The Assassin's Touch

by Laura Joh Rowland

  “I don’t know. But I’d never heard of anything funny going on between Taruya and Yugao. Neither had anyone else at the carnival. We were all shocked.”

  Reiko wondered if Mizutani had invented the whole episode. Without the incest, Yugao had no apparent reason for murder.

  Lily’s expression turned eager. “Can Mizutani get in trouble if he lied?”

  “If he did, he’ll be punished,” Reiko said. Her father abhorred false accusations and wouldn’t stand for one that had made outcasts of an entire family.

  “I heard that Yugao killed her father. Did she really do it, or could it have been Mizutani?” The dancer practically salivated at the thought of her former boss convicted and executed.

  “That’s what I’m trying to determine.” Now Reiko recalled something the headman of the outcasts had said, and another thought occurred to her. “Taruya’s sentence would have been finished in six months if he hadn’t been killed. How did Mizutani feel about that?”

  “He wasn’t looking forward to Taruya getting out of the hinin settlement. It was no secret,” Lily said with a sardonic laugh. “The carnival had a bad time during the war. Mizutani lost money. He’s run up big debts, and the money-lenders have been threatening to break his legs unless he pays them. I’ve heard him say that the last thing he needed was Taruya coming back and claiming his half of the business. And that’s not all he’s said.”

  She paused, and Reiko said, “Well?”

  “I can’t talk anymore. I have to find a new job, or my little boy will starve.” She fixed a nervous, entreating gaze on Reiko. “If I help you, then you should help me.”

  Reiko hated to imagine herself and Masahiro losing their livelihood and trying to fend for themselves. Furthermore, she sensed that the woman had important evidence to relate. “If you help me, I’ll pay you.”

  Lily nodded, grateful and pleased at her own cleverness. “Last month I saw Mizutani and his two ronin talking inside the dance stall. I stood outside and listened. You never know what interesting things you’ll find out.” A crafty smile lifted her swollen lip. “Mizutani said, T saw Taruya today. He’s anxious to get back his share of the carnival. I told him that’s not fair, after I’ve been running it all this time. But he said a deal is a deal.’ One of his ronin said that Taruya still has friends here, and they’re gangsters who could make trouble for Mizutani if he backed out. Mizutani said, ’There’s one way to break that deal. What if he were to die?’”

  A thrill of excitement tingled Reiko’s blood. “What else did they say?”

  “I don’t know. Mizutani saw me eavesdropping and told me to go. I didn’t hear the rest.”

  A new vision of the crime took shape in Reiko’s mind. The ronin steals into the outcast settlement that night. He sneaks into Yugao’s house and stabs her father in his bed. When her mother and sister awaken and try to stop him, he kills them. He means to kill Yugao, but the street-cleaner Ihei comes out of the lean-to and surprises him. The street-cleaner flees in terror. The ronin doesn’t want to leave any witnesses, but he hears people gathering in the streets. He slips out of the hovel. He hides in the back yard while the headman arrives, until Yugao has been arrested, then he vanishes into the night. In the morning, at the carnival, he tells his master that the deed is done.

  “Well?” Lily said eagerly. “Are you satisfied?”

  “One more thing,” Reiko said. Yugao was still a mystery. If she was innocent, then her confession was all the more baffling. “Did you know Yugao?”

  “Not really. Taruya kept his children away from us folks who worked for him.” Lily gave a contemptuous sniff. “He thought they were too good to associate with us.”

  “Is there anyone who did know her?”

  “There was a girl who used to be her friend. They were always together.” Lily frowned in an effort to recall. “Her name was Tama. Her father owned a teahouse around here.” Impatience crossed her face. “Do I get my reward?”

  Reiko paid Lily from the pouch where she carried money in case she needed to bribe informants. Lily went off looking much happier than before.

  “It’s getting late,” Lieutenant Asukai warned Reiko. She’d been too busy to notice that twilight was darkening the sky. The entertainment district had grown rowdier; the women and children had departed; young toughs and off-duty soldiers swelled the crowds. “We should take you home.”

  “In a little while,” Reiko said. “I must find out where Mizutani and his ronin were the night of the murders. And I want to look for Yugao’s friend Tama.”

