Sano Ichiro 5 The Samurai's Wife (2000)

by Laura Joh Rowland

  Jokyoden must be laying in supplies to build a fort and provision an army.

  `Buy ten loads each of copper and silver.'

  She would also need to pay her troops, Yanagisawa guessed. Exhilaration filled him. Even if he hadn't located the outlaws or weapons, he was collecting evidence that tied Jokyoden to the conspiracy.

  "A wise decision to buy now," said the proprietor. "I predict that the prices of those commodities will rise soon."

  Maybe Jokyoden was also speculating on prices as a means of raising funds for the revolt. Yanagisawa savored the fact that he, not Sano, had made this discovery. And if Jokyoden was guilty, then Hoshina was not....

  " `Transfer five hundred koban to her personal account,' " read the messenger.

  Was this a loan to finance the revolt? If Jokyoden would incur such a large debt in addition to her lavish spending, she must be seriously committed to restoring the Imperial Court to supremacy. Her nerve impressed Yanagisawa. Had she killed Left Minister Konoe because he'd discovered her illicit deals?

  Still, her gender prevented Yanagisawa from believing in Jokyoden's guilt. Although he knew she managed court affairs with the authority of a male official and he'd found this new evidence of her bold, unfeminine ambition, he couldn't picture Jokyoden stalking him through the palace compound. He couldn't imagine any woman possessing the power of kiai.

  Suddenly two huge samurai came running down the alley toward him from opposite directions. They seized Yanagisawa, ripped off his swords, and flung him facedown on the filthy ground. A heavy foot pressed down on his neck. The door opened, and the proprietor's voice demanded, "Why were you loitering around my office?"

  "Let me up!" Yanagisawa ordered, furious. The bank's staff must have spotted him out front, become suspicious, and sent guards after him. "Do you know who I am?"

  "A would-be bank robber, I bet." A pair of sandaled feet, topped by bare legs and a short kimono, came into Yanagisawa's view. This man carried a jitte- the parrying weapon used by the police. "You're under arrest."

  The doshin's assistants bound Yanagisawa's wrists, dragged him to his feet, and hustled him down the alley. "If you don't release me at once," Yanagisawa raged, "you'll be sorry. I'm the shogun's second-in-command!"

  "Sure you are," the doshin scoffed. "We'll just take a walk down to police headquarters and sort this all out."

  29

  After leaving Lady Jokyoden, Sano went to the imperial consorts' residence. Lady Asagao was no longer a suspect, but he needed to resolve some unfinished business concerning her.

  He found Asagao reclining on cushions on the shady veranda of the residence. Ladies-in-waiting plied large fans to create a cooling breeze around her. Clad in layered pastel robes, Asagao wore her hair in a limp plait. A physician dressed in a long dark blue coat fed her potions from ceramic bowls. When Sano climbed the veranda steps, she turned toward him. Apprehension pinched her round face, which looked sallow and plain in the absence of her usual makeup. Her attendants eyed Sano with distrust. The physician glowered.

  "Lady Asagao must not be disturbed," he said. "The ordeal of imprisonment has weakened her health. To recover, she needs rest and quiet."

  Sano knelt by Asagao, bowed, and said, "Your Highness, I apologize for your ordeal. It was an abominable mistake, and I beg your forgiveness." That Chamberlain Yanagisawa had manipulated them both into the false arrest hardly diminished the guilt he felt toward Asagao. "However, I must request your assistance. Will you be so kind as to answer a few questions?"

  The emperor's consort pouted. "Why should I?" she said sullenly.

  Why indeed, thought Sano. She didn't need to defend herself against further accusations, and she had no reason to voluntarily help someone who'd torn her away from her home and imprisoned her. The law permitted intimidation and torture to extort information from witnesses, but Sano didn't want to inflict more suffering on Lady Asagao or further antagonize the Imperial Court, so he must give her a different incentive to cooperate.

  "I've discovered a plot to overthrow the Tokugawa regime," Sano said. "The plot is almost certainly connected with the murders. It's imperative that I catch the killer before he or she can kill again or bring war upon Japan. His Majesty the Emperor and your father are still under investigation."

