was the young man’s name again?’
Instantly, Shokan’s face softened. ‘Oh, you know my pain,’ he said, nodding. ‘That is good. I gave the boy the religious name Kansei. The syllables are those of our temple, Seikan-ji.’
Apparently, Shokan considered the youth his own creation. How the youngster must have resented that. Akitada thought that any effort of returning Kansei to the abbot would prove futile. Kansei would not want to come back, and if forced to do so, would run away again. Akitada approved of that, but he could hardly say so. He asked, ‘When did Kansei leave?’
On the twenty-sixth day of the last month.’ A shuddering sigh implied the extent of suffering Shokan had endured since.
Akitada raised his brows. ‘He has been gone for nearly three weeks? Have you tried to find him?’
‘Not right away. Kansei is young and impatient. We thought he missed his mother or his former friends and had gone to see them. But if he went to his mother, she would have brought him back.’ Shokan fidgeted unhappily.
‘Did you speak to her?’
‘No. I sent for her, but she was gone also. The neighbors said she moved soon after Kansei came to us. No one seems to know what has become of her. That was when I became really worried. I am afraid that something very bad has happened to my boy.’
Akitada fished for an excuse to extricate himself. ‘Surely that isn’t likely. It seems more a matter of the youngster having taken a vacation from his religious duties.’ At that age, the acolyte might have wondered about forbidden fruit and sought out the prostitutes of the capital. ‘Did you consult the police about his disappearance?’
‘Oh, no!’ Shokan looked horrified. ‘We cannot go to the police. They are much too heavy-handed. No, no. This situation requires discretion. And loyalty. That is why I sent for you. One of my cousins, Bishop Sesshin, spoke very highly of your discretion.’
Sometimes obligations have a long reach. Sesshin had been another princely monk, one who had proved both kind and generous. A debt was being called in. Akitada sighed inwardly and reconsidered. It was possible that he had jumped to conclusions about Shokan. Perhaps the abbot had only taken a needy youngster under his wing and become fond of him. The young needed protection.
And Akitada must keep an open mind.
He said, ‘Bishop Sesshin has done me too much honor. He was a truly saintly man. I shall try my best to help you find Kansei. What does he look like and what sort of background does he come from?’
Smiling with relief, Shokan gave a glowing description of Kansei’s appearance, adding, ‘He has the most noble bearing. His mother came to me when he was small and asked me to take him because she was unable to raise him properly.’
‘What about his parentage?’
‘I assume she was a poor woman who found herself without a husband. What can it matter? The boy is exquisite. He deserves better than to live and die in the filth of the gutter.’
Akitada said nothing.
‘She claimed to have served in a noble house. I did not question this, but it may not have been true. She implied the child was the master’s son. Sometimes an official wife is jealous and dismisses a maid in such cases. It is easy to believe the boy has noble blood.’
Akitada doubted the tale; still, such things did happen and caused much unhappiness. ‘Thank you, but that isn’t much to go on. Why are you opposed to the police being involved?’
Shokan bit his lip, then reached for a small package beside him. It was tied up in a piece of blue silk. He unwrapped it, revealing five gold bars. ‘I will pay you whatever you ask,’ he said. ‘If this is not enough, there is more.’
Akitada swallowed. Between Lady Kiyowara and Abbot Shokan he had been offered payment that far exceeded his modest annual salary as senior clerk in the ministry. But such generosity sounded like a bribe and shamed him. He said stiffly, ‘You have not told me why you should wish to keep the police from knowing about the boy. Has he committed a crime? I will not protect a guilty person or cover up his offense.’
‘Of course he has not committed a crime,’ Shokan cried. ‘How can you accuse me of such a thing?’ He snatched back the gold and shoved it out of sight. ‘It seems I have made a mistake,’ he said and assumed a stiff and remote demeanor.
Akitada was sorry that he had not handled this better. He had no business making an enemy, and perhaps he had wronged the man. Probably, his years of poverty made more of five bars of gold than they were in Shokan’s estimation. He bowed and apologized.
Shokan was quickly – perhaps too quickly – appeased. ‘I can see you have your reputation to protect, Sugawara. I do not expect you to do anything improper. It is just that Kansei, being young and a little foolish, may not have gone to his mother, but become involved with dubious company. The young are easily tempted. I should like him found before he is corrupted.’
Akitada wondered what Shokan was afraid of. Most likely the novice monk was hanging around the brothels. A handsome boy could earn good money selling his body to older men. ‘Do you have any proof that he has taken up bad company?’
The abbot shifted uncomfortably. ‘He was seen by one of the monks. In a bad part of the capital, near the Western Market. With hoodlums.’ Shokan shuddered. ‘You see why I am desperate to find him before he is arrested?’
Akitada sighed. ‘Very well, I shall do my best, Reverence. You need not give me more than one gold bar until I have results. But if the youngster should have become guilty of some crime, I shall have to turn him over to the police.’
‘Agreed.’ Shokan nodded. ‘But please hurry!’
RAT BAIT
Jirokichi was in a quandary. He had thought a gift of twenty pieces of gold would satisfy anyone, let alone a young man with a family who depended on this lord who had neither wealth nor position. Yet the man who had saved him from the damned louts had returned to Hoshina to threaten Jirokichi’s life.
What was he to make of that?
It was crass ingratitude, of course. And maybe this Tora wanted to extort more money. Why else would he demand to speak to Jirokichi in person?
Hoshina was afraid and wanted Jirokichi to stay in hiding. ‘That one’s a sly one,’ she said. ‘Mark my words, he’s big trouble. And he works for an official. You shouldn’t go out at all for a while.’
Jirokichi shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Why did he help me in the first place? There was nothing in it for him. He couldn’t know I’d pay him. Something else is going on. I think it’s got something to do with the fires. He wanted to know about those.’
Hoshina’s eyes grew big. ‘You aren’t going to meddle in that, Jirokichi? That’s very bad trouble. That’ll kill you. And me, too.’
Jirokichi sighed and nodded. ‘You’re right. We’d better stay as far away from that as we can. But I still feel bad. It’s that fellow Tora that’ll get killed if he keeps poking his nose into this.’
‘Serves him right then.’
Jirokichi did not know what to say. Hoshina sometimes surprised him. He had not thought that she could be so cold about another human life. Perhaps he should be flattered that she loved him as much as all that, but in reality she frightened him.
‘All right, love,’ he said, ‘I’ll stay away from the fire business, and I’ll be careful when I go out. But there’s a job to do tonight.’
Jirokichi set out right after the hour of the rat had been called by the night watch. The time had always seemed to him preordained. It was the hour for thieves, his own time, decreed by the gods since the very beginning of the world. And the gods had blessed his work.
