"Shall I find out what others he owns?" Fukida asked.
Sano envisioned a long, tedious search through Edo's mountains of property records. "No. We don't have time."
What they did have was two other suspects to investigate.
As they rode down the street, Marume said, "I heard what Ogita said about spring books. He's right-a lot of men have them. You should see the ones in the barracks at home."
Edo had an overabundance of men without women. They were samurai retainers who were single or had left their wives in their lords' provinces, as well as merchants, artisans, and laborers who'd come to seek their fortune in the city and couldn't afford to marry. Under these conditions, prostitution and erotic art flourished. And even rich men, who could have all the women they wanted, enjoyed spring books. But that didn't clear Ogita, not in Sano's opinion.
"I skimmed through the rest of Ogita's book," Sano said. "All the other pictures showed men raping women. Even if Ogita didn't kidnap the shogun's wife, I think he's responsible for one or more of the other crimes."
But so could the other suspects be guilty.
"Where are we going now?" Fukida asked.
"We're going back to the exorcist," Sano said.
36
A group of beggars in ragged clothes loitered in the street outside the exorcist's temple. When they saw Sano's party coming, they held out their hands for alms, but without much hope. Sano and his men proceeded to the hall where he'd seen Joju the day before yesterday. Again, the monks at the door tried to prevent them from entering.
"His Holiness doesn't want to be disturbed."
"Try to keep us out, and he'll be worse than just disturbed," Marume said.
Sano and his detectives went inside the hall while his troops swarmed the grounds and other buildings. He found the hall drastically altered since his last visit. Daylight poured through open skylights. The black drapes, suspended from rods, were drawn back to expose windows cut high in the walls. From one window protruded a wooden bracket that held the painting of bloody fetuses. Through another Sano saw a drum, lute, and samisen in a room where musicians evidently played during rituals. Some windows opened onto platforms. There, monks crouched, setting up flares, rockets, and smoke bombs. More monks leaned out of a hole in the ceiling and lowered a dummy, dressed in white veils, on thin cords. Like puppeteers, they manipulated the dummy; it flew and dived. The scene reminded Sano of a theater undergoing preparations for a new play.
Spying Sano and the detectives, the monks hauled up the dummy, scrambled to close the drapes, and fled through the windows. Marume called, "It's too late." He and Fukida laughed. "We've seen everything."
Joju strode into the room so fast that his saffron robe whipped around his ankles like flames. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, his handsome face dark with anger. "Your troops are invading my temple. They say I'm hiding the shogun's wife. That's ridiculous!"
"You've been hiding plenty of other things." Sano gestured around the room.
Joju stopped short, but quickly recovered. "Those are just tools for my rituals."
" 'Tools'? Is that what you call it?" Sano said. "I call it 'fraud.' "
The priest put on a dazzling, condescending smile. "The spirits are real. My exorcisms are real. But they work best if people believe in them. The props help people believe."
"I wonder if the shogun will continue to believe in you when he finds out about this," Sano said.
"You wouldn't tell His Excellency." Joju's intonation made the words a blend of question, statement, and threat.
"He deserves to know when someone is taking his money and playing him for a fool."
"Before you do, you should understand that people want to believe in what I do," Joju said. "His Excellency would rather think that I can communicate with evil spirits and solve problems by driving them out, than hear that my exorcisms are fakery and there's no help for people who are ill and troubled."
"You have a good point," Sano said, "but I have influence with the shogun."
"Then let us present our cases to him and see whose side he takes."
"I'll take my chances," Sano said, although he knew the superstitious shogun might well come down on Joju's side. "Are you ready to gamble that His Excellency will continue his patronage of you when he finds out that you kidnapped his wife?"
"I didn't." Joju spoke with obstinate defiance, but Sano sensed his fear that he would be framed.
"Then you should be able to prove you're innocent," Sano said. From outside came the sounds of his troops overrunning the temple grounds, calling to one another, tramping in and out of buildings. "Where were you early yesterday?"
"Here at the temple."
"Have you seen or heard from Jinshichi and Gombei?"
"The oxcart drivers? No."
Sano glanced at Marume and Fukida. He read on their faces the same concern that had arisen in his mind: If Joju did have the shogun's wife, she was hidden somewhere else. All Joju had to do was keep quiet, and Sano wouldn't find her until he let her go. By then, the damage would have been done to an innocent woman, and the shogun would never forgive Sano.
As much as Sano hated to admit it, this was a time for him to compromise. "Listen," he said to Joju. "Give me the shogun's wife, and I won't tell the shogun that you're a fraud. I won't tell him how I found her, either."
Marume and Fukida frowned: They could tell that Sano wasn't trying to trick Joju; this was a genuine offer. Sano knew they didn't want him to let a supposed criminal go free or compromise his principles. Then they nodded in resignation because they knew that what mattered was returning the shogun's wife safe and sound, and Sano had to do what he must.
Joju favored Sano with a smile that bespoke regret as well as offense. "I'm surprised to say that I believe you would actually uphold your end of the bargain. But I can't give you the shogun's wife because I don't have her. That is the truth, I swear by all the spirits in the cosmos."
"I hate to say this, but I think Joju is telling the truth about the shogun's wife," Fukida said.
"So do I," Marume said.
"Maybe you're right," Sano said.
He and the detectives stood in the temple grounds with his other troops, who'd just finished their search without finding Lady Nobuko. By now Sano was so exhausted that he felt his instincts shutting down; he hardly knew what to think anymore.
"Maybe Joju isn't responsible for Lady Nobuko's disappearance or for the other kidnappings." Sano looked around the grounds. He didn't see the men he'd just assigned to keep surveillance on Joju; they'd mixed with the crowds of worshippers. With luck, Joju wouldn't spot them, either. "But I hope he'll lead us to her, if Ogita doesn't."
"If neither one has her, there's still Nanbu," Fukida said.
"He's next," Sano said.
He and his men left the temple. Outside, there was now only one beggar, a woman with raddled skin, lank hair, and feet so calloused and caked with dirt that they looked like hooves. She said something to Sano that he didn't catch. He was so surprised that he paused before mounting his horse. Beggars usually didn't dare talk to samurai.
"What did you say?" he asked.
A closer look at her showed him that her features were delicate; she must have once been pretty. Her voice marked her as younger than Sano had at first thought, in her thirties. Maybe she was bold because she had nothing to lose except her life, which was a burden to her anyway.
"Is he in trouble?" she said.
"Who?" Sano said.
The woman gestured toward the temple. "Him. Joju."
"Yes, in fact he is," Sano said.
She smiled, showing decayed teeth. "Good." Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "I'm glad. I hate him."