  Sano paused to let Asagao absorb his words, then said, "More mistakes could occur. Another innocent person might be subjected to the same treatment as yourself. Wouldn't you like to prevent that?"

  Asagao squirmed on the cushions; her eyes darted like minnows trying to escape a fishing net. She might not possess great intelligence, but Sano perceived in her a natural cunning. She'd understood his implied threat to punish her kin unless she cooperated. Now she cast a pleading glance at her companions and made a weak attempt to sit up.

  "I don't feel well," she whined. "Take me inside."

  The physician and ladies-in-waiting moved to help her, but Sano steeled himself against letting Asagao use her illness to escape him. "Leave us," he told her attendants.

  They reluctantly obeyed. Asagao cowered on the cushions, fearful yet defiant. Sano said, "Let's talk about the night Left Minister Konoe died. You told my wife that you were with your ladies-in-waiting. Later they admitted that you'd sneaked out to meet someone. Which is the truth?" Although he didn't really believe that determining Asagao's whereabouts would solve the case, unanswered questions bothered Sano. "Where were you?"

  Asagao said, "I was in the tea ceremony cottage. With my father."

  Sano recognized the story that Right Minister Ichijo had told Chamberlain Yanagisawa. He also knew that Yoriki Hoshina had established that the cottage had been occupied by a pair of lovers, and therefore not by Ichijo and Asagao. Obviously, Ichijo had instructed his daughter to corroborate his lie. She'd provided her father with the alibi she no longer needed. The probable reason behind her deception gave Sano an idea how to turn Asagao's motives to his advantage.

  "Were you ever present when your father counseled the emperor?" Sano asked.

  "Sometimes." A puzzled frown wrinkled the consort's brow.

  "What did they talk about?"

  "I don't remember. Court business, I suppose. I didn't pay much attention." Asagao spoke with eager nervousness, as if hoping that ignorance would safeguard her until she could figure out where the conversation was heading.

  "Did His Majesty talk about past emperors who had tried to overthrow military regimes?" Sano said. "Did he ever express the desire to do the same.'

  Shocked comprehension dawned in Asagao's eyes. She sat up and blurted, "No. Never."

  "His Majesty wants to rule Japan, doesn't he?" Sano said. "He not only fights make-believe battles; he's planning a real one. Did he tell you that he's been bringing weapons into Miyako and recruiting soldiers for a war against the Tokugawa?"

  "He wouldn't do that!" Asagao cried.

  "Wouldn't he?" Sano said, wondering if Asagao was really surprised, or if she'd already known about the conspiracy. "His Majesty is bored by his sheltered life. He's puffed up with conceit and dreams of glory. But plotting a coup is treason. For such a serious crime, not even an emperor can escape death."

  "I don't know what you're talking about." Panic shone in Asagao's eyes. "Tomo-chan would never try to overthrow the bakufu!"

  Whether she was lying didn't matter; it wasn't Sano's intention to gain evidence against Tomohito right now. The emperor was just bait for a trap. "Yesterday the soldiers and weapons were in a house belonging to Lord Ibe of Echizen Province. Did His Majesty ever mention it?"

  "No!"

  "Did Left Minister Konoe discover His Majesty's plans?" Sano said. "Did His Majesty know that Konoe was a spy, and fear that Konoe would report his crime?" Now came the time to spring the trap. "Where was His Majesty on the night of Konoe's murder?"

  "Tomo-chan wasn't in the garden. He didn't kill the left minister!" Asagao's desperate gaze sought help, but the courtyard was empty and still in the hot sunshine, and the building behind her as
silent as if everyone had deserted it. In the trees, insects shrilled; a bird shrieked.

  "How could you know where His Majesty was, when you were in the tea cottage with your father?" Sano rose and stood over Asagao. "That same story can't provide alibis for both men. It looks as though I'll be charging one or the other with treason and murder. You can help me decide which."

  "No!" Asagao tried to rise, but her legs tangled in her robes, and she fell against the cushions, helpless.

