along the coast.”
Akitada frowned. “Shipping. Itmay have some significance in all this. There are our empty granaries, forexample. Inadequately explained by Uesugi as a matter of moving the rice tomore convenient storage or using it in provisioning the troops fighting in thenorth.” He moved his shoulder and grimaced. “I have not had time to inspectUesugi’s granaries. What if the rice is gone? If there is a bad crop next year,people will starve by the thousands, and I shall be blamed.” Suddenly hestiffened and picked up the sketch Takesuke had given him. “Hmm,” he muttered,frowning at it, then said, “Wake Genba for a moment.”
When Tora shook him, the bigman grunted, then sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Are they here?” he asked.
“No, no,” Akitada said. “Itwill be another hour or so. This concerns Sunada. I have the feeling it was amistake not to investigate him fully. We have had two warnings that all is notas it seems with that gentleman. Did you hear any gossip in town about hispersonal affairs?”
“Oh, him. After his people attackedHito, I checked out Sunada, but there was no proof that he knew about it.”
“That is not what I meant. Whatabout his private life, his family, friends, his closest associates?”
“Well, he’s said to be thewealthiest man in the northern provinces. But he’s a loner. No family, nofriends. He lives in a large manor in Flying Goose village, near the harborwhere his ships and warehouses are, but there’s nobody with him apart from hisservants. People say he was married once, but his wife died in childbirth.After that he took his pleasures elsewhere.”
“Right,” Hitomaro said. “One ofyour friends made a comment about that.” Seeing Akitada’s questioning look,Hitomaro flushed and looked uncomfortable. “Something about Sunada being aregular at one of the houses of assignation.”
Genba nodded. “The currentgossip is that he’s taken a concubine from outside the pleasure quarter, beingtired of the local ware.”
Akitada considered this. “Strangethat there is no family, no heir to a business of that size,” he said. “A sonhas a sacred obligation to his parents and to his ancestors to provide sons inhis turn. The man is either an irresponsible fool or he has been bewitched bysome female he cannot take to wife. And that amounts to the same.”
Tora grinned. Akitada’s ownmarriage was still quite recent.
Hitomaro shifted in his seat. “Ifa man has character and loves such a woman, he makes her his wife anyway,” hesaid so fervently that the others stared at him in surprise.
An embarrassed silence fell.Akitada busied himself with putting the shells back into their container andwrapping it again. Genba got up and poured himself some lukewarm tea.
From outside came the suddensound of shouted commands and then the trotting of men’s feet across gravel.They tensed and listened.
“It’s just a changing of theguard,” said Hitomaro after a moment, and everyone relaxed. Akitada reached fora batch of documents and began reading. Another heavy stretch of waiting began.
“Sir?” Tora interrupted thesilence after a while. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. How did you figure outwhere that fellow Ogai deserted to? The fishmonger’s brother. I’ve been rackingmy brains to understand that.”
Akitada had already given upmaking sense of the erratic bookkeeping of his predecessor. He slowly came backfrom a nagging worry that he should have recognized the significance of thestrange crest worn by some of Uesugi’s men and focused on Tora’s question. “Oh,”he said. “Hitomaro told me about him.”
“Me?” Hitomaro lookedflabbergasted.
“Yes. When you reported yourstay in the outcast village, you told me that they habitually took in fugitiveson the say-so of the old
Hitomaro slapped his knees. “Howcould I have been so stupid! Of course, that’s it. Well, at least that’s onecase solved.”
“Not quite. Someone placed thedead Mr. Kato at our gate, and it was not the fishmonger. Whoever did isinvolved in the Uesugi rebellion.”
“Hisamatsu,” said Hitomaroconfidently. “He wrote the note.”
“No, the widow Sato,” criedTora. “She’s the one who had a dead man to get rid of.”
Akitada nodded. “Yes. They areboth suspects. Perhaps when we find the widow, we shall get some answers.”
“But where is she?” askedGenba. “We’ve looked everywhere. That female has vanished into thin air. Theconstables have searched both the inn and her parents’ farm.”
Akitada rubbed his shoulder andthought. Suddenly he smiled. “We will set a trap for her,” he said. “Yes, that’sit. Tomorrow Tora will bring that maid to the tribunal for more questioning-”
“Oh, no!” cried Tora, “I’m nottangling with that wildcat again.”
“Ho, ho.” Genba laughed, hisbelly shaking. “The girl’s made for you. A wildcat for the tiger. The fur willfly.”
Tora shook a fist at Genba.
“Pay attention!” Akitadafrowned at them. “Tora, you will keep the girl waiting outside my office for afew hours. Then I shall ask her some unimportant questions and let her go.Genba or Kaoru will follow her. I want anyone who speaks to her brought to me.”
Tora shook his head and wasabout to protest again, but Genba cried, “It’s a good plan. The widow hasfriends we don’t know about, and they’ll take an interest in what is happeningin her case. They’ll want to know why you kept the maid so long and what shetold you.”
“Can’t Genba fetch the maid?”asked Tora. “I’ll follow her.”
“No, you would be recognized,”said Akitada, and turned his head to listen.
Someone was running in the halloutside, and they all tensed. Hitomaro got up and went to the door. He was justin time to admit the captain.
Takesuke was out of breath, buthis eyes sparkled. “They’re here, sir,” he said. “An advance troop of eightmounted warriors. They rode up to within a hundred yards and stopped to look atour banners and the burning fires. Then they turned around.” He wiped somemelting snow off his face and added, “I’ve sent a good man after them, but Ihave no doubt that Uesugi is close by with his whole force.”
Instantly Akitada’s threelieutenants were up and running out the door. Takesuke remained standing.Akitada looked up at the captain. “Was there something else?”
“Er,” said Takesuke, “can Igive you a hand with the rest of your armor? They will be here very shortly.”
Akitada glanced at the pile ofheavy leather-and-metal pieces missing from his costume and made a face. “Thankyou, no. I don’t think that will be necessary, Captain. Keep me informed.”
Takesuke stared at him for amoment. Then he compressed his lips, saluted, and withdrew so abruptly that he left the door ajar.
Akitada shivered and stared down at his hands. It was difficult to meet people’s expectations and yet that was his duty here. He was no soldier and hoped to avoid bloodshed. As a youth,he had received the customary training in archery and sword fighting, but he had never fought a battle. In fact, his performance with bow and arrow had been distinctly mediocre, though he had always done well with a sword. But Hitomaro,the only skillful swordsman among his retainers, had pointed out that fightinga battle was very different from the practice bouts they had engaged in.
Akitada sighed. The soldierTakesuke had reason to disdain the official from the capital, but he was surely not the coward Takesuke thought him.
A soft rustle alerted him tothe presence of his wife. She had thrown a deep crimson brocade mantle over herthin white underrobe, but her hair was loose, sweeping the floor behind her. Inthe light of the oil lamp she looked like one of the fairies of the westernparadise.
“Are you in pain?” she askedsoftly.
“No,” he lied. “We have been discussing the schedule for the coming day. And Captain Takesuke was just herewith a report.”
Her eyes searched his face. “Allis well?”
