Laura Rowland - The Cloud Pavilion

Sano didn't, either. Gazing around the room, he saw a section of tatami that was slightly crooked where the bed would be laid at night. He crouched, lifted a corner of the mat, and touched the floor underneath. One of the boards was shorter than the others, and it was loose. Sano pried it up with his finger and found a square, empty compartment that was about as long as his forearm. He looked up at Ogita.

Ogita smiled. "I sometimes keep money there."

But instinct told Sano the compartment was used for other, secret things that Ogita had just dashed up here to hide. Sano noticed Ogita hovering by the partition that separated the bedchamber from his office. When Sano slid open the partition and stepped into the office, Ogita didn't object or move, but Sano pictured him hurrying to remove contents from the compartment and find somewhere else to secret them moments ago. This was the nearest place, and it offered many possibilities, because the space around the desk was crowded with fireproof iron cabinets and trunks.

"I work at home at night," Ogita said. "I don't need much sleep. That's the secret of my success."

While he spoke, Sano moved around the office. He listened for tension in Ogita's voice and heard it when he drew close to one cabinet.

"That's full of old sales records," Ogita said.

Sano opened the cabinet and saw rows of ledgers. Stuck into one row was a thinner volume with polished teak covers, just the size to fit in the hidden compartment. Sano pulled it out, opened it, showed it to Ogita, and said, "What kind of record is this?"

The book was a "spring book," a collection of erotic art. On the first page was a picture of a woman undressing. A man stood outside her room, peering through the window at her, masturbating his huge erection.

"It's nothing," Ogita said.

Sano turned the page. "If it's nothing, why did you hide it?" The next picture showed the man inside the room. He held the woman and fondled her while she struggled to free herself. His erection pressed against her. Her head was flung back, her mouth open in a scream.

"Every man in Edo has books like that," Ogita said.

"Every man in Edo isn't a suspect in three rapes and possibly four." Sano turned to the next picture. Here, the man straddled the woman. Her legs were spread, his erection thrust into her. She lay limp, her eyes closed, as if unconscious. "Maybe you do more than just look at these pictures."

Obstinacy veiled fear in Ogita's expression. "So what if I do?" He waved his hand at the book. "That doesn't prove I have the shogun's wife."

Marume and Fukida stood in the doorway, craning their necks to get a look at the pictures. "We've finished searching," Fukida said. "She's not here."

"See? I told you," Ogita said triumphantly.

Sano was disappointed, but not ready to consider Ogita exonerated. "What other properties do you own?"

"I have a villa across the river in Honjo and a summer house in the hills outside town," Ogita said. "But you won't find the shogun's wife there, either."

"Excuse me, Lady Reiko, this message just came for you," said Lieutenant Tanuma.

Reiko sat on the veranda, arranging flowers in a vase and worrying about Sano. "Is it from my husband?" Hoping the message said he'd found Lady Nobuko, she accepted the bamboo scroll case from her bodyguard. When she unfurled the scroll, she saw the red signature stamped beneath the characters written in black.

"It's from Chiyo." Reading the message, she raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Chiyo says Fumiko has left the Kumazawa estate. Her father came and took her. I can't believe it! He was so adamant about not wanting her back."

Reiko continued reading, and her surprise turned to concern. "Chiyo says there's trouble. She begs me to come at once. She'll explain when I arrive." Beset by anxiety, Reiko said, "What can be wrong? What should I do?"

"Your husband doesn't want you going back to the Kumazawa house," Tanuma said.

Reiko knew how displeased Sano would be if she went. "But Chiyo needs me. I can't refuse to help."

"Major Kumazawa would probably not let you in the door even though Chiyo invited you," Tanuma said.

"I'll take the chance." Reiko stood. "Are you coming?"

"If you say so." Tanuma had worked for her long enough to understand that arguing with her when she'd made up her mind was a lost cause.

As they hurried off, Reiko hoped she wouldn't be too late to help Chiyo.

Sano and his entourage gathered in the street outside Ogita's house. He assigned a few troops to follow Ogita, in case the rice broker could lead them to the shogun's wife. Fukida said, "Should we go search Ogita's other properties?"

"No," Sano said. "If the shogun's wife were there, he wouldn't have told us about them. I suspect those aren't his only other properties."

"Shall I find out what others he owns?" Fukida asked.

Sano envisioned a long, tedious search through Edo's mountains of property records. "No. We don't have time."

What they did have was two other suspects to investigate.

As they rode down the street, Marume said, "I heard what Ogita said about spring books. He's right-a lot of men have them. You should see the ones in the barracks at home."

Edo had an overabundance of men without women. They were samurai retainers who were single or had left their wives in their lords' provinces, as well as merchants, artisans, and laborers who'd come to seek their fortune in the city and couldn't afford to marry. Under these conditions, prostitution and erotic art flourished. And even rich men, who could have all the women they wanted, enjoyed spring books. But that didn't clear Ogita, not in Sano's opinion.

"I skimmed through the rest of Ogita's book," Sano said. "All the other pictures showed men raping women. Even if Ogita didn't kidnap the shogun's wife, I think he's responsible for one or more of the other crimes."

But so could the other suspects be guilty.

"Where are we going now?" Fukida asked.

"We're going back to the exorcist," Sano said.

A group of beggars in ragged clothes loitered in the street outside the exorcist's temple. When they saw Sano's party coming, they held out their hands for alms, but without much hope. Sano and his men proceeded to the hall where he'd seen Joju the day before yesterday. Again, the monks at the door tried to prevent them from entering.

"His Holiness doesn't want to be disturbed."

"Try to keep us out, and he'll be worse than just disturbed," Marume said.

Sano and his detectives went inside the hall while his troops swarmed the grounds and other buildings. He found the hall drastically altered since his last visit. Daylight poured through open skylights. The black drapes, suspended from rods, were drawn back to expose windows cut high in the walls. From one window protruded a wooden bracket that held the painting of bloody fetuses. Through another Sano saw a drum, lute, and samisen in a room where musicians evidently played during rituals. Some windows opened onto platforms. There, monks crouched, setting up flares, rockets, and smoke bombs. More monks leaned out of a hole in the ceiling and lowered a dummy, dressed in white veils, on thin cords. Like puppeteers, they manipulated the dummy; it flew and dived. The scene reminded Sano of a theater undergoing preparations for a new play.

Spying Sano and the detectives, the monks hauled up the dummy, scrambled to close the drapes, and fled through the windows. Marume called, "It's too late." He and Fukida laughed. "We've seen everything."

Joju strode into the room so fast that his saffron robe whipped around his ankles like flames. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, his handsome face dark with anger. "Your troops are invading my temple. They say I'm hiding the shogun's wife. That's ridiculous!"