  "Of course you want to save your father," Sano said, hating what he must do to the consort. "He gave you life; he fed and sheltered you during your childhood. You wouldn't like to see him hurt, and it's your duty to protect him. But what about your duty to the emperor? His alibis for both murders are weak. He needs you to point my suspicion away from him... toward somebody else."

  "Please leave me alone," Asagao implored. Sweat beaded her face; her pale lips trembled. "Don't make me do this!"

  Suppressing his pity for her, Sano said, "If His Majesty is found to have committed treason, a new emperor will take the throne and select a new chief consort. You'll lose your status and special privileges. You could become a lady-in-waiting to your replacement, or marry a noble who's willing to accept a cast-off consort as a wife. Or you could enter a nunnery." These options represented utter humiliation to a woman of Asagao's rank. "If that's what you want, then by all means cast your lot with your father. If not, then perhaps you should reconsider the wisdom of protecting him at the emperor's expense."

  Sano let the echo of his harsh words die. He waited for Asagao to choose which of the two most important men in her life she would betray. Loath to incur the consequences of implicating Japan's sacred sovereign in the crimes, Sano didn't want it to be Emperor Tomohito.

  Asagao whimpered, hugging herself,

  "Where were you when Left Minister Konoe died?" Sano asked.

  For a long while he thought Asagao's loyalty to her father would prevail. Then defeat drained the tension from her body; she began to weep. "I was in the tea cottage," she said, "but my father wasn't. I was with my friend Lord Gojo. We didn't want anyone to know about us, so when the policeman came around asking everybody where they'd been that night, Gojo said he was with a friend he bribed to lie for him."

  A connection clicked in Sano's mind. Lord Gojo was the man whom Reiko had watched flirting with Asagao in the Kabuki play. She'd been having an affair with him, not Left Minister Konoe. Asagao and Lord Gojo had been the two lovers in the tea cottage. She'd had an alibi she hadn't wanted to use because it would have exposed her infidelity to Emperor Tomohito.

  "I only said my father was with me because he asked me to." Tears streamed down Asagao's face; she wiped them on her sleeve. "I never saw him that night."

  She'd rejected the ties of blood for those of sex and power, sacrificing her father to protect Tomohito. Yet Sano felt no pleasure at breaking Right Minister Ichijo's alibi. He hated himself for manipulating Asagao. The pursuit of justice too often required the basest means.

  "Thank you, Lady Asagao," Sano said, adding, "I'm sorry."

  Her bitter glare burned him. Shamed and depressed, he went to the door and called Asagao's attendants. As they led her into the building, she turned to Sano. Between ragged sobs, she said, "My father wasn't in the Pond Garden when the left minister died, but I know who was."

  A desperate guile shone in her reddened eyes. Sano had half-expected her to shield Ichijo by accusing someone else. Now, as she gasped for breath, he waited to see whom she would incriminate.

  "It was the left minister's former wife."

  "What?" Shock resonated through Sano. Kozeri, in the palace on the night of Konoe's death? But Kozeri had an alibi-or did she? She hadn't been at the scene of Aisu's murder-or had she? Now Sano realized that this was the vital information he'd forgotten to obtain from Kozeri. Had his attraction to her rendered him so negligent? Sano unhappily acknowledged the possibility, but a kernel of doubt formed in his mind. It burgeoned into suspicion, then anger as he realized what Kozeri had done.

  Asagao laughed, an ugly chortle. "Kozeri fooled you, didn't she? Before the left minister died, I overheard him giving orders to his assistants. Ask Kozeri why he wanted the Pond Garden to himself that night. Ask her why she was there."

  Sano grabbed Asagao's shoulders. "You tell me!" he commanded.

  She looked disdainfully up at him. "Ask Kozeri how her first husband died. Ask her if she killed the left minister. Then ask her where she was when that other man died." As the attendants bore Lady Asagao away, her mocking laughter drifted back to Sano.

