The shogun, who abhorred violence, had savagely beaten Sano. He must believe Sano had murdered his heir.
Reiko knelt beside Sano. “What happened?” She had to know everything, no matter how terrible it was.
Sano haltingly told the story. Reiko listened, outraged by the false accusation, distraught about Sano’s predicament. The only ray of hope came from the elders’ insistence on following legal procedure before executing Sano.
“We have a chance to save you,” Reiko said. “Let’s figure out what we’re going to do.” Sano relapsed into muteness. She seized his hand. “I know you’re hurt, but we must think of something fast! Yanagisawa will hurry up the investigation. We’ve no time to lose!”
“I hate him.” Sano spoke with a rabid vehemence that Reiko had never heard in his voice. Now she realized why he was shaking. It was from anger and the effort to control it.
“I know. I hate Yanagisawa, too.” All her own fury toward their enemy rose up in Reiko like a hot bile. “After all these years of attacking us, he’s finally got us where he wants us.”
“Not Yanagisawa,” Sano said. “I hate the shogun.”
Reiko was shocked. She stared at Sano’s bandaged, poulticed face. “How can you say that? He’s your lord.” To a samurai his lord was his god, his reason for existence.
Sano uttered a sardonic, humorless laugh. “A fine example of a lord he is. He was only brave enough to hit me because I couldn’t hit him back.”
For years Reiko had harbored critical thoughts about the shogun, but she’d never heard them from Sano. She was a mere woman, free to think whatever she liked as long as she kept it to herself. Sano was obligated to respect the shogun. “What about Bushido?”
“What about it?” Sano’s tremors had ceased; he’d given up trying to control his emotions; his body relaxed. “After all my service to the shogun, after everything I’ve gone through to satisfy him, this is what it’s come to.” His hand gestured at his face. “The Way of the Warrior is just an excuse for the shogun to treat his retainers however he wants. We’re all fools for swallowing it and letting him get away with abusing us!”
Reiko realized that the shogun’s assault had changed her husband. Sano had tolerated threats and insults before, but this injury was more personal. Loss of face was the worst thing that could happen to a proud samurai, and Sano had been literally defaced.
“I wish I hadn’t bothered investigating Tsuruhime’s murder,” Sano said bitterly. “I didn’t manage to prove Yanagisawa is guilty, and I never will. But to hell with it!”
The change in Sano terrified Reiko as much as the fact that he was under arrest for the murder of the shogun’s heir.
“I wish I’d never opposed Yanagisawa’s schemes and tried to prevent the shogun from leaving the dictatorship to Yoshisato,” Sano said. “If I hadn’t, things might be different now; Yoshisato might still be alive, and I wouldn’t be charged with his murder. I’d be better off if I’d just left the shogun to his own weak, gullible devices!”
Panic shot through Reiko. Where was the honorable samurai she’d married? Evidently, the shogun had pushed Sano too far. “Be quiet!”
“Why? Because someone might hear me and report me to the shogun? Who cares?” Sano laughed again. “I’m already as good as condemned to die.”
“We’re not giving up,” Reiko said, alarmed by his fatalism. In the past, whenever trouble had plagued them, Sano had been the one to reassure her, to keep up the family’s morale. “We’re going to fight this.”
Sano lay there, stiff and unmoving as wood. The poultices over his eyes oozed fluid onto his cheeks. It looked as if he was crying. Reiko remembered the morning after the earthquake, when she’d first seen the wreckage of the city. She felt the same devastation now. In the past, she and Sano had always been partners, their individual strength multiplied by their togetherness. But now the husband who once would have risen valiantly to any challenge was breaking down before her very eyes. The earthquake was partly to blame. Sano had worked day and night for months, helping the survivors, rebuilding the city. He’d also solved a difficult murder case in order to prevent a civil war.
No man could take all that strain without consequences.
His beating from the shogun had been one too many traumas for Sano.
Reiko had never felt so scared or alone in her life. Sano, the foundation of their family, had collapsed like the city during the earthquake.
She heard Masahiro’s footsteps in the corridor. Gripping Sano’s hand, she whispered, “Not one word of this to Masahiro!”
Masahiro entered the room; he looked worriedly at Sano. “Father? Are you all right?”
Reiko pinched Sano’s hand to prevent him from speaking. “He will be. He’s resting.” With an effort, she kept her manner calm. “How is Akiko?”
“She’s all right. I took her to the kitchen and the cooks gave her some cakes.” Masahiro asked, “What are we going to do?”
Reiko took the heavy responsibility for the fate of their family upon her own small shoulders. “We investigate Yoshisato’s death.”
“I see. If we find out who really killed Yoshisato, then Father won’t be punished for it.” Masahiro sounded not entirely relieved. “I can look for clues, but Father is under house arrest, and you’re not supposed to go outside.”
The constraints on them made it even more difficult to save themselves. “Things have changed,” Reiko said. “We must exonerate your father. If we don’t, then we’ll all die, including the baby. I’ll try not to do anything physically strenuous.”
Masahiro nodded, thought for a moment, then said, “Both of the shogun’s children have been murdered within such a short time. Could the two murders be connected?”
“Maybe.” Proud of his intelligence, Reiko felt better. Although Sano lay as still as if he were already dead, she had Masahiro to stand in as head of the family. She also had Detective Marume. Her fear receded enough that she could apply her mind to the new investigation. “There may be different suspects, however.”
“Who could have wanted to kill Yoshisato?” Masahiro asked.
Combing through the tangle of politics and alliances, conflicts and motives, Reiko said, “I can think of at least two people.”
“If the murders are connected, then maybe we can solve Yoshisato’s by solving Tsuruhime’s,” Masahiro said.
28
Taeko slid the door of her room open and saw Masahiro hurry down the corridor. When she started following him, her mother’s voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Taeko! Where do you think you’re going?”
“With Masahiro,” Taeko said.
“Oh, no, you’re not,” Midori said. “Get back in your room.”
“But, Mama, don’t you know that Sano-san is under arrest?” Taeko couldn’t believe that her mother would continue punishing her at a time like this. “They say he killed the shogun’s son.”
“Who are ‘they’?”
“The maids. They were talking outside my room.”
Midori frowned in annoyance. “I’ve told them not to gossip.” Seizing Taeko by the arm, she said, “Come with me.”
“But Mama, they said Sano-san is going to be put to death and so is everybody else in this house. I heard Masahiro and Lady Reiko say they have to find out who really killed the shogun’s son and daughter and prove Sano-san is innocent. I have to help them!” The world was falling apart, and her mother pretended everything was normal. “Don’t you understand?”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand.” Midori dragged Taeko into her room. “You’re going to stay here.”
“Please!” Taeko had to help Masahiro, and not just because she wanted him to like her. That seemed silly now. She must do whatever she could to save her family and his.
“If you leave this house, there’s nothing you can do but drive me mad with worrying about you!”
“But I helped them before. I found a clue!”
“That was just a lucky accident.”