by I. J. Parker
“No, of course not. But it’s strange, isn’t it?”
“Yes. He may have encountered pirates, or perhaps his ship ran aground somewhere.”
“Not pirates. We would have heard. And he’s been gone a whole month now. Surely someone would’ve found him if his ship got lost. Besides, there are no reports of missing ships.”
“He may have taken a smaller vessel. And there are many uninhabited islands in the Inland Sea.”
“Yes. All the same.”
“It is strange, sir. Is there something about Lord Tachibana that causes this concern?”
Fujiwara chewed on his lower lip. “No-o,” he said. “Not exactly. Well, there was gossip. I wondered if he was the reason they sent you.”
“I was sent to replace him before his term had expired. It suggests something caused his recall.”
Fujiwara peered at him and nodded. “Yes, exactly. What was it? Come on, surely you can tell me.” His tone was almost pleading.
“I wasn’t told myself, sir. I had hoped to learn the reason from you, or in Chikuzen, but as you know, the customary clearing of provincial accounts was handled by your office. What gossip were you referring to?”
“Oh, it concerned his personal wealth and, er, a certain behavior. But making money while serving as a governor is not uncommon, and his accounts were correct. As for amorous liaisons, he isn’t the first nobleman in Kyushu to enjoy a vacation from his family.” He frowned. “Well, keep your eyes and ears open, Sugawara.”
This time Akitada made him a slight bow.
15
A CASE IS CLOSED
When Tora returned to Hakata the day after his master’s visit to Dazaifu, he found Maeda in his office, looking stunned.
“My congratulations, Chief,” he said with a grin.
Maeda focused. “Was this your doing? No, surely not. It takes more than a clever wag from the capital to remove Okata from his chosen post.”
Tora said modestly, “As provincial inspector, it was my duty to report on conditions in Hakata. My master’s the one does the hiring and firing.”
Maeda shook his head. “Well, I thank him for his confidence, but he knows nothing about me. Surely this is not the way things should be done?”
Tora raised an eyebrow. “You disapprove?”
“Well, no. Yes, I do. He cannot have known what he was doing. Besides, this won’t work. Dazaifu makes those appointments.”
“Oh, it has already worked. My master got back from there yesterday. You’re confirmed.”
Maeda gulped. “I don’t believe it.”
Tora folded his arms across his chest and frowned. “I’ve heard better acknowledgments for favors of this magnitude.”
Maeda blushed, then chuckled. “Sorry, Tora. Of course I do appreciate your good words, and I’ll thank the governor in person. But this is pretty unheard of.”
“Oh, you’re on probation. And my master says he’s been warned Okata will try to make trouble.”
“Yes, it’s likely.” Maeda grimaced. “Well, to work then. There’s news about the Mitsui case.”
“Yes?”
“The old man was found hanged in his cell yesterday. He was about to be transferred to Tsushima. Apparently he couldn’t face it. His son had paid him a visit earlier, and all seemed quiet. The guards paid ignored him or slept, as the case may be. I’ll deal with them later.”
Tora thought about it. “It means the case really is closed,” he said.
“Oh yes. It was closed after the judge pronounced his verdict, but now we don’t even have reason to clear a possibly innocent man. The crazy thing is I feel bad about it, confession or not.”
“Well, as has been pointed out: why would an innocent man confess?”
“I wish I knew.”
They sat in silence, contemplating the vagaries of the investigation which had brought them together.
Finally Tora sighed. “What now? Any news of Yoko?”
“No. We posted notices. I have too much to do today to start talking to people again. Her husband was here this morning. The man’s frantic. I tried to tell him she might have gone off with a friend, but he swore she had no friends. Women friends, he said.” Maeda gave a snort. “Not surprising, really. Women don’t care for other women who are on the prowl for their men. I finally told the poor fool what her neighbors had been saying. He got angry and stormed out.”
“I think I’ll look in on Mrs. Kimura and the kids. Maybe she’s heard something.”
“Be my guest.”
