Assassin's Touch (17 page)

Shouts suddenly erupted down the passage: A fight had started. As men flung punches at each other and spectators egged them on, Mizutani strode toward them; his
rōnin
followed.

“Hey! No fighting in here!” he shouted. “Break it up!”

The
rōnin
waded into the fray, separating the combatants, while he bustled around and supervised.

“Do you want me to fetch him back?” Lieutenant Asukai asked Reiko.

A bright spot of color in the street outside the carnival caught her eye. She saw, through the milling crowds, the woman that Mizutani had beaten, stooped over a horse trough, bathing her face.

“No,” Reiko said. “I have a better idea.”

She led her entourage out of the carnival. The woman turned at their approach. Her mouth was swollen where Mizutani had hit her; blood trickled from her lip. Reiko took a cloth from under her sash.

“Here,” she said.

The woman looked suspicious that a stranger should offer her solicitude, but she took the cloth and wiped her face.

“What’s your name?” Reiko said.

“Lily,” the woman answered. She was older than Reiko had at first thought—in her thirties. Hardship had coarsened her voice as well as her pretty features. “Who are you?”

When Reiko introduced herself, fear shone in the dancer’s eyes. “I only took a few coppers from him. He didn’t need it, and I did—he pays me so little.” She stepped backward with a nervous glance at Reiko’s guards. “I saw you talking to him. Did he tell you to arrest me?” Tears wavered her voice; she clasped her hands in entreaty. “Please don’t! I’ve got a little boy. It’s bad enough that I’ve lost my job, but if I go to jail, there’ll be no one to take care of him!”

“Don’t worry; you won’t be arrested,” Reiko said. She pitied the woman and deplored Mizutani. This investigation kept reminding her that many people lived on the brink of survival, at the mercy of their betters. “I only want to talk.”

Lily cautiously relaxed. “About what?”

“Your former employer.”

“Is he in some kind of trouble?” Hope brightened Lily.

“Maybe,” Reiko said. “Were you working at the carnival when his partner Taruya was running it with him?”

“Yes. I worked there fourteen years.” A bitter expression came over Lily’s swollen, bruised face. “Fourteen years, and he throws me out because I took money that I earned myself!”

“How did they get along?” Reiko asked.

“They were always fighting over money.”

And the fight had been resolved in Mizutani’s favor. Reiko said, “How convenient for Mizutani that someone reported Taruya for having incestuous relations with his daughter.”

“Is that what Mizutani told you—that somebody reported Taruya?” Snide amusement inflected Lily’s voice. “It was him. He did it.”

This certainly put a different twist on the matter. “How do you know?”

“When Mizutani had parties at his house, I used to wait on the guests. I would overhear things they said. One night his guests were two
doshin
. He told them he’d caught Taruya and his daughter Yugao in bed together.”

A thought disturbed Reiko. “Was Mizutani telling the truth when he said he’d witnessed the incest?”

“I don’t know. But I’d never heard of anything funny going on between Taruya and Yugao. Neither had anyone else at the carnival. We were all shocked.”

Reiko wondered if Mizutani had invented the whole episode. Without the incest, Yugao had no apparent reason for murder.

Lily’s expression turned eager. “Can Mizutani get in trouble if he lied?”

“If he did, he’ll be punished,” Reiko said. Her father abhorred false accusations and wouldn’t stand for one that had made outcasts of an entire family.

“I heard that Yugao killed her father. Did she really do it, or could it have been Mizutani?” The dancer practically salivated at the thought of her former boss convicted and executed.

“That’s what I’m trying to determine.” Now Reiko recalled something the headman of the outcasts had said, and another thought occurred to her. “Taruya’s sentence would have been finished in six months if he hadn’t been killed. How did Mizutani feel about that?”

“He wasn’t looking forward to Taruya getting out of the
hinin
settlement. It was no secret,” Lily said with a sardonic laugh. “The carnival had a bad time during the war. Mizutani lost money. He’s run up big debts, and the money-lenders have been threatening to break his legs unless he pays them. I’ve heard him say that the last thing he needed was Taruya coming back and claiming his half of the business. And that’s not all he’s said.”

She paused, and Reiko said, “Well?”

