Shinju. Part 2

"Burns from the ropes that bound him to Yukiko," Dr. Ito explained.

Otherwise, Noriyos.h.i.+ was unmarked. His stomach was paunchy and his face puffy, but his arms and legs were wiry and he had most of his teeth. Before his death, he'd apparently enjoyed at least fair health for a man of forty-odd years. If he had died by any means other than drowning himself, it didn't show.

"I've seen enough," Sano said. "Thank you for-"

But Dr. Ito didn't seem to hear. Frowning at Noriyos.h.i.+, he said, "Mura-san. Turn him."

The eta obligingly rolled the body onto its side. Dr. Ito bent over it, scrutinizing the head and neck.

Sano moved closer. Then he caught the body's odor: a sweet, sickly butcher-shop scent, mixed with the fishy taint of the river. He moved back toward the open window. Ito gestured for the eta to turn Noriyos.h.i.+ facedown.

"What caused this?" Sano asked, pointing to what looked like a large reddish bruise discoloring Noriyos.h.i.+'s back, b.u.t.tocks, arms, and legs.

"The blood settling after death." Taking a cloth from inside his coat, Ito covered his hand with it. Then he began to probe Noriyos.h.i.+'s head. Despite being a doctor of progressive outlook, he apparently hadn't overcome his own aversion to the dead.

"Mura-san, a knife and razor," Ito ordered. Then, to Sano: "There is a flattened spot here at the base of the skull. We shall have a better look at it."

Sano looked, but saw nothing. He didn't want to touch the head himself. He waited while Mura cut away a patch of hair and shaved the scalp bare where Ito had pointed. Then he saw the livid purple indentation. He s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Ito's face and kept it there.

"What caused it? A blow that killed him before he was thrown into the river?"

"Or perhaps a rock or piling that struck him-when he jumped into the river." Dr. Ito emphasized the last words."Or during the first hour after death, when a blow could still produce a bruise. It is impossible for me to say. But there is a way to tell if he did drown."

Sano's pulse quickened. Instinct told him that a murderer had inflicted Noriyos.h.i.+'s wound. He must know for certain. "How?" he asked eagerly.

"If he drowned, he will have water inside him," Ito answered. "But in order to know that, we must cut him open."

Sano stared at Ito, appalled. Dissection of a human body, as well as any other procedure even remotely a.s.sociated with foreign science, was just as illegal as it had been at the time of Ito's arrest. Perhaps the authorities no longer cared if Ito broke the law, but what about him? If the wrong people found out, he would not only lose his position, he would be banished, never to see his home or family again. He started to protest. But Dr. Ito's gaze locked with his. freezing him into silence. I risked everything to seek forbidden truths, the shrewd eyes seemed to say. How far are you willing to go? Sano's mind recoiled from the unspoken challenge. He tried to conjure up images of his father, of Magistrate Ogyu. He reminded himself of his obligation to them. But instead he saw the dos.h.i.+n's a.s.sistants beating a helpless beggar. He felt again the elation of the moment when he'd corrected an injustice and set an investigation back on the road to truth.

"All right," he said.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized that he had committed himself to this when he'd agreed to view the body. He'd taken the first step, and there had never been any choice about the second.

At a nod from Ito, Mura went to the cabinet. From it he took a wooden tray of tools-steel saws, long razors, and a collection of knives and instruments such as Sano had never seen before. They must have been Dutch in origin. Mura set the tray on the table beside the body, then went to the cabinet again and brought out a white cloth. This he tied over the lower half of his face.

His practiced movements told Sano that this was not the first dissection ever performed here. As did a bamboo pipe running from a hole in the table down to a drain in the floor. The room had been prepared for Dr. Ito's experiments.

Mura turned Noriyos.h.i.+'s body onto its back. He picked up a slender knife and held it over Noriyos.h.i.+'s chest. Apparently he, not Ito, would do the actual cutting. Despite his unconventional views, Ito followed the tradition of letting the eta handle the dead.

Sano watched with horrified fascination as the blade sliced cleanly into Noriyos.h.i.+'s skin and moved down the center from the base of the collarbone to the navel.

"No blood?" he asked, relieved to be spared the sight of it. The raw, pink edges of the cut looked bad enough. His heart was racing; his hands went cold and clammy.

"The dead do not bleed," Dr. Ito replied.

Now Mura made several cuts perpendicular to the first. He inserted a flat-bladed instrument into one of them.

