“I asked the servant to let me see the dead man,” Fuwa said. “I went in the cottage, and there in the bed was Ozuno’s body. He was so thin and frail and old compared to the last time I’d seen him. The servant told me he’d been sick.”
Ozuno had died in his sleep of natural causes-or so Hirata had heard. He hadn’t known that Tahara, Deguchi, and Kitano had been there.
“Then I noticed a cushion on the bed by his head. There was a wet spot on it. I lifted up Ozuno’s upper lip and looked in his mouth. The skin was broken. And I knew what had happened.”
“They smothered him with the cushion,” Hirata said, his voice hushed by shock.
“That’s what I figured,” Fuwa said. “They waited until they’d recovered from their injuries and built up their strength. By that time Ozuno was sick and weak. Stealing the magic spell book was as easy as taking a toy from a child.”
“They said they inherited the book from Ozuno. But they murdered him to get it!” Even though he’d never trusted them, Hirata couldn’t believe the extent of their lies. What else had they lied about?
“So now you know what I know,” Fuwa said. “What are you going to do?”
32
Crowded into bed with his family, Sano was glad when morning came. The opium had filled his sleep with vivid nightmares of bloody sword battles he’d fought. Masahiro’s place in the bed was empty; he’d gone off to attend the shogun. Akiko said, “Mama, I’m hungry.”
Reiko said, “I’ll get your breakfast,” then peered at Sano in the dim light and saw that he was awake. “How is your head?”
“Not as bad,” Sano said, “but I could use some more of that medicine before I leave.”
Reiko regarded him with concern as she pulled her coat over her night robe and called for a maid to stoke the braziers. “You’re not going after Priest Ryuko?”
“I have to.” Sano sat up. Dizziness washed over him. His head pounded through a wave of nausea. Reiko’s worried face blurred before his eyes.
“But you aren’t well enough, I can tell.” Reiko urged, “Send Detective Marume. Stay home and rest.”
“I’ll feel better if I’m busy,” Sano said. “I can’t just lie here and hope the murder gets solved without me while there’s a civil war brewing.”
“At least lie down until I bring your medicine and your breakfast,” Reiko said as she and Akiko left the room.
Shamed by his frailty, Sano obeyed.
The medicine helped. Soon after he swallowed it, Sano was able to dress and eat, although he still felt shaky. “I’d better start spying on Priest Ryuko before he slips past me.”
“And I’d better begin my trip to Mitake to see Minister Ogyu’s nurse,” Reiko said.
“Here he comes,” Sano whispered to Detective Marume.
From behind a grove of bamboo outside the guesthouse, they watched Priest Ryuko hurry down the steps. He wore a heavy, hooded cloak over his saffron robe. He climbed into a waiting palanquin. The bearers carried him out the gate.
Sano and Marume, dressed in garments without identifying crests and wide-brimmed wicker hats that shaded their faces, followed on horseback at a safe distance. “If Priest Ryuko is going on a journey, where’s his baggage?” Marume asked.
“I don’t see the porters he was trying to hire, either. Maybe he’s not leaving town after all.” Sano hated to think he was wasting time on this surveillance while he could be looking for other leads. “Let’s see what happens.”
As they rode through the passages inside the castle, his horse’s every footfall aggravated his headache. He resisted the temptation to take the opium pills he’d brought, which would dull his mind along with the pain. Priest Ryuko’s bearers walked briskly. Sano and Marume mingled with the soldiers and the workers who thronged the passages. Outside the castle, the crowd of beggars on the streets and the roving squadrons of troops in the daimyo district shielded Sano and Marume from Ryuko’s view. Sano warily eyed the troops. Either Lord Hosokawa hadn’t yet warned the daimyo not to flaunt their armies or they’d chosen to disregard the warning.
Beyond the daimyo district, the crowds thinned. Townspeople crawled over the wreckage of Nihonbashi, picking out wood and paper scraps to burn in their bonfires. The heaps were shrinking. Eventually, all the combustible materials would go up in smoke. Sano and Marume dropped farther behind the palanquin. Past a tent camp, the bearers carried Ryuko to an oasis of houses amid the ruins. Sano and Marume watched from a distance as the priest climbed out of the palanquin. They dismounted and hid their horses behind one of the tall debris piles that dotted the area, which had been an affluent merchant district. Sano’s legs felt weak and wobbly. Taking cover behind other piles, he and Marume stole up to the houses.
There were three, flanked by the burned remains of neighboring residences. Peasants armed with spears were stationed at the gates. In many improvised forts like this, the lucky few citizens who still had their homes tried to bar trespassers seeking loot or shelter. Sano and Marume positioned themselves behind a pile some thirty paces from the houses.
Priest Ryuko walked up to the guards, who let him in the gate. Sano waited. His head throbbed. He blinked to focus his eyes on the house. After a long while, a muscular peasant man backed out the gate, carrying one end of a large wooden trunk. A second man followed, holding the other end. The porters dropped the trunk by the palanquin. Priest Ryuko emerged, shepherding a woman and a little boy. The boy was about three years old and so padded with clothing that he looked like a ball, his fat arms sticking out from his sides, a red cap with earflaps on his head. The woman was slender and young. She wore a blue coat whose hood framed a pretty, anxious face. Priest Ryuko led her and the boy to the palanquin and opened its door. He spoke to the woman. Sano couldn’t hear his words, but he seemed to be reassuring her. She climbed into the palanquin. Priest Ryuko crouched before the boy. He smiled and said something that made the boy laugh. Then he lifted the boy into the palanquin and settled him beside the woman.
“Priest Ryuko isn’t going on the journey,” Sano said. “They are.”
Sano and Marume strode toward the priest. Ryuko shut the door of the palanquin and turned. His eyes hollowed and his mouth sagged with shock. “What are you doing here?” He moved in front of the palanquin, as if to hide it from Sano’s view. “Did you follow me?”
“Yes.” Sano peered around Ryuko. The open window of the palanquin framed the woman’s and boy’s frightened faces. “Who are those people?”
Ryuko’s expression darkened. “That’s none of your business.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Sano said. “I can guess. The woman is your mistress. The boy is your son. They’re your secret, aren’t they?”
“Yes, damn you, and keep your voice down. I don’t want the whole world to hear.”
“You mean, you don’t want Lady Keisho-in to hear.” Sano realized the magnitude and dangerousness of the priest’s secret. “Imagine what she would do if she found out that you’d not only been unfaithful to her, but that you have a child with your mistress.”
“Lady Keisho-in is insanely jealous.” Fear of her wrath made Ryuko’s voice quiver. “She would kill me.” He gestured toward his woman and son. “She would kill them, too.”
“Madam Usugumo knew about them, didn’t she?” Sano asked. Ryuko nodded weakly. “You confessed to her during her incense ritual. You couldn’t stop yourself.”
“A curse on her! She threatened to go to Lady Keisho-in unless I paid for her silence.”
“Would Lady Keisho-in have believed her?” Marume said skeptically. “Would she have even been able to get an audience with Lady Keisho-in? Couldn’t you have kept them apart?”
“Madam Usugumo wouldn’t have had to speak with Lady Keisho-in. She could have started a rumor. Lady Keisho-in hears all the rumors, and she listens. She’s always accusing me of something or other-stealing from her or making friends with people she doesn’t like. I’ve always managed to get around her. But this-” The breath gushed out of Ryuko. “This, she would never forgive.”