There was a crash. Mrs. Kajiwara had dropped the earthenware pitcher of water. “Oh, husband!” she wailed. “Not more misfortune!”
“Calm down, my dear,” said her husband. “This gentleman will surely explain. Do we have another pitcher?”
She shook her head and crouched to clean up the shards. Saburo got up and took some coppers from his sash. “As it was me who caused the accident,” he said, “allow me to pay for the damage. And I’m not at all thirsty any more. Thank you for your trouble.”
She glanced at her husband, blushed, and took the money. “Thank you, sir. You are kind.”
Her husband muttered, “There was no need.”
Saburo resumed his seat, and the schoolmaster’s wife left the room. Saburo looked at the dim, chilly room, listened to the sounds of water dripping through a torn roof somewhere, and eyed the pages of writing beside the school master. “You’re trying to earn money doing copying work?”
The other man nodded. “I’ll never make enough to pay back all I owe. I should never have gone to Nakamura, but no one else would lend us money. You see, our youngest child got sick this past winter. We tried everything, and in the end the cost of the doctor and his medicines got so high that I borrowed twenty pieces of silver from Nakamura to pay what I owed.” He brushed tears from his eyes. “My little daughter died anyway. Nakamura was very kind and offered me money for her funeral. And after that, he said, ‘Look, you need to get back on your feet. I’ll advance you another twenty. Take your time repaying it.’ I did. Then his partner showed up and demanded repayment. Suddenly I owed more than two hundred pieces of silver. I’ve paid back the first twenty and the second twenty, but I still owe one hundred and sixty. It’s hopeless. I’ve thought of killing myself, but I cannot leave my family with this debt. I’m going to sell the house and we’ll go away, someplace where there are no men like Nakamura and Saito.” He bowed his head and wept.
“I’m very sorry,” said Saburo. “Why aren’t you teaching? Surely that pays better than copying.”
“I lost my post teaching the children in the household of a nobleman. One of the servants accused me of making lewd remarks to one of his lordship’s daughters. It wasn’t true, but no one will let me teach children now.”
His wife had come back quietly. She went to kneel beside her husband. Putting a hand on his, she said, “It was a foul lie. My husband would never do what they said. That man was angry because I refused to sleep with him.”
Kajiwara squeezed her hand. “Ssh! Saburo doesn’t need to know all of our troubles.” He looked at Saburo. “So now I’m accused of murder? Will the police show up on my door step next?”
“Don’t worry. It will take them a while to clear the blind girl. After that there is Nakamura’s family. He was very wealthy. And perhaps also his partner. I came here to understand how they’ve been operating. The list is long. They’ve driven many people to the point of desperation.” He glanced at the stack of finished pages. “Were you home all day?”
“Yes!” husband and wife called out together.
“You didn’t by chance visit the Daikoku-yu?”
“A bathhouse? I can’t afford such luxuries,” the schoolmaster said with a snort.
“Good. One last question: do you know of anyone who might have murdered Nakamura?”
The schoolmaster shook his head.
Saburo rose, bowed to both of them, and left.
The rain still fell, casting the city into a gloomy grayness that matched Saburo’s mood. The Kajiwara story depressed him. The poor family needed help Saburo could not provide. He decided to speak to his master. Then it struck him that the murder case itself was just the sort of thing to lure his lordship from his self-imposed house arrest.
Greatly cheered, he hurried home.
11
Fire in a Jar
Akiko was not a woman to remain soft-hearted for long. Once they had reached Akitada’s study, she wasted no time speaking her mind.
“You have worried us long enough,” she said. “It’s time you returned to your duties. Sitting for hours in a dark room, as Tora and Hanae assure me you have been doing, does no one any good, least of all your children and your people who depend on you. Over the last few years, you have taken on responsibilities beyond those of your own family. Soon there will be many more mouths to feed. Genba’s wife is expecting.”
Akitada covered his face with his hands as if he could thus stop the onslaught of accusation and reproof. “I only just noticed,” he muttered. “They didn’t tell me.”
“They’re afraid to. They all walk about on tiptoes so they won’t disturb you.”
Akitada lowered his hands. “Not quite.” He decided to distract Akiko from the issue of his not having returned to work yet. “It seems Kobe, Nakatoshi, and Tora have plotted together to get me involved in the investigation of a strange death. Do you recall my former friend Tasuku?”
Her eyes flashed with interest. “The handsome Tasuku? He’s the very splendid abbot of Daiun-ji now, did you know?”
“Yes. Well, it seems a beautiful and mysterious woman has hanged herself in his mansion.”
“No!” Eyes round with delighted shock, Akiko sank down on a cushion. “Tell me! I want to know all. A mysterious woman, you say? Just the sort of thing to stimulate the mind.”
Akitada looked at her in dismay. He had only meant to stop the flood of recriminations. Instead he had given her exactly what would make her an intolerable nuisance. She would not rest now until she was part of the investigation, and that meant she would be here every day until the case was solved.
“It’s probably nothing,” he said weakly. “The police have investigated and confirmed the death as suicide. But … “ He thought of the two sweets on her shelf.
“So you suspect murder?” Akiko’s eyes glittered. “What’s the lady’s name?”
“Her name is Ogata. It may be an assumed name.”
“Ogata? Hmm. A good family, but not well known. Now where have I met someone by that name?” Akiko was off on the trail.
Akitada sighed. “Well, perhaps it will come to you later,” he said, hoping it would encourage her to leave and continue her research from her home.
But his sister was not so easily distracted. “Yes,” she said. “It can wait. Right now I want to know everything you know. Did you speak to Abbot Genshin? What does he say?”
“I have not spoken to him,” Akitada said quickly. “We did not part on very friendly terms years ago, and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Ah, yes. I recall you were always critical of him.” Akiko giggled. “You can be very judgmental in matters of romance, dear brother. You didn’t approve of the man because he was very good-looking and adored by many women.”
Akitada frowned. “His offense was rather more serious than flirtations.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You don’t say. What exactly did he do?”
“I’m not going to tell you.”
She pouted. “Oh, very well, but you won’t get off so easily about this case. You think the evil abbot murdered the Ogata woman, right?”
“Don’t call him an evil abbot, and I don’t think anything of the sort. Really, Akiko, you jump to conclusions much too fast to make a good investigator.”
Her eyes shone. “Then you’ll let me help?”
He sighed. “Very well, but you must promise to be discreet. We can’t afford to offend the abbot. He seems to be a favorite with the court.”
“I promise. Not a whisper of his secret shall pass my lips.”
Akitada’s lip twitched. “That shouldn’t be hard, since you don’t know what it is.”
She smiled. “I don’t know it yet. Well, what can I do? I mean besides finding out what I can about this Ogata person?”