“We’ll try there anyway,” Sano decided. “We’ve got nothing to lose.”
“Many of the doshin have blood ties with my clan,” Hirata said. “Maybe I can convince them that their obligation to help me find Lightning outweighs any loyalty that Hoshina has extorted from them.”
Sano and Hirata rode to police headquarters, which was located in a walled compound in the southern corner of the Hibiya administrative district. There they dismounted in a lane outside a back gate, then entered the compound, walking rapidly along paths between the kitchens and servants’ quarters, hoping to attract as little notice as possible. They arrived at the doshin barracks, a cluster of two-story, half-timbered structures and nearby stables, set around a courtyard.
A peremptory voice behind them called, 'Sosakan-sama.”
Halting, Sano turned and saw Police Commissioner Hoshina striding toward him, flanked by Yoriki Hayashi and Yamaga. Dismay struck Sano as Hirata muttered a curse. Hoshina wore a sardonic smile; Yamaga and Hayashi glowered. The two sides faced off in the courtyard. Sano felt his heartbeat accelerate with the surge of energy that precedes a battle.
“Have you come to turn yourself in?” Hoshina asked him.
Sano gave Hoshina a venomous look as he realized that he could forget the idea of seeking tips from the police. The officers might have been willing to help him on the sly, but not in front of their superiors, and Hoshina would stick to him like a burr until he departed the compound.
Hastily revising his strategy, Sano said, “I’ve come to obtain your assistance, Hoshina-san.”
“My assistance?” Blank confusion erased Hoshina’s smirk. “Why should I help you?”
“To serve our mutual interests,” Sano said. Yamaga and Hayashi looked puzzled, but Sano saw comprehension gleam in Hirata’s eyes.
“We have no mutual interests,” Hoshina said in a tone replete with scorn. “Have you gone mad?”
“No,” Sano said, “I have identified the probable murderer of Lord Mitsuyoshi.”
The police commissioner’s expression turned disdainful. “Spare me your lies. You’re so desperate to save yourself that you’re trying to frame another innocent person.”
Into the hostility that thickened the atmosphere, Sano enunciated a single clear, quiet word: “Lightning.”
Hoshina started; his features involuntarily tensed.
“Then you know who Lightning is,” Sano confirmed.
“Of course. He’s one of the Mori gang,” Hoshina said, recovering his poise. “So you’ve chosen Lightning as your scapegoat? How convenient. But we both know he had nothing to do with the murder.”
Yet Sano could discern the thoughts racing behind Hoshina’s calm facade. The police commissioner was frantically trying to determine whether his investigation had missed an important suspect, or Sano was bluffing.
“We both overlooked Lightning because we were concentrating on the more obvious suspects,” Sano said. “But Lightning was Lady Wisteria’s lover, and he was in Yoshiwara that night.”
“So were a lot of other men,” Hoshina said dismissively. “That means nothing.”
Sano sensed Hoshina weighing what he knew of Lightning against the facts of the murder case. Hoshina couldn’t hide his discomfiture at recognizing how well a brutal, reckless gangster fit the crime.
“We have witnesses who’ve implicated Lightning in the murder,” Sano continued. “Lady Wisteria’s kamuro has admitted that Lightning forced her to let him into the ageya where Wisteria was entertaining Mitsuyoshi. Afterward, he bribed the guards to let him out the gate. They observed that he’d come into Yoshiwara with eight men, but left with nine. The extra man was Wisteria, in disguise.”
“You forced those people to say what you wanted,” Hoshina said. “Your story is pure, ridiculous fabrication, and I’m too busy to listen any longer.”
“Busy creating more fraudulent evidence against me, I suppose,” Sano mocked him. “Do you really think you should gamble that you’ll win this game?”
“Don’t make me laugh,” Hoshina said.
But Sano could tell that the news about Lightning had shaken Hoshina’s nerve. Yamaga and Hayashi stirred uneasily; Hirata hid a smile.
“The odds have changed,” Sano told Hoshina. “Now you’re as likely to be ruined by your scheme as I. That’s the basis for the mutual interests that I mentioned, and the reason you’d better listen to what I’m going to say next.”
Hoshina’s stance and gaze shifted; his face acquired a look of intense concentration as he tried to decide whether to comply with Sano. He reminded Sano of a man jumping from stone to stone across a deep, turbulent river. Then he addressed his two yoriki: “Leave us.”
They grudgingly departed. Hoshina fixed a narrow-eyed stare on Sano.
“If you convince the shogun that I’m a murderer and traitor, I’ll be executed,” Sano said. “But if I capture Lightning first, and he proves to be the killer, then you’ll be exposed as a fraud who interfered with my attempt to avenge Lord Mitsuyoshi’s death. Everyone will turn against you as fast as you turned them against me. You’ll die instead.
“Now think about what you would gain from destroying me. A moment of public acclaim? The shogun’s favor, which changes with the wind?” Sano infused his voice with contempt. “Are those prizes worth risking your life?”
Hoshina took an involuntary step sideways, then froze, as if he’d reached midstream and run out of stones. Sano and Hirata waited in suspense because their future depended on crushing Hoshina. Dead silence absorbed the police compound’s usual noises; the world outside the courtyard ceased to exist.
“Better you should postpone our rivalry and cooperate with me,” Sano said softly.
The police commissioner stared, furious; then capitulation slackened his muscles. He looked beaten and bruised, yet antipathy radiated from him like heat from doused coals. “What do you want?” he said in a dull voice.
Sano experienced a tremendous sense of relief. He’d known that Hoshina tended to yield when he felt threatened enough; but Sano hadn’t been sure that he could overpower Hoshina.
“I want to make a deal,” Sano said. “I’ll give you credit for helping solve the murder case if you’ll help me capture Lightning. He’s abandoned all the usual Mori gang places in the fish market and Honjo Muko Ryogoku. Tell me where else he would go.”
“You expect me to hand over the murderer to you, in exchange for empty words of praise?” Regarding Sano with bitter resentment, Hoshina shook his head. “I can capture Lightning myself, and reap all the glory.”
“Do as I ask, and you’ll live to fight another day,” Sano said. “Refuse, and I’ll make sure the shogun understands how you tried to climb to power over the corpses of his heir and his sosakan-sama.”
“So you expect me to be content with mere survival? Well, that’s not enough.” Brazen greed emboldened Hoshina; his fists opened and closed. “I want more, or there’s no deal, and we can both take our chances.”
“What are you asking?” Sano said, ready to make a concession.;
“A favor.”
“What favor?”
A crafty smile flashed on Hoshina’s face. “I’ll decide what I want, when I want it. And you’d better deliver.”
Hirata widened his eyes and rolled them at Sano, who realized how high a price a tip from Hoshina would cost him. He hated to obligate himself in advance to something he probably wouldn’t want to do; yet he had little choice, with his own immediate survival at stake.
“Agreed,” Sano said.
Hoshina responded with a look that promised retribution while acknowledging Sano’s triumph over him. “The Mori gang rents a warehouse by the river. I’ve had spies watching the place because I suspect that the gang uses it to store and deal stolen goods. Lightning might have gone there.”
Inside her chamber, Lady Yanagisawa knelt before Kikuko and fastened a padded silk cloak around the little girl. “There,” she said. “You’re all ready to go.”
Her spirit was a cauldron of tumultuous emotion. This was the day she would achieve all she’d ever desired.
