Chamberlain Yanagisawa said; his expression turned speculative as he voiced Sano’s thought.
“That they didn’t bother to loot the baggage and steal the gold indicates that lucre isn’t their main concern,” Hoshina said.
“Maybe there’s a more personal motive behind the crime.” Yanagisawa’s gaze moved from Sano to Hirata, then to the shogun. “Your Excellency is not the only one of us with enemies who might attack us through our women.”
Sano knew that few people alive had as many enemies as did Yanagisawa. A long list included men he’d ousted from power, the kin of rivals he’d demoted, executed, or assassinated, and lovers used then spurned by him.
Ominous intent darkened Yanagisawa’s eyes. “I can think of a few people who bear checking into,” he said.
Hirata sat openmouthed and frozen, as if thunderstruck by inspiration. His voice emerged bitter with hatred: “Lord Niu.”
“Your father-in-law, the daimyo of Satsuma Province,” Hoshina clarified. “The two of you have been at odds since you married Lady Midori.” Proudly showing off his knowledge, the police commissioner added, “Perhaps the kidnapping is his method of reclaiming his daughter.”
“If he’s behind this, I’ll kill him!” Hirata exclaimed.
Sano wasn’t ready to focus the investigation on Lord Niu, or Yanagisawa’s political enemies. “Let’s not forget the Black Lotus,” he said.
The name tainted the air like poison. The elders averted their eyes and compressed their lips in distasteful memory; Hirata nodded grimly. Wary interest tensed Yanagisawa and Hoshina, while the shogun looked confused as to what a defunct Buddhist sect could have to do with the crime.
“The sect has been banned since its uprising eight months ago,” Sano said, “but although most of the priests, nuns, and followers have been captured and executed for their attempt to destroy Japan, some remain at large, and they’ve recruited new members. They hate me for my part in crushing the sect, and my wife for killing their leader. They’ve sworn revenge.”
During the past decade, the Black Lotus had tortured and murdered countless people who’d crossed it. The fanatical members, responsible for a conflagration with a death toll of over seven hundred, were capable of slaughtering a procession while sacrificing their own lives. The thought of Reiko caught by them panicked Sano. The sect might have a fate worse than death in store for her.
“It seems we have an abundance of suspects to investigate,” Chamberlain Yanagisawa said.
“Well, I, ahh, order you to begin work at once, get my mother back, and execute whoever kidnapped her as soon as possible.” The shogun waved his hand at everyone. “Dismissed.”
Sano and Hirata left the palace. Hirata brooded in silence until they entered the walled courtyard of Sano’s estate. Then he blurted, “Forgive me for speaking boldly, but I don’t think we’re doing enough to save the women. Limiting our attention to Edo and investigating our enemies may or may not prove worthwhile. Besides, any evidence the kidnappers left is far away on the Tokaido.”
“You’re right,” Sano said. “That’s why I’m giving you a secret assignment.”
Hirata’s features, illuminated by the torches that flared in the courtyard, sharpened with eager hope.
“Go to the site of the abduction,” Sano said. “Take along Detectives Marume and Fukida. Wear disguises, travel under aliases. No one must know you’re investigating the crime because we don’t want the kidnappers to find out we’re pursuing them and disobeying their orders. Examine the crime scene, look for witnesses, and try to pick up the kidnappers’ trail.”
“Yes, Sosakan-sama!” Hirata said with ardent gratitude.
“Bring me word of any clues you find,” Sano said. “But promise me that you won’t approach the kidnappers or do anything else that might endanger the women.”
“I promise.” The mantle of fear and helplessness dropped from Hirata; he glowed with confidence. “We’ll be ready to go by dawn. And I promise we’ll find the kidnappers.”
Hirata rushed off toward the barracks. Sano stood alone in the courtyard, listening to the sounds of cicadas humming, dogs barking, and mounted soldiers patrolling in the night that spread dark and wide around him. His mind yearned across the distance toward Reiko.
Where was she? As anguish gripped him, Sano hoped she was unharmed. He prayed that she and the other women would come home safely and soon, and that fortune combined with hard work would negate the premonition of calamity that chilled him.
4
The sound of sobbing aroused Reiko to groggy consciousness. She thought Masahiro must have wakened in the night from a bad dream. Maternal instinct compelled her to go to him-but she couldn’t move.
A force like bands of steel locked her legs against each other and her arms at her sides. Confusion blinked her eyes open, but thick, rough material covered her face, and all she saw was blackness. She drew a gasp of surprise, then gagged on something coarse and dry that filled her mouth. Now Reiko became aware that she was moving in rapid, jouncing rhythm, carried by hands that gripped her armpits and ankles. The sobbing continued, accompanied by moans. Panic seized Reiko; her heart lurched.
Where was she? What had happened to her?
Then memory seeped, hideous and dreadful, through the fog of sleep that clung to her mind. Visions of the ambush, the massacre, and the kidnapping assailed Reiko. The cries she heard must belong to Keisho-in, Midori, or Lady Yanagisawa. They were still captive, somewhere that defied imagination.
Terror exploded in Reiko. She wanted to thrash and scream, but that would only waste her strength. Reiko forced herself to be still, urged her somnolent brain to rational thought. She must marshal her wits and learn what she could of her circumstances, discover anything that might prove useful for survival, and keep terror at bay.
Reiko focused her attention first on herself. Ropes tied around her immobilized her body. The material covering her face was the black hood the kidnappers had put on her head. Her tongue tasted the dryness of cotton fabric stuffed in her mouth as a gag. She felt nausea and a throbbing headache that she attributed to the opium the men had poured down her throat, but otherwise she seemed unhurt. Stiffness in her muscles, and a need to urinate, indicated that she’d slept for a time long enough to have traveled a great distance beyond the scene of the abduction and beyond the reach of anyone looking for her.
But perhaps nobody knew yet what had happened. Perhaps she would die before someone came to the rescue.
Fresh panic agitated Reiko like wings fluttering inside her chest. She experienced such an intense stab of longing for Sano and Masahiro that she nearly wept. But she willed herself calm. She directed her senses outward.
Through the thick cloth of the hood, she heard footsteps treading dry leaves. Twigs cracked. Grass rustled. Men’s breaths rasped. Those noises pierced a mesh of sound composed of crickets and cicadas singing and wind rustling through trees. Owls hooted. Ahead of Reiko erupted phlegmy coughs from Lady Keisho-in; behind her, Midori wept. Where Lady Yanagisawa was, Reiko couldn’t tell. She felt branches snag her garments, and cool, damp air; mosquitoes hummed around her. Pine-scented smoke filtered through the hood. Reiko formed a mental picture of the kidnappers carrying her and the other women through a forest at night, their way lit by torches. The commotion signified many more men following. Reiko’s imagination showed her an endless line of hooded, stealthy marching figures.
Suddenly the footsteps slowed; movement halted. In the brief quiet Reiko heard a heavy door scrape open. Motion then resumed, and the atmosphere changed. The forest sounds were muted; the men’s feet shuffled on a stone surface; echoes reverberated. The air was still, warmer, and suffused with a musty odor: They’d entered a building.
As the door thudded shut, Reiko’s body tilted, head upward. The abrupt change of position nauseated her so much that she thought she would vomit and choke. She felt herself ascending, borne by the men whose weight creaked wooden stairs under their feet. They tipped her horizontal at a landing, then climbed more stairs. From above her came the coos of nesting birds frightened by the intrusion, the screech and flutter of bats. The men
