Laura Joh Rowland - Sano Ichiro 07 - Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria
Page 24
She saw her fear reflected on Sano's face. He said, "If Lady Yanagisawa does want to get me in trouble, why did she do you the favor of bringing you the book instead of leaving it for her husband and letting matters take their course?"
Reiko sighed in dejection. "I don't know." Yet her suspicions about the chamberlain's wife nagged at her. Wishing she'd kept them to herself, she changed the subject: "If the second pillow book is a forgery, then maybe the book Hirata found is Lady Wisteria's genuine one. Nothing in the first book has proved to be untrue, even though we haven't been able to find the Hokkaido man. What are you going to do about the second pillow book?"
Sano picked up the volume and weighed it in his hand for a moment, his expression perturbed. "I hate to destroy evidence. But the only information in here is false information about me."
"There may be clues we don't recognize yet," Reiko said. "And the fact that the book says you plotted treason on a night for which you have an alibi reveals that the story is slander. You may need the book as proof of your innocence."
"Maybe." Still, Sano was more certain of the book's threat to him than willing to bet it would turn out to be useful. "But whether the book has any value, it's too dangerous to keep."
He untied the ribbon binding and fed the pages one by one into the brazier. They flamed, shriveled, and blackened. At last Sano laid the lavender covers and green ribbon on the coals.
"I wish I could believe this is the end of the matter," Reiko said, opening a window to clear out the smoke.
"So do I," said Sano, "but unfortunately, it's not. Whoever wrote that book will be waiting for Chamberlain Yanagisawa to act on it and me to be ruined. When that doesn't happen, he'll know his plan went wrong."
"And try again to implicate you in the murders?"
Sano nodded. "I must find out who the author is before he manufactures more false evidence against me. And I must find out as soon as possible who killed Lord Mitsuyoshi, so that if suspicion does fall on me, I can prove I didn't do it."
The second pillow book complicated the investigation and raised the price of failure; yet Reiko tried to be optimistic. "We're safe for now," she said. "Maybe the author of the book is the murderer of Lord Mitsuyoshi and Lady Wisteria. If that's true, we need to find only one person to solve the case and avoid danger."
25
Although exhausted from a tumultuous day and night, Sano and Reiko rose early the next morning, cognizant of how much work awaited them. As they sat eating a meal of rice, broth, and fish, Hirata came to the door of their chamber.
"There's been a new development," Sano said. "We have something to tell you."
He described the second pillow book. After they'd discussed its ramifications, Hirata said, "I came to tell you that Magistrate Aoki has had Fujio taken out of jail and delivered to his court. Our informant there just brought the news. And the shogun wants to see you immediately."
"The magistrate is interfering again," Reiko said in dismay.
"As if that wasn't bad enough, the shogun must want me to explain why I defended Treasury Minister Nitta at his trial." Unpleasant foreboding stole through Sano. He rose and told Hirata, "You go to the court and find out what's going on. I'll be at the palace."
When Sano arrived in the shogun's reception hall, he found the Council of Elders aligned in their customary two rows on the upper level of the floor. The shogun sat on the dais, with Chamberlain Yanagisawa kneeling below at his right and Police Commissioner Hoshina at his left. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi looked ill, his features fragile as crumpled paper, his eyes rimmed with red and shadowed underneath. Trembling visibly, he glared at Sano.
Dread chilled Sano as he knelt and bowed. Just as he'd feared, the shogun was furious with him.
"How could you?" demanded Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. "After all I've, ahh, given you, after I've trusted you, how could you do such a, ahh, cruel, disgraceful thing?"
"A million apologies for displeasing you, Your Excellency." Quaking, Sano tried to stay calm. "I couldn't let Magistrate Aoki condemn the treasury minister and end the investigation while there was a strong chance that Nitta was innocent."
"Of course Nitta was innocent!" The shogun's voice rose to a high pitch of hysteria. As Sano listened in surprise, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi said, "He didn't kill my cousin. You did!"
