Tora had listened without interrupting. Now he said, “You can’t know that they’re all the same. But I’ll help you as much as I can, and Genba, too. Well, here we are. Let’s talk to Kobe. Maybe we can see this blind girl of yours and find out if she knows anything.”
Kobe was busy and made them wait. They sat outside his office, watching the coming and going of constables and senior police officers.
“So you and Shokichi have broken up?” Tora asked after a while.
Saburo’s irritation with Shokichi’s unreasonable behavior rose again. “She says she’ll have nothing more to do with me. That sounded pretty final to me.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her so stubborn. Would you believe she expected me to attack the constables and free Sachi?”
Tora raised his brows. “Doesn’t sound like her. This Sachi, do you at all think she might have done it?”
Saburo looked morose. “Not really. But considering Shokichi’s behavior, it strikes me women lose their minds sometimes. Who’s to say Sachi didn’t cut Nakamura’s throat if he said something she didn’t like? Women!”
Tora laughed. “Let’s assume she didn’t do it. I like the moneylenders much better for it. They have no conscience. You know, we need to go to that bathhouse and start asking questions about the people who were there.”
Saburo slapped his forehead. “Of course. Honestly, the quarrel with Shokichi upset me so I couldn’t think straight.”
At this point, a constable stuck his head out of Kobe’s office and asked them to come in.
Kobe sat behind a desk that was laden with papers as usual. Several clerks worked on more paperwork.
The superintendent smiled. “So, what do you have to tell me? Did he go to check out that suicide?”
Tora grinned back. “Yes, sir. It worked beautifully. He not only looked at the room where the lady hanged herself, but he talked to three of the people living there. A really odd bunch of people, if you ask me. And he came away suspecting Abbot Genshin of having had a hand in it somehow. Apparently the abbot was a holy terror among the ladies in his younger years.”
Kobe laughed. “True, but these days the reverend abbot is in such great favor with the court and Buddhist hierarchy that he can certainly shrug off Lord Sugawara’s suspicions. I wish I’d been there.” He paused. Suddenly looking worried, he asked, “Did he think there was something wrong with that suicide?”
“Not really. He did look through the lady’s things and, as I said, he asked some questions. But he seems to be mostly curious why the lady and the others were living there.”
“Well, let’s hope it means he’ll return to a more normal life now.” Kobe’s eyes went to Saburo. “Glad to see you again, Saburo. Your looks are greatly improved, I notice.”
“Thank you, sir.” Saburo hung his head a moment. “It was Lady Sugawara’s help as much as anything,” he added softly.
“Ah. A great loss, that lady.”
They sat in silence for a moment, then Kobe said, “You went along with your master and Tora?”
“No, sir. I’m here about something else.” Saburo gave an account of the murder in the bathhouse and his conviction that the blind girl had not done the crime. “I’d hoped to get the master’s help, but he’s too busy now, and I don’t know how to proceed, or if I should.”
He had managed to sound dejected, and Kobe smiled. “I see Sugawara’s entire household is trying to do my work for me again. No doubt, Lady Akiko will shortly make her appearance.”
Tora chuckled. “She was talking to the master when we left, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“May the heavens help me,” said Kobe. “I may have made a bad mistake. As for the blind girl, frankly I had my doubts when I heard about it. The say she’s absolutely adamant that she didn’t do it and was out of the room when it happened. We’ll look into the matter, so there’s no need for you to do anything else.”
Saburo’s heart sank. He had little faith in police investigations. “Could I talk to her, sir?”
Kobe frowned. “Very well, but don’t make her any promises and stay out of it afterward.” He told a young constable to take Tora and Saburo to the jail so they could visit the girl.
Sachi cowered in a corner of the cell on some dirty straw. An evil-smelling bucket was in the opposite corner. She turned a frightened face toward the door as it opened. Saburo was struck again by how pretty she was when you discounted that bluish cast of blindness in her eyes.
Tora also whistled under his breath, and the blind girl shrank against the wall and cried, “Don’t, please!”
Saburo said quickly, “Don’t be afraid, Sachi. I’m Shokichi’s friend. She sent me to help. I brought a friend with me. We don’t mean you any harm.”
She relaxed a little. “Shokichi? She was there when they arrested me.”
“Yes. Me, too. She wanted me to fight the constables. Now she’s angry with me.”
A tiny smile appeared on her face. “You’re Saburo?”
“Yes. And my friend is Tora. Say ‘hello’, Tora.”
Tora obeyed. “Hello, Sachi. I’m sorry I whistled. It was the surprise. I guess you know you’re very pretty.”
She cried, “I wish I wasn’t.”
“Why?” Tora asked, “Did the constables or guards try anything?”
She nodded. “They tried.”
Tora growled. “Wait until the superintendent hears. Who was it, the constables or the jail guards?”
“One of the guards. Maybe two.”
“Right. I’ll put a stop to that. Saburo wants to help, too. Maybe you’d better tell us how all this happened.”
It appeared that Nakamura had requested her services at the Daikoku-yu a few days earlier.
“He was very generous. He paid me extra. It was all right at first, but he started saying things.” She blushed. “I didn’t understand at first, but then he also touched me when he said them, and I understood.” She lowered her head again. I told Jinzaemon I didn’t want to work for Nakamura-san anymore, but …” She made a helpless gesture with her hands. “I owed Jinzaemon some money. He wanted it back and I didn’t have it. He said he would forget the debt if I took care of Nakamura-san.”
“The swine,” muttered Tora.
“Go on,” said Saburo, who wanted to find out what happened on the day of the murder.
“It was difficult,” she said, bowing her head some more. “Nakamura-san insisted on touching me and he wanted me touch him. I said something about getting some special oil and ran out of the room. I went to Jinzaemon and said I couldn’t do what Nakamura-san wanted, but Jinzaemon sent me back in. He said I had to finish the session, and after that I could leave. So I went back into the room. I think I made some excuse. There was no answer, and there was a smell. I reached for the towel on Nakamura-san’s head, but he had fallen forward.” She gulped and stopped.
“Was he dead?”
Sachi nodded. She murmured, “I felt for him. There was blood. I touched it. A lot of blood. I thought maybe he’d had a nosebleed. Sometimes bathers cannot take the heat and their noses start bleeding. I think I asked him if he needed help. He didn’t answer. Then I put my hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t react, and I got scared. I shouted for help and tried to lift him up. I got a lot of blood on me then.” She shuddered.
“You had just finished shaving him?” Tora asked.
“No. I’d only washed his hair.”
Tora exchanged a glance with Saburo and asked, “You mean you left him there with the towel wrapped around his head?”
She nodded.
“Was anyone outside the room when you left? I take it, there are ways to recognize people without being able to see them.”
“Sometimes. I can smell some of them. Others have a certain way of walking and I can tell by their footfall.”
Saburo had been content to leave the questions to Tora as a gesture of gratitude for his help. But he could not restrain himself any longer. “In that case, do you remember anyone near the room when you stepped outside to fetch the oil? Or did you meet someone in the corridor?”