"She's not home."
"Where is she?"
"She went to visit Cousin Chiyo this morning. She said she would be spending the night."
Sano heard thunder, went to the door, and opened it. He and Masahiro looked at the rain streaming off the eaves. "Well, at least she won't get caught in this weather."
White veins of lightning split the sky above the Kumazawa estate. Rain deluged the mansion. Thunder boomed. The sentries outside the gate stood beneath its roof, while patrol guards inside the grounds sheltered under the mansion's eaves. They didn't notice the man atop the back wall. The lightning illuminated his crouched figure for an instant before the sky went dark and the thunder reverberated. When the lightning flared again, he was gone. The next thunderclap masked the noise he made when he landed on the ground inside the wall.
In the women's quarters, Reiko played cards with Chiyo and Fumiko. The chamber was stuffy, the doors that led to the garden closed because of the storm. As Reiko dealt the cards, she listened to the rain clatter on the roof tiles. Lightning flickered through the paper windowpanes; thunder cracked.
Although pale and anxious, Chiyo made an effort to smile at Reiko. "I'm glad you're here."
"So am I," Reiko said, smiling back.
Fumiko wasn't much for conversation. Intent on the game, she snatched up the cards Reiko dealt her. The women laid out, matched, and picked up cards illustrated with cherry trees, cranes standing beneath red suns, and other suits. Reiko noticed that Fumiko won every round. She began to watch the girl and spied her slipping cards in and out of her sleeves. Fumiko was cheating! She must have learned how from the gangsters. Reiko decided against reprimanding her. Let the poor girl have some fun. And if Chiyo noticed, she didn't seem to mind. There were issues more serious than cheating at cards.
Reiko had a specific one on her mind. All day she'd wondered how to broach the delicate subject to Chiyo and Fumiko, but it couldn't be avoided any longer. "There's something I must tell you," she began. "The nun who was kidnapped… she had… a disease."
"Oh?" Chiyo said, mildly curious. "What kind of disease?"
"On her…" Reiko glanced down, at her lap. "It came from the man who kidnapped her."
Stricken by horrified comprehension, at first Chiyo didn't speak. She looked at Fumiko, who was matching cards and seemed not to be listening. Then she said, "Fumiko is clean. I saw her when we bathed. But I-"
"Do you…?" Reiko couldn't bring herself to ask Chiyo outright if she had symptoms.
"No," Chiyo whispered. "But…"
But it was too soon to know whether the rapist had given her the disease or not. Reiko said, "If you find anything wrong, you must see a physician."
"All right," Chiyo said unhappily.
Her duty done, Reiko rubbed her eyes, which were bleary with fatigue. Some two hours ago, the temple bells in Asakusa had rung at midnight. Everybody else in the house had gone to bed.
"If you're tired, you needn't stay up," Chiyo said.
"No, I'm fine," Reiko said. Chiyo had confided that she and Fumiko stayed up late because of their nightmares, and Reiko felt a desire as well as an obligation to keep them company.
As she dealt the cards again, Reiko felt a warm, damp draft on the back of her neck. The flame in the lantern wavered. The sound and smell of the rain filled the room. Fumiko, who sat opposite her, dropped the cards she held. Fumiko gazed past Reiko, her eyes wide with terror.
Reiko turned. A man stood inside the open door, his black garments streaming water from the rain. He wore a hood that covered his entire head, with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth. Raising a sword in both hands, he lunged across the room toward Reiko and her friends.
Chiyo screamed.
Fumiko jumped up to run, but tripped on her hem and fell.
Reiko snatched up her dagger, which lay in its sheath on the floor beside her. She usually wore it strapped to her arm under her sleeve when she left home, but she'd thought she would be safe here. The man rushed at Chiyo. She raised her hands to protect herself, and his sword came swinging downward at her. Reiko whipped out her dagger and slashed at the man. Even as he faltered and turned his weapon on Reiko, her blade cut him across his belly.
He uttered an awful yowl. He dropped his sword, sank to his knees, and bent over the wound. Blood mixed with rainwater spilled onto the floor.
Fumiko huddled nearby, hands over her mouth, staring at him. Chiyo called, "Help, help!"
The intruder glared at Reiko through the holes in his hood, his eyes blazing with hatred and anger. He groped for his weapon, but toppled sideways. The emotion faded from his eyes as he collapsed amid playing cards stained red by his blood.
Reiko heard men shouting and running in the corridors and outside the house. Then Major Kumazawa and his guards were in the room. Major Kumazawa wore a night robe; his feet were bare. He carried a sword, which he pointed at the dead man.
"What happened?" he demanded. "Who is this?"
Reiko couldn't answer. She was suddenly dizzy, gasping for breath. She had a frightening sense that time had folded back on itself and she was reliving an earlier attack, during which her children had almost been murdered.
Fumiko pointed to the mask that the corpse wore. "It's the man who kidnapped us!" she shrilled. "He came back to get us, just like he said he would!"
33
Sano roused groggily from a sound sleep. Into his dark chamber spilled light from a lantern held by Detective Fukida, who stood in the doorway. "I'm sorry to bother you," Fukida said, "but there's an urgent message from Lady Reiko."
Instantly wide awake, Sano said, "What?" He bolted upright in bed. "Is she all right?"
"Yes," Fukida said, "but there's been an attack at the Kumazawa house. She asks you to come at once."
Sano threw on some clothes. Heading for the door, he met Masahiro, rubbing his sleepy eyes, in the hall. "Where are you going, Father?"
"To fetch your mother," Sano said. "Don't worry, she's fine. Go back to bed. We'll be home soon."
He rode through the dark, slumbering city with Marume and Fukida and some troops. The neighborhood gates had long been closed for the night, but Sano and his men wore the Tokugawa crest, and the watchmen let them pass. After a hard ride along the highway, they reached the Kumazawa estate.
It was lit up like a house on fire. Flames burned in metal lanterns along the wall and at the gate; more lights flickered from within the courtyard. Smoke melted into the misty night. The guards let Sano's party through the gate. As they dismounted in the courtyard, Reiko came running out of the mansion. Dressed in a night robe, she was agitated and disheveled, her face bare of makeup, her long hair carelessly braided. But she was indeed alive and well, to Sano's relief.
"What happened?" Sano said.
As Reiko told him about the attack, he listened in horror that didn't ease much when she told him she'd killed the man. Killing was a traumatic experience. Reiko must have been terrified, and she hadn't been the only one in danger.
"Where is Chiyo?" Sano said. "And Fumiko?"
Out of breath from excitement and speaking too fast, Reiko gestured toward the house. Chiyo and Fumiko stepped out onto the veranda. They looked shaken but unharmed. Major Kumazawa appeared behind them, fully dressed in his armor tunic, his swords at his waist, as if ready for battle.
"My daughter and her guest weren't touched," he said. "But they would have been killed if not for your wife."
His tone conveyed some admiration and gratitude toward Reiko but more fury at the attack on his house hold. "The man climbed over the wall. We found the rope he used. He got past my guards-he killed two of them. He must have been a professional assassin."
"Where is the assassin now?"
"In the backyard," Major Kumazawa said. "Your wife insisted on keeping his body until you arrived."
Sano cast a thankful glance at Reiko. She smiled briefly through her distress. He was proud of her for having the presence of mind to save the evidence.