Sano looked at the glistening red tissue that appeared as Mura folded the skin back from Noriyos.h.i.+'s rib cage, and at Mura's slimy hands wielding the instrument to slice it away. He swallowed hard. Nausea spread through his stomach. Sweat trickled down his face despite the cold air coming through the window. His skin crawled. He fought the sickness by trying to concentrate on something else. He couldn't have Noriyos.h.i.+'s corpse exposed to the public; signs of the dissection would show. When he returned to his office, he must issue a cremation order. But the distraction failed. Not wanting to see, yet unable to look away, he watched as Noriyos.h.i.+'s innards were revealed. The pale, gleaming ribs with twin pinkish-gray spongy lobes and a red, meaty object beneath. The coiled tubes of viscera showing at the lower edge of the cut. Like a flayed animal, he thought dizzily. And the smell rising from the open cavity was the same, too: sweet, strong, and rotten.

Like other men his age, he'd never gone to war. He knew about its atrocities, of course: men decapitated with a single sword slash, or shot with guns bought from foreign barbarians. Limbs severed. Bodies hacked to bits. He'd read accounts in the history texts and heard the stories handed down from generation to generation. Somehow he'd always imagined the carnage of battle as n.o.ble, necessary, and part of a samurai's domain. This-this cold, deliberate mutilation of a human body-seemed obscene. It was defilement in its worst form. He could feel the pollution staining his skin, seeping into his nostrils, coating his eyeb.a.l.l.s. His stomach lurched. Even his sweat seemed contaminated; he couldn't bring himself to touch it. He pressed his lips together to keep it from running into his mouth.

"Mura-san, the lower two ribs on the right side," Ito said.

Sano watched as Mura took one rib between the jaws of a st.u.r.dy pair of grips. He closed his eyes at the sickening crack of bone- once, twice. When he opened them again, he saw why Mura had covered his face. Bits of red tissue flecked the white cloth just over the eta's mouth.

"Good." Ito nodded. "Now cut... there." He sketched a line in the air above the place where the ribs had been, over the section of spongy lobe now exposed. To Sano he said, "If there is water, it will be in the breathing sacs."

Sano nodded quickly, afraid that he would vomit if he tried to speak. He watched the thin knife slice the breathing sac and braced himself for the gush of fluid.

It never came. Instead the sac merely shrank a little, like the punctured swim bladder of a fish.

"No water." A grim satisfaction suffused Dr. Ito's face. "This man did not drown. He died before he entered the water. He was murdered, then thrown into the river."

Sano's vision darkened, and his legs wobbled beneath him. Then he retched.

"Yoriki Sano-san. Are you ill?"

Sano tried to answer, but bile seared his throat. Without making a proper farewell, he stumbled from the room. He had to get out. Fast.

The jail corridors seemed endless; the prisoners' cries were the sounds of demons in h.e.l.l. Somehow Sano made it to the door. He managed to climb onto his horse and get halfway across the bridge. Then his stomach heaved again. Dismounting, he vomited into the ca.n.a.l. But the end to his sickness brought little relief. He felt horribly soiled by his experience. Conscious only of a desire to put as much distance between himself and Edo Jail as possible, he rode blindly through the twilight at a furious gallop.

Then, looming before him like a blessing from the G.o.ds, there appeared a building with a dark blue curtain hanging out front. The curtain displayed the character yu: hot water. A bathhouse. Sano jerked on the reins and fell off his horse. Das.h.i.+ng inside, he threw some coins on the counter.

"Sir, the price is only eight zeni!" the attendant cried, holding out Sano's change.

Sano ignored him. He s.n.a.t.c.hed a bag of rice-bran soap from the counter and shoved his swords at the attendant for safekeeping. Then he stumbled into the bathing area. In the dim, steamy room, men in loincloths and women in thin under-kimonos scrubbed and rinsed themselves, or soaked in the deep tub. Oblivious to their curious glances, he ripped off his clothes, throwing them on the floor in an untidy heap. He scoured his skin with the soap until it hurt. He sloshed a bucket of water over himself. Then he plunged into the tub, completely immersing himself again and again. The water was scalding hot and sc.u.mmy with soap residue, but he forced himself to keep his eyes and mouth open so that it could cleanse him inside as well as out.

Finally a sense of peace came over him. He no longer felt contaminated. Gasping, he dragged himself out of the tub and went to sit on a bench in the steam room. Then he closed his eyes and groaned as realization struck him.

Noriyos.h.i.+ had been murdered. Logic told him that Yukiko had, too. But since he couldn't tell anyone about the illegal dissection, he must find some other way to prove what no one was supposed to know.

