“Thank you for your patience.” Sano got a firm grip on his own patience.
“Have you identified my daughters’ killer yet?”
“No. I’m sorry.” Sano had to remind himself once again that the man was a grieving father, single-minded in his need for vengeance.
The anticipation in Lord Hosokawa’s eyes winked out like a snuffed lamp flame to be replaced by anger. “Can you at least tell me who the suspects are?”
Sano had to tell him something, and he was under too much stress to be tactful. “One is Madam Usugumo. Another is her apprentice, a young man named Korin. There are also your daughters.”
“My daughters? What nonsense is this?”
“It’s not nonsense, it’s logic. Your daughters were at the incense game. One of them could have mixed the poison into the incense. I have to consider them suspects.”
“Why would they do such a thing?”
“They hated each other, didn’t they?” Sano said. “They’d been rivals all their life, just as their mothers are. Myobu married the man Kumoi loved, and adopted the child that Kumoi bore him out of wedlock. It seemed possible that one sister had tried to kill the other.”
Lord Hosokawa appeared mortified as well as furious. “You investigated my family.”
“My investigation wouldn’t be thorough if I hadn’t.”
“Who told you our private business?” Lord Hosokawa demanded.
“My sources are confidential.” Sano wasn’t going to throw the maid-or Reiko-into the fire of Lord Hosokawa’s wrath.
“You have to tell me. You’re working for me.”
Sano stood his ground even though it was thin ice. “You coerced me into solving the murder because I’m the expert, not you. I’m likelier to succeed if you let me do my job instead of criticizing the way I do it.”
Lord Hosokawa nodded reluctantly. “What other suspects are there?”
“Their identities are still confidential.” Sano wouldn’t throw Mizutani, Minister Ogyu, or Priest Ryuko into the fire, either, until he was sure whether one was guilty.
“I’m warning you, Honorable Chamberlain.” Anger tightened Lord Hosokawa’s lips.
Sano’s temper snapped. “And I’m warning you. Do you think I don’t know that your friends are gathering their troops in Edo? Do you think the metsuke, and the army, and the shogun don’t know?” He was gratified to see concern on Lord Hosokawa’s face. “I managed to keep General Isogai from going on the attack, but I don’t know how long I can hold him off. So make your friends be discreet. No more parading in battle formation. Or you’ll find yourself fighting in a civil war whether you really want to or not.”
Lord Hosokawa sagged a little, as if Sano’s words had punctured him and let out the hot wind of his rage. But he said, “I will fight in a civil war unless you keep your part of our bargain. You’d better have more progress to report when I come back tomorrow.”
Sano thought of everything he had to do tomorrow. “That’s too soon.” He wished he could tell Lord Hosokawa about the situation in the provinces and the necessity of a relief effort. “My investigation will have to be postponed for a few days.”
“No. I won’t allow it.” Lord Hosokawa rose.
“Be reasonable!” Sano’s voice was harsh with frustration.
Lord Hosokawa shook his head.
“You’ve forced me to compromise my honor and my duty to the shogun,” Sano said, his anger turning cold and deadly. “You won’t get away with it. There will come a day when you’ll be at my mercy.”
Lord Hosokawa gave a desolate chuckle. “So be it. But if you don’t solve the murder, that day will never come.”
A knock on his door woke Yanagisawa. He called through his quilt, “What is it?”
“There’s a woman here to see you,” his guard said.
“It’s late,” Yanagisawa said, groggy and vexed. “Find out who she is and what she wants and tell me in the morning.”
A shrill, furious voice shouted, “Come out, damn you!”
Yanagisawa sat up in surprise. “Someko?” His sons’ mothers never came to his house. They had strict orders to communicate with him only via messengers.
“Yes! I have to talk to you!”
Something was seriously wrong. She hated him so much that she would never, under ordinary circumstances, seek him out. He climbed out of bed, threw on his coat. The instant he emerged from the house, Someko flew at him like a rabid bat. Her face was stark white in the light of the lantern that his guard held, her beauty distorted by anger.
“This is all your fault!” She waved a scroll container at his face.
“Hey!” Yanagisawa ducked. “What’s my fault?”
“Why couldn’t you leave us alone?” She pummeled him with the scroll container. Yanagisawa grabbed her wrists. She dropped the container and broke down sobbing. “We were all right until you came. Now my son is going to die!”
Alarmed, Yanagisawa demanded, “What are you talking about? What’s happened?”
Someko sagged to her knees. She pointed at the scroll container that lay on the snow-glazed ground. “That!”
Yanagisawa picked up the black lacquer container, opened it, and unfurled a scroll. The guard shone the lantern on the columns of elegant black calligraphy and the shogun’s signature seal at the bottom. Yanagisawa read aloud,
Yanagisawa Yoshisato, you are accused of plotting to assassinate His Excellency the Shogun. You are hereby ordered to stand trial for treason. A special tribunal has been created, which will conduct your trial the day after tomorrow. Troops will be sent to escort you to the trial. If you attempt to flee, you will be hunted and killed on sight.
Shock stunned Yanagisawa. “When did this come?”
“This evening.” Someko shot to her feet and focused her streaming, furious eyes on him. “I don’t know what you did, but you must have done something. Nobody ever bothered about Yoshisato before.”
Yanagisawa knew. He’d made his reappearance at court; he’d drawn attention to his sons by visiting them. There must be spies in their house. Fury boiled up in him as he realized who was responsible for everything in this document.
“Now he’s going to be convicted of treason!” Someko shrilled. Virtually all trials ended in conviction. “He’s going to die!” And treason was a capital offense. “Damn you to hell!”
Yanagisawa smelled Ienobu all over this. Ienobu was ruthless enough to eliminate Yoshisato before Yanagisawa could use him as a political tool. Ienobu had trumped up the treason charge, had created the tribunal, had connived for the shogun’s approval. Ienobu also wanted revenge on Yanagisawa for insulting him this morning.
“Damn the bastard!” Yanagisawa crumpled the document and hurled it to the ground. He wasn’t upset only on his own account. Against his will, he’d begun to care about his hostile, angry son.
“Oh, so your enemies are attacking you through Yoshisato.” Always clever, Someko comprehended the situation. She let loose a spate of mocking laughter. “Look at you! Your flesh and blood is about to be condemned as a traitor, and you’ll go down with him.” Close associates of a traitor shared his punishment. That was the law. “And all you can do is lose your temper like a little boy!”
“Shut up!” Yanagisawa couldn’t bear for her to rub his frustration in his face.
“But I’m right, aren’t I?” Her mockery dissolved into more tears. “Yoshisato will be put to death, and there’s nothing you can do to save him.”
“No!” Yanagisawa spoke with all the force of his refusal to admit defeat. “There is.”
“Merciful gods, what?” Someko said, hopeful and pleading now. “How can you save Yoshisato?”
Yanagisawa’s mind never worked faster or better than when he was threatened. Inspiration struck now. “I have a plan. But it depends on Yoshisato. He would have to work with me.”
Someko’s face crumpled in despair. “He doesn’t even want to see you. I begged him to come with me, to ask for your protection, but he refused. He says he can take care of himself.”