“Four horizontal, seventeen vertical,” Yohei responded.
The pressure grew within Kushida as he set a white pebble in place. Every fiber of him tensed; the need for freedom swelled the blood in his veins. He endured the slow, tedious game, making moves at random. From outside the door came loud snores: The guard had fallen asleep.
“Young master, you’re not concentrating on the game,” Yohei chided. “I’ve captured almost all your pieces, and you haven’t taken any of mine.”
Hating to deceive his friend, Kushida said, “You’re wrong, Yohei. I’m winning.”
Yohei’s puzzled face appeared in the window; he squinted, trying to see Kushida’s board. “One of us has gotten the moves mixed up.”
“It must be me,” Kushida said. “I can’t keep my mind on the game.” Moving close to the window and lowering his voice, he said, “It would be better if we sat together. You could make sure all the pieces are in the right spots.”
Yohei shook his head. “I can’t let you out, young master. You know that.”
“But you can come in here with me.” Seeing indecision pucker the old man’s forehead, Kushida coaxed, “Come on. As long as you leave before the guard wakes up, he won’t care.”
“Well…”
Kushida’s desperation inspired cunning. “You don’t believe I killed Lady Harume, do you, Yohei?”
“Of course not,” the loyal retainer said indignantly. Then his certainty wavered. “But you attacked the sōsakan-sama and his men.”
“I didn’t kill Harume,” said Kushida. “I didn’t even know she was going to tattoo herself, so why would I have poisoned her ink jar? But Sōsakan Sano needs to make an arrest, so he framed me. I never broke into his house; I never attacked anyone. It’s all a lie!”
Sputtering with outrage, Yohei burst out, “How dare the sōsakan-sama falsely accuse my young master? I’ll kill him!”
“And end up convicted for murder yourself? No, Yohei, you mustn’t.” Kushida sighed with feigned resignation. “All we can do is wait for the truth to come out. Then my name will be cleared.” His skin felt tight, his skull ready to explode from the throbbing pressure. “Now open the door and come inside so we can finish our game. I promise I won’t try to escape. You’ve known me all my life, Yohei. You can trust me.” Kushida let his voice quaver: “Besides, I’m lonely. I-I need someone near me.”
Yohei’s eyes brimmed with love and pity. “All right.” He put a finger to his lips and headed toward the door.
Hurriedly, Kushida replaced the go pieces in their container, and tucked it in his kimono. Then came the clank of the door’s iron bar as Yohei pulled it out of the brackets. Kushida lifted the go board by its legs and stood to one side of the door, heart pounding. The guard snored on. Slowly the door slid open. Yohei entered the room on tiptoe, holding the candle.
“Young master…?”
Kushida stuck out his foot. Yohei tripped over it and sprawled on the floor. “What-?!”
In the space of a blink, Kushida leapt over Yohei and into the corridor. “No, young master!” he heard his friend shout. The guard sat against the wall, spear in hand. Hearing the commotion, he stirred. Kushida swung the go board. With the sickening thump of solid wood and ivory against bone, it slammed against the guard’s head; he fell unconscious. Kushida flung aside the board, plucked the spear out of the guard’s limp hand, then ran down the corridor.
“Please come back, young master!” Yohei called, hobbling after him. “You’ll never get away. The yashiki is surrounded. The soldiers will kill you!”
Doors screeched open and cries arose as the noise awakened the household. Troops appeared and began chasing Kushida. “The prisoner is loose!” they cried. “Catch him!”
Legs pumping furiously, Kushida raced for the back door. He glanced over his shoulder and saw two soldiers gaining on him. Pulling the container of go pieces out of his kimono, he tossed it into the soldiers’ path. The container hit the floor and the lid popped off, scattering pebbles. Amid surprised yelps, the soldiers slipped, then crashed to the floor.
Kushida flung open the door and burst out into the lantern-lit courtyard, startling two sentries. Wielding his stolen spear with deadly efficiency, Kushida struck their heads with its shaft. They crumpled to the ground. More soldiers leapt off the roof to join the battle, but Kushida was already through the gate. Two slashes of his spear wounded the guards stationed outside. Patrolling troops rushed to the rescue; archers fired arrows. Running for his life, his love, and his honor, Kushida fled into the night.
27
We observed all the correct procedures for house arrest, but the old man let him out,” said the commander who had summoned Sano to the Kushida estate. “None of this is our fault.”
He gestured angrily around the torch-lit courtyard. There lay four men wounded by Lieutenant Kushida during his escape. Kushida’s parents and a few retainers huddled on the veranda of the house, a modest one-story building with half-timbered walls and barred windows. From outside in the street, curious spectators peered through the bamboo thicket.
Sano had been awakened by the arrival of the messenger who had delivered the bad news. Now he stood in the chilly courtyard with Hirata as troops milled around, spectators chattered, and the first azure luminescence of dawn paled the sky. Inwardly he berated himself for losing a suspect. He should have recognized Lieutenant Kushida as an escape risk and denied him the privileges of rank, placing him in Edo Jail instead of under house arrest. Though Sano considered Lady Keisho-in the more likely murderer of Harume, he still didn’t believe that the lieutenant had told the complete truth about either his relationship with Harume or his reasons for breaking into Sano’s estate. With difficulty, Sano resisted the temptation to vent his anger at himself on the troops for letting a single man overcome them.
“Let’s forget about blame for the moment and concentrate on capturing Lieutenant Kushida,” Sano said. “What’s been done so far?”
“Men are out searching the banchō, but they’ve sent back no word on Kushida yet. Unfortunately, he’s a fast runner.”
Kushida could be clear out of Edo by sunrise, Sano thought with a heavy heart. Yet he doubted that leaving town was the lieutenant’s whole motive for escaping. Why had he broken house arrest? The answer could be crucial to locating Kushida. Sano told the commander to continue the search. Then, motioning for Hirata to follow, he walked over to the Kushida family and introduced himself.
“Did your son say anything that might tell us why he escaped, or where he was going?” he asked the lieutenant’s father.
“I have not spoken to my son since he was suspended from his post.” The elder Kushida glared, his simian features set in hard lines. “And his most recent bad behavior did nothing to reconcile us.”
Now Sano could better understand Lieutenant Kushida’s obsessive passion for Harume: with such an unloving, unforgiving parent, he must have been starved for affection.
Kushida’s mother cast a frightened glance at her husband, then nodded toward an old samurai weeping by the door. “Yohei saw him last.”
This, then, was the faithful retainer whom Kushida had tricked into opening the cell door.
“Nothing that my young master said or did warned me that he meant to escape,” Yohei mourned. “I don’t know why he did it.”
Staggering forward, Yohei prostrated himself at Sano’s feet. “Oh, sōsakan-sama, when you catch my young master, please don’t kill him! I’m the one who’s responsible for what happened tonight. Let me die in his place!”
“I won’t kill him,” Sano promised. He needed Kushida alive for further questioning. “And I won’t punish you if you’ll help me find him. Does he have any friends he might run to for help?”
“There’s his old sensei-Master Saigo. He’s retired now, and lives in Kanagawa.”