The light went out. The gory image disappeared.
"Is it true?" Joju asked the moneylender. "Did you impregnate Emiko, then have her and her children destroyed?"
"Yes," the moneylender said, sobbing with terror and guilt. "I confess. I didn't want a pregnant maid around; my wife would be jealous. I didn't want the children. I didn't know what else to do!"
His story was a variation on a common tale. People succumbed to lust, begetting unwanted babies; married couples had children they couldn't support; prostitutes were impregnated by their customers. As a result, many infants were killed before or soon after birth, and abortionists had proliferated in Edo. The government forbade abortionists to advertise their services on signs outside their shops, but didn't outlaw them. The number of abandoned, homeless orphans was a big problem. And although Sano deplored this widespread practice of killing children, he conceded that sometimes abortion was the best solution.
Some women were raped. Would Chiyo and Fumiko be among those to discover themselves pregnant afterward? Sano hoped they wouldn't have to bear their rapists' children and compound their suffering.
"The souls of your unborn children are caught between the realms of the living and the dead," Joju said. "They have entered your wife's body. She is so weakened by their sorrow and loneliness that she may die."
"No!" the moneylender cried. "I beg you to save her!"
Joju raised his hands and moved them as if palpating an invisible object in the air. Concern darkened his handsome features. "I feel the presence of another spirit."
A rush like wings in flight whooshed over the assembly. Onaru let out a bone-chilling wail. Her family screamed. Sano felt something soft graze his head. As everyone ducked and gazed fearfully around the room, only Joju remained calm.
"It is Emiko," he said. "She is here."
"Look!" cried a woman in the audience. "Her ghost!"
She pointed at the ceiling. There hovered a black, translucent shape that rippled like a veil in the wind.
"Merciful gods," Marume said.
The moneylender threw himself facedown on the dais, his head shielded by his arms, and moaned. Joju lifted his palms to the ghost. "Emiko-san, why have you come?"
A low, thunderous sound quaked the room. Women in the audience shrieked; men muttered. Onaru wailed and thrashed.
"She's angry with you," Joju explained to the moneylender. "She wants revenge for her and her children's suffering and death. She has punished you by sending the children to haunt your wife."
Weeping hysterically, the moneylender said, "Make her stop them! Make her go away!"
The thunderous sound rumbled louder. The ghost fluttered with a noise like a monsoon whistling. "I cannot," Joju said regretfully. "Only you can."
"But how?"
"You must repent for your sins. She demands a sacrifice."
"Tell me what it is! I'll do anything she wants!"
Thunder boomed. Joju listened, then said, "You must donate a hundred koban to this temple, in order that I may continue helping those in need."
Sano knew that all exorcisms ended like this. The spirits all wanted money, and since they couldn't spend it, the money went to the priest.
The moneylender grabbed a box that had been lying near him in the shadows, opened it, and dumped shiny gold coins in front of Joju. "Here!"
Joju ignored the coins even as they cast glittering reflections onto his face. He addressed the ghost: "You have your wish. Now call your children to come out of this innocent woman." He gestured to Onaru. "You are free to depart to the spirit world, where you belong."
A burst of white light engulfed the ghost. Red, orange, and blue lights flickered. Onaru howled and writhed like a woman giving birth. Screams from the audience drowned in thunder and explosions that rocked the temple. Joju stood, hands spread and face lifted to the heavens, chanting prayers. Acrid smoke billowed while the weird, dissonant music played and Sano, Marume, and Fukida watched in awe.
Then the lights went out; the sounds and music faded. The silence hushed the assembly. Joju announced, "Emiko and the children are gone."
From behind the black curtains stepped monks carrying round white lanterns. Everyone blinked in the sudden brightness. Smoke tinged the air. The moneylender sat up and looked at his wife. "Onaru?"
She lay still and peaceful on the litter on which she'd been brought. "Husband," she murmured.
"Take her home and let her rest," Joju said. "She'll be fine."
The moneylender and the family bowed to Joju. All smiles, they carried the dazed Onaru out of the room.
"Was that real?" Fukida asked.
"I don't know." Marume sounded shaken out of his usual cheer. "But if they're happy, I'm happy."
Sano rose and walked toward Joju, who stood on the dais, hands clasped at his chest. He didn't seem surprised to see Sano; he must have been aware of Sano's presence all along. Perhaps those deep, glowing eyes could see in the dark.
"Welcome, Honorable Chamberlain," Joju said. "Although we've never been formally introduced, I know you by sight."
He didn't look as ageless now. The shadow of black stubble on his head receded far back on his scalp. Lines in his golden skin bracketed his mouth and webbed the skin at the corners of his eyes. His muscles had begun to sag. He also seemed tired from his exertions; he was bathed in sweat. But he descended from the dais with the agility of a young man, and he had an allure that transcended his physical being. He wore holiness as he did his glittering stole. Which caused Sano to distrust him more than he would the usual suspect.
"That was quite a show you put on," Sano said.
Wry humor upturned the corner of Joju's mouth. "I'll take that as a compliment. The salvation of souls can be quite dramatic, as you've just seen."
"Especially with a little help from opium in the incense and a few theatrics?" Sano said. No such theatrics had accompanied the phenomena he'd witnessed in Ezogashima. Sano had more than a hunch that Joju was a charlatan.
Joju laughed, the sound startlingly boisterous. "I see that you like rational explanations. Supposing I did employ the kind of trickery that you accuse me of: Why not, if it drives out the spirits and restores people to sanity?"
"Point taken," Sano said, "but possession by spirits isn't the cause of every illness. It may be rarer than it seems."
"Indeed not. Spirits are all around us, always seeking innocent victims to haunt." Joju opened his arms wide. "We all have the power to communicate with the spirit world, but few of us know how to use it. I am one of the few. I have dedicated my life to freeing humanity from evil spirits and laying them to peaceful rest."
He spoke as if he believed what he said. Perhaps he truly did. "At a handsome profit," Sano commented.
Irritation glinted in the black wells of Joju's eyes. "Not for myself. For my temple. For the benefit of the faithful who come to worship. May I ask why you're here? Perhaps you are in need of my services?"
"As a matter of fact, I am," Sano said.
"Oh?" Joju said, smug because he thought he had the advantage over Sano. "Who is in trouble?"
"My cousin," Sano said. "Her name is Chiyo."
Joju didn't react to the name, but he was clearly a man in control of how he appeared. "What are her symptoms?"
"She has nightmares," Sano said. Reiko had told him that.
"Nightmares are often caused by spirit possession."
"Not in this case," Sano said. "My cousin was recently kidnapped and raped. So was a twelve-year-old girl named Fumiko. I need your help with finding the person who did it."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what use I could be," Joju said. He hadn't reacted to the mention of the crimes, or seemed to recognize Fumiko's name. "I'm not a policeman."
"You can speak to the spirits. Maybe they can give me some information."