Amida Butsu! Namo Amida Butsu!' I trust in the Buddha of Immeasurable Light. She was praying to be delivered from this life of suffering and reborn into the Pure Land, a heaven of beauty and enlightenment. Her voice trailed off while her lips kept moving. Her eyes closed as she withdrew behind the barrier of her private hell.
19
'I'm bringing these prisoners in for interrogation,' Sano told the sentries outside Edo Jail. Behind him, the two suspects knelt in their oxcart, their wrists and ankles bound with rope, guarded by Detectives Marume and Fukida and Sano's other troops. Above him loomed the jail's high, mossy stone walls and guard turrets. 'Let us in.'
The guards obeyed. Sano and his entourage crowded into a courtyard surrounded by barracks. His soldiers brought in the oxcart and unloaded the two prisoners. His party marched into the dungeon, a building whose dirty, scabrous plaster walls rose from a high stone base. It was a reflection of Edo Castle in a dark mirror-one edifice designed to safeguard the regime's highest society, the other to cage its lowest.
The interrogation rooms, situated along a dank passage that smelled of sewers, had ironclad doors with small windows set at eye level. Hirata marched the young suspect with the missing teeth into one room. Sano, Marume, and Fukida took the other suspect into a room at the passage's opposite end. Shouts, moans, and weeping emanated from the rooms in between. Sano's room was just large enough to hold four people and swing a sword. Dim light seeped from a barred window near the ceiling. The walls were marred with cracks and gouges, discolored by old bloodstains. Marume and Fukida shoved the suspect down on the straw that covered the floor. Sano smelled urine on the straw, which was trampled and grimy; it hadn't been changed since the last interrogation. He stood over the suspect.
The big man stared at the wall behind Sano, his gaze sullen beneath his heavy brow. His unshaven face was mud-streaked from his tussle with the detectives. Sweat plastered his blue kimono against his muscles. He hadn't uttered a word since he'd been captured.
'What's your name?' Sano asked.
The suspect tightened his jaw. Marume kicked his thigh and ordered, 'Speak up.'
'Jinshichi,' the suspect said. His deep voice was thick and raspy, as if he'd swallowed sand mixed with pitch.
'Well, Jinshichi,' Sano said, 'you're under arrest for kidnapping my cousin.'
'Didn't kidnap anybody.'
He spoke with conviction, but Sano didn't believe him. Something about the man didn't smell right.
'Let me refresh your memory,' Sano said. 'My cousin is the woman you met at Awashima Shrine. She'd gone there with her new baby. You hid in the bushes and called to her that you were hurt. She came to help you. You took her and left the baby.'
'I never,' Jinshichi said, adamant.
'You gave her a drug that put her to sleep.' Sano kept his voice calm, but anger mounted inside him. 'You locked her up.'
'Never.'
'Then you raped her,' Sano said, controlling an urge to lash out at Jinshichi for hurting Chiyo, to wipe that hard, defiant look off his face.
'You're wrong.' If Jinshichi was afraid, it didn't show.
Standing on either side of him, Marume and Fukida exchanged glances. They looked at Sano, who saw that they had doubts about the man's guilt.
'You kept her for two days,' Sano said. 'When you were finished with her, you dumped her in an alley, as if she were a sack of garbage.'
Jinshichi muttered. Fukida smacked his head, and he said, 'Wasn't me. I'm innocent.'
'I suppose you didn't kidnap Tengu-in, either,' Sano said.
'Who?'
'The nun. She was taken from the Zj Temple precinct on the first day of the third month. You were seen outside her convent the day before.'
'Couldn't have been,' Jinshichi said. 'Wasn't there.'
'Then where were you?' Sano demanded.
Jinshichi eyed Sano with incredulity. 'That was a long time ago. Damned if I can remember. Working, probably.'
'Working where?'
'Around town. Hell if I know!' Jinshichi grew loud, impatient. 'I didn't do anything wrong. Can I go now?'
'If you really want to,' Sano said. 'You can go straight to the court of justice and be tried for two kidnappings and two assaults.'
For the first time, Jinshichi's face showed fear. It was common knowledge that almost every trial ended with a guilty verdict.
'Better yet,' Sano said, 'we'll just skip the trial and take you straight to the execution ground.'
'But I didn't kidnap those women.' Jinshichi strained against the ropes that bound him. 'I swear!'
Sano burned with rage at the man's denials. But even though Sano was sure Jinshichi was lying, he couldn't ignore the obvious reason that the man might not be.
There was a second suspect right down the hall.
In the other interrogation room, Hirata studied the prisoner who knelt on the straw at his feet. 'Tell me your name,' he ordered.
'Gombei, Honorable master.' The man bowed and grinned.
He was slender and wiry, the type that was far stronger than he looked. He could probably lift loads as heavy as himself. Even with his wrists and ankles tied up, he exuded a bounding energy. Hirata could hear his rapid heartbeat, his blood swift beneath his skin. Despite his missing teeth, his face wasn't unhandsome. Long, wavy hair, fallen from his topknot, grazed his shoulders and framed ro guish features. His eyes sparkled with vitality and cunning.
Trained perception and samurai instinct told Hirata that Gombei had plenty to hide.
But even as Hirata prepared to extract Gombei's guilty secrets, only half of his attention was focused on the job at hand. He couldn't stop thinking about the presence he'd sensed at Shinobazu Pond yesterday. Who was it? What were the man's intentions?
Now, half of Hirata's mind was attuned to the world beyond his sight, waiting for the mysterious presence to return. He believed that even though he didn't know who it was, it knew who he was. He found himself constantly glancing over his shoulder, sensing that he was being watched. He felt like a coward rather than the best fighter in Edo. The presence had planted a seed of fear in him. Hirata felt the seed growing, feeding on his confusion, against his will.
What would happen the next time he encountered the presence?
There would be a next time, but when?
Gombei's voice brought Hirata back to Edo Jail and the investigation. 'Honorable master, please believe me when I say that I am a decent, honest citizen who's never broken the law.' He had the kind of earnest, charming manner that Hirata automatically distrusted. 'Ask anyone who knows me. My family, my friends, my neighbors, my boss, they'll tell you that I'm-'
'Quite the talker,' Hirata interrupted. 'Well, let's talk about the little girl you kidnapped.'
Amazement snapped Gombei's eyes wide. His full lips silently repeated the word kidnapped. 'What little girl?'
'The one at Shinobazu Pond.'
'With all due respect, I didn't do it.' Gombei oozed earnestness. 'I would never hurt a child. In fact, I would never even hurt a fly. Except if it's the biting kind.'
'You were in the area,' Hirata said. 'A witness saw you.'
'I've done work over there. A lot of people must have seen me. If I may say so, that doesn't mean I kidnapped somebody.'
