“My husband had discovered that Lord Matsudaira’s nephew and concubine were having a love affair,” Lady Yanagisawa told Reiko. “He’d learned about the signal that Lady Gosechi used to arrange secret meetings with Daiemon. He lured Daiemon to the Sign of Bedazzlement and sent me there to assassinate him.”
Lady Yanagisawa seemed unfazed that the detectives, as well as Reiko, were listening to her incriminate herself. Shocked by her admission even though already aware of what Lady Yanagisawa had done, Reiko said, “Weren’t you afraid? How could you do it?” A reason occurred to her. “What did the chamberlain offer you in return?”
“His love,” Lady Yanagisawa said.
Her mouth curved in a secretive smile; she sighed with pleasure. Reiko saw her suspicion confirmed. The chamberlain had taken advantage of his wife’s passion for him and promised to make the crime worth her while. After she’d rid him of his enemy, he’d rewarded her by bedding her as she had longed for him to do.
“I disguised myself as Gosechi. I wore my hair down,” Lady Yanagisawa said, stroking the black tresses that flowed down her bosom. “I put on the kind of bright, pretty clothes that Gosechi wears.” She touched her orange kimono. “I covered my head with a shawl. I carried a dagger that my husband gave me.” Her fingers curled around the hilt of an imaginary weapon.
“Why did you take Kikuko with you?” Reiko said.
Guilt shadowed Lady Yanagisawa’s features. Even if she didn’t care that she’d killed a man, she felt she’d done wrong by bringing her daughter on such an errand. “Kikuko has been difficult lately. When I tried to leave the house, she screamed and clung to me. She wouldn’t let me go. I had no choice but to take her along.”
Lady Yanagisawa shook her shoulders, casting off blame for her lapse of maternal responsibility. “We rode in the palanquin to the Sign of Bedazzlement. When we arrived, I told the bearers to wait for me down the street. I told Kikuko that she must stay inside the palanquin and be very quiet. She thought it was a game. I left her and hurried into the Sign of Bedazzlement.” Lady Yanagisawa drifted across the room as if in a trance, following the path along which the chamberlain had sent her that night. “There were other people in the house-I could hear them in the rooms. But the doors were shut. The corridor was empty. No one saw me.”
Reiko pictured Lady Yanagisawa’s furtive figure sneaking through the house of assignation, the dagger clutched hidden under her sleeve. Her eyes must have glittered with the same determination as they did now.
“I went to the room where my husband had told me that Daiemon and Gosechi met,” Lady Yanagisawa said, drifting to a stop in a corner. Lightning bolts painted on the mural converged toward her head. The detectives watched, impassive. “I covered the lantern with a cloth to make the room dim. I took off my cloak but kept my shawl over my head. Then I sat on the bed and waited for Daiemon. I began to worry that something would go wrong.” A spate of trembling disturbed her composure. “I almost got up and ran out of the house.”
The image of her huddling in her shawl, beset by last-moment anxiety, the knife shaking in her hands, filled Reiko’s mind.
“But I’d promised my husband. And it was too late to turn back. He was coming down the passage.” Lady Yanagisawa whipped her head around. Reiko could almost hear Daiemon’s footsteps echoing in Lady Yanagisawa’s memory. “He entered the room. He said, ‘Here I am.’ He sounded happy because he thought I was Gosechi. I didn’t answer. I was praying for courage and strength.”
Fear coalesced in her eyes; she mouthed silent words. “He knelt beside me on the bed and said, ‘Why are you so quiet? Aren’t you glad to see me?’ I turned toward him, willing myself to do what I must. He lifted the shawl off my head before I could stop him.” In Lady Yanagisawa’s eyes seemed to float a reflection of Daiemon, surprised to find a stranger in place of his beloved. “He said, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’
“I drove the dagger into him.” Lady Yanagisawa held her fists one behind and touching the other; she thrust them violently forward. A crazed, inhuman expression distorted her face. “Daiemon opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. The dagger was stuck in his chest. I saw that he realized he’d been tricked. He was furious. But then his eyes went blank. He fell against me. He was dead.”
This was more satisfactory a confession than Reiko had expected to get.
Lady Yanagisawa recoiled as if from the corpse dropping on her. “I pushed him away and stood up. His blood was all over me.” Her throat contracted as she swallowed her rising gorge. She rubbed her hands against each other and down her robes, as if feeling the warm, slick wetness of Daiemon’s blood. “I covered it with my cloak and shawl. Then I ran out through the secret passage to my palanquin. I climbed in with Kikuko. We rode away.”
Soon thereafter, the chamberlain’s men-who’d have followed Lady Yanagisawa-must have tipped off the police that Daiemon was dead.
“I started shaking. I couldn’t stop.” A visible tremor rippled through Lady Yanagisawa. “I vomited until there was nothing left to come up.”
Perhaps she did feel some guilt, Reiko thought.
“My sickness frightened Kikuko,” said Lady Yanagisawa. “She cried and hugged me and said, ‘Mama, what’s wrong?’ I said I would be all right soon, and she mustn’t worry. I told her that someday I would explain to her what I’d done. Someday she would understand that I’d done it for her as well as myself, so that her father would love us both. I promised her that everything would be wonderful from now on.”
“That’s a promise you won’t get to keep,” Reiko said with a twinge of vindictive joy. Soon Lady Yanagisawa would reap her punishment for all her evils. “You killed Daiemon. You’ll pay for his death with your life.”
And when Sano learned of her treacherous crime, he would think the worst of Lady Yanagisawa. He would never trust anything she said about Reiko and the Dragon King.
Lady Yanagisawa smiled. Her happiness at winning her husband’s favor apparently outweighed both her guilt and her fear of repercussions. “But you can’t prove I killed him. If you publicly accuse me, I’ll deny my confession. I’ll claim that you forced me to say what you wanted me to say. My good character has never been questioned before. No one will believe that I am a murderer.”
Her confidence seemed invincible, but Reiko said, “We’ll see about that.” She turned to the detectives: “Arrest her.”
The detectives moved toward Lady Yanagisawa. Dissonant laughter emanated from her. “Don’t bother,” she said. “My husband will set me free. He won’t allow me to be punished for killing Daiemon.”
“Your husband won’t lift a finger to save you,” Reiko said. “He’d rather let you take the blame for the murder than continue living under suspicion himself. When you’re accused, he’ll say that you acted on your own, and he had nothing to do with Daiemon’s murder. He’ll sacrifice you to protect his own position.”
“No. He would never do that.” Although Lady Yanagisawa emphatically shook her head, sudden fear glinted in her eyes. “He loves me. He said so.”
“You’re a fool to believe him,” Reiko said. “During all these years, he’s neglected you and cared nothing for you. Now, all of a sudden, he loves you?” Reiko raised her voice to a scornful, incredulous pitch. “Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
“People change,” Lady Yanagisawa said, her manner adamant yet uncertain. The color drained from her cheeks. “He’s just realized how much he cares about me.”
“He realized how useful you could be,” Reiko said. “His enemies are on the attack, he needs all the help he can get, and he knew you’d do anything for him. So he manipulated you into doing his dirty work. What you think is his love for you is nothing but an act. And you fell for it.”