“I can’t talk anymore. I have to find a new job, or my little boy will starve.” She fixed a nervous, entreating gaze on Reiko. “If I help you, then you should help me.”

Reiko hated to imagine herself and Masahiro losing their livelihood and trying to fend for themselves. Furthermore, she sensed that the woman had important evidence to relate. “If you help me, I’ll pay you.”

Lily nodded, grateful and pleased at her own cleverness. “Last month I saw Mizutani and his two
rōnin
talking inside the dance stall. I stood outside and listened. You never know what interesting things you’ll find out.” A crafty smile lifted her swollen lip. “Mizutani said, ‘I saw Taruya today. He’s anxious to get back his share of the carnival. I told him that’s not fair, after I’ve been running it all this time. But he said a deal is a deal.’ One of his
rōnin
said that Taruya still has friends here, and they’re gangsters who could make trouble for Mizutani if he backed out. Mizutani said, ‘There’s one way to break that deal. What if he were to die?’ ”

A thrill of excitement tingled Reiko’s blood. “What else did they say?”

“I don’t know. Mizutani saw me eavesdropping and told me to go. I didn’t hear the rest.”

A new vision of the crime took shape in Reiko’s mind.
The
rōnin
steals into the outcast settlement that night. He sneaks into Yugao’s house and stabs her father in his bed. When her mother and sister awaken and try to stop him, he kills them. He means to kill Yugao, but the street-cleaner Ihei comes out of the lean-to and surprises him. The street-cleaner flees in terror. The
rōnin
doesn’t want to leave any witnesses, but he hears people gathering in the streets. He slips out of the hovel. He hides in the backyard while the headman arrives, until Yugao has been arrested, then he vanishes into the night. In the morning, at the carnival, he tells his master that the deed is done.

“Well?” Lily said eagerly. “Are you satisfied?”

“One more thing,” Reiko said. Yugao was still a mystery. If she was innocent, then her confession was all the more baffling. “Did you know Yugao?”

“Not really. Taruya kept his children away from us folks who worked for him.” Lily gave a contemptuous sniff. “He thought they were too good to associate with us.”

“Is there anyone who did know her?”

“There was a girl who used to be her friend. They were always together.” Lily frowned in an effort to recall. “Her name was Tama. Her father owned a teahouse around here.” Impatience crossed her face. “Do I get my reward?”

Reiko paid Lily from the pouch where she carried money in case she needed to bribe informants. Lily went off looking much happier than before.

“It’s getting late,” Lieutenant Asukai warned Reiko. She’d been too busy to notice that twilight was darkening the sky. The entertainment district had grown rowdier; the women and children had departed; young toughs and off-duty soldiers swelled the crowds. “We should take you home.”

“In a little while,” Reiko said. “I must find out where Mizutani and his
rōnin
were the night of the murders. And I want to look for Yugao’s friend Tama.”

15

When Sano arrived home that night, Reiko and Masahiro met him in their private quarters. “Masahiro has something to show you,” said Reiko.

Her manner was too bright, which awakened immediate suspicion in Sano. He said, “Let’s go see.”

Masahiro led them to an unused wing of the mansion. Cobwebs hung from rafters in an empty room that smelled of dust.

“Look, Papa,” he said, pointing to a knife stuck in the wall. “Me find trap.”

He demonstrated how he’d triggered the knife by tapping on a certain spot on the floor with a wooden pole. One of his favorite games was searching for traps that Yanagisawa had installed throughout the compound. The day he and Sano and Reiko had moved in, Masahiro had fallen through a trapdoor in a storehouse and into a pit designed to catch thieves. He’d been shaken up at first, but had become fascinated with traps. He loved tiptoeing through the estate, armed with his pole that he banged on the walls and floors. He’d actually found quite a few traps that the servants had missed in their effort to rid the place of them. Living here was great fun for him.

“That’s very good, Masahiro.” Sano silently thanked the gods that the knife had flown right over Masahiro. Had he been as tall as an adult, he would have been killed. “You’re going to be a fine detective someday.”

“It’s in his blood,” Reiko said.

