu answered, it would mean he was guilty, but Sano would have to spare Nanbu or renege on the deal and violate his code of honor.

“I don’t know where it is,” Nanbu said slowly.

Sano had had just about all he could take from these men whose true, ugly colors he’d seen even if they weren’t guilty of these par tic ular crimes. If Nanbu didn’t talk right now, he would kill him. The thought must have shown on his face, because Nanbu recoiled from him in terror.

“I don’t know where it is because it doesn’t stay in the same place all the time,” Nanbu hastily amended. “It moves.”

“How can it move?” Sano said, wary of a trick.

“It’s a boat,” Nanbu said.

When Reiko arrived in Asakusa, she found Chiyo waiting for her in the street a few blocks from the Kumazawa estate. Chiyo clutched the folds of the black drape she wore over her head. She huddled against a wall as pedestrians and mounted samurai moved past her. She looked small, frightened, and vulnerable. Reiko supposed this was the first time she’d left home since Sano had brought her back. When Chiyo spied Reiko’s palanquin, she ran up to it and spoke through the window.

“Many thanks for coming. I’m sorry I can’t invite you to the house.”

“I understand,” Reiko said. “What is the trouble you mentioned in your message?”

Gasping, Chiyo bent over and clasped her chest. Not only was she afraid to be out of doors; she was still weak and ill. Reiko told the bearers to set down the palanquin, opened the door, then said to Chiyo, “Come in. Sit down.”

Chiyo obeyed. When she’d recovered her breath, she said, “This morning, Jirocho came to the house. My father’s soldiers have orders not to let him in, but he stood by the gate and shouted Fumiko’s name until she heard him and went running outside. She was so glad to go with him, it broke my heart.”

“What changed his mind?” Reiko asked.

“I asked him that. He said he had a new plan for finding out who violated her. And he needed Fumiko to make it work.”

Sano wouldn’t be pleased that Jirocho had taken the law into his own hands. “What is Jirocho’s plan?”

“Jirocho knows about the three suspects that your husband found.” The words spilled from Chiyo in breathless haste. “He sent a message, the same message, to Nanbu, Ogita, and Joju. It said that Fumiko has identified him as the one who violated her, and unless he wants her to tell Chamberlain Sano, he should meet Jirocho this evening and pay him a thousand
koban
.”

Reiko stared in surprise and confusion. “But Fumiko didn’t get a good look at the man. Has she suddenly remembered more?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. She wouldn’t talk about it,” Chiyo said. “Jirocho is gambling that one of those men will think so.”

Now Reiko saw Jirocho’s intent. “He’s setting a trap. He’s hoping that whoever violated his daughter will show up to pay the blackmail, and then Jirocho will kill him. But why did he take Fumiko?”

“He wanted her to go with him to the meeting,” Chiyo said. “If someone shows up, Jirocho thinks she’ll remember, and she’s supposed to say whether he’s the one. Jirocho wants to be certain.”

The gangster boss didn’t want to kill the wrong man, who might show up for reasons that Reiko didn’t have time to discuss. Jirocho especially wouldn’t want to kill someone as important as Nanbu, Joju, or Ogita without being absolutely sure it was worthwhile.

“Where is the meeting?” Reiko asked.

“In the paupers’ cemetery in Inaricho. At the hour of the boar.”

That was not long from now. Reiko felt a stir of apprehension on Fumiko’s behalf.

“I’m afraid,” Chiyo said. “If one of those men is the criminal and he shows up, I can’t imagine that he’ll just let himself be killed.”

“Neither can I.” Reiko remembered Sano’s descriptions of Ogita, Nanbu, and Joju. They hadn’t sounded like easy targets, and they surely wouldn’t go to meet a blackmailing gangster alone.

“There’s bound to be trouble. I begged Fumiko to stay with me, but she’ll do anything to please her father. That’s all she wants. I asked my father to intervene, but he said it was none of his business.” Anxious and frantic, Chiyo said, “Reiko-
san
, I have no one to turn to except you.” She clasped her hands, extended them to Reiko. “Please, will you save Fumiko?”

“Of course I will,” Reiko said.

She couldn’t bear the thought of the poor girl caught between her rapist and her father any more than Chiyo could. She felt her heartbeat quicken with excitement, urgency, and uncertainty about what to do.

“I’ll tell my husband. He’ll send out his troops,” she said, then reconsidered. “No—that will take too long. They’ll never get there in time.” Reiko looked at her own entourage of five guards plus Lieutenant Tanuma. She had an army of seven, including herself.

Lieutenant Tanuma said in alarm, “No, Lady Reiko. We’re not going. Your husband would kill me.”

“I’m going with or without you,” Reiko said, “and he’ll kill you if you don’t come.”

“All right,” Tanuma said, glum in his certainty that he was dead no matter what he did. “But I have a bad feeling about this.”

Reiko turned to Chiyo. “You’d better go home. I’ll tell you what happens.”

Chiyo stayed seated in the palanquin beside Reiko. “No,” she said, quiet but firm. “I’m going, too.”

Dismay struck Reiko. “I can’t let you.”

“Why not? Because we might see something disturbing? Because you don’t think I can bear it?”

“Because you’re not trained in combat, and I can’t promise we’ll be able to protect you. You might get hurt.”

Chiyo smiled sadly. “What could hurt me worse than what has already happened? What have I to lose?”

“Perhaps much more than you think,” Reiko said. “You don’t know what the future holds. Your husband and children—”

“Are gone for good.” Chiyo sounded resigned to the fact decreed by custom. “All I have is Fumiko, and she needs me.” Chiyo’s soft features hardened with determination. “If you put me out of your palanquin, I’ll walk all the way to Inaricho. You can’t stop me.”

A chamber in the office area of Sano’s estate served as a command post for the search for Lady Nobuko. Sano, Yanagisawa, and Yoritomo knelt on the floor while Detectives Marume and Fukida unrolled a map of Edo. The map was crisscrossed by painted blue lines that represented streams and canals. The wider blue ribbon of the Sumida River divided Edo proper from the eastern suburbs. Sano and Yanagisawa pored over the map like generals charting a battle strategy.

“Nanbu said he ‘heard’ the boat was here,” Sano said, pointing to a spot on the Nihonbashi River. “But he also said that was last month.”

“At least we know we’re looking for a floating brothel and we have one possible location,” Yanagisawa said. “Good work, Sano-
san
.”