  Chapter 15

  When Sano arrived home that night, Reiko and Masahiro met him in their private quarters. “Masahiro has something to show you,” said Reiko.

  Her manner was too bright, which awakened immediate suspicion in Sano. He said, “Let’s go see.”

  Masahiro led them to an unused wing of the mansion. Cobwebs hung from rafters in an empty room that smelled of dust.

  “Look, Papa,” he said, pointing to a knife stuck in the wall. “Me find trap.”

  He demonstrated how he’d triggered the knife by tapping on a certain spot on the floor with a wooden pole. One of his favorite games was searching for traps that Yanagisawa had installed throughout the compound. The day he and Sano and Reiko had moved in, Masahiro had fallen through a trapdoor in a storehouse and into a pit designed to catch thieves. He’d been shaken up at first, but had become fascinated with traps. He loved tiptoeing through the estate, armed with his pole that he banged on the walls and floors. He’d actually found quite a few traps that the servants had missed in their effort to rid the place of them. Living here was great fun for him.

  ’That’s very good, Masahiro.” Sano silently thanked the gods that the knife had flown right over Masahiro. Had he been as tall as an adult, he would have been killed. “You’re going to be a fine detective someday.”

  “It’s in his blood,” Reiko said.

  Sano felt his heart swell with pride and affection toward Masahiro. It seemed that his child became more of an individual every day. Sano had dreams that Masahiro would grow up to be an honorable samurai, make a name for himself, and father his own children one day. He told Reiko in a low voice, “I don’t want to spoil his fun, but I’d better have my men re-inspect the estate tomorrow.” Nothing must harm his precious son.

  He and Reiko followed Masahiro out of the mansion to the garden, where crickets sang in the dark landscape of trees, boulders, pond, and stone lanterns. The little boy skipped away chasing fireflies that sparkled above the grass. Fragrance from night-blooming jasmine scented the air.

  “This is so pleasant and peaceful, compared to other places in the world. We truly are fortunate to live here,” Reiko mused, then asked Sano, “How did your investigation go?”

  He told her about interviewing Chief Ejima’s family, subordinates, and other people who had contact with him. “I’ve just talked to his informants. Just like everyone else, they had opportunity to kill him. Just like everyone else, they deny that they did it. And I have cause to believe them.”

  “They lacked reason to kill him, or means?”

  “Both.” Sano thought Reiko seemed a little too interested in his case, especially since she wasn’t involved in it. “The informants are minor officials who were disgruntled and trying to ruin their superiors by telling tales on them to Ejima. He was on their side. He also paid them generously. And they don’t strike me as expert martial artists. They’re the kind of samurai who wear swords as a costume and never fight.”

  “This Captain Nakai sounds like the most likely culprit,” Reiko said.

  Sano nodded. “I’m waiting to hear the results of Detective Tachibana’s surveillance on him.” He shook his head. “I almost wish we could put all the suspects under surveillance.”

  “You can commandeer as many men as you need,” Reiko reminded him.

  “There aren’t enough I can trust to do a good job. There aren’t enough men I can trust at all.” Sano was learning the li
mitations of his power. “Besides, it’s possible that Ejima and the other victims were killed by someone whose name hasn’t surfaced yet.”

  Masahiro ran toward the pond. Reiko called, “Don’t fall in the water!” Sano asked her, “How did your investigation go?”

  She tensed; her bright animation faded. “Well... I went to the crime scene. I’m afraid I ran into a bit of trouble.” She reluctantly described how she and her guards had been set upon by the outcasts.

  Sano realized that she’d been dreading to tell him. He was disturbed because she’d not been as unobtrusive about her inquiries as he’d wished.

  “I’m sorry,” she said contritely. “Please forgive me.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Sano said, meaning it. “And I’m more concerned about your safety than about my position. You’d better not go back to the hinin settlement. If you do, the headman might not show up to rescue you again.”

  Reiko nodded in agreement. “I think I’ve learned as much there as I could.” She hesitated, then confessed, “Afterward, I went to the Hundred-Day Theater that Yugao’s father once owned.”

  As she described what she’d learned, Sano was dismayed even further to realize that her inquiries had moved wider geographically and higher up the social scale. Could they remain secret much longer? Yet he couldn’t criticize her for doing the things he would have done in her place.