Sano felt his heart swell with pride and affection toward Masahiro. It seemed that his child became more of an individual every day. Sano had dreams that Masahiro would grow up to be an honorable samurai, make a name for himself, and father his own children one day. He told Reiko in a low voice, “I don’t want to spoil his fun, but I’d better have my men re-inspect the estate tomorrow.” Nothing must harm his precious son.

He and Reiko followed Masahiro out of the mansion to the garden, where crickets sang in the dark landscape of trees, boulders, pond, and stone lanterns. The little boy skipped away chasing fireflies that sparkled above the grass. Fragrance from night-blooming jasmine scented the air.

“This is so pleasant and peaceful, compared to other places in the world. We truly are fortunate to live here,” Reiko mused, then asked Sano, “How did your investigation go?”

He told her about interviewing Chief Ejima’s family, subordinates, and other people who had contact with him. “I’ve just talked to his informants. Just like everyone else, they had opportunity to kill him. Just like everyone else, they deny that they did it. And I have cause to believe them.”

“They lacked reason to kill him, or means?”

“Both.” Sano thought Reiko seemed a little too interested in his case, especially since she wasn’t involved in it. “The informants are minor officials who were disgruntled and trying to ruin their superiors by telling tales on them to Ejima. He was on their side. He also paid them generously. And they don’t strike me as expert martial artists. They’re the kind of samurai who wear swords as a costume and never fight.”

“This Captain Nakai sounds like the most likely culprit,” Reiko said.

Sano nodded. “I’m waiting to hear the results of Detective Tachibana’s surveillance on him.” He shook his head. “I almost wish we could put all the suspects under surveillance.”

“You can commandeer as many men as you need,” Reiko reminded him.

“There aren’t enough I can trust to do a good job. There aren’t enough men I can trust at all.” Sano was learning the limitations of his power. “Besides, it’s possible that Ejima and the other victims were killed by someone whose name hasn’t surfaced yet.”

Masahiro ran toward the pond. Reiko called, “Don’t fall in the water!” Sano asked her, “How did your investigation go?”

She tensed; her bright animation faded. “Well ... I went to the crime scene. I’m afraid I ran into a bit of trouble.” She reluctantly described how she and her guards had been set upon by the outcasts.

Sano realized that she’d been dreading to tell him. He was disturbed because she’d not been as unobtrusive about her inquiries as he’d wished.

“I’m sorry,” she said contritely. “Please forgive me.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sano said, meaning it. “And I’m more concerned about your safety than about my position. You’d better not go back to the
hinin
settlement. If you do, the headman might not show-up to rescue you again.”

Reiko nodded in agreement. “I think I’ve learned as much there as I could.” She hesitated, then confessed, “Afterward, I went to the Hundred-Day Theater that Yugao’s father once owned.”

As she described what she’d learned, Sano was dismayed even further to realize that her inquiries had moved wider geographically and higher up the social scale. Could they remain secret much longer? Yet he couldn’t criticize her for doing the things he would have done in her place.

“Now that you’ve got alternate suspects as well as evidence against Yugao,” he said, “what will you do next?”

“I found out that her father’s former business partner and his two
rōnin
were at a card game the whole night of the murders. That might or might not clear them. I wasn’t able to find Yugao’s friend Tama. But before I try again, I’m going to have another visit with Yugao. Maybe, when she hears what I’ve learned, she’ll be shaken up enough to tell me the truth.”

Maybe that would be the end of Reiko’s investigation. Sano said, “Good luck bringing the killer to justice, whoever it turns out to be.”

Reiko smiled, relieved that he wasn’t angry. “What about your investigation?”

“I’m going to try out a new theory. I’ve been examining the victims’ lives in search of suspects who might know
dim-mak
. But what if the victims didn’t know their killer? He might be a stranger they encountered in the streets. If so, his name wouldn’t be in their appointment records.”

And he could be someone far beyond Edo Castle and the administrative district. “It’ll be a huge job to reconstruct every move those men made and identify everyone who came within touching distance of them. But unless we get a lucky break very soon, we’d better start. And I’ll look specifically for men who know
dim-mak
.”

Masahiro came running up to Reiko and tugged her hand. “Me hungry. Eat!”

“Will you have dinner with us?” Reiko asked Sano.

Sano could ill afford the time, but it had been ages since he’d eaten with his family. “Yes. But afterward, I have some work to do in my office.”