Chapter 3.

Sano awoke to the sound of footsteps outside his bedchamber in the yoriki barracks. Stirring beneath thick quilts, he lifted his head from his wooden neck rest. A slit of light widened as the door slid open, and the maid entered on her knees, bearing a bucket of hot coals.

"Good morning, yoriki-san," she said cheerfully, bending to dump some coals into a brazier near his futon.

Through the thin walls came other sounds of morning in the barracks. The veranda that ran past the doors of his and ten other adjoining apartments creaked and shuddered under hurrying feet. Sano's colleagues called greetings to one another. It had taken him a while to get used to the noise, so different from the quiet of the house where he'd lived with only his parents and one maid-of-all-work. Grimacing at a loud crash from the other side of the wall, he rose cautiously.

To his relief, the queasiness that had continued all yesterday evening after the dissection had pa.s.sed. He felt refreshed, hungry, and even confident that he could discover who had killed Noriyos.h.i.+ and Yukiko. Only the lingering fear of disobeying Magistrate Ogyu and concern for his reputation clouded his thoughts.

Hurriedly Sano pulled on his heavy winter robe and went to the entryway for his shoes. s.h.i.+vering in the chill gray morning, he followed the veranda to the privies attached to the building. He saw none of his colleagues, for which he was glad: the camaraderie they shared didn't include him.

When Sano returned to his rooms, his manservant helped him wash, then dress in fresh black hakama, white under-robe, dark blue kimono printed with black squares, and a black sash. The maid had stored his bedding in the closet, removed yesterday's clothes for was.h.i.+ng, and swept the mats. As the manservant oiled and arranged his hair, Sano reflected that his position had its benefits. This apartment, located within the police compound, was bigger and better than he'd ever imagined having. A whole family could sleep in the bedchamber. The sitting room, equally large, had a desk alcove with built-in shelves, like one in a rich man's house. His income was two hundred koku a year, the cash equivalent of enough rice to feed two hundred men for that long. Even after deductions for room, board, stable fees, and servants' wages, he made many times as much as he had tutoring.

Sano sighed inwardly as he dismissed his manservant and headed for the barracks dining room. He couldn't really enjoy these pleasures because his peers were anything but welcoming.

Although it was late, six men still knelt in the dining room, finis.h.i.+ng their morning meal: Yamaga, Hayas.h.i.+, and four others, all immaculately groomed and dressed, manicured hands holding their tea bowls. Their heads turned toward Sano as he paused in the entrance. The conversation ceased.

Then Hachiya Akira, senior yoriki, a heavy man of fifty with a soft-jowled face, spoke. "We thought you were not coming." He took another sip of tea from his bowl. "Many thanks for giving us the honor of your company." Murmurs from the others echoed the mild disapproval in his tone.

"My apologies," Sano said as he took his place beside Hayas.h.i.+. As little as they welcomed his presence, the other yoriki still expected him at meals and in their rooms when they gathered at night to drink and talk. Otherwise he would have eaten in his own apartment and spent his free time reading or with old friends. This endurance of slights, baiting, and loneliness was a duty he couldn't s.h.i.+rk.

"Very well." Releasing him. Hachiya turned to the others and resumed their conversation, which, as usual, dealt with politics.

"Whatever one thinks of the government," he said, "it does maintain order throughout our nation. There has not been a significant disturbance since the s.h.i.+mabara peasant uprising was quelled more than fifty years ago. Because the Tokugawa military force far exceeds that of any daimyo clan that might challenge the regime, we are free from the threat of war."

But throughout history, ambitious men had successfully faced great challenges to win power for themselves, Sano remembered. Five hundred years ago, Minamoto Yoritomo-a Tokugawa ancestor-had defeated the imperial forces to become shogun. The As.h.i.+kaga clan had supplanted the Minamoto. More recently, great warlords had waged almost a hundred years of civil war in their quest to dominate. Despite the apparent permanence of the Tokugawa supremacy, no regime lasts forever. That the government was quick to detect and crush budding insurrections showed that it recognized this fact. Still, a majority of samurai considered the Tokugawas invincible and such precautions superfluous.

"However, I must admit that things have changed since the a.s.sa.s.sination of that superb statesman, the Great Elder Hotta Masatos.h.i.+," Hachiya continued. "Without his guidance, Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayos.h.i.+ seems to have lost his taste for government affairs. Why, I remember when he conducted proceedings against the corruption in Takata just eight years ago. The daimyo was stripped of his fief, his second-in-command was ordered to commit seppuku, and the rest of the partisans were banished. Now Tsunayos.h.i.+ occupies himself with other pursuits. Lecturing his officials on Chinese philosophy and cla.s.sics. Reviving the old s.h.i.+nto festivals. Acting as patron to the theater and endowing Confucian academies."

Hachiya's neutral tone implied no dissatisfaction. With spies everywhere, no one dared criticize the shogun openly. But Sano had gotten the message and knew the others had, too. Tokugawa Tsunayos.h.i.+ had his detractors, both here in this room and at every level of society.

Yamaga's thin nostrils flared in distaste as he said, "His Excellency's chief chamberlain-the clever and charming Yanagisawa- wields much power now." He set down his bowl. Then, in a lighter manner, as if to change the subject: "The incidence of certain physical practices seems to be on the rise. One can observe the consequences. His Excellency... many individuals... the treasury... " He let the words hang.

"Ah." Noncommittal sounds came from the others as they nodded and lowered their eyes.

Sano hid a smile as he accepted an ozen-an individual meal tray containing rice, fish, pickled radish, and tea-from the maid. Yamaga's gift for circ.u.mspect communication nearly matched Ogyu's. He'd just told them, although not in so many words, that the rumormongers said Chamberlain Yanagisawa preferred men to women and had had an affair with the shogun, whose protege he'd been since his youth. From that affair sprang Yanagisawa's influence over the nation. And the shogun's own appet.i.te for men wasn't satisfied by Yanagisawa. Evidently he used government funds to lavish gifts upon many lovers, including a harem of boys. This had caused resentment within the ranks of the shogun's retainers, as well as among the great daimyo, although not because they disapproved of his s.e.xual preference. Many samurai practiced manly love; they considered it an expression of the Way of the Warrior. Rather they objected to the shogun's blatant favoritism. The conversation turned to general matters. Talking during meals was considered rude, but the other men had finished eating and apparently saw nothing wrong with gossiping around Sano as he ate. Excluded from the conversation, as he had been every morning, Sano mentally stepped back to look at himself and his companions. How different they were from the warriors of old!

Instead of gathering outdoors in the morning to discuss strategy before a battle, they dined in comfort while chatting about politics. Hachiya, now holding forth on his problems with a certain treasury official, was hardly General Hojo Masamura, who had successfully defended the country against invading Mongols four hundred years before. Although Sano was grateful for the peace that had brought prosperity and stability to the country, he regretted the lost simplicity of those bygone days.

The Way of the Warrior had undergone a subtle alteration in response to the changed times. Samurai still upheld honor, bravery, and loyalty as the highest virtues. They still carried swords and were responsible for keeping their fighting skills up to standard in the event of war. But in addition to swearing allegiance to a lord, they owed sometimes conflicting loyalties to a whole network of superiors, allies, and patrons, in addition to shogun and emperor. And while most samurai practiced the martial arts at academies such as the one Sano's father operated, many didn't. Like Yamaga and Hayas.h.i.+, they'd gone soft. True, Tokugawa Ieyasu's Ordinances for the Military Houses called on samurai to engage in polite learning as well as military training. In peacetime, their energy must be directed into civilian channels; both their education and the dwindling value of their stipends made them ideal candidates for service in the government bureaucracy. But Sano couldn't help thinking that the samurai soul had lost much of its steel.

And, along with it, the certainty born of knowing that your life is to be spent in preparation for battle to the death in your lord's service. Nothing in Sano's life had prepared him for the task of investigating a murder and finding a killer. How should he go about it?

Pondering his dilemma, Sano realized belatedly that Hayas.h.i.+ was asking him a question in an impatient tone that indicated he'd already repeated it once.

"I'm sorry, Hayas.h.i.+-san. I wasn't paying attention. What did you say?"

Looking straight into Sano's eyes, Hayas.h.i.+ said pointedly, "It is a commonly held opinion that they who teach do so because they have no other skills. Therefore, it is good that the government is so well organized that it virtually runs itself. This way it matters little how posts are filled. Nor the qualifications of the men who hold them. Would you not agree?"

The words hung ominously in the air. Silence fell as the others awaited his reaction. Sano could feel himself flus.h.i.+ng as he saw them exchange glances, suppress smiles. He'd had all he could take of the constant baiting and veiled insults. Perhaps because he shared Hayas.h.i.+'s low opinion of his qualifications, a sudden fury boiled up inside him. The frustration of the past month spilled over. A bitter retort sprang to his lips. Only the knowledