horse back. Clad in rain hats and capes, they rode down the street amid mounted soldiers going in the same direction.
One soldier wasn't really a soldier. The face under his helmet belonged to Toda Ikkyu. As he followed Yanagisawa and Yoritomo, they didn't notice him. Neither they nor Toda noticed the boy riding a pony, trailing in their wake.
Masahiro wore, in addition to the rain cape and hat that hid his face and clothes, a flag bearing the Tokugawa crest on a pole attached to his back. He carried a leather sack of bamboo scroll containers. The flag, sack, and scrolls were the standard equipment of messenger boys. He'd borrowed them from Father's office. He hoped Father wouldn't mind. The scroll containers were empty; they were part of his disguise.
He'd gotten the idea for the disguise from Mother. She sometimes dressed as a servant, the better to avoid attention when she went out investigating. Masahiro had also taken a hint from the spy who'd come to visit Father last night. Under the scrolls in his sack were a spare hat and jacket.
As he trailed Yanagisawa, Yoritomo, and their procession along the stone-walled passages that wound downhill through the castle, his heart beat fast with excitement. This was his first day as a real detective. He meant to find out what Yanagisawa was up to.
The procession stopped at a checkpoint, two gates that led in and out of a square enclosure designed to trap invading enemies during war. In peacetime, the guards merely eyed the folks who came by and let them pass. Yanagisawa rode through with his party. Masahiro waited impatiently, stuck behind the people who blocked his view. He mustn't lose track of Yanagisawa. He worried about whether his disguise would pass inspection. Would the guards notice that he was too young to be a messenger? He drew himself up to his full height, held his breath, and silently prayed.
The guards let him through without a second glance. Relieved, Masahiro hurriedly rode after Yanagisawa. But as they approached the castle's main gate, he felt serious qualms.
He'd never gone outside the castle by himself. Father and Mother said it was too dangerous. He didn't want to admit that he was afraid to go out, but he was. The city was a big place filled with scary people. Masahiro carried a dagger hidden beneath his cape, but what if he got attacked by someone too big and strong for him to fight? He also worried about what would happen when Father and Mother found out he'd broken their rule.
Ahead loomed the gate. Masahiro saw Yanagisawa's procession riding through the portals. What should he do?
He drew a deep breath for courage and followed Yanagisawa.
Tonight, when he told Father and Mother what he'd learned about Yanagisawa, they would be so proud of him that they wouldn't be angry.
Inside the bedchamber at the convent, two novices held the nun Tengu-in, who sat on a futon atop a wooden pallet. Another novice spooned miso soup into her mouth. The old woman struggled weakly, spat, and whispered prayers.
'It won't do you any good to talk to her,' the abbess said, standing in the doorway with Reiko. 'See for yourself.'
Reiko watched with dismay as Tengu-in coughed and retched, while the novices poured water into her. The force-feeding seemed like torture, but it had probably kept the old nun alive. 'I must try,' Reiko said.
She walked toward Tengu-in across the big room where the other nuns slept at night on the pallets laid out in a row. The abbess and the novices bowed and left. Tengu-in lay on her bed, eyes closed, exhausted. In the misty daylight that shone through the paper windowpanes she looked like a corpse. Her face was sunken, her skin so thin that the spidery blue veins pulsed through it on her bare scalp. Her skeletal hands clutched a rosary of round, brown jade beads strung on a thick leather cord.
'Tengu-in?' Reiko said, kneeling beside her. 'Can you hear me?'
The nun's lips formed silent prayers. Her fingers counted beads. Chiyo and Fumiko seemed well off compared to her. At least they were more physically and mentally sound, no matter how they'd been treated.
'I'm sorry to bother you,' Reiko said, 'but my husband sent me to talk to you. He's Chamberlain Sano. He came here yesterday. Do you remember?'
Tengu-in didn't answer. She continued her wordless praying as her fingers slid beads along the cord.
'I need to know what happened to you when you were kidnapped,' Reiko persisted. 'Maybe if you tell me, you'll feel better.'
No response came. Reiko tried a different tack. 'Two other women besides you have been kidnapped and attacked. My husband and I think it was the same man.' Although Reiko wasn't so sure, after hearing Fumiko's story and comparing it to Chiyo's. 'We want to catch him. You may be the only person who can help us. Can you try, for their sake as well as your own?'
As moments passed and the nun seemed unaware of Reiko's presence, Reiko had the eerie feeling that she was alone. Tengu-in's spirit had retreated into another, faraway realm. How could Reiko bridge the distance?
'I'll tell you what I think happened,' Reiko said. 'Can you give some sign whether I'm right?' It was like talking to herself, but she began to recite the story she'd learned from Sano. 'You went to the main temple that day. With the novices. You couldn't keep up with them. They left you behind. That's when he came and took you.'
Did Tengu-in stiffen with anxiety? Reiko wondered if it was only her imagination.
'He pretended he was hurt and he asked for your help,' Reiko suggested, recalling the ploy that had lured Chiyo.
Tengu-in's expression of stoic suffering didn't alter.
'He had a pet monkey. He said he would let you play with it if you went with him.' Even as she spoke, Reiko knew that although the monkey trick had worked for Fumiko, it probably wouldn't have for an old woman, and the kidnapper was smart.
A hoarse whisper came from the nun. Her eyes opened. Filmy and blank, their lids crusted, they gazed at nothing.
'What did you say?' Reiko kept her voice gentle; she hid her excitement.
'Place of Relief,' whispered Tengu-in.
That was the polite term for the privy. 'Do you need to go?' Reiko asked.
Tengu-in's lips moved, and for a moment Reiko thought she'd resumed praying. But her words were audible now, although barely. Reiko leaned closer to hear.
'I went to the Place of Relief,' she said. 'I was inside. He opened the door.'
Reiko realized that she was talking about that day she'd been kidnapped. Finally her silence had broken. Reiko didn't know why. Perhaps the time had simply come. Reiko pictured Tengu-in crouched over the hole inside a public privy in the temple grounds, and the door opening. The kidnapper had cornered the helpless old woman there.
'Who was he?' Reiko asked urgently.
Tengu-in's head rolled from side to side on the pillow.
Reiko said, 'Was he a big man with a shaved head and a scab on his cheek?'
'… I don't know.'
If he wasn't the suspect sighted outside the convent, maybe he was the one Hirata's witness had seen by Shinobazu Pond. 'Did he have teeth missing?'
'Couldn't see,' whispered Tengu-in. 'The light…'
The daylight behind the man must have left his features in shadow. 'What happened next?' Reiko asked.
The nun's gaze shifted rapidly; her eyelids lowered.
'Then you woke up,' Reiko prompted, anxious to prevent Tengu-in from withdrawing beyond her reach. 'You were in a place filled with clouds.'
'Clouds,' Tengu-in echoed in a voice like the wind sighing.
'You couldn't move. The man was there.'
A low, fearful whimper resonated through Tengu-in. Her body quaked.
'He nursed at your breasts,' Reiko suggested. 'He called you 'dearest mother,' and 'beloved mother.' '
Again Tengu-in's head tossed.
Reiko ventured, 'He forced you to suck on him. He said you were naughty and beat you?' Tengu-in mumbled something Reiko couldn't hear. 'What was that?'
'Pray,' whispered Tengu-in. 'He made me pray while he had me.' Her voice rose to a loud, shrill pitch: 'Namo