Sano felt shock resonate through his body. The shogun was accusing him? What was going on? Aghast, he looked around at the other men, and his gaze lit on Hoshina.
"The sosakan-sama appears bewildered, Your Excellency." Hoshina's expression was smug, gloating. "If I may enlighten him?"
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi nodded as a sob wracked his body. Hoshina said to Sano, "I've located the missing pillow book of Lady Wisteria. It contains a description of a sordid love affair between her and you. She wrote that you used her for pleasure, then mistreated her. She also wrote that you called His Excellency a despicable idiot, and you intended to murder Lord Mitsuyoshi so His Excellency would adopt your son as his successor.
"I showed the book to the Honorable Chamberlain. We agreed that we must show it to His Excellency, and we have done so."
Yanagisawa inclined his head, silently concurring with his lover. Alarm and confusion beset Sano. Lady Yanagisawa had told Reiko that her husband had gotten the book from an anonymous sender. Had she lied, or had Hoshina secretly opened the package, then pretended he'd found the book somewhere, to impress his superiors?
But however the book had come to light, the shogun had read it before Lady Yanagisawa stole it. Her attempt to do Reiko a favor had failed. Sano had destroyed the book too late, and Hoshina had used it against him.
"I have never insulted His Excellency," Sano said, his panic balanced by anger at his foe. "Nor have I ever expressed threats toward Lord Mitsuyoshi. I didn't kill him, and I'm not plotting to put my son in power. The book is a fraud.''
Hoshina gave him a cocksure smile. "Residents of the Great Miura brothel have identified it as Lady Wisteria's."
"Did you bribe them? Or did you threaten to kill them unless they said what you wanted? You wrote the book yourself, to ruin me." Sano grew certain this was true. "Admit it!"
The shogun's puzzled gaze flicked from Sano to Hoshina, who said ruefully, "I'm not the author of the book. The sosakan-sama is trying to save himself by accusing me."
"Let's examine this book and compare the calligraphy to yours." Knowing the book was in ashes, Sano hoped that forcing Hoshina to admit it no longer existed would lessen the harm it could do him.
"The book has vanished," Hoshina said, unperturbed.
"How convenient for you that no one can scrutinize it too closely," Sano said.
Hoshina's gaze rebuked him. "How much more convenient for you if you'd had it stolen before we read it instead of afterward."
Hoshina dared frame him for theft along with murder and treason! "I didn't know the book had turned up until now," Sano said. "How could I have stolen it?" Yet he feared everyone could see through his pretended ignorance. He addressed the shogun: "Even though you're understandably upset by what the book said about me, please consider that there's no other evidence that anything in it happened."
"That is, ahh, true." Realization eclipsed the anger on Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's countenance. "You've always been loyal to me in the past. And the, ahh, man in the story was a cad who didn't, ahh, resemble you at all."
His unexpected good sense relieved Sano, but Hoshina said, "The affair between the sosakan-sama and Lady Wisteria was verified by my informants. And here's a page of the account book from the brothel, showing a sum paid by Sano Ichiro for the discharge of Lady Wisteria." Hoshina held up a paper.
"That proves nothing except that I freed her," Sano said, appalled by the thoroughness of Hoshina's effort to authenticate the book.
"Any verified detail lends credibility to the others," Hoshina said. "Besides, I've located the house where Wisteria lived after she left Yoshiwara. The neighbors say she had a samurai lover. Their description of him fits the sos
akan-sama. They also say that he and Wisteria quarreled frequently and violently, as the book describes."
Sano couldn't admit he'd visited Wisteria at all, and make himself look guiltier. "I never quarreled with her. Either those witnesses are lying, or you are," he told Hoshina. "Your evidence is slander woven from a few innocuous facts!"
The shogun recoiled from Sano's vehemence.
"See how he rages when someone irks him," Hoshina said to the assembly, his face alight with vindication. "This is the bad temper that caused him to hurt Lady Wisteria."
