“She doesn’t know what she issaying. She’s old and weak and gets confused.”
Hitomaro said nothing. He hadbegun to wonder why this outcast woodcutter spoke like an educated man.
Yasuko brought a bamboo traywith fragrant pink chunks of fish nestled in green cabbage leaves. “She’s calm now,” she told Kaoru. “The fit started when she heard someone talk about theold lord’s death. I put your food next to her bed, Kaoru. Please sit with herfor a little.” Turning to Hitomaro, she said, “I promised you salmon, and here it is.” She knelt beside him and selected a tempting piece with the chopsticks.Proffering it, she added, “You mustn’t be greedy though! The master said you are to eat lightly, and I mean to make sure you behave.”
She looked so charming with her face rosy in the firelight, that a man might well forget his manners. Hitomaro enjoyed the experience of being fed, and not only because the fish was delicious and he was hungry. He swallowed and thanked her, then asked, “Why would your grandmother be upset by old Uesugi’s death?”
“Otakushi is Kaoru’sgrandmother. She used to visit Takata manor just as her mother did before her.They both had the gift of foretelling the future. It’s dangerous work. Otakushi’s mother once almost lost her life. She foretold that one of the lord’s son swould kill his brother.”
Kaoru appeared beside her, eyes blazing with anger. “Yasuko. Come.”
She looked up, startled.Gathering the tray with shaking hands, she told Hitomaro, “You must rest now,”and scurried away.
SEVEN
FLUTE PLAY
In the gray predawn hour of the following morning, Akitada sat hunched over his desk, reading documents from the provincial archives. From time to time his eyes moved to a twist of paper and a scrap with some childish scrawls on it,and he muttered to himself.
Hamaya put his head in the door. “Did you wish for anything, your Excellency?”
“No, no! Just. . . you might glance outside and see if either of my lieutenants is about.”
Hamaya disappeared. Akitada shivered, took a sip from his teacup and made a face. The tea was cold already,and no wonder in this chilly place. If he could only shake this trouble in hisbelly, he might have more energy, ideas, solutions. The gods knew he needed them.Neither Tora nor Hitomaro had seen fit to make their reports last night asinstructed. He had waited for hours. When he had finally gone to the room heshared with his wife, she had been fast asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, hehad ended up spending the night in his office, hardly closing an eye, chilledto the bone by the icy drafts coming from the doors and through the walls.
Then, this morning, on hisdesk, he had found the mysterious twist of paper on top of one of Tora’s illegible notes. The paper contained some mud-colored bits smelling vaguely of dried grass and resembling rabbit dung.
The door opened. Hamaya said, “Lieutenant Tora is just…”
“Sorry, sir,” Tora mumbled,slinking past the clerk and dropping onto the mat across from Akitada. He looked uncharacteristically glum and sounded apologetic. “You were asleep when I got back, so I waited in the stable. I guess I dozed off. That fool of a constable had orders to tell me the minute you were up.”
Akitada said nothing but looked disapprovingly at the pieces of straw clinging to his lieutenant’s hair and clothes. Tora fidgeted, discovered the straw, and muttered another apology,adding, “I hope Dr. Oyoshi’s medicine worked, sir.” His eyes were on the twist of paper.
“Dr. Oyoshi?” Akitada’s heavybrows rose. “This illegible scrawl is about some medicine sent by him?” heasked sarcastically. “From what I could make out, I thought your nephew’s business was ailing, and he decided to write poems in praise of constipation.”
“Oh.” Tora’s face reddened. He reached for the note. “I guess I got some of the characters mixed up. The fact is, I had a shocking night.”
Akitada’s stomach hurt, andTora’s problems were not his. He snapped, “Well, well? What did the doctor say about the medicine?”
“Oh. Can you imagine, here cognized me right away and knew all about your loose bowels? He must have the eyes of a cloud dragon!”
“Medicine!” Akitada bellowed. “What am I to do with these pellets?”
Tora looked hurt. “You take onei n some hot wine three times a day.”
“Hamaya!”
The clerk put his head in the door. “Excellency?”
“Some hot wine. Quick!”
“Well, as I was saying …”Tora tried to continue his report.
“Wait!” Akitada scowled ferociously, and Tora sank into glum silence.
After the wine arrived and he had taken his first dose, Akitada sighed and remarked more peaceably, “It wasg ood of you to stop by the doctor’s place and ask for these. I am sorry Isnapped at you. What shock did you have?”
Tora did not meet his eyes. “Uh… I didn’t exactly… that is, the doctor recognized me at the Golden Carpand asked about your, uh … and gave me the pills. I offered to pay him, but he said not to unless they work. The fact is, he was calling on a patient at the inn. Mrs. Sato wanted to get rid of a sick guest, but the doctor forbade it. She was very angry. She said sick guests are bad for her business, and this one also had no money. When the doctor left, I ran after him to pay for the poor fellow’s medicine. That’s when …”
Akitada held up a hand. “Wait!If you were at the Golden Carp, you may as well start your report at the beginning. What did you find out in the market?”
Tora shifted miserably. “A little. There was one fellow who thought he’d changed money for Takagi or someone like him, but he wasn’t sure about the day. Two men remembered Okano’s act in the wineshop.” He sighed deeply. “There’s not much point in checking out those guys. I know they didn’t do it.”
“And how do you know that?”Akitada asked, astonished.
Tora swallowed. “I … the maid and I, uh, last night. I thought it was a good way to get some information.Amida, I shouldn’t have touched her. She did it, sir! She killed the old man. Ibet the bitch slits men’s throats regularly. Start digging behind her kitchen and no telling what you’ll find. She gets ‘em in her bed and then …”
“Tora!”
Tora stopped and looked at him blearily.
“Did she admit to the murder?”
“Not in so many words. But I knew. I put the clues together, just like you do, and they added up.” Toraraised a finger and counted off, “One, she hates her mistress, but not because she works her too hard or pays her too little. Oh, no! She hates her because old Sato married a pretty young thing and doted on her. Two, Kiyo-that’s the maid’s name-used to take
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes,” Tora said bitterly. “She’sone of those females who can’t get enough of it. I guess even an old geezer would do for her.”
“Hmm. Why are you so upset?”
Tora looked at Akitada. “It’s disgusting-like I slept with a leper.”
“You think she killed her employer? Why?”
“She hated him. You should’ve heard her. She went on taking ‘care’ of him after his marriage because the wife wasn’t interested, but it was the wife he gave the money to, the wife he talked about in bed as if she were some kind of goddess. Well, one day, while the wife was visiting her parents, she got fed up and took her revenge and his gold. I bet Kiyo figured the money was hers-for services rendered. She must’ve done it that afternoon, while the three guests were at the market. Nobody saw or heard old Sato after midday. And remember, she used her own kitchen knife. Takagi saw it in the kitchen in the morning, but in the evening, when they were back fromthe market, it was gone, and she was slicing radish with a little knife. So you see? She had the motive
