The Assassin's Touch

by Laura Joh Rowland

  “This morning,” Nakai said. “On the street, in town.”

  Sano thought to wonder if Nakai was making up a story in order to curry favor. Yet his words had the ring of honesty. “How did you recognize Kobori?” Sano demanded even as wild hope surged within his heart.

  “I used to know him,” Nakai said. “Remember I told you that I have family connections with Yanagisawa? My cousin was his weapons master. He was killed in the battle. I used to visit him at Yanagisawa’s compound. I thought he might help my career, seeing as he was close to the chamberlain. Sometimes he introduced me to people who happened to be around. One of them was Kobori.”

  Captain Nakai smiled with the air of a man who has just solved a mystery that had been puzzling him. “When I saw Kobori today, I couldn’t remember who he was or where I’d seen him before. We’d only met once, years ago. But when you said his name, I suddenly knew.”

  This sounded not unreasonable, but Sano had a hard time believing that Kobori, subject of a massive search, was just walking about town, where a passing acquaintance had stumbled onto him. “How did you happen to spot Kobori?”

  “I was just riding along, minding my own business,” Nakai said. “I’d heard that Lord Matsudaira planned to go into town this morning, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk to him. You see, I knew I’d made a bad impression on him at the meeting the other day, and I wanted to show myself in a better light. So I followed him and his entourage.”

  Sano pictured Nakai tagging after Lord Matsudaira, still desperate for a promotion and more foolhardy than ever. Momentary gloom clouded Nakai’s face. “Well, his bodyguards told me to get lost or they’d beat me up. So I turned around to ride back to the castle, and that’s when I saw Kobori. He was standing beside the road, in a crowd of people who were waiting for Lord Matsudaira to pass.”

  Shock emptied the breath from Sano as he realized that the Ghost had been stalking Lord Matsudaira while Sano had been combing the streets around the Jade Pavilion in search of him. “Where exactly did you see Kobori?”

  “On the main avenue.”

  “Did you speak to him?”

  “No. I waved to him, but he didn’t see me. He walked away.”

  “I don’t suppose you know where he went,” Sano said. One sighting put him no closer to catching the Ghost. Kobori could have gone anywhere in the city during the half a day since Nakai had seen him.

  Captain Nakai raised his finger and beamed. “Oh, but I do. I wanted to figure out who he was, and I thought that another, closer look might jog my memory. Besides, there was nothing better to occupy my time. So I rode after Kobori. He went to a house. A girl let him in.”

  Sano experienced a second, even more profound shock as he comprehended what Nakai had seen: the Ghost going to ground in his lair, which he shared with a girl who had to be Yugao. A malcontent’s aimless rambling about town had produced better results than many a focused, diligent inquiry. Sano shook his head in wonder at the mysterious permutations of fate. That his original prime suspect should turn up with the clue that would lead him to the murderer!

  “Where is this house?” Sano said, gripped by excitement at the thought that he was on the brink of capturing Kobori.

  Nakai started to answer, then abruptly closed his mouth. His eyes gleamed with cunning as he realized that he had knowledge crucial to Sano. “If I tell you where the house is, you have to give me something in return. I want a promotion to the rank of colonel and a stipend twice as large as I’m getting now.” He swelled with rash, greedy exuberance. “And I want a post in your retinue.”

  Incredulous, scornful laughter burst from Marume and Fukida. “You have a lot of nerve,” Marume told Nakai. “You should be ashamed of trying to extort favors from the chamberlain,” Fukida said.

  Sano was offended by Nakai’s crassness, but he desperately needed the information, and he owed Nakai a favor. Even though Nakai had his character flaws, Sano wouldn’t begrudge him a place in his retinue. He could do much worse than a man capable of single-handedly killing forty-eight enemy troops in battle.

  “Very well,” Sano said. “I’ll get you your official promotion and increase your stipend when I have time. But as of this very moment, you’re mine to command, and I order you to tell me where that house is.”

  “Thank you, Honorable Chamberlain!” Breathless and ecstatic, Nakai bowed. He didn’t notice the dark looks that Marume and Fukida gave him. He gazed at Sano with a combination of possessiveness, reverence, and eagerness to please. “I can do better than tell you where the Ghost is hiding. I’ll lead you there myself.”