Tora grinned. “Speaking of guests, now that you’re in receipt of a lieutenant’s salary, you can pay for the next meal at the Golden Dragon.”
Maeda burst into laughter. “Just say when.”
*
Tora stopped to buy some sweets from a vendor and then walked to Mrs. Kimura’s house.
He noted that Mitsui’s house was inhabited again. Laundry was draped over the rickety fence, and a large number of very grimy children were throwing stones at a mangy dog tied to a fence post. Tora waded in, slapped the boy who had just scored a painful hit, threatened the rest of the children with the same if they tormented any more animals, and untied the dog. The animal sped away, its tail between its legs. The children raised an outcry, and a fat and dirty woman came to the door, cursed Tora, and handed out a few more slaps.
Hiroshi had moved in his family.
Tora shook his head and went next door into a very different world.
He could hear them singing as he walked through the bamboo gate, the children’s voices high and clear, and old Mrs. Kimura’s slightly cracked but spirited. He smiled to himself and thought their visit to Kyushu had not been completely wasted. Of course, most of the credit for rescuing the children went to Saburo.
They greeted him with shy smiles. He held up the paper with the sweets. “I brought you something,” he said, “but I see you’ve already eaten, so I think I’ll keep these for myself.”
“Oh, no!” cried Kichiro. “We’re quite hungry. Aren’t we, Naoko?”
“Hush, Kichiro. We’re not hungry. Auntie has cooked a very good gruel for us.” She paused, her eyes on the sweets. “But we might manage a sweet.”
Tora and Mrs. Kimura laughed, and he passed his present over.
The children made him deep bows and ran outside into the garden, their cheeks bulging with the treats.
“Has something happened?” the old lady asked, eyeing Tora shrewdly.
He flashed her his big smile. “I came for the pleasure of seeing you, Mrs. Kimura.”
“Nonsense. I could see it in your face.”
Tora sobered. “As it happens, there is some news. Did you know Okata has been relieved of his post and Maeda appointed chief in his stead?”
“Oh!” she cried, clapping her hands. “That’s wonderful news! Thank you, Tora. You’ve made me very happy.” She paused. “But there’s something else?”
Tora nodded. “Your neighbor killed himself in jail.”
Her face fell. “Poor Mitsui, though he wasn’t a very nice man. His sentence was too much to bear, I suppose. That good-for-nothing son of his has already moved his family into his parents’ house. He looks very smug and goes out drinking every night. His wife fights with her neighbors, and the children are little savages. I’m still amazed that his father doted on the boy. He wasn’t a very nice child either.”
“I’m not surprised. They had a falling out before the murder, though. I think the old man must’ve berated him for gambling and losing his job. “
They went out on the veranda. Kichiro was spreading some paste on twigs with a piece of wood. He already had four or five small branches laid out along the edge of the veranda.
“What are you doing?” Tora asked.
The boy looked up. “It’s glue I made from bean paste. I put the branches into trees or shrubs. The birds get stuck on them, and I catch them. I only keep the ones that sing.”
Mrs. Kimura said softly, “It seems quite cruel. But chil
dren don’t think about such things. He tells me he learned this from a man in the market. I confess I like all those birds singing in my garden.”
Tora looked at the cages hanging from tree branches and the house eaves and listened. The birds sounded quite happy. They were singing their little hearts out. Or maybe they were mourning the loss of their freedom. He asked the boy, “How do you know where the best birds are?”
Kinchiro grinned. “I watch them. Two days ago I heard a warbler in the big cedar in the alley behind us. I was looking up into the tree, when a man digging his garden got mad and screamed at me.”
Tora smiled. “Every craft has its troubles.” He turned to Mrs. Kimura, “Any more thoughts about Yoko leaving?”
“So you haven’t found her?”
“Not yet. Maeda is posting notices. If she sees one or hears about them, she’ll show up. Or maybe her boyfriend will.”
She shook her head. “Yoko can’t read or write. And what makes you think a market porter can?”
