I. Parker: The Old Men of Omi

“No,” said the boy, “he was outside on the street. I saw him. He showed me his dolls in the box. I liked the monkey. He asked if I was going to the fair.”

Akitada rose and looked at Takechi. “He was watching the house,” he said,” waiting for the family to leave.”

The mother gasped and drew the boy closer.

Turning to the rest of the family, Akitada asked, “Did anyone else see the puppet man outside?”

They shook their heads.

“You did not even see him at the fair?”

They looked at each other and shook their heads again. The boy said stubbornly, “He wasn’t at the fair. He was outside.”

Akitada gave the child a shiny silver coin and told his mother, “He’s a bright boy. Keep an eye on him.”

?

The judge’s servants, Kiyoshi and Tatsuko, were still living in his house. They had no place to go, and the heirs had allowed them to stay to keep an eye on the property. Kiyoshi worked at the harbor and Tatsuko looked after her children and kept the place clean.

She was home when they got there and recognized them. A look of fear crossed her face. “Has anything happened? Is it my husband? Do we have to leave?”

“No, nothing like that,” Takechi reassured her. “Lord Sugawara wants to ask you a few more questions, that’s all.”

She smiled with relief and bowed to Akitada.

“Do you recall,” Akitada asked, “that you told me the judge did not even pay you enough to take your son to see a puppet play?”

She blushed. “I shouldn’t have complained. The judge’s heirs have been very good to us.”

“I’m glad to hear it, but I wondered what made you think of puppets that day.”

“Oh, it was nothing. There was this puppeteer in front of the house, and I was thinking how my son would like to see a puppet show. He was just an ordinary puppet man with a box slung around his neck, the kind that walks around at fairs. They take their puppets out and make them move and talk. It only costs a few coppers to watch, but we didn’t even have that to spare.”

“Ah. You have an excellent memory. Can you describe the puppet man?”

She blushed at the compliment. “Well, as I said, he had this box-“

“No, I mean what he looked like. How old was he, was he tall or short, did he have any distinguishing marks?”

She frowned. “I didn’t look at him very long and he was on the other side of the street. He was a big man. Not young, I think. He had on a colorful cap, but his face looked old. I’m sorry, that’s all. Oh, and he had a limp.”

“Thank you. That was very helpful.” Akitada gave her a piece of silver, and they left.

Outside, Takechi said with a good deal of admiration, “I’m beginning to think you’re right, sir. However did you hit on a puppet man?”

“It took me far too long, Takechi. I went to a shrine fair with the governor’s children and saw a puppeteer there, but my interest was in the sellers of Jizo figures. There have been several mentions of puppets, mostly by children, who have an eye for such things. I suddenly thought of all the vagrants who wander from town to town to perform or sell their skills at fairs. It’s a perfect cover for a convict who has escaped and intends to avenge his family.”

Takechi nodded. “And this is the perfect time for it. Omi is known far and wide for its spring festivals. I bet he’ll be at the Grand Shrine Festival, too. They are already setting up the booths and grandstands at the Hiyoshi Taisha shrine. We’ll be sure to get him then.”

“It would be safer if you could find him sooner. Where do such people stay in Otsu?”

“We have a lot of hostelries for travelers near the harbor. Some cater to hinin like him.”

Hatta would be an outcast now, though he had once belonged to the respectable family of a senior retainer. A terrible change for a man! All of the homeless migrants of the country, entertainers at fairs and private houses, jugglers and dancers, prostitutes and soothsayers, belonged to this non-class of people. They were almost invariably poor and at the mercy of the authorities who arrested them frequently for stealing and loitering, for causing trouble and for prostitution.

Akitada said, “Let’s have a word with that very observant neighbor of the jailer. If she saw him, she may remember another detail. And if the people in the Echi district also report seeing a puppet man near the murder scenes, you will have enough for an arrest.”

Takechi nodded. “We’ll have to be careful, or he’ll smell what’s afoot.”

Tokuno’s neighbor welcomed them eagerly. “Any news?” she asked. “Have you got him yet? Everybody’s afraid around here. Some people barricade their doors and won’t come out.”

She was evidently made of stronger stuff because a mere knock brought her to the door. Takechi asked his question, and she said immediately, “The puppet man? You mean he’s the one that killed Tokuno and that merchant? And the judge?” She put a hand to her head. “Amida! He might’ve killed me. I talked to him.” She swayed a little, and Takechi caught her arm.

“He wanted Tokuno, not you,” he told her. “And you can tell people they are perfectly safe. Now tell us about him.”

She told, eagerly and with great detail. He had walked down the street, looking at the houses on either side while she had been outside sweeping the path to her door. He had stopped and asked her where the jailer Tokuno lived. “Of course, Tokuno wasn’t a jailer anymore. I told him so. He was just a sweeper now. He seemed pleased by this. I pointed out Tokuno’s house.” She raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh, merciful Kannon! I sent the murderer to Tokuno.”

“He would have found the house without you,” Akitada said. “Can you describe him?”

“Oh, he was a tall man. Gray hair. It was long and he tied it in back. And he was really sun burnt, like he’d been traveling. I asked him what he had in his box, but he wouldn’t tell me and walked away.”

“Was he limping?”

“Yes. I guessed it was from all that walking they do. And I knew very well he was a puppeteer even if he wouldn’t say.”

And that was that.

Akitada and Takechi parted, Takechi to organize his search, and Akitada to return to the tribunal to report and to await news from Echi.

Word from Echi district arrived late that night. The news was mixed. No puppet man had been seen near the Taira manor at any time, but the fair attended by Wakiya and Juro had indeed had a puppet player on both days of the fair.

“It doesn’t matter about Sukemichi’s death,” Akitada said to Kosehira. “I myself passed a sizable fair within walking distance from the manor. Hatta was there, I’d swear on it.”

They had taken to referring to the puppet man as Hatta, assuming he was Hatta Takashi, the son of the Taira betto Hatta Hiroshi, who had confessed to killing the rice merchant Fumi Takahiro and had died in exile. The son had attacked Sukemichi’s father and had also been sent to work in the mines in the north. They had no proof that he had escaped and become a puppeteer to avenge his father’s death and his family’s ruin, but no other explanation would account for all victims. They hoped that, once arrested, the puppet man would confirm their assumptions.

But in spite of the most thorough searches of every hostelry in Otsu and the surrounding countryside, the puppet man had not been found.

Kosehira grumbled, “It may all have been in vain. He could have left right after killing Fumi Tokiari. His work was done and he went home, wherever home may be. We’ll never solve the murders, and the people will call us inept.”