  “Now that you’ve got alternate suspects as well as evidence against Yugao,” he said, “what will you do next?”

  “I found out that her father’s former business partner and his two ronin were at a card game the whole night of the murders. That might or might not clear them. I wasn’t able to find Yugao’s friend Tama. But before I try again, I’m going to have another visit with Yugao. Maybe, when she hears what I’ve learned, she’ll be shaken up enough to tell me the truth.”

  Maybe that would be the end of Reiko’s investigation. Sano said, “Good luck bringing the killer to justice, whoever it turns out to be.”

  Reiko smiled, relieved that he wasn’t angry. “What about your investigation?”

  “I’m going to try out a new theory. I’ve been examining the victims’ lives in search of suspects who might know dimmak. But what if the victims didn’t know their killer? He might be a stranger they encountered in the streets. If so, his name wouldn’t be in their appointment records.”

  And he could be someone far beyond Edo Castle and the administrative district. “It’ll be a huge job to reconstruct every move those men made and identify everyone who came within touching distance of them. But unless we get a lucky break very soon, we’d better start. And I’ll look specifically for men who know dim-make.”

  Masahiro came running up to Reiko and tugged her hand. “Me hungry. Eat!”

  “Will you have dinner with us?” Reiko asked Sano.

  Sano could ill afford the time, but it had been ages since he’d eaten with his family. “Yes. But afterward, I have some work to do in my office.”

  He had to find out what had happened while he’d been gone, and attend to any urgent business. He also expected Lord Matsudaira to summon him to report on the progress of his investigation. His worMead had increased a hundredfold since it began. The murder case had rejuvenated him, but his energy was flagging.

  As he and Reiko and Masahiro entered the mansion together, Sano looked around and upward. The stars in the black sky sparkled, as bright as the fireflies, above the rooftops. Night hid from his view the palace up the hill. All was serene, but Sano imagined he heard the echo of war drums. The smell of gunpowder mingled with the floral scents.

  “At least there hasn’t been another murder,” he said.

  As night deepened, the moon swelled, white and round and luminescent, over Edo. Night-watchmen stood guard outside warehouses, while soldiers on horseback patrolled the rapidly emptying streets. Inside the windows of the houses, lamps winked out as if extinguished by a vast breath that swept through town. Sentries barred the gates to each neighborhood; the howling of stray dogs echoed in the gathering silence. The city slumbered. Darkness spread across hills and rice fields outside town.

  But the Asakusa Temple district up the river blazed with light. Colored lanterns hung from the eaves of the temple buildings, shrines, and roofs of stalls in the marketplace. Hordes gathered to celebrate Sanja Matsuri, the festival that honored the founding of the temple a thousand years ago. People streamed into the main hall to pray for a good harvest, while outside, men performed ancient sacred dances. Village elders from the district paraded through boisterous, drunken throngs that jammed the precinct. Men pushed carts that transported huge drums and gongs, which they beat to produce a thunderous, clanging din. Priests led portable miniature shrines, each decorated with tingling brass bells, gilded ornaments, purple silk cords, and crowned with a gold phoenix. Each shrine rode atop stout wooden crossbeams borne on the shoulders of some hundred youths clad in loincloths and headbands. The bearers chanted in loud, hoarse voices as they labored under their heavy burdens. Sweat glistened on their naked flesh. Cheering crowds engulfed and followed the shrines. Beggars roved, their wooden bowls in hand, beseeching rich folk moved to generosity by the festive atmosphere.

  One beggar among the legions made no effort to collect alms. His bowl was empty, his voice silent. Costumed in a tattered kimono and a wicker hat that hid his face, he ignored the merrymakers. His feet, clad in frayed straw sandals, trod a straight path through the crowd, following a group of samurai who walked ten paces ahead of him.

  The group stopped at a wine vendor’s stall. The beggar halted a short distance away. His intent gaze focused on the samurai at the center of the group, a stout man with a fleshy face already red from liquor. He wore lavish silk robes and ornate swords. The others were simply dressed; his attendants. He and his men bought cups of wine, toasted one another, drank, and roared with laughter. Rage ignited inside the beggar while he watched them. The samurai, a high-ranked bakufu official, was one of the enemy that had trampled his honor in the dirt. His spirit roiled with the hot, bloodthirsty lust for revenge that had inspired his one-man crusade.