  30

  Sano wanted to rush off and confront Kozeri with Lady Asagao's allegations, but first he went to the imperial guardhouse to check the records of comings and goings at the palace on the dates of the two murders. Afterward he visited Kozeri's family, a noble clan who lived in the kuge district of the palace. He learned enough to convince him that he'd made a grave mistake that he must redress after the meeting he and Chamberlain Yanagisawa had scheduled to share the results of their inquiries.

  By the time he arrived at Nijo Castle, the sun had turned orange over the western hills; gongs signaled the onset of Obon rites. The smoke from altars diffused the light, so that the air seemed filled with scintillating topaz dust. The gate sentry told Sano, "The honorable chamberlain went out early this morning and hasn't yet returned."

  Across the street, Sano saw Marume and Fukida loitering outside a teahouse. He'd assigned them and some other men to spy on Yanagisawa. Now he hurried over to the detectives. "Yanagisawa's gone," he said.

  The pair looked surprised. "We never saw him come out," Marume said.

  Sano and the detectives checked with the men assigned to watch the other gates, but none of them had seen Yanagisawa.

  "He slipped right past everyone," Sano said in dismay.

  Yanagisawa's disappearance was more trouble on top of the problem of Kozeri. Sano didn't want to believe Kozeri had deceived him, although he knew she had. Nor did he want to think about what might happen when he saw Kozeri again. Would he bring a killer to justice, or make matters worse? What in heaven was Yanagisawa up to now?

  In the barracks of Nijo Castle, the guard captain told Sano that the chamberlain had been detained.

  "Where?" Sano asked. "By whom?"

  The captain looked nervous, as if wondering how much to tell Sano. "Uh, I just received news that the honorable chamberlain is at police headquarters. I sent some men to fetch him. He was arrested."

  Baffled, Sano said, "Why?"

  "I don't know."

  Sano and his detectives rode to police headquarters. Around the main room, Yanagisawa's troops stood guard. A score of yoriki and doshin lay prostrated, hands extended. Shoshidai Matsudaira knelt before the clerk's platform, gazing fearfully up at the man standing there. With a shock, Sano recognized Yanagisawa. His clothes were dirty and disheveled. His bruised face wore a fierce scowl.

  "This is a gross insult!" he yelled at the shoshidai. "If one of your yoriki hadn't recognized me, I would be in jail now." With scathing fury he chastised the assembly for treating him like a criminal.

  "A thousand apologies," the shoshidai whimpered. "Please forgive my staff's terrible mistake. They will be punished severely. I assure you this will never happen again."

  "See that it doesn't," Yanagisawa said, "or you'll lose your post." He added, "And you'd better find Yoriki Hoshina by morning. Dismissed!"

  The police fled. "He's in disguise," Fukida marveled. "That's how he got past us. Who would have guessed he'd do that?"

  Sano approached Yanagisawa and Shoshidai Matsudaira. "Why were you arrested?" he asked the chamberlain.

  At the sight of Sano, anger darkened Yanagisawa's expression; he didn't answer. The Shoshidai said timidly, "For attempting to rob a bank in the merchant district."

  "I told you, I wasn't," Yanagisawa said with icy emphasis. "I was walking along, minding my own business, when three thugs attacked me. The police took the
word of the merchant who accused me of trying to steal his filthy money."

  "Yes, of course," the shoshidai said apologetically.

  "What were you doing in that part of town?" Sano said. "Why are you dressed like that?"

  "My mishap has nothing to do with the case," Yanagisawa said. "I owe you no explanations."

  Sano followed Yanagisawa out of the building. "What was that about finding Yoriki Hoshina?"

  A sardonic smile came over Yanagisawa's face as they reached the street and his retainers helped him onto his horse. "Your hostage has escaped."

  More trouble! Sano hid his dismay. With Hoshina gone, he had no way to hold Yanagisawa to their deal. He'd better find the yoriki before Yanagisawa did. He and his men mounted their horses and rode down Oike Avenue alongside Yanagisawa. The sun's hazy crimson orb floated above hills obscured by smoke and mist. Ruddy light bathed the crowds. The heavy odor of hot grease from kitchens overlaid the suffocating atmosphere.