While relating her story, Sano had paused to tell his companions what Lady Ateki and Oigimi had said about her today.
“It also explains why Doi threatened him,” Fukida said, alluding to Hana’s statement, which Sano had related earlier.
“But it won’t help her,” Sano said unhappily.
If the story was true, his mother was slated for execution because of a boy who’d deserved to die. Arson was a capital crime, punishable by burning to death, but even if Tadatoshi had been guilty of it, that made no difference.
“Lord Tokugawa Naganori is dead, and Colonel Doi and Egen have taken sides against your mother. Even if they knew Tadatoshi was an arsonist, they’re not going to admit it and help her out,” Hirata concurred.
“It’ll be her word against theirs,” Masahiro piped up.
“Good observation, young master,” Fukida said. “Chamberlain Sano, we’ve got a future detective here.”
The gods forbid Masahiro to follow in his father’s tracks, Sano thought. He looked to Reiko for her reaction. She appeared to be listening hard, yet she had a preoccupied air.
“Who wants to be the one to accuse the shogun’s cousin of arson?” Marume said.
No one volunteered. Maligning the murder victim’s character wouldn’t serve the defendant’s interests in this case. To speak ill of a Tokugawa clan member was treason. Should Sano report this story to the shogun, his mother could be put to death for it even if she hadn’t killed Tadatoshi.
If she hadn’t.
“That’s one reason we can’t make this story public,” Sano said.
“Nobody will hear it from me,” Hirata said.
“Nor I,” chorused Masahiro and the detectives. Reiko only nodded.
“Here’s another reason,” Sano said. “Suppose Tadatoshi really was an arsonist. My mother admitted that she was part of a conspiracy to keep him from setting fires. We don’t know the rest of the story-she fell asleep before she could finish. What if she was determined enough to stop him that she did more than spy on him?”
“Arson doesn’t give his murderer an excuse for killing him,” Hirata said. “It gives your mother a motive.”
“Lord Matsudaira would certainly use that to his advantage,” Marume said.
An idea occurred to Sano. “Tadatoshi never went to Miyako. Because of the Great Fire, Lord Naganori’s plan fell through. We still don’t know where Tadatoshi was or what he-and my mother-did during the fire.”
Hirata frowned as he caught Sano’s drift. “The fire started by accident at Honmyo Temple, before Tadatoshi disappeared,” he reminded Sano. “He couldn’t have set it.”
“The city was burning,” Sano said. “Everyone was terrified. My mother could have decided Tadatoshi was too dangerous to live. Maybe, when she went searching for him, she found him-and saw a chance to put him out of action for good.”
“That would be Lord Matsudaira’s interpretation,” Fukida said. “He’d rush to foist it onto the shogun.”
“So we keep the story quiet,” Marume said. “What else do we do?”
“Tomorrow I’ll go back to Edo Jail and try to get the rest of the story from my mother. Maybe it will help us.” Sano was already dreading that it would do the opposite. “In the meantime, what have you learned?”
“I’m sorry to say we haven’t located any of the people who lived at Tadatoshi’s estate before the Great Fire,” Marume said.
“They’re all dead or scattered,” Fukida explained.
“I haven’t found anything against Colonel Doi,” Hirata said. “So far he’s got the cleanest record I’ve ever seen.”
“I think that’s suspicious,” Masahiro said.
Sano nodded, proud yet not exactly pleased that his son had absorbed some basics of detective work. That road led to peril as well as the post of second-in-command to the shogun. “Nobody climbs as high as he’s done without getting dirt on his hands. But too clean a record isn’t evidence that Doi has a murder in his past.”
“So we’ve come up empty,” Fukida said with regret.
“Worse than empty.” Sano related what Lady Ateki, Oigimi, and Hana had told him about his mother.
“Tadatoshi’s mother and sister not only recant their statements but throw dirt at her, and so does her own maid. That is worse,” Marume said. “But we’re not giving up, are we?”
“Not while we still have another witness whose story I’m not ready to let stand,” Sano said.
“The tutor?” Masahiro guessed.
“Right,” Sano said.
“Look out, Marume-san, the boy’s wits are quicker than yours,” Fukida joked.
“I want a little talk with Egen,” Sano said.
“Good idea,” Marume said. “Make the bastard eat his words.”
“I feel responsible for what he did, because I found him,” Hirata said. “May I go with you?”
“All right,” Sano said. “We’ll leave at daybreak. Marume-san and Fukida-san, you keep searching for other witnesses and for evidence against Colonel Doi.”
“Will do,” Marume said.
The men bowed and rose to depart. Reiko gathered empty wine cups. Sano thought it odd that she’d participated in the discussion not at all.
“Aren’t you interested in the investigation?” he asked her later as they prepared for bed.
Seated at her dressing table, Reiko brushed her hair. She looked in the mirror instead of at him. “Of course I am.”
“You could have fooled me.” Sano tied the sash of his night robe. “While we were talking, you didn’t offer a single opinion or suggestion. That’s not like you. What’s wrong?”
Outside, the wind scraped tree branches against the roof and tossed dry leaves against the walls of the mansion. It sounded to Sano as if malevolent external forces were trying to breach their safe, cozy chamber.
When Reiko didn’t answer his question at once, he knelt behind her. Their worried faces reflected in the mirror together. Their eyes met, and Sano belatedly recalled that Reiko had wanted to speak with him and he’d put her off. He had an idea as to why.
“What happened between you and my mother today?” he asked.
Reiko lowered her eyes and concentrated on brushing a tangle out of her hair. “I talked to her about the murder, as you said I should.”
“And?” Sano braced himself. This was a day for news he didn’t want to hear.
“I asked her about the alibi that Hana gave her. She changed her mind and said Hana was with her, and she couldn’t have killed Tadatoshi.”
Sano rubbed his temples, wondering if the flow of bad news would ever stop. “As I said earlier, Hana has changed her mind, too. She admitted she’d lost track of my mother for eight days during and after the fire.” And he was more inclined to believe Hana’s new story than his mother’s. But he didn’t like Reiko’s expression, which made it clear that she, too, thought his mother was the liar yet again.
“What else?” Sano said.
“I asked her a few questions about her family.” Reiko spoke with slow, tentative effort, as if prying pearls from a sharp-edged oyster.
Sano’s muscles tightened. This was a sensitive topic, which he’d been loath to raise with his mother. “What questions?”
“When she became estranged from them. And why.”
“What did she say?” Although Sano craved the answers, he felt a dread of the unknown.
“They broke off contact a few months after the Great Fire. As to why…” Reiko brushed her hair a few more strokes, obviously aware that discussing his mother’s family was hard for Sano; she didn’t want to be the bearer of bad, secondhand news. “She offered me several answers to choose from: It’s not important, she doesn’t remember, or her relatives are dead.” Reiko’s reflection in the mirror lifted her painted eyebrows, then let them drop.
“You think they’re all lies?” Sano said, automatically rising to his mother’s defense, even though he felt a spark of anger at her for withholding facts that concerned him. His anger extended to Reiko, who was here while his mother wasn’t.
A sigh of sympathy, edged with frustration, issued from Reiko. “I don’t know.”
But Sano thought she did. He also thought she knew more than she’d told him. “What else did you