Further incensed, Sano looked at the chamberlain. Yanagisawa met his gaze with a warning expression that said their truce didn't make them allies and Hoshina had free rein here. The elders watched with a detachment that fueled Sano's anger. They expected him to destroy their enemies for them, at his own risk, and now they were doing nothing to help him. The contemptible wretches!
Stifling an impulse to rage at them, Sano mustered his self-control. He said to the shogun, "That Police Commissioner Hoshina has demonstrated an association between Lady Wisteria and me isn't proof that I'm a murderer or traitor."
"That the sosakan-sama attempted to conceal the association indicates that he's guilty," Hoshina said quickly.
Sano turned on his foe. "Just when does the book say I plotted against His Excellency and Lord Mitsuyoshi? Or is the story as vague about dates as it is untrue?"
Caution narrowed Hoshina's eyes. "Lady Wisteria marked the date as Genroku Year Five, the seventh month, on the night of the full moon."
"You mean you did. When you wrote the book, you made the mistake of specifying an exact time. My wife will swear that I was with her that night," Sano said.
"I certainly did not write the book. And the wife of a liar is no more honest than he," Hoshina scoffed. "Everyone knows Lady Reiko is very fond of her husband and would do or say anything to protect him. She's an untrustworthy witness."
"Do you have any witness at all who can confirm that I said the things in the book?" Sano demanded.
"Your Excellency, the only witness to his statements was Lady Wisteria, who's been murdered. Her body was discovered the night before last." The crime hadn't escaped the notice of Hoshina and his spies. "How convenient for the sosakan-sama that she can't speak against him." Hoshina flashed a sardonic glance at Sano.
"The body may not even be Wisteria," Sano said, "and it was found in a house belonging to Fujio the hokan. He's the primary suspect in that murder, and also in Lord Mitsuyoshi's. There are other suspects, including Wisteria's chaperone, and maybe more we don't know about because the investigation isn't finished."
"The investigation has been controlled by the sosakan-sama from the start," Hoshina said with disdain. "The suspects he mentions are only people who can't prove their innocence. He persecuted them to shield himself."
"You were the one who arrested Momoko," Sano pointed out.
"Because he tricked me into it," Hoshina told the shogun. "He even defended Treasury Minister Nitta at his trial to make everyone believe he cares about justice. But his investigation is a farce, and his good character a disguise.
"Lady Wisteria wrote in her pillow book that she wanted to force the sosakan-sama to marry her. He gave her the weapon she needed when he insulted Your Excellency and threatened Lord Mitsuyoshi. It's obvious that Wisteria tried to blackmail the sosakan-sama, and he killed her so she could never tell anyone what he'd said. He's a traitor who killed once to place his son in line for the succession, and again to cover up his crime."
"Indeed." Tokugawa Tsunayoshi glowered at Sano.
Sano felt the escalating pulse of panic along his nerves. Whatever he said in his own defense, Hoshina twisted to make him appear guiltier. Terrified by the nightmare that enmeshed him, furious at Hoshina, the elders, the shogun, and the injustice he faced, Sano resorted to guile, his only means of survival.
"Your Excellency," Sano said, "please allow me to remind everyone here that you are the ultimate authority. Your wisdom and powers of judgment surpass those of lesser humans. Police Commissioner Hoshina owes you an apology for trying to impose his feeble opinions on you."
Dismay wiped the self-satisfaction off Hoshina's face. "He's trying to flatter you into thinking better of him and worse of me, Your Excellency."
But the shogun, clearly eager for praise, frowned in resentment at Hoshina and waved a hand to silence him. "Go on," Tokugawa Tsunayoshi ordered Sano.
"You are a judicious ruler with a unique ability to distinguish right from wrong. Would you condemn a man just because a mere subordinate said you should?" Sano went on, though ashamed of manipulating his lord. "Would you let the real killer go free because Hoshina-san wants me blamed for Lord Mitsuyoshi's murder?"
