“Don’t let her get away, you idiots!” he shouted.
Lieutenant Asukai returned to Reiko and said, “That fat man is the owner. His name is Mizutani.”
Reiko and her guards joined the pursuit. The crowds hindered them. Startled exclamations arose. They struggled along winding passages, on the heels of the carnival owner. Just as the woman reached a doorway, the two samurai caught her. She screamed. Mizutani yanked open her robe, baring her full breasts and shaved pubis. He removed a cloth pouch from inside the robe, then slapped her hard across the face.
“How dare you steal my money, you little whore?” he shouted, then told the samurai, “Teach her a lesson.”
The samurai began beating the woman. As she screamed, wept, and raised her arms in a vain attempt to shield herself, the spectators cheered and laughed. Reiko shouted to her guards, “Stop them!”
The guards stepped in and grabbed the samurai, who appeared to be rōnin hired to do dirty work at the carnival.
“That’s enough,” Lieutenant Asukai said. He and his comrades flung the rōnin away from the woman. “Leave her alone.”
She hurried, sobbing, out the door. Mizutani exclaimed in outrage. “Hey, what arc you doing?” He reminded Reiko of a tortoise-his neck was short, his nose beaked; his eyes had a cold, reptilian stare. “Who are you to interfere in my business?” He turned to his rōnin. “Throw them out.”
The rōnin drew their swords. Reiko was upset that she’d inadvertently created another troublesome, dangerous scene.
Lieutenant Asukai said quickly, “We’re from Magistrate Ueda.”
The owner’s attitude changed abruptly from high dudgeon to startled dismay as he realized he was facing officers of the law. “Oh. Well, in that case…” He waggled his hand at the rōnin. They sheathed their weapons while he hastened to defend himself: “That dancer was keeping tips from customers instead of turning them over to me. I can’t let my employees get away with cheating me, can I?”
“Never mind that,” Asukai said. “The magistrate has sent his daughter here on business.” He indicated Reiko. “She wants to talk to you.”
Puzzlement blinked the owner’s cold eyes as they turned in her direction. He said, “Since when does the magistrate’s daughter do business for him?”
“Since now,” Asukai said.
Reiko was thankful that she had him to back her up, although she wished she had her own authority. “Did you know Taruya?” she asked the carnival owner.
His expression conveyed offense that a woman should interrogate him so boldly. Lieutenant Asukai said, “Whatever she asks, you’d better answer, unless you’d like Magistrate Ueda to conduct an inspection of your carnival.”
Visibly daunted by the threat, Mizutani capitulated. “Taruya was my business partner.”
“You owned the carnival together?” Reiko asked.
“Yes. Eighteen years ago, we started out with one stall. We built it up into this.” His proud gesture encompassed his sprawling, noisy domain.
“And now the carnival is all yours,” Reiko said, thoughtful and interested. “How did that come about?”
“Taruya got himself in trouble. He was sleeping with his daughter. Somebody reported him to the police. He was demoted to hinin and banned from doing business with the public, so I took over.”
Reiko glanced at the hawkers collecting money from customers who flocked to the stalls. Taruya’s demotion had been lucrative for his onetime partner. “Did you buy out Taruya’s share?”
“No.” Mizutani licked his lips; his tongue looked gray and scaly. He seemed uncomfortable, although Reiko didn’t think him the kind of man to feel guilty for taking advantage of his partner’s trouble. “We made a deal before Taruya went to the hinin settlement. I would send him money every month and run the show until his sentence was finished. Then, when he came back, we would be partners again.”
“How generous of you,” Reiko said. “But he won’t be coming back. Did you know he was murdered?”
“Yes, I heard. What a terrible thing to happen.” The regret in Mizutani’s voice sounded false; his eyes showed no emotion, only his wish to know the purpose of Reiko’s visit. “There was some gossip that his daughter Yugao stabbed him and her mother and sister.”
“There’s some doubt about that. Do you think she did it?”
Mizutani shrugged. “How should I know? I hadn’t seen any of them since they moved to the settlement. But I wasn’t surprised to hear Yugao had been arrested. That girl was strange.”
“Strange in what way?” Reiko said.
“I don’t know.” Mizutani was clearly growing vexed by the conversation. “There was something just not right about her. But I really didn’t pay her much attention.” He chuckled. “She probably got fed up with Taruya in her bed.”
“But perhaps she wasn’t the only person to want him gone,” Reiko said. “Were those monthly payments a burden to you?”
“Of course not.” Mizutani spoke as though insulted by the suggestion. “He was my friend. I was glad to help him out.”
Shouts suddenly erupted down the passage: A fight had started. As men flung punches at each other and spectators egged them on, Mizutani strode toward them; his rōnin followed.
“Hey! No fighting in here!” he shouted. “Break it up!”
The rōnin waded into the fray, separating the combatants, while he bustled around and supervised.
“Do you want me to fetch him back?” Lieutenant Asukai asked Reiko.
A bright spot of color in the street outside the carnival caught her eye. She saw, through the milling crowds, the woman that Mizutani had beaten, stooped over a horse trough, bathing her face.
“No,” Reiko said. “I have a better idea.”
She led her entourage out of the carnival. The woman turned at their approach. Her mouth was swollen where Mizutani had hit her; blood trickled from her lip. Reiko took a cloth from under her sash.
“Here,” she said.
The woman looked suspicious that a stranger should offer her solicitude, but she took the cloth and wiped her face.
“What’s your name?” Reiko said.
“Lily,” the woman answered. She was older than Reiko had at first thought-in her thirties. Hardship had coarsened her voice as well as her pretty features. “Who are you?”
When Reiko introduced herself, fear shone in the dancer’s eyes. “I only took a few coppers from him. He didn’t need it, and I did-he pays me so little.” She stepped backward with a nervous glance at Reiko’s guards. “I saw you talking to him. Did he tell you to arrest me?” Tears wavered her voice; she clasped her hands in entreaty. “Please don’t! I’ve got a little boy. It’s bad enough that I’ve lost my job, but if I go to jail, there’ll be no one to take care of him!”
“Don’t worry; you won’t be arrested,” Reiko said. She pitied the woman and deplored Mizutani. This investigation kept reminding her that many people lived on the brink of survival, at the mercy of their betters. “I only want to talk.”
Lily cautiously relaxed. “About what?”
“Your former employer.”
“Is he in some kind of trouble?” Hope brightened Lily.
“Maybe,” Reiko said. “Were you working at the carnival when his partner Taruya was running it with him?”
“Yes. I worked there fourteen years.” A bitter expression came over Lily’s swollen, bruised face. “Fourteen years, and he throws me out because I took money that I earned myself!”
“How did they get along?” Reiko asked.
“They were always fighting over money.”
And the fight had been resolved in Mizutani’s favor. Reiko said, “How convenient for Mizutani that someone reported Taruya for having incestuous relations with his daughter.”
“Is that what Mizutani told you-that somebody reported Taruya?” Snide amusement inflected Lily’s voice. “It was him. He did it.”