  Chapter 29

  An old woman, dressed in a torn, dirty cotton kimono and a battered wicker hat, swept the back alley that ran between two rows of mansions in the Nihonbashi merchant district. With her body hunched as if from decades of spine-breaking work, she crept along. Her broom gathered up vegetable peelings spilled from waste containers and debris blown in by the wind. Her feet in straw sandals shuffled through puddles of water that dripped from laundry hung on lines stretched across balconies and leaked from night soil bins. Servants came and went through the mansions’ back gates, but they paid no attention to her. Street-cleaners were virtually invisible to citizens higher on the social scale.

  Reiko peered out from under the hat that hid her face, watching for Tama. She’d been cleaning this alley for two hours, moving back and forth, sweeping the same debris into her dustpan, then scattering it, but Tama had yet to return from the fish market. The sky faded and shadows immersed the alley as twilight approached.

  When she’d left the mansion earlier, Reiko had been certain not only that Tama was hiding the couple, but that the girl must eventually take them more food. Reiko believed that Yugao hadn’t wanted her to talk to Tama because Tama would tell her about Yugao’s relationship with Kobori. She’d stationed some of her guards near the mansion, then outfitted herself as a street-cleaner and returned to the alley on foot, her remaining escorts trailing her at a distance. The guards who’d stayed to wait for her had pretended not to know her, but had covertly shaken their heads to indicate that Tama still hadn’t shown up.

  Now Reiko’s back ached from stooping. She was tired of foul odors, and she’d memorized every radish peel and crumb she’d collected. A stray dog wandered into the alley, sniffed the garbage containers, then squatted and defecated. Reiko wrinkled her nose at the foul dung as she hobbled past it and hoped Tama would soon appear. The alley resounded with the noise of maids preparing dinner and chattering among themselves. Smoke infused with the savory odors of garlic and soy sauce wafted over Reiko. Her stomach growled with hunger. She’d reached one end of the alley and turned to begin another monotonous sweep, when she saw Tama walking toward her from the opposite end, followed by a porter laden with a covered wooden bucket. Reiko’s spirits soared as high as the moon that shone in the sky over the alley. As Tama and the porter entered the gate, Reiko kept her head down, sweeping industriously, warning herself that she might have a long wait for Tama to lead her to the fugitives.

  But soon the gate opened and Tama slipped out. She wore a cloak and carried a bundle tied at the corners. She scurried down the alley, casting a furtive look toward the house she’d just left. She passed Reiko without noticing her.

  Reiko shouldered her broom, picked up her dustpan, and followed Tama. Outside the alley, the district was filled with townspeople hurrying to get home before dark. Merchants hauled sliding doors closed across their storefronts. Soldiers on night patrol populated the streets. Reiko darted through the crowds, straining not to lose sight of Tama’s small, quick figure. She glanced around for her escorts.

  “We’re right behind you,” Lieutenant Asukai murmured.

  They trailed Tama through a marketplace. Vendors were haggling with a few last customers or packing up unsold vegetables. As Reiko hastened past the stalls, she heard a man’s voice call, “Hey, you! Street-cleaner!” A hand grabbed her arm. It belonged to a large, hulking ven
dor.

  “Sweep up that mess,” he ordered, pointing to some wilted cabbage leaves strewn on the ground.

  “Let me go!” Reiko swung her broom at him.

  The vendor ducked, released her, and cursed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  He lunged at her. Lieutenant Asukai seized him and flung him against a stall that held jars of pickled radishes. The vendor fell; jars crashed around him. Reiko dropped her broom and dustpan and ran. Lieutenant Asukai caught up with her.

  “Where did she go?” Reiko cried in panic.

  Across the marketplace, one of her other guards waved and pointed. Reiko saw Tama hurrying down an aisle of stalls. She and her escorts resumed the pursuit. It led them out of Nihonbashi, to the northern outskirts of town. Here the houses were farther apart, interspersed with trees and small farms. Dusk tinged with gold settled softly upon the tranquil landscape. Road traffic consisted of a few patrolling soldiers amid peasants carrying firewood or pushing barrows. Reiko lagged farther behind Tama, afraid that the girl would see her and her escorts.

