“You mustn’t,” Lord Hosokawa told the women. “Not after this long.” He obviously thought the bodies were too decomposed for the mothers to bear viewing.
The women wept harder but accepted his pronouncement. Sano felt guilty about letting them keep a false impression.
“After our daughters are cremated, may we have the ashes to bury in our family tomb?” Lord Hosokawa asked.
“Certainly.” Sano couldn’t help feeling relieved that the family wouldn’t see the signs of the examination.
Lord Hosokawa seemed to draw on the strength of will that had made him one of the most capable provincial rulers in Japan. “Where were they found?”
“In a house in Nihonbashi that sank underground during the earthquake,” Sano said.
Surprise momentarily distracted Lady Hosokawa from her grief. “Whose house?”
“What were they doing there?” Tama asked between sobs.
“The house belonged to an incense teacher named Usugumo,” Sano said. “She and your daughters were playing an incense game when the earthquake struck. They all died.”
Lord Hosokawa shook his head, puzzled. “We didn’t know Myobu and Kumoi had left the estate that night. We didn’t realize they were missing until after the earthquake.” He turned to the women. “Did you know they were taking incense lessons in town?”
“No,” Lady Hosokawa said.
“Kumoi never told me,” Tama said.
“I taught Myobu not to mix with commoners unless they’re people we know well, who work for our family or do business with us,” Lady Hosokawa said. “She never would have gone there on her own.” She angrily turned on Tama. “It must have been your daughter’s idea. She liked new fads. She liked slumming with the lower classes.”
“That’s not true!” The fury in her eyes and the makeup running down her face made Tama look like a demon in a Kabuki play. “Your daughter was the big sister. Kumoi would follow her wherever she went. It’s Myobu’s fault that my daughter died in that house!”
“Don’t you speak to me like that!” Lady Hosokawa slapped Tama’s face.
Tama threw herself on Lady Hosokawa. The women became a clawing, sobbing, thrashing tangle of silk robes and disheveled hair. Lord Hosokawa grabbed his wife. Sano grabbed the concubine. They tore the women from each other. Ladies-in-waiting ran into the room. Two groups formed-one with Lady Hosokawa at the center, the other around Tama. They exchanged glares, like rival armies. Lady Hosokawa’s pack swept out of the room, followed by Tama’s.
“Please forgive our bad manners,” Lord Hosokawa said, shamefaced, to Sano. “My wife and my concubine don’t get along.”
Many men’s wives and concubines didn’t. That was one reason Sano would never bring another woman into his home. If he did that to Reiko, he would never have a moment of peace. The other reason was that he loved Reiko so much that he couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else. He was sorry that the death of Lord Hosokawa’s daughters had increased the strife between their mothers, who couldn’t even comfort each other.
“How did my daughters die?” Lord Hosokawa asked. “Was it quick and merciful?”
Here came the part of his mission that Sano had been dreading the most. He wished he could assure Lord Hosokawa that his daughters hadn’t suffered, but he couldn’t withhold the truth. Were he in Lord Hosokawa’s position, he would want to know.
“It looks as if they weren’t killed by the earthquake.” Sano described their red eyes and the rescuer’s illness but omitted mentioning their eerily preserved corpses. “They appeared to have been poisoned. There may have been foul play.”
“Do you mean murder?” Lord Hosokawa’s grief yielded to bewilderment and horror. “By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Whoever killed my daughters will pay,” Lord Hosokawa said, angry now. “But I have no expertise in hunting criminals. Will you do it for me?”
Sano could have said that it wasn’t his job anymore; but he would make an exception for his friend and ally. “I would be glad to, as soon as I’ve finished dealing with the problems caused by the earthquake.”
A visible jolt of dismay ran through Lord Hosokawa. “When will that be? Years from now, when Edo is back to normal?” He made a slicing motion with his hand. “No. The killer’s trail will be cold by then.”
“The trail is already cold,” Sano gently pointed out. “It’s been a month.”
Lord Hosokawa seemed not to hear. “I can’t wait that long for justice. The hunt for the killer must begin now.” His eyes met Sano’s. Gone was their usual cautious, worried expression. They glittered with lust for revenge. He jabbed his finger at Sano and spoke as if addressing a subordinate instead of a representative of his lord. “You will help me at once!”
“I’m sorry,” Sano said, disconcerted. “The shogun wouldn’t want me to take time off from rebuilding his capital to investigate two deaths.”
Lord Hosokawa set his jaw against the implication that his daughters’ deaths were but a drop in the pail of casualties that the earthquake had begotten. “A few days or a month to find the killer-what difference will it make if Edo is rebuilt that much sooner or later?”
Pitying the man, Sano sought a compromise. “I’ll send my people to investigate.” He thought of Hirata, then decided that Detective Marume would be more reliable, and perhaps the challenge would distract him from his grief.
“No,” Lord Hosokawa said, obstinate. “I want the best for my daughters. I’ll have no one but you.” His unnaturally bright gaze revealed the wits he’d used to make his domain among the best managed and most profitable. “I’ll make it worth your while. The government is desperately in need of money, isn’t it? The treasury is almost drained?”
Sano was too surprised to control his expression. The regime’s finances weren’t supposed to be public knowledge.
“Just as I thought,” Lord Hosokawa said with a smug smile. “But Higo Province had the best rice harvest in a decade this past year. I’ll make you a proposition.” His clan must have merchants in its family tree; he sounded like one now. “Investigate my daughters’ murders, and I’ll give you a million koban. ”
The huge sum astounded Sano. Here was his chance to kill two birds with one arrow-serve justice and fund the regime. Although tempted, he said, “I can’t accept. The shogun won’t approve of his chamberlain having to earn the money by working for you. You’re obligated to let him have it for free.”
“I’ll give you an incentive to accept,” Lord Hosokawa replied promptly. “Many of the most powerful daimyo are tired of being ruled by the Tokugawa. It’s been a hundred years of paying tribute and swallowing their pride. But now the regime’s capital is in ruins, its castle is as full of holes as a sieve, its army is minuscule. Three hundred and fifty-one officials are dead. For the first time in a century, the Tokugawa is vulnerable.”
The secret of the death toll had leaked out, too, Sano realized with alarm.
“In contrast, we daimyo are in good shape,” Lord Hosokawa went on. “Granted, many of us lost estates in Edo and quite a few men, but most of our wealth and property and armies is safe in our provinces. The earthquake has given us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If we band together, we can conquer the Tokugawa and rule Japan.”
Sano stared in shock at Lord Hosokawa, a friend suddenly turned potential enemy, the regime’s worst fear embodied. “Are you one of the daimyo who want to strike at the Tokugawa regime while it’s down?”
“Of course not,” Lord Hosokawa said. “You know me better than that.” But an unfamiliar brazenness in his eyes told Sano that he didn’t know this man at all. Deranged by his daughters’ death, Lord Hosokawa had absorbed the evil that had pervaded the air since the earthquake, that led people to do things they never would under normal circumstances. “Mine is the voice that’s urging the hotheads to keep the peace. My clan is a barricade between them and the shogun. But that will change unless you do as I ask. Catch my daughters’ killer, or I’ll join forces with the others, fight alongside them in a civil war, and ensure their victory.”