Kobe began the questioning. ‘What is your true name?’
‘Kiyowara Tojiro.’
Akitada produced the amulet in its silk bag and tossed it to Tojiro. ‘This is yours. Given to you by Abbot Shokan. What happened to your religious name?’
Tojiro flushed. He did not touch the amulet. ‘I took back my own name. I’m not cut out to be a monk.’
Kobe snapped, ‘That’s pretty obvious, considering you went straight from the monastery to a life of crime.’
Tojiro shook his head. ‘I never committed a crime.’
‘What about the people you associated with? Koichi and his family are involved in the protection racket. And those youths you ran around with did worse than that. They have tortured and killed people.’
Tojiro shot his grandfather an uneasy glance. ‘Seiji and Ako gave me a place to stay after I ran away. And Koichi and Haru were good to me. I didn’t know at first that Takeo was… Well, that he could be violent and that he was a thief. Koichi only collects payment for services. That’s no crime.’
Kobe snorted. ‘What happens when a client doesn’t pay?’
Tojiro said uncertainly, ‘Nothing. He doesn’t get protection.’
‘And then he finds out just how badly he needs it, right?’
Tojiro looked away. ‘It wasn’t Koichi who set the fires. That was Takeo. Koichi punished him when he found out, and Takeo left home. Koichi was very angry.’ He paused. ‘After Takeo left, Koichi asked me to find out what he was up to.’
Kobe expressed his disbelief with another snort of derision.
Akitada asked, ‘Was it on one of those occasions that you ran into Tora and robbed him?’
Fuhito sucked in his breath sharply. ‘Tojiro?’ he asked. ‘Did you do that?’
Tojiro cried, ‘No, Grandfather. It wasn’t like that. I’d been following Takeo and his friends. I saw them set that fire, and they saw me. I didn’t want them to catch me. That’s when I ran into someone and we both fell down. I was picking up his coins to give them back, but he grabbed me before I could do so. Then the others came and I ran.’
Fuhito growled, ‘What happened to the coins?’
Tojiro looked down at his clenched hands. ‘They caught me on the next street and took the money away from me. I let them think that I’d been stealing so they’d believe I’d become one of them.’ He looked up at Akitada. ‘I’ll return the money. All of it. Tell your man I’ll find work and pay it all back.’
Fuhito pleaded, ‘He’s not a bad boy. He’s just fallen into bad company, and that is my fault. Could you accept his promise and mine that the money will be returned?’
Akitada nodded. ‘But that doesn’t clear him in the matter of the arson.’
Tojiro cried, ‘I told you. I was only watching them. Koichi was worried about Takeo.’
Kobe pursed his lips. ‘As your grandfather said, you kept bad company. Why should we believe you? Running away from a monastery is one thing, but most boys would go home to their parents and not join a gang of criminals.’
Fuhito covered his face. ‘I abandoned him,’ he sobbed. ‘I told him I would not take him back, that he had to return to Seikan-ji and be a man. That his future depended on it.’
Kobe greeted that with a doubtful, ‘Hmmm.’
Akitada asked, ‘Why could you not stay at Seikan-ji as your grandfather had asked you to? You were treated well and got a good education, didn’t you?’
Tojiro glanced at his weeping grandfather, then at Akitada. ‘You wouldn’t understand,’ he said dully. ‘I had to get away. I cannot be a monk. Nobody liked me. Every day they told me I must prepare myself to give up the world, that the world is nothingness and corruption and misery. But I knew better.’
Akitada suppressed a smile. When he was Tojiro’s age he, too, had run away. He had run from an authoritarian father and a cold and hostile mother to find affection elsewhere. He said, ‘Abbot Shokan expressed a great fondness for you,’ letting Tojiro interpret his words.
Tojiro moved his shoulders uncomfortably. ‘He was all right,’ he conceded. ‘Only, that made everyone else hate me the more.’
Akitada and Kobe made eye contact. Akitada willed the superintendent to be generous, and after a moment, Kobe said, ‘Will you help us bring the guilty to justice?’
Fear flashed in Tojiro’s eyes. ‘I’ll give you the names of Takeo and his friends, but I’m not getting Koichi and Haru in trouble.’
‘Takeo is dead, and we already have Koichi and his daughter. We need the other boys.’
Tojiro jumped up. ‘You’ve arrested Koichi and Haru? They haven’t done anything. I told you. Koichi only collects fees for a man who’s served in the eastern armies. His name is Sergeant Umako. Sergeant Umako keeps small merchants safe from criminals, and they pay him a small fee every month. Besides, he and Haru own the Fragrant Peach in the western city. It’s Takeo who’s been trouble, not his family.’
Akitada and Kobe exchanged looks again. Kobe smiled. ‘Koichi and his two deaf mute friends work an illegal racket. If those merchants don’t pay their fees, someone burns down their houses.’
‘No. You’re wrong.’ Tojiro clenched his hands and looked from one to the other. ‘I know better. They’re not criminals. I told you I’ve been staying with Seiji and Ako. Ako’s married to Seiji.’
Fuhito sighed deeply. ‘Because I told my grandson that I would not take him back the next time he ran away, he went to my daughter’s former maid, Ako. I did not know she was married.’
Tojiro said, ‘They were kind to me. You just don’t know how hard it is for people like them. They’re good people.’
‘Hmmm,’ muttered Kobe, looking from the distraught boy to his distraught grandfather. ‘Whatever they are, I think we’ll turn you over to your grandfather for the time being. Just don’t run away again or I’ll see to it that you go to trial.’
Fuhito threw himself on his knees before Kobe. ‘You may take my life if Tojiro escapes or does any mischief whatsoever. Tojiro, show your gratitude!’
Tojiro, looking a little confused, knelt and bowed.
Akitada cleared his throat. ‘Good, that settles that. Can I rely on your visiting the abbot together to explain the situation and apologize?’
Tojiro nodded, and Fuhito said, ‘Yes, of course. It is all my fault anyway. I am very sorry that His Reverence has been troubled.’
Akitada thought of Fuhito’s old mother, and of the empty house in its beautiful garden. Three lives had been salvaged. Of course, their future was by no means clear. But there was hope that the friendship between the two sons of the late Kiyowara might bridge the gulf their father had created, and perhaps the new lord would make use of Fuhito’s learning and help his brother rise in the world.
EPILOGUE
Towards the end of the summer, the political disarray that had begun when Michinaga relinquished his powers to his sons finally sorted itself out, but none of that affected Akitada. In the general amnesty in honor of Michinaga’s service to the nation, Koichi and the others were freed.
Lord Kiyowara’s death was officially due to a fall. Of all the news that circulated, only one rumor was of interest: Lady Kiyowara’s cousin Aoi had asked for imperial permission to resign her shrine duties and return to her family, and this had been granted.
One day, not long after Koichi and his daughter had been freed, Kobe sent Akitada a note that the police had found the rice merchant Watanabe hanging from one of the rafters and his wife dead from strangulation. Watanabe had left a letter explaining that he was taking this way out for himself and his wife because he could not face the shame of his actions. He claimed that some of the fires had been set on his orders because certain merchants owed him money or had in some other way offended him, but that the youths soon discovered the fires caused enough distraction to allow them to steal money and valuables from empty houses.
On the surface, this sounded believable, but Akitada would always believe that a high-ranking nobleman had
