His vision expanded until he could see in all directions, the island behind him as well as the river in front of him, red crayfish swimming at the bottom of the river, the sun through the clouds. The gray landscape took on brilliant hues, as if drenched in a rainbow. His nostrils magnified odors; he smelled horse dung, sewage, and garbage in the city, incense burning in the temples, and enough food cooking to make a banquet for the gods. He heard a million hearts beating, and when he reached out his hands, he felt their rhythm through the skin on his fingertips. Closing his eyes, he projected his inner voice across the world.
I'm here, he called silently. Come and get me.
He heard no answer from the enemy even though he waited and listened for what seemed like an eternity.
Instead he felt two different yet also familiar energy auras. They pulsed very near him. He opened his eyes, broke his trance. Looking toward the shipyard, he realized that even though one search had failed, the other had borne fruit. There, among the men working on the hull of a boat, were Jinshichi and Gombei, the two oxcart drivers.
37
Sano, his detectives, and the troops walked up to the kennels behind a pack of huge guard dogs that Sano had borrowed from a friend. Three of the friend's dog trainers led the beasts on iron chains attached to leather harnesses. By the gate stood the troops Sano had posted there. The dogs barked and lunged at them while the trainers hauled on the dogs' chains and yelled, "Down!"
"Is Nanbu still inside?" Sano asked.
"Yes," said the troops' leader. "He never left."
"That gives him an alibi for Lady Nobuko's kidnapping," Fukida said.
"It doesn't mean he doesn't know anything about it," Sano said.
Marume pounded on the gate. "Open up!"
First came the sound of dogs barking inside; then a man's voice shouted, "Go away!"
Sano's soldiers jumped off their horses, unloaded a battering ram, and charged. They rammed the gate until it sagged open. Inside it crouched Nanbu's dogs, restrained on their leashes by two of Nanbu's men. Sano's borrowed dogs leaped forward. A frenzy of barks, howls, and shouts ensued as the trainers urged their dogs through the gate and forced Nanbu's men to retreat with theirs. Sano, the detectives, and his troops walked inside.
"Talk about fighting fire with fire," Marume said.
"If dogs are killed by dogs, that's not against the law," Fukida said.
As the two dog packs faced off, Sano raised his voice over their barks and growls. "Where's Nanbu?"
Nanbu's men didn't answer, but one glanced at a building set apart from the kennels. Sano, his men, and his canine army stampeded toward the building. Nanbu's men and their dogs followed. The building was a wooden shack, raised above the muddy ground on low pilings, with lattice enclosing its base; it resembled an oversized privy. The trainers and their dogs held off the other pack as Marume opened the door. Sano and the detectives drew their swords. They looked inside.
A hulking shape moved on the floor. Rhythmic thumps punctuated whimpers and cries. Sano recognized the shape as Nanbu, hunched on his knees and elbows on a mattress. Under him thrashed a girl. She shrieked and beat her fists at him while his body thrust at her and he uttered growls as fierce and bestial as his dogs'.
"Stop!" Sano shouted.
Marume and Fukida burst into the shack, grabbed Nanbu, and dragged him off the woman.
"Hey, what is this?" Nanbu protested. His face was dripping sweat, engorged with lust. His erection showed under his clothes. "Let me go!" As he struggled to break free of the detectives, he saw Sano and exclaimed, "How did you get in here?"
Sano ignored Nanbu and stepped over to the girl. She wept as she tried to cover herself with her torn kimono. He said, "Are you all right?"
Gazing up at him in speechless fear, she pushed long, tangled black hair away from her face. Bruises surrounded both her eyes. Her nose was bleeding.
"Where is the shogun's wife?" Sano asked Nanbu.
"How should I know? Why don't you let me finish?" Nanbu cursed as the detectives hauled him outside and threw him on the mud. The trainers and their dogs surrounded him. "She's just a girl who cleans the dog cages."
"You can go," Sano told the girl. "For your own good, don't come back. Find another job."
She scrambled out the door and ran. Sano left the shack and stood over Nanbu, who said, "I didn't do anything wrong. We were just having a little fun."
"You hit her," Sano said.
"So what?" Nanbu said. The dogs barked and snapped. He cringed. "She got wild. I had to show her who was boss."
His attitude disgusted Sano. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
Nanbu looked honestly surprised. "Why? The girl works for me. Besides, she asked for it. She led me on, and then she changed her mind and started fighting."
Sano spotted new variations on the theme. Servants were at their masters' disposal, and Nanbu had only done what countless other men did every day. And many men justified forcing women into sex by saying the women wanted it. However, those excuses didn't make Sano any more favorably disposed toward Nanbu.
"Is that what you told yourself when you violated my cousin?" Sano said.
"I didn't," Nanbu protested. "I told you already." The dogs strained their chains, slavering at him. "Now please, call off your dogs!"
"What's the matter, don't you like a taste of your own medicine?" Marume laughed.
"What about Fumiko and the nun?" Sano said.
"Not them, either!" Nanbu was livid with anger, his hands and knees soiled by the dog feces that littered the ground. "And not the shogun's wife! I've never even laid eyes on her. Why are you looking for her, anyway? Doesn't she always stay inside the palace?"
"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?"