“You may speak in your own defense,” Magistrate Ueda told the criminals.
Jun shrugged, then muttered sullenly, “I did it.” Goza echoed him. Sano saw that they realized there was no point in denying their guilt, because they’d been caught in the act.
“I pronounce you guilty and sentence you to execution,” Magistrate Ueda said. Then he dismissed the audience and secretaries. They departed, leaving him, his trusted guards, and Sano alone with the criminals, who exchanged glances and shifted nervously. Sano strode up to the dais.
“The shogun’s sōsakan-sama will question you,” Magistrate Ueda told the criminals.
The pair gazed up at Sano with an animosity that matched his toward them. He said, “Who hired you to burn the shop?”
“It was a Black Lotus priest,” said Jun. His crude, handsome face glistened with sweat. “He calls himself Profound Wisdom.”
Goza nodded his bald, piglike head. Obviously, the men felt no loyalty to their master and didn’t mind informing on him. Sano recalled hearing the priest mentioned as one who had a large, dangerous following.
“Where can I find Profound Wisdom?” Sano said.
“He has secret temples,” said Jun. “But I don’t know where they are. They move around.”
To avoid the police, Sano figured. “How do you and his followers know where to find him?”
“He leaves messages at a Buddhist supply shop near the Nihonbashi Bridge. People in the Black Lotus go there and ask the proprietor for Yoshi-that’s the password-and he tells them where the temple is that day.”
“What other work besides arson does he hire men like you to do?” Sano said.
“When people drop out of the Black Lotus, we threaten them so they won’t betray it,” Goza said. “We kill anyone who does. We kidnap women for the priest to use in rituals.”
Sano’s instincts sprang alert. “What women?”
Goza grinned, showing rotten teeth. “Pretty ones.”
Magistrate Ueda frowned and leaned forward on the dais. He knew as well as Sano did what happened during the Black Lotus’s cruel, depraved rituals.
“Have you ever heard of the Black Lotus kidnapping women for ransom?” Sano asked.
The men shook their heads. Jun creased his brow in puzzlement, as though trying to figure out Sano’s intentions; Goza looked merely bored.
“The shogun’s mother and three other women were kidnapped yesterday,” Sano said, watching the criminals as he moved closer to them. “What can you tell me about that?”
“Nothing, master,” Jun said with what seemed to be genuine surprise. “It’s news to me.” Then he laughed. “The Black Lotus people think their High Priest Anraku has risen from the dead. They say he wants to avenge his murder. Maybe he spirited away those women.”
Obviously, he didn’t share the sect’s beliefs and was mocking them. That he would make a joke of the crime infuriated Sano. He wanted to rub Jun’s face in the white sand and grind the smile off it. Then he noticed that Goza sat with his mouth slack and a murky gleam in his porcine eyes, as if a sudden thought had occurred to him. Sano quickly crouched in front of Goza and grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Did the Black Lotus take the women?” he demanded.
Cunning altered Goza’s expression even as he recoiled from Sano. “Maybe,” he said.
Sano guessed that the man knew something. He shook Goza. “Tell me!”
“If he does, will you spare our lives?” Jun interjected.
The idea of pardoning murderers revolted Sano. “Don’t you bargain with me,” he said. Anger and impatience overrode his hatred of abusing his power. He slapped Goza hard on each cheek. “Where are they?” he shouted. If this criminal was withholding facts that could save Reiko, he deserved no mercy.
“Hurting him won’t do any good,” Jun said smugly. “He won’t talk unless you save us.”
Incensed that the men had gained the upper hand, Sano turned on Jun and would have struck him; but Magistrate Ueda said quietly, “Sano-san. Wait.” Then he addressed the criminals: “Tell us what you know, and I’ll consider revoking your sentences.”
His stony expression told Sano how torn Magistrate Ueda was between his duty to uphold the law and his need to save his daughter. Although he often showed leniency toward petty offenders, he never released anyone guilty of a major crime.
Goza rattled his shackles. “Free us first,” he said, “or there’s no deal.”
“Talk, or you go to the execution ground.” Magistrate Ueda gave the men the fierce stare that had subdued many an adversary and beckoned the guards.
The criminals quailed visibly and looked at each other. Jun nodded at Goza, who said, “I’ve heard talk that the Black Lotus is planning a big attack on the Tokugawa. Could be it’s the kidnapping, and Profound Wisdom arranged it.”
Sano stood back and eyed the man with suspicion. “Who carried out the kidnapping? Where might they be hiding the women?”
Goza shrugged. “I’ve told you all I know.”
“You’ve told me what you think will save your skin.” Angry contempt heated Sano’s blood. The story was plausible but vague, and as much as he longed to believe he had a lead on the kidnappers, Sano distrusted its source. “I say you’re lying.”
“It’s the truth,” Goza said, his chin raised defensively.
“Can we go now?” Jun asked the magistrate.
Sano gave Magistrate Ueda a look that warned him against falling for a trick. Magistrate Ueda frowned, compressed his lips, then told the men, “I’ll delay your sentences until I find out whether what you’ve said is of any use.” He signaled his guards. “Take them to Edo Jail. Confine them in a cell by themselves, and make sure no harm comes to them.”
The criminals protested as the guards dragged them from the court. Sano and Magistrate Ueda expelled gusts of breath. “If that lout told the truth and his information helps us rescue the shogun’s mother, His Excellency will praise my cleverness,” Magistrate Ueda said. “If he’s proven a liar, I’ll be ridiculed as a fool and condemned for subverting justice.”
With bleak candor he added, “But I don’t care what happens to me. All I want is my daughter saved.”
Sano forbore to offer sympathy that would embarrass his father-in-law. “Maybe this priest can lead us to her. My men and I will begin looking for him now.”
The lane was one of many that branched like crooked ribs off the main boulevard near the foot of the Nihonbashi Bridge, the official starting point of the Tōkaidō. The bridge’s great wooden curve arched over the canal beyond the rooftops. Along the street, businesses that catered to travelers sold hats, noodles, sake, and guidebooks depicting highway attractions. Noisy crowds of religious pilgrims, carrying walking staffs and laden with heavy packs, browsed the merchandise.
The Buddhist supply shop occupied a storefront in the middle of the block. Inside, past the blue entrance curtain, a white-haired man sat behind a counter amid beaded rosaries hung from the low ceiling and shelves crammed with Buddha statues and boxes of incense. Sano and Detective Arai loitered outside while Detective Inoue, clad in a plain cotton robe hastily purchased for this occasion, entered the shop and approached the proprietor.
“I’m looking for Yoshi,” Detective Inoue said, as Sano had instructed him to do.
The proprietor scrutinized Inoue, and a leery expression came over his wrinkled face. “I’m sorry, master, there’s no one by that name here.”
Sano was dismayed because the proprietor had obviously guessed that the detective wasn’t a real Black Lotus member. He also discerned that Inoue posed a threat, because he darted toward a curtained doorway behind the counter. Inoue lunged across the counter and caught him. As Sano and Arai rushed into the shop, Inoue held the proprietor by the arms.