  The drums throbbed and the gongs rang in louder, escalating tempo. Two shrines converged upon each other. Shouts erupted from the bearers, who quickened their steps and the cadence of their chants. The shrines rocked and tilted perilously above the cheering spectators. They charged in ritualistic duel. The official and his attendants moved closer to watch. The beggar followed, unobserved by them, just one insignificant man among thousands. Vengeance would be his tonight—if only he could get close enough to touch his foe.

  As he walked, he dropped his begging bowl. He inhaled and exhaled deep, slow, rhythmic breaths. His mind calmed, like the smooth, unruffled surface of a lake. Thoughts and emotions fell away from him. His internal forces aligned, and he slipped into a trance that he’d learned to achieve through endless meditation and years of practice. His vision simultaneously broadened and narrowed. He saw the entire, vast, glittery panorama of Asakusa Temple district, with his enemy’s moving figure at its center. His senses grew so acute that he heard his enemy’s pulse above the chants, the tinkling bells on the shrines, and the general pandemonium.

  The official and his attendants slowed down, their progress hindered by shoving, close-packed humanity. But the beggar slipped through it like water flowing between rocks. People glanced in his direction, then made way for him, as if repelled by some threatening aura that he emanated. He curved his spine, rounded his shoulders, and hollowed his chest in a ritual posture that drew energy from the deepest, most primitive part of him. His limbs felt relaxed and fluid, but alertness tingled through them. The energy thrummed in his blood. The moon and stars seemed to slow their journey across the heavens; the world seemed his to command. He sighted on his enemy and closed the distance between them while the energy inside him radiated outward. His intentions manipulated reality. People moved as if they were puppets under his control, shoving against the man he pursued. Th
ey separated him from his attendants and bore him along on their tide. He looked backward at his men, who tried in vain to catch up with him, but the crowd deterred them. The beggar easily followed.

  The shrines loomed above their heads, beneath the heaving, writhing, shouting bearers. Now the beggar walked four paces directly behind his enemy. Power rose, like steam inside a volcano, up his spine. He was its vessel, his mind its master. His image of his enemy’s back expanded to fill his vision; his surroundings faded. His gaze penetrated the garments that his enemy wore. He saw bare skin and the underlying musculature, skeleton, organs, and blood vessels. Nerve pathways formed a glowing, silvery network that united and animated the whole. They intersected at nodes throughout the body. His eye targeted a node between two vertebrae on his enemy’s backbone. He hurried his steps until a mere arm’s length divided him from his prey. He inhaled a breath so large that his ribs almost cracked. Spiritual and physical power thundered in him, building to a lethal strength.

  Time halted.

  His prey and everyone except himself froze motionless.

  External sounds faded into abrupt, preternatural silence.

  He exhaled at the same moment that he unleashed his control over his body. His arm shot out with such speed that it blurred, propelling his fist, which unclenched an instant before reaching its target.

  The tip of his index finger touched the node on his enemy’s spine with a pressure as light as if from a feather wafted against it by a breeze. The energy exploded from him. The force of its release lifted his feet momentarily off the ground. His vision shattered into bright fragments of light. His body shuddered violently. He swooned as rapture akin to a sexual climax possessed him.

  Life reanimated the world. The shrines resumed their dueling; the bearers chanted; the gongs rang, the drums pounded, and the bells tinkled; the crowds applauded and surged. The beggar gasped, spent from his exertion. He saw his foe turn toward him.

  The official’s expression was one of wary puzzlement: He’d sensed if not actually felt the touch against his back and the presence of danger. It had caused him no pain; he hadn’t even flinched. The beggar let the crowd come between them and carry him away. From a distance he watched the official spot his attendants and push through the melee with them. He looked as ruddy, vigorous, and high-spirited as ever. But the beggar imagined the energy from his strike racing along the man’s nerve pathways and piercing a vein in his brain. He envisioned the blood beginning to leak, the life-force slowly draining. Triumph elated him.