While Hoshina stared in helpless outrage, indecision creased the shogun's brow. "I, ahh, guess not," the shogun said, looking to Sano for approval.
"Of course you wouldn't." Heartened that he'd gained the upper hand, Sano said, "Your strong sense of honor requires more than just a book of dubious origin and Hoshina-san's accusations before you decide whether a man you've trusted is a criminal. You require facts."
"Facts. Ahh, yes." The shogun seized upon the word, as though delighted to see a complex situation reduced to one simple idea. Then his face clouded with confusion. "But how do I get them? What, ahh, shall I do?"
"Since you ask my humble opinion," Sano said, "I suggest that you order me to continue investigating the murders until I find the real culprit and prove my claim that I am innocent and have been framed by my enemies."
Enlightenment cleared the confusion from the shogun's face; but before he could speak, Hoshina said, "Please excuse me, Your Excellency, but the sosakan-sama mustn't be allowed to search out an innocent person to blame for his crimes." Hoshina's tone was fervent, desperate. "If you agree to what he asks, you'll be abetting the man who killed your cousin!"
"In the interest of fairness, Police Commissioner Hoshina should be permitted to look for evidence that I'm guilty," Sano said.
Hoshina's mouth opened in incredulity. The shogun considered. He looked toward Chamberlain Yanagisawa, whose shoulders moved in a slight shrug that disclaimed responsibility for the decision. The shogun then turned to the elders, but they sat still and impassive, like trees motionless until the prevailing wind blows.
At last Tokugawa Tsunayoshi nodded. "That sounds, ahh, reasonable," he said. The elders also nodded, their heads moving in unison.
Sano experienced a deluge of relief that didn't quench his rage at everyone in the room. He'd won a chance to save himself, but it was far less than he deserved.
Indignant, Hoshina turned to Yanagisawa. The chamberlain looked straight at Sano. Was that respect, and a gleam of amusement in Yanagisawa's eyes? Sano had learned from the chamberlain's example how to manipulate the shogun. Did Yanagisawa enjoy watching Sano stoop to his own level?
Sano suddenly understood why Yanagisawa didn't care who had killed Lord Mitsuyoshi-or if the killer was caught-and chose to stay out of the argument. Yanagisawa had his mind on the future rather than the immediate controversy.
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi flapped a hand at Sano and Hoshina. "I, ahh, order you both to go and do what Sosakan Sano suggested. But remember this." He focused his bloodshot eyes on Hoshina. "If you fail to prove that Sano-san is guilty, you will be punished for, ahh, slandering him." The shogun's warning gaze moved to Sano. "And unless you prove your innocence, you will be executed for killing my heir."
26
A large, noisy crowd filled the courtyard of Magistrate Aoki's mansion and overflowed into the street. Hirata, accompanied by three detectives, had to push his way through the gate. People jostled him, craning their necks toward the mansion. Some were young men whose raffish clothing marked them as entertainers, artists, hustlers, or other denizens of the fashionable low life, but most were women.
Samurai ladies, dressed in silk and guarded by troops, clustered around an iron vat, where a fire had been lit to heat the
courtyard. In the outer reaches of the fire's warmth, nuns with shaven heads knelt chanting prayers. Beyond them stood gaudily dressed wives and daughters of merchants. The largest contingent, huddled against the wall and buildings, looked to be servants, teahouse girls, and disreputable females. Some of the women wept; others whispered together, clearly distraught. Several doshin kept order among the crowd.
"Who are all these people?" Hirata asked a doshin he knew.
"Family, friends, and admirers of Fujio the hokan."
And probably his lovers, too, Hirata thought, all come to stand vigil during his trial.
Upon walking into the Court of Justice, Hirata found old Magistrate Aoki and his secretaries already seated on the dais before an audience of officials. Fujio knelt on the shirasu. He wore a ragged hemp robe; chains shackled his hands and bare feet. As the door shut behind Hirata and his detectives, Fujio turned. His handsome face was drawn with misery, but he gave Hirata a brief, valiant smile.