Laura Rowland - The Assassin's Touch

“Now that we’ve discussed my reasons for not wanting you involved with Yugao, I’d like to know why you’re so eager to take on this investigation,” he said. “Has your sympathy for her prejudiced you in her favor? If so, this won’t be the first time that’s happened.”

Reiko’s eyes widened. He was alluding to the Black Lotus Temple case, when she’d tried to help another young woman accused of murder. They seldom discussed it because it had almost ruined their marriage, and was still a sensitive issue. “I have no particular sympathy for Yugao. If you had seen how hostile she was to me, you would know that I have every reason to want to prove she’s guilty.”

Sano nodded, although unconvinced. “But I must ask you to reconsider taking on this new case.”

Reiko was silent, her expression conflicted. Sano sensed how much she wanted to conduct this investigation; he saw her trying not to be angry at him. At last she said, “If you forbid me, I will honor your wishes.”

Now Sano had a dilemma. If he gave in because he loved Reiko, wanted her to be happy, and stood by his principles, he would jeopardize his position, and woe betide them should something go wrong. The threat of death had constantly haunted Sano since he’d joined the bakufu, but now he had even worse to fear. He looked toward the room where Masahiro lay asleep. As his son grew, Sano became more aware of his role as a father and how much his son’s fate depended on him. The son of a disgraced official would face a bleak future.

Yet if he forbade Reiko, he would be turning his back on honor and proving himself a coward. Caught between fire and plague, he erred on the side of honor, as he always had.

“I won’t forbid you,” he said. “Go ahead with your investigation if you insist. But be careful. Try not to attract attention or do anything that could hurt us.”

Reiko smiled. “I will. I promise to be discreet. Thank you.”

Sano saw that she was glad he’d given her his permission, if not his blessing; he could also tell she wasn’t surprised by his decision. Somehow she’d maneuvered him into a position where he couldn’t say no without compromising himself. He felt a grudging yet fond admiration for her cleverness. Reiko could certainly handle him better than he could her. But tonight had shown him that he needed someone to help him stay true to his ideals, and he was glad he could count on Reiko.

“How do you propose to begin your investigation?” he said.

“I thought that tomorrow I would examine the place where Yugao’s parents and sister were murdered, then talk to people who knew the family,” Reiko said. “Maybe I can turn up evidence that will prove whether she’s innocent or guilty.”

“That sounds like a good approach.” Sano hoped he wouldn’t come to regret his decision.

“What’s the next step in your investigation?” Reiko sparkled with vivacity, as she always did when looking forward to an adventure.

“I need to reconstruct the murder of Chief Ejima.” Sano mused. “Your investigation is ahead of mine in some respects. At least you have a primary suspect, and you know where the crime occurred. My first task is to find the actual crime scene where the death-touch was delivered to Ejima. Maybe then I can learn who did it.”

Sano rose the next morning before the sun ascended over the hills east of Edo and the night guards went off duty at the castle. Before he resumed investigating the murder, he ate a hasty meal in his office while his staff briefed him on news dispatches from the provinces. The anteroom was already crowded with officials, but today he couldn’t let his daily routine steal all his time; he couldn’t shuffle paper while a killer was at large and the balance of power depended on him. It was high time to close his open door.

He dismissed his staff and told his principal aide, “I’m going out.”

“People are waiting to see you, Honorable Chamberlain,” the aide politely reminded Sano. He was a clever, capable, honest man named Kozawa, of scholarly appearance and deferential manner. “And here is more correspondence for you to read and answer.” Kozawa indicated an open chest full of scrolls that had materialized beside Sano’s desk.

There was no time like the present to start anew. Sano took a deep breath, then said, “Sort out everything and everybody. Save the important matters for me. Handle the minor ones yourself.”

“Yes, Honorable Chamberlain,” Kozawa said, taking the order in stride.

“I want any case of sudden death among the bakufu officials reported to me, directly and at once,” Sano said. If there was another murder in a plot against Lord Matsudaira, he wanted to know as soon as possible. “The body is not to be touched. No one leaves or enters the scene of death before I arrive.”

“As you wish, Honorable Chamberlain. Where can I reach you if need be?”

“I’ll be at Chief Ejima’s estate for a while,” Sano said. “After that, I don’t know.”

As Sano left his office, Detectives Marume and Fukida and his other attendants fell into step with him. He fought the feeling that he’d just let go the reins and disaster lay ahead whether he solved the murder case or not.

Chief Ejima’s estate in the Hibiya administrative district was large and imposing, as suited his high rank. A two-story mansion enclosed by a high wall dwarfed other nearby houses; the gate had double portals and two tiers of roofs. When Sano arrived there with his entourage, he found that a strange vacuum surrounded the estate. Officials, clerks, and soldiers thronged the streets of the district, but the ones outside Ejima’s house were deserted, as if everybody was shunning the place in which the master lay recently dead, avoiding contamination by the evil spirits. Sano and his men stopped at the gate as servants hung mourning drapery over it. The black cloth flapped in the breeze; funereal incense smoke tainted the bright spring day.

Detective Marume addressed the two guards in the booth; “The honorable chamberlain wants to speak with your master’s family. Take us to them.”

One advantage Sano enjoyed as chamberlain was that his rank commanded instant respect and unquestioning obedience. The guards quickly summoned servants who escorted Sano, Marume, Fukida, and the rest of their party into the house. They removed their shoes and swords in the entryway, then walked down a corridor that smelled of incense smoke that drifted from the reception room. As Sano approached this, he heard voices inside. Through a lattice-and-paper partition he saw the glow of lanterns and the blurry shadows of two human figures.

“You have no claim to his estate,” said a man’s voice, raised in anger.

“Oh, yes, I do,” shrilled a defiant female voice. “I was his wife.”

“His wife.” The male voice dripped scorn. “You’re nothing but a whore who took advantage of a lonely man.”

A shriek of laughter came from the woman. “I’m not the only one who took advantage of my husband. You’re just a poor relation that he adopted as his son. He never would have if you hadn’t played up to him so that you could get your hands on his money.”

“Be that as it may, I am his legal son and heir. I control his fortune now.

“But he promised me a share of it,” the woman said, her anger now tinged with desperation.

“Too bad for you that he never wrote his promise into his will. I don’t have to give you a single copper. It’s all mine,” the man said triumphantly.

“You filthy bastard!”

The servant who’d escorted Sano into the house knocked on the door frame and called in a polite voice, “Excuse me, but you have visitors.”

The man cursed under his breath. His shadow moved close to the partition. He slid the door open, revealing himself as a thickset young samurai in his late twenties. He gaped at Sano.