Tora sighed. “Why is it people just disappear here? It’s weird.”
“Who else disappeared?”
“The last governor seems to have vanished.”
As he explained that the governor’s ship had not touched land since he had left, her eyes grew round. “How strange! I think I saw him the day he left Hakata. He was with two other men on horseback. It was getting dark, but one of them is quite distinctive looking with his elegant mustache and beard and those eyebrows like two small roofs above his eyes.”
Tora smiled. “Roofs?”
She moistened a finger with her tongue and drew a pair of slanting lines meeting at an apex on the boards they sat on.
“So you could see his face?”
“Just for a moment before they turned the corner.”
Given the way Lord Tachibana had left things for them, Tora did not really care. “Well, I expect he’ll turn up eventually unless the fish ate him. I’d better be on my way. Do you need money?” He saw her expression and added quickly, “What with the extra mouths to feed.”
“Thank you, but we manage quite well,” she said primly. “In fact, the children are a big help to me and I’m growing fond of them. I shall ask them to stay. I have no one else to care for.”
16
THE ABANDONED WELL
As soon as he could do so, Akitada sent for Maeda and made his promotion official. He liked what he saw when he met the former sergeant. Maeda was well-spoken but modest about his education. He had a military background, something which would serve him well in his new role, and he expressed a concern about protecting the peaceful lives of the ordinary people in Hakata. He also impressed Akitada with a good knowledge of forensic practices. They parted pleased with each other.
Two days later they found Yoko.
By the time someone came to report a nauseating smell coming from an abandoned well, the rain had stopped and the weather had turned unseasonably warm. The smell and the number of flies around the wooden cover of the well had attracted the attention of some dogs who scrabbled at the wood, releasing more flies. Competition led to a noisy dog fight, which brought some boys, who obligingly moved the lid and looked down the half-filled shaft. Below lay a dead woman wrapped in a pale green quilt covered with cherry blossoms.
After verifying that the body was Yoko’s, Maeda sent a message to the provincial tribunal. By the time Tora arrived at Hakata police station, Yoko was already in the capable hands of the coroner, Dr. Fujita. Tora and Maeda went to watch him at his work.
In spite of all the horrors he had seen, Tora’s stomach turned. The beauteous Yoko was unrecognizable in the naked, swollen, and discolored corpse that lay on a stained grass mat while Dr. Fujita knelt beside it, probing various openings with a silver instrument which he raised to his nose from time to time.
Tora covered his nose with a sleeve and swallowed hard. He glanced at Maeda, who seemed absorbed in the coroner’s probings. “How long?” Tora asked.
“Who knows?” Maeda answered. “Most likely since the day she disappeared.”
The coroner looked up. “Deterioration is well advanced. Several days, I’d say.”
“What killed her?” Tora tried next.
Fujita snorted and pointed to Yoko’s chest.
Holding his sleeve over his nose, Tora stepped closer. Below Yoko’s left breast were two blood-stained wounds, two additional openings for Dr. Fujita to probe. He promptly inserted his instrument as far as it would go into one of these. A trickle of foul-smelling liquid appeared. Tora stepped back quickly. The coroner repeated this with the second wound.
“A knife,” Fujita said, frowning at the slender probe. “Fairly long and sharp. It went deep. The first one missed the vital organ. The second killed instantly.”
Maeda asked, “The same sort of knife as the one used in the last murder?”
Fujita nodded. “Yes, it could be same. But such knives are common in people’s kitchens.”
Maeda glanced at Tora and took his arm. “Thanks, Doctor. Let me know if you discover anything unusual.” He led Tora outside and closed the door on the scene behind them. Tora gulped a few breaths of clean air.
“Delicate stomach?” Maeda grinned.
Tora glared at him. “Recent large meal.”
“I expect seeing the object of your amorous desires in such a state had something to do with it.”
“Shut up!”
Maeda chuckled, then sobered. “Sorry. Poor Yoko. You think the husband killed her?”
