“Those peasants Harume knew,” Sano said. “Did she keep in touch with any of them after she moved to Edo Castle?” Sano wanted to know if she’d confided secrets to old companions. He also wanted new motives and suspects for her murder-preferably ones not associated with the Tokugawa.
“I don’t see how she could have, locked up day after day. Even when she went out, the shogun’s men keep a pretty close watch over the concubines.”
Yet Harume had managed to slip away and meet Lord Miyagi. Still, a peasant wouldn’t have had access to the ink bottle. This line of inquiry seemed a dead end. “Had you seen or heard from your daughter recently?” Sano asked.
An uneasy expression came over the horse dealer’s face. “… Yes. I got a message from Harume about three months ago. She begged me to get her out of Edo. Said she was afraid. Seems she’d run afoul of someone-I don’t remember her exact words. Anyway, she thought something bad would happen to her if she didn’t leave right away.”
Sano’s heart beat faster in anticipation and dread. “Did Harume say whom she was afraid of?”
Jimba blinked rapidly; his throat muscles spasmed. So he did have feelings toward the daughter he’d used to further his ambitions. To give him time to regain his composure, Sano looked over at the mounted samurai, who was circling the corral at a trot. Watching him wave a spear, Sano thought of Lieutenant Kushida. By blaming Kushida for Lady Harume’s murder, Sano could please the shogun and end the investigation. Yet by following Harume’s elusive ghost into the past, Sano had already moved beyond the point of easy solutions.
“No,” Jimba replied at last, with a grimace of regret. “Harume didn’t give the name of the person who was threatening her. I thought she was homesick, or didn’t like bedding the shogun, and had made up a story so I would rescue her. Sometimes it takes awhile for a filly to get used to a new stable. Ha-ha.” His laugh was a gloomy chortle. “I didn’t want to return the money, or ask the shogun to let Harume go. That would have offended His Excellency. I would never get any Tokugawa business again! And people would know it was Harume’s fault. How would I ever find a husband for her? She would have been a burden to me forever!”
The horse dealer’s voice rose in a defensive whine. “So I didn’t answer the message. I didn’t bother trying to find out whether someone was really trying to hurt Harume. Thought that if I ignored her, she would do her duty without complaining.”
“Did you save the message? May I look at it?”
“It wasn’t written. It was delivered by a castle messenger, by word of mouth.” When questioned about the messenger, Jimba said, “Didn’t get his name. Don’t remember what he looked like.”
Edo Castle had several hundred messengers, Sano knew. Tracing this one might prove difficult, especially if Harume, desiring secrecy, had persuaded a messenger to convey her words verbally as a favor, rather than writing a letter and employing him through official channels, which would leave a record.
“Was anyone else present when the message came?” Sano asked.
“No. And I didn’t tell anyone about it, either, because I didn’t want people to think Harume was making trouble. Then, after she died, I was too ashamed to let anyone know she’d been in danger and I’d refused to listen.”
Although Sano would have his detectives look for the messenger in question, he could only hope that the man’s recall was better than Jimba’s.
“I am responsible for my daughter’s death,” Jimba lamented, folding his arms on top of the fence and burying his head in them. “If only I’d taken her fears seriously, I might have saved her.” A sob strangled his voice.
Suppressing the urge to castigate the horse dealer for ignoring his daughter’s plea for help, Sano said soothingly, “You couldn’t have known what would happen.”
Jimba raised a face bloated with tears and rage. “What a fool I am!” He cuffed himself on the head. “I could kill myself! I trained and groomed that girl. She was a prime piece of flesh. Through her, I could have joined the Tokugawa clan. I should have gone to the bakufu and asked them to find out what was wrong in the Large Interior, and to take care of the problem. But no, I failed to protect my investment. Stupid, stupid!”
Sano let him rage without offering further sympathy. Jimba had earned his own fate. And Sano had grave problems of his own.
Around the corral galloped the mounted samurai. He wove between the rows of targets, stabbing at them with his spear. Straw particles dusted the air. At last the rider grasped the reins and brought the horse to a stop beside his waiting spectators.
“This is a fine beast,” he said.”I’ll take her.”
Suddenly the horse bucked. The rider sailed over its head and crashed to the ground. While his comrades rushed to his aid, the stablehands grabbed the reins. The horse kicked and strained, biting at their hands. Jimba vaulted the fence and hurried over to his fallen customer.
“The horse is just a bit skittish today,” he explained. “Once she knows you’re her master, she’ll behave!”
Even a tame creature sometimes rebels against a lifetime of discipline, Sano thought. Jimba had trained the wildness out of Harume; yet she hadn’t been completely controllable. Sano believed that her message to Jimba hadn’t been a mere ruse. She’d made an enemy who had the power, opportunity, and temperament to harm a concubine of the shogun. Of all the murder suspects, who best fit the profile?
Beneath Sano’s sash, Lady Keisho-in’s letter burned him like a sheet of flame. She ruled the Large Interior and commanded the shogun’s love. With the help of allies within the Tokugawa regime, she could have easily managed the murder, as well as an earlier poisoning attempt, and a dagger thrown by a hired assassin in a crowded street.
Now Jimba’s evidence strengthened the case against her. Must Sano accuse Lady Keisho-in of murder-and bring grave peril upon himself?
22
The paper in Hirata’s hand read:
INTERROGATION PLAN
1. Determine Lady Ichiteru’s true feelings toward Harume.
2. Find out where Lady Ichiteru was during the dagger attack and possible earlier poisoning attempt on Harume.
3. Has Lady Ichiteru ever bought poison?
4. Had Lady Ichiteru been in Harume’s room after the ink bottle and Lord Miyagi’s letter arrived?
5. Check Lady Ichiteru’s statement by asking Midori the same questions.
As Hirata rode across the Ryōgoku Bridge, he divided his attention between steering his horse past a band of porters hauling wood from the Honjo lumber yards and studying the plan for his second interview with Lady Ichiteru. He mumbled the directions scribbled in the margins. “Interview suspect at Edo Castle, not at the theater.” “Do not let suspect evade questions.” “If suspect makes lewd remarks, order her to stop.” “Do not think about sex while interviewing suspect.” “Above all, do not let suspect touch you!”
To fill a big hole in the fabric of the murder investigation, he must extract the relevant information from Lady Ichiteru. He had to correct his slip-up before Sano found out and lost trust in him. He wanted to rebuild his former image of himself as a good detective. And he desperately needed something to make up for the disappointing results of his other inquiries.
Yesterday the detective corps had failed to locate either the Indian arrow toxin or the elusive drug peddler, Choyei. This morning Hirata had sent them out to interrogate contacts within Edo ’s criminal underworld. He’d just revisited police headquarters, to no avail. There seemed little hope of solving the case by tracing the poison. Sano didn’t believe Lieutenant Kushida was guilty. Failure would bring severe punishment. Everything might depend on Hirata’s handling of the interview with Lady Ichiteru.
He’d spent a restless night, alternating between vivid, erotic dreams of her and wakeful bouts of self-recrimination. What a fool he was to let her trick him! After the capture of Lieutenant Kushida, he’d given up on sleep and formulated his plan for the interview. Now he would continue the search for Choyei while memorizing the plan and strengthening his resolve to withstand Lady Ichiteru’s charms.