Laura Rowland - The Cloud Pavilion

"Do you really think you can tickle us into confessing?" Gombei said.

"We'll see," Sano said.

The eta crouched beside the drivers, removed their sandals, and began tickling their feet. Gombei flinched and giggled. A smile tugged Jinshichi's mouth. Soon both men were laughing uproariously. The eta worked with grim concentration. Hirata's face was expressionless, his emotions under control. Sano suppressed the urge to laugh. Mirth was contagious.

"Don't let them make you say anything," Jinshichi ordered Gombei as they guffawed and thrashed.

"I won't," Gombei said, gasping for breath. His body jerked involuntarily; distress showed through his humor. "No matter what."

The eta proceeded to tickle the men's armpits. Gombei and Jinshichi bucked, contorted, and tried to roll away from their tormenters. Their laughter took on a ragged, hysterical edge.

"Did you kidnap my cousin Chiyo?" Sano said. The men just kept laughing. Sano prompted, "She was the woman with the baby. At Awashima Shrine. You took her, didn't you?"

"No," Gombei blurted between giggles.

Jinshichi shook his head, panted, and roared.

"Suit yourselves," Hirata said.

The eta poked their fingers between Jinshichi's and Gombei's ribs, along their waists. Soon the men were covered with mud, sobbing while they laughed. Suddenly it didn't seem funny to Sano anymore. The line between mirth and misery had been crossed. Kusuguri-zeme didn't inflict permanent damage, but it caused as much distress as pain did. It was cruel torture indeed. Sano stoically forced himself to watch. He told himself these men were criminals who deserved to suffer until they talked.

"I can't bear it any longer," Gombei whimpered while he laughed and choked. "Make them stop, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"

The eta looked to Sano, who nodded. They stopped tickling, rose, and backed away from the prisoners. Gombei moaned and wept with gratitude. Jinshichi said to his partner, "You stupid coward." He was gasping as hard as if he'd run all the way across town. Both men's faces were awash in dirt and tears. Sano felt almost as relieved as they did.

"Did you kidnap my cousin?" Sano repeated.

"Yes," Gombei said weakly. "We gave her a potion that we buy from a druggist in Kanda. It makes people go to sleep, and they can't move."

Jinshichi muttered in disgust, but he nodded.

"Who hired you to kidnap her?" Sano asked.

"I don't know his name," Gombei said.

"He's lying," Hirata told Sano.

"Ogita, Nanbu, or Joju," Sano said. "Which one was it?"

Startled, Gombei said, "How-?"

"How did I find out who your customers are?" Sano explained, "I've been checking into your background since we last met. The proprietor at the Drum Teahouse told me about your side business. He was happy to supply the names."

"I'll kill that rat," Jinshichi fumed.

"If you live long enough," Marume said. "Tell Chamberlain Sano which one raped his cousin."

"It was Ogita," Jinshichi said, reluctant to confess, yet eager to avoid more tickling.

At last Sano knew the truth. At last he had a target for the anger he felt on behalf of Chiyo and his newfound clan. He thought of Ogita lying to his face, and an intense hatred filled him like venom infusing his veins, like hot smoke suffocating his lungs. He wanted to lash out at the merchant and strike him down. But Ogita wasn't here, and now wasn't the time for Sano to let loose his temper.

"Ogita wanted a woman who'd just had a baby," Gombei said. "He wanted to drink milk from her breasts while he had sex with her. You can't get that in Yoshiwara. So we went to Awashima Shrine. It always has plenty of new mothers. All we had to do was pick one who looked easy. I pretended I was hurt, I called for help, and she came right to me."

That he could speak so casually about his crime! Sano felt his hatred grow to encompass the oxcart drivers for their part in Chiyo's rape.

"I didn't know she was your cousin," Gombei said. "If I had, I'd have kidnapped somebody else."

Sano wanted to grab the man by his hair, grind his face into the dirt, wipe off its sheepish expression, then cut off his head. But he wasn't finished with Jinshichi. "You did kidnap somebody else, didn't you? The girl Fumiko."

"No," Gombei said. "We never-"

"Was she for Nanbu, or Joju?" Sano said.

Jinshichi said, "Keep quiet! He'll kill us!"

Sano motioned to the eta. They moved toward the prisoners. Gombei hastily said, "No! Please! All right! She was for Nanbu. He happened to see her when he and his men were catching dogs at Ueno Temple. He wanted her, but he found out she was the daughter of Jirocho the gangster, and he was afraid to take her himself. So he hired us."

Sano was almost as disgusted by Nanbu's cowardice as by his taking pleasure at the expense of a helpless young girl. "Did he hire you to kidnap the nun, too?"

"No. That was Joju. He likes high-class old ladies."

It was the priest who'd infected the nun with genital disease. He was responsible for her suicide and therefore indirectly guilty of murder. Sano thought about the similarities between the nun and the shogun's wife. He glimpsed a light through the dark tangle of this investigation.

"He's confessed to everything," Jinshichi said with a bitter look at his partner. "Just kill us now."

"Not quite everything," Sano said. "There's another victim besides the three we've discussed. The nun wasn't the only woman you kidnapped for Joju, was she?"

An air of caution fell over the men. They seemed to shrink into themselves under its weight. Their gazes avoided each other as well as Sano and his men. Gombei said, "There were only three."

"Four," Sano said.

"Can't you count that high?" Hirata mocked the drivers.

"Maybe they have short memories and they've forgotten about the shogun's wife," Sano said.

"What?" Jinshichi and Gombei spoke in unison; they stared in disbelieving, apparently genuine shock.

"The shogun's wife went missing yesterday," Sano said. "I think she was kidnapped." He pointed at the two men. "By none other than you."

Now they did look at each other, with appalled expressions. Jinshichi blurted, "You didn't tell me she was the shogun's wife."

"I didn't know!" Gombei cried, too upset to deny the charge or keep his mouth shut. "I thought she was just some old lady." He turned to Sano. "I swear!"

"You're in even bigger trouble now," Hirata said. "The shogun will have your head cut off for that."

"Not just yet." Sano addressed the captives: "Tell me what happened."

"We needed money," Gombei said. "We went to see Joju the day before yesterday. He said that if we brought him another old lady, he'd pay us enough money to get out of town. So we went and found her." He moaned. "Of all the women in Edo, it would have to be the shogun's wife. What rotten luck!"

"Your luck is about to improve," Sano said. "Answer a few more questions, and maybe I'll let you live. Here's the first one: Did you take the shogun's wife to the same boat as the other women?"

"He knows about the boat," Jinshichi said dolefully. "He knows everything."

"I take it that means yes," Sano said. "Here's the second question: Where is the boat?"

Jinshichi began to speak, but Gombei prevented him by yelling, "Shut up!" Gombei's eyes shone with desperate cunning. "Even if we tell you where the boat is, you won't be able to find it by yourself. To you, it would look the same as a thousand other boats. How about if we take you there?"

He grinned. Sano knew Gombei was buying time, hoping that on the way to the boat he and Jinshichi would find a way to escape. But Sano had no time to argue or negotiate; without the men as guides, he might not get to Lady Nobuko before the shogun's deadline.

"All right," Sano said, "but I'm warning you: no tricks."