“No, I think whoever killed Mitsui’s wife did.” He paused as a memory surfaced. “Hiroshi,” he said in a tone of wonder. “It was him. The boy saw him digging a few days ago. I bet he was burying the knife.”
Maeda said nothing.
“Well?” Tora turned to him. “You see it, don’t you? She was stabbed, and with the same knife as his stepmother.”
Maeda shook his head. “Don’t be silly. You don’t know it was the same knife. This one could have come from Yoko’s own kitchen and been used by her husband who finally figured out she was sleeping with everybody but him. Why Hiroshi? What would be his motive?”
“Yoko’s husband’s not the type to do anything so strenuous as stabbing a fully-grown and healthy female much younger than him. Let alone carry her all the way to an abandoned well to dump her body in. Hiroshi had a cart.”
“Why do you keep linking this with Mitsui? He confessed to killing his wife. Case closed.”
“So everybody keeps saying.”
“Tora, the man confessed.”
“I know, but I think he was covering for Hiroshi. A father’s love for his son.”
Maeda sighed. “Not without more proof. Come on, we’ve got to start questioning people again.”
He selected three constables and sent them to the market to ask about Yoko’s shopping on the night she disappeared and about who had made the deliveries to her house during the past weeks. Then he and Tora set out for her home, accompanied by two more constables who started knocking on neighbors’ doors again.
Maeda and Tora went to see Yoko’s husband again.
Kuroki was a blubbering bundle of self-pity. His face was wet with tears, and so were the rumpled sleeves of his robe. He was barefoot and his sparse hair hung in loose strands to his shoulders. “What have you done?” he cried when he saw Maeda and Tora. “Have you found him? Is he in jail? My lovely Yoko! Oh, that I had to see her like that! What shall I do? I’m lost, quite lost without her.”
“No, Mr. Kuroki,” said Maeda, “we haven’t arrested anyone. We need your help to do so.”
“My help? You know who did it then?”
“Not yet.”
Kuroki burst into more wails. “This is terrible! The monster killed my wife a week ago, and he’s free? Who knows, he may be waiting to shove his knife in my belly next. I want a guard at my door day and night.”
Tora gazed at Kuroki’s quivering stomach and wondered if even as long a knife as the one that killed his wife
would penetrate such a gross layer of flesh and fat far enough to strike at vital organs.
Maeda snapped, “Impossible. Pull yourself together. We have some questions. I want to know which merchants your wife patronized, and whether she ever spent a night away from home.”
Kuroki stared at him resentfully. “Of course she didn’t spend the night anywhere but here. What are you suggesting?”
Maeda wisely did not answer that. “Where did she do most of her shopping?”
“No idea. That’s woman’s work. I have my own duties to worry about. A clerk’s life isn’t easy, you know. I come home exhausted.”
He was no help. Tora knew Maeda had already checked with the bathhouse and confirmed the man’s earlier account, but he went over the details again. After dark, sometime between the hour of the boar and the hour of the dragon when her husband finally awoke to another day, Yoko had disappeared. This time span included her visit to the market, but since Kuroki had no idea when she had returned to their house, they could not narrow down the early hours, and because Kuroki had not checked on his wife after his return from the bathhouse, they could not be sure what had happened later.
The likeliest scenario was one where her killer caught up with her after she returned from the market but before Kuroki had come home from his massage and moxa treatment.
They left Kuroki not much wiser. Maeda’s constables returned from knocking at the neighbors’ doors and reported that one woman had seen Kuroki and his wife leaving their house together and walking off in opposite directions. The time matched what Kuroki had given for their departure. No one had seen either return or anyone else enter the Kuroki house, probably because by then they had been at their evening rice or asleep.
Tora said, “Let’s go question Hiroshi.”
Maeda sighed. “Very well.”
Hiroshi was not home. His slattern of a wife was cooking something. Some of the smaller children played with vegetable peels on the floor. “What’s the bastard done now?” she asked.
Maeda said, “We’re just double-checking on the murder of Mrs. Mitsui.”