“In the meantime, you have me,” Ienobu told the shogun.
The shogun turned his pique on Ienobu. “You can’t do the things that need to be done! You just, ahh, hang around and live off me! That’s why I need Sano- san.”
Ienobu sat up straighter than Sano had thought his hunched back would allow. Offense and humiliation showed on his ugly features. He turned to Sano, who felt a sudden change in the atmosphere between Ienobu and himself. They weren’t just cautiously watching each other anymore. Ienobu now resented how much the shogun depended on Sano, and his caution toward Sano had changed to active dislike.
“Your nephew performs a valuable service by providing counsel to you, Your Excellency,” Sano said in an attempt to help Ienobu regain face. The last thing he needed was another enemy.
Ienobu tightened his lips until they almost covered his teeth.
“Well, ahh, you had better think about improving your service to me,” the shogun told Sano. “I want some real progress in the city, and I want it tomorrow!”
Sano’s fortitude strained toward the breaking point. Mutinous ideas came unbidden to his mind. Maybe the shogun deserved to be overthrown. It would be a fitting punishment for his selfishness and stupidity. What if Sano deliberately failed to satisfy Lord Hosokawa’s demands and let matters run their course? He could then join the rebels. They would surely welcome him, his troops, and the allies he could bring to their side. The shogun would never threaten him, abuse him, or make impossible demands on him ever again. These ideas tempted and horrified Sano. He was infected with the same madness as Lord Hosokawa; the earthquake had eroded his own sanity. The honor he’d served all his life was a dam cracking under the strain.
The dam held, shored up by forty-six years of following the Way of the Warrior. “Yes, Your Excellency.” Sano promised, “I’ll do better.” Leaving the room, he glanced at Ienobu.
Ienobu gazed back as if he’d sensed Sano’s thoughts and wondered how best to use them to his own advantage.
Noises in the corridor awakened Reiko from a sound sleep. She stretched under the quilts, drowsy and relaxed. Akiko was gone. The room was dim, the lamps in the corridor lit. It was evening; she’d slept the whole afternoon. She heard Sano’s voice.
Then she remembered.
Fully awake now, Reiko clambered out of bed and quickly dressed. She must tell Sano about the baby. But when he came into the room, Hirata and Masahiro were with him. She decided to wait until she and Sano were alone. She wasn’t yet ready to spread the news outside their family, and she and Sano would want to tell Masahiro privately together, as they’d done when she became pregnant with Akiko.
“You’re home early,” she said to Sano. This was the first time since the earthquake that he’d come home before midnight. He looked even more careworn than usual. “Did something bad happen today?”
Sano exchanged glances with Hirata. “That would be an understatement.”
“What is it?” Masahiro said, full of eager curiosity.
“We’d better sit down,” Sano said. The family took places around the kosatsu — a table built over a sunken charcoal brazier. Their feet and legs were warm in the space around the fire. A quilt covered the table and their laps. The clutter of their belongings surrounded them. A maid served them tea and departed. “Before I tell you, you must swear to keep it secret.”
Apprehension crept through Reiko. “I swear,” she and Masahiro said in unison.
“Hirata- san, will you make sure nobody eavesdrops?” Sano asked.
There were spies everywhere, Reiko knew; even in their own household. Hirata went to stand outside the door. Sano told Reiko and Masahiro about the dead women in the sunken house, his visit to the Hosokawa estate, and Lord Hosokawa’s blackmail.
“If you solve the crime, Lord Hosokawa will hand over a million koban to pay for rebuilding Edo? And if you don’t, he and the other daimyo will overthrow the Tokugawa regime?” Reiko was so shocked that she forgot about her own news. “Did I hear you correctly?” When Sano nodded, her disbelief gave way to horror. “Doesn’t Lord Hosokawa know that’s treason?”
“Yes. I told him,” Sano said. “But he’s not thinking about anything except his own grief and revenge for his daughters.”
“So you agreed to do what he wants?” Masahiro asked.
“I didn’t see any other choice.” Sano explained why he couldn’t just report Lord Hosokawa to the shogun. “The best thing to do is solve the case quickly.”
“But how can you fit a murder investigation in with all the work you have to do?” It seemed impossible to Reiko.
“I’ll need some help, even if I handle it personally. The problem is, it needs to be kept secret. I can’t send my retainers out to interview people and dig up clues. My enemies would surely notice that I was diverting effort away from the earthquake repairs to investigate the murders. They would wonder what sort of hold Lord Hosokawa has on me.”
Reiko knew that Sano had many enemies, including a large faction loyal to Yanagisawa. The secret deal between Sano and Lord Hosokawa, and their conspiracy of silence, made Sano a party to treason. This information would be just the weapon his enemies needed to destroy Sano.
“If people start prying, your deal with Lord Hosokawa could come out,” Reiko said.
“The Tokugawa regime would have to take action against Lord Hosokawa and the daimyo. The war would start.” Masahiro’s clever mind quickly grasped the implications.
“Which means I can only use assistants I can absolutely trust to be discreet,” Sano said. “That means Hirata, Detective Marume, and the two of you.”
Reiko decided to put off telling Sano she was pregnant. If he knew, he would refuse to let her join in the investigation, for fear it would tax her health and endanger the baby. But he needed her help. Unless he caught the killer, Lord Hosokawa would make good on his threats. The civil war would start. Sano would be blamed and executed as a traitor. His family would be put to death as well. If Reiko didn’t live long enough to give birth, the baby would die with her. Although Sano had never failed to solve a case, this might be the first time. Reiko couldn’t allow that to happen. Furthermore, she’d carried and given birth to Masahiro and Akiko without any trouble, and she felt fine now. As long as she restricted herself to visiting and talking with a few people, what harm could a little detective work do?
“You can count on me,” she said.
Sano smiled; the tension in his face relaxed. “I know I can.”
Reiko saw more reason to help Sano. He couldn’t count on Hirata or Marume for much. Marume was so grief-stricken; the investigation might be beyond his capabilities. And Sano had confided to her that something was amiss with Hirata, who often disappeared for lengthy, unexplained periods. That left her and Masahiro.
“You can count on me, too,” Masahiro said.
But he was only a child, Reiko thought. No matter how clever and mature he was, he couldn’t do everything that a murder investigation required. And he had other duties.
“You’ll have to stay with the shogun,” Sano said. “Both of us deserting him at the same time would be asking for trouble.”
Disappointed, Masahiro said, “Isn’t there any way I can help?”
“Watch Ienobu,” Sano said. “Let me know what he does. I may find other things for you to do later.”
Masahiro nodded happily. But Reiko knew he couldn’t do the things she could. Sano needed her. She couldn’t bow out of the investigation.
“What have you learned so far?” she asked.
“The cause of death.” Sano described the results of Dr. Ito’s examination.
“Arsenic in the incense,” Reiko mused. “It suggests that someone who was present at the game is the poisoner. Perhaps Madam Usugumo, the teacher.”
“But why would she poison her students?” Masahiro asked. “Weren’t they paying her money?”
Reiko smiled, proud of his astuteness. “Usugumo had the best opportunity to poison the incense, although she must have taught her pupils to blend incense. One of them could have mixed in the arsenic.”
“That would have been stupid,” Masahiro said. “I think somebody else killed them all.”
“We’d better pray that you’re right, or that Usugumo is guilty,” Sano said.