  Yet Tama never turned around; she seemed more intent on reaching her destination than wary of being pursued. She hurried along the road, which followed the gradual upward slope of the land. Farms gave way to hillside forest Birds shrilled loudly in the trees that arched their boughs over the road, creating deep pools of darkness that the fading sunlight couldn’t penetrate. Tama’s figure was as indistinct as a shadow moving swiftly ahead of Reiko. The road was deserted except for their procession. The air grew chilly with the rising altitude and the approach of night. Reiko felt the warmth of exertion seep away from her body; she shivered in her thin garments. She could hear Tama puffing and scrambling uphill, and she stifled the noise of her own labored breaths, her own trudging footsteps. She heard an occasional twig snap or leaf crackle as her escorts followed, although when she looked over her shoulder, they were barely visible in the darkness. Above the road, amid the forest, houses spaced far apart jutted from the hillside, but Reiko neither heard nor saw any signs of human life. A gong boomed in a shrine in the city below. Dogs or wolves howled somewhere too near Reiko.

  Suddenly Tama vanished from sight. Reiko hurried forward, anxious because she thought she’d lost the girl. Then she saw a trail that led off the road, cut through the forest, and snaked uphill. She heard Tama panting and stumbling in the distance. Lieutenant Asukai and her four other guards stole with her up the trail. It grew steeper, and although its surface had been smoothed by human labor, fallen branches hindered them. The darkness was almost complete here, and they walked cautiously, but Tama made so much noise that Reiko doubted she would hear them. They emerged from the forest, into open space lit by the sky’s dim glow. Pausing, Reiko saw that the trail skirted a valley. Brush-covered slopes fell sharply away to its bottom, where a stream burbled over rocks. Reiko and her guards watched Tama hurry along the trail, which followed the arc that the valley carved through the terrain. Now Reiko spied Tama’s destination.

  It was a mansion built on three levels, upon land cleared of trees. The first level had a veranda that extended across the front and jutted over the valley and stream. Thatched roofs rose in multiple, jagged peaks. The mansion wasn’t huge, but it must have been difficult and expensive to build. In daytime it would have a marvelous view of Edo from the balconies on the back, higher levels. Light shone through a window and spilled onto the veranda. Tama toiled up a staircase that climbed the slope toward the mansion. The sound of her footsteps on wooden planks rang loud across the valley.

  “What shall we do?” Lieutenant Asukai whispered to Reiko.

  “Let’s get closer. We have to find out if Yugao and the Ghost are there.” Reiko must make sure before she told Sano.

  She and her guards hastened after Tama, staying close to the trees that bordered the trail. They hid themselves in shrubbery at the foot of the staircase. Tama sped across the veranda, dropped her bundle, and beat her fists on the door. It creaked open. From her vantage point Reiko could see along the veranda, and she had a good view of Tama, but since the front of the house was parallel to her line of sight, she couldn’t see the figure at the threshold.

  “It’s about time you got here,” said Yugao’s voice. “I’m starved. What did you bring me to eat?”

  Jubilation filled Reiko. She gave a silent prayer of thanks.

  Yugao stepped out the door. Tama backed away from her. The light from the house clearly illuminated both women. “Is he here?” Tama asked in a tone breathless from exhaustion and trembling with nerves.

  “Who?” Yugao crouched and started untying the bundle.

  “That samurai. Jin.”

  Yugao went perfectly still, her profile sharp as a blade. A moment passed before she rose, faced Tama, and said, “Yes. He’s here. So what?”

  Reiko stifled a breath of elation. She’d found the Ghost.

  “Why didn’t you tell me he was with you?” Tama cried, sounding hurt and betrayed. “I didn’t think it was important,” Yugao said, but a note of caution crept into her voice. “Why does it matter?”

  “You know I’m not supposed to let anybody in this house. I told you that if my master and mistress find out I did, I’ll be beaten. You talked me into letting you stay here. That’s dangerous enough. But for you to sneak that awful man in—” A sob interrupted Tama’s words. “I’ll lose my job. I’ll be thrown out on the street with nowhere to go!”

  “Don’t worry,” Yugao said. “No one will ever know. You said your master and mistress never come to this house until summer. We’ll be gone before then. I need you to help us for just a little while longer.”

  She reached out her hand to Tama in a supplicating gesture, but Tama recoiled. “He’s not the only thing you’ve kept secret from me. You said you ran away from home and you need a place to live. You didn’t tell me you’d escaped from jail!”

  Yugao’s hand froze in midair. She carefully lowered it. “I thought it was better not to tell you. That way, if the police caught me with you, they wouldn’t blame you for helping a runaway prisoner because you didn’t know that’s what I am.”

  She was lying, Reiko felt certain, despite her reasonable tone. To protect herself and her lover Yugao had deliberately, shamelessly taken advantage of Tama and lied to her.

  “Oh?” Tama was weeping, near hysterics; Reiko could see that she didn’t believe Yugao either. “Is that why you didn’t tell me that you murdered your parents and your sister?”

  “I didn’t murder them,” Yugao said, quick, defensive, and firm. “I was wrongly accused.”

  A dizzying sense of revelation coursed through Reiko. Again she knew Yugao was lying. She was finally certain that Yugao had indeed committed the crime.

  Tama regarded Yugao in tearful bewilderment. “But you were arrested. And if you didn’t kill them, then who did?”

  “It was the warden from the jail,” Yugao said. “He broke into our house while we were asleep. He stabbed my father, then my mother and Umeko. I saw him. He had to run away before he got caught, or he would have killed me, too.”

  Reiko was amazed at the way Yugao’s falsehoods showed the truth more clearly than her confession had. Reiko might never learn the reason behind the crimes, but she knew Yugao was the murderess she’d claimed to be all along.

  “I was arrested because I was there and I was alive,” Yugao continued. “The police didn’t bother investigating the murders because I’m a hinin. It was convenient to pin the murders on me. But I’m innocent.” Now her voice took on a pleading tone; she laid her hand over her heart, then reached it out to Tama. “You’ve known me since we were children. You know I would never do such a thing. I couldn’t tell you before because I was too upset. You’re my best friend. Don’t you believe me?”

  Even as Reiko silently scoffed at the act that Yugao was putting on, Tama flung her arms around Yugao and wept. “Of course I do. Oh, Yugao, I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through!” They hugged each other. Tama’s back was towar
d Reiko. The girl couldn’t see Yugao’s face, but Reiko had a good view of her sly, smug expression.

  “I’m sorry I was so distrustful,” Tama babbled. “I should have known you could never hurt your parents or your sister no matter how they treated you. When the magistrate’s daughter said you killed them, I shouldn’t have believed her.”

  “The magistrate’s daughter?” Yugao asked in surprise and consternation. She withdrew from Tama. “It was Lady Reiko who told you about the murders?”

  “Yes. She came to see me yesterday,” Tama said. “She asked if I knew where you are.”

  “Did you tell her you’d seen me?” Yugao demanded.

  “No.” Frightened and nervous now, Tama said, “I told her we hadn’t seen each other in years.”

  Yugao stepped closer to Tama, who faltered backward against the veranda railing. “What else did you tell Lady Reiko?”

  “Nothing.”

  But Tama’s voice quavered; she looked everywhere except at Yugao. She was a terrible liar. Yugao clamped her hands around Tama’s upper arms, gazed down into the valley, and Reiko perceived her thoughts as easily as if she’d spoken them. Tama was too weak and guileless to stand up to more questions about Yugao. Therefore, she was a danger to Yugao, and Kobori, no matter that they needed Tama to feed and shelter them. One quick heave over the railing, and Tama could never lead their enemies to them.

  Get out of there! Reiko wanted to shout at Tama. She’s going to kill you! Yet for Reiko to warn Tama would make Yugao aware of her presence. She couldn’t let Yugao know she’d found her hiding place and give her and Kobori a chance to escape.

  Yugao hesitated, then let go of Tama. Once again Reiko knew what she was thinking: The fall might not kill Tama; the bushes on the slope might save her. Knowing that Yugao had tried to murder her, Tama would run away; she might even report Yugao to the police. And then where would Yugao and Kobori go? Reiko sighed in relief.