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"She's missing," Fukida said. "We think she's been kidnapped."

"Well, not by me," Nanbu declared. "Search this whole place, search my house, too, if you want-I haven't got her."

Just because he, like Joju and Ogita, indulged in dubious behavior, that didn't mean Nanbu had committed the crimes under investigation. Sano couldn't ignore the possibility that none of the three was behind the disappearance of the shogun's wife.

Then a thought occurred to Sano. What if the oxcart drivers had kidnapped her for another client and hidden her in a secret place? The suspects would know where it was. Sano thought up a deal that might induce Nanbu to cooperate.

"You're in trouble even if you don't have the shogun's wife," Sano told Nanbu. "If she's not found, or if she's hurt, the shogun will blame me. I'll be looking to pass the blame to someone else. You'll make a good scapegoat."

"That's not fair." The horror on Nanbu's face weakened his pose of defiance.

"You want me to be fair? All right, here's a chance to save your life." Sano said, "You tell me where Jinshichi and Gombei take the women they kidnap. I'll let you off the hook."

"I told you I don't know those people," Nanbu whined, but Sano heard the lie in his voice. "You're trying to trick me into confessing."

"Let the dogs have at him," Marume suggested.

"Not yet," Sano said, then addressed Nanbu. "Let's just suppose there have been rumors about two oxcart drivers: They kidnap women and take them to a certain place. Let's suppose you've heard the rumors, even though you've never met Jinshichi or Gombei. Just tell me where the place is. That's not a confession. Nothing will happen to you." Sano hated to play games with a man who might have committed four serious crimes, but he continued: "What do you say?"

Nanbu hesitated. Sano knew that if Nanbu answered, it would mean he was guilty, but Sano would have to spare Nanbu or renege on the deal and violate his code of honor.

"I don't know where it is," Nanbu said slowly.

Sano had had just about all he could take from these men whose true, ugly colors he'd seen even if they weren't guilty of these par tic ular crimes. If Nanbu didn't talk right now, he would kill him. The thought must have shown on his face, because Nanbu recoiled from him in terror.

"I don't know where it is because it doesn't stay in the same place all the time," Nanbu hastily amended. "It moves."

"How can it move?" Sano said, wary of a trick.

"It's a boat," Nanbu said.

When Reiko arrived in Asakusa, she found Chiyo waiting for her in the street a few blocks from the Kumazawa estate. Chiyo clutched the folds of the black drape she wore over her head. She huddled against a wall as pedestrians and mounted samurai moved past her. She looked small, frightened, and vulnerable. Reiko supposed this was the first time she'd left home since Sano had brought her back. When Chiyo spied Reiko's palanquin, she ran up to it and spoke through the window.

"Many thanks for coming. I'm sorry I can't invite you to the house."

"I understand," Reiko said. "What is the trouble you mentioned in your message?"

Gasping, Chiyo bent over and clasped her chest. Not only was she afraid to be out of doors; she was still weak and ill. Reiko told the bearers to set down the palanquin, opened the door, then said to Chiyo, "Come in. Sit down."

Chiyo obeyed. When she'd recovered her breath, she said, "This morning, Jirocho came to the house. My father's soldiers have orders not to let him in, but he stood by the gate and shouted Fumiko's name until she heard him and went running outside. She was so glad to go with him, it broke my heart."

"What changed his mind?" Reiko asked.

"I asked him that. He said he had a new plan for finding out who violated her. And he needed Fumiko to make it work."

Sano wouldn't be pleased that Jirocho had taken the law into his own hands. "What is Jirocho's plan?"

"Jirocho knows about the three suspects that your husband found." The words spilled from Chiyo in breathless haste. "He sent a message, the same message, to Nanbu, Ogita, and Joju. It said that Fumiko has identified him as the one who violated her, and unless he wants her to tell Chamberlain Sano, he should meet Jirocho this evening and pay him a thousand koban."

Reiko stared in surprise and confusion. "But Fumiko didn't get a good look at the man. Has she suddenly remembered more?"

"Maybe. I don't know. She wouldn't talk about it," Chiyo said. "Jirocho is gambling that one of those men will think so."

Now Reiko saw Jirocho's intent. "He's setting a trap. He's hoping that whoever violated his daughter will show up to pay the blackmail, and then Jirocho will kill him. But why did he take Fumiko?"

"He wanted her to go with him to the meeting," Chiyo said. "If someone shows up, Jirocho thinks she'll remember, and she's supposed to say whether he's the one. Jirocho wants to be certain."

The gangster boss didn't want to kill the wrong man, who might show up for reasons that Reiko didn't have time to discuss. Jirocho especially wouldn't want to kill someone as important as Nanbu, Joju, or Ogita without being absolutely sure it was worthwhile.

"Where is the meeting?" Reiko asked.

"In the paupers' cemetery in Inaricho. At the hour of the boar."

That was not long from now. Reiko felt a stir of apprehension on Fumiko's behalf.

"I'm afraid," Chiyo said. "If one of those men is the criminal and he shows up, I can't imagine that he'll just let himself be killed."

"Neither can I." Reiko remembered Sano's descriptions of Ogita, Nanbu, and Joju. They hadn't sounded like easy targets, and they surely wouldn't go to meet a blackmailing gangster alone.

"There's bound to be trouble. I begged Fumiko to stay with me, but she'll do anything to please her father. That's all she wants. I asked my father to intervene, but he said it was none of his business." Anxious and frantic, Chiyo said, "Reiko-san, I have no one to turn to except you." She clasped her hands, extended them to Reiko. "Please, will you save Fumiko?"

"Of course I will," Reiko said.

She couldn't bear the thought of the poor girl caught between her rapist and her father any more than Chiyo could. She felt her heartbeat quicken with excitement, urgency, and uncertainty about what to do.

"I'll tell my husband. He'll send out his troops," she said, then reconsidered. "No-that will take too long. They'll never get there in time." Reiko looked at her own entourage of five guards plus Lieutenant Tanuma. She had an army of seven, including herself.

Lieutenant Tanuma said in alarm, "No, Lady Reiko. We're not going. Your husband would kill me."

"I'm going with or without you," Reiko said, "and he'll kill you if you don't come."

"All right," Tanuma said, glum in his certainty that he was dead no matter what he did. "But I have a bad feeling about this."

Reiko turned to Chiyo. "You'd better go home. I'll tell you what happens."

Chiyo stayed seated in the palanquin beside Reiko. "No," she said, quiet but firm. "I'm going, too."

Dismay struck Reiko. "I can't let you."

"Why not? Because we might see something disturbing? Because you don't think I can bear it?"

"Because you're not trained in combat, and I can't promise we'll be able to protect you. You might get hurt."

Chiyo smiled sadly. "What could hurt me worse than what has already happened? What have I to lose?"

"Perhaps much more than you think," Reiko said. "You don't know what the future holds. Your husband and children-"

"Are gone for good." Chiyo sounded resigned to the fact decreed by custom. "All I have is Fumiko, and she needs me." Chiyo's soft features hardened with determination. "If you put me out of your palanquin, I'll walk all the way to Inaricho. You can't stop me."

A chamber in the office area of Sano's estate served as a command post for the search for Lady Nobuko. Sano, Yanagisawa, and Yoritomo knelt on the floor while Detectives Marume and Fukida unrolled a map of Edo. The map was crisscrossed by painted blue lines that represented streams and canals. The wider blue ribbon of the Sumida River divided Edo proper from the eastern suburbs. Sano and Yanagisawa pored over the map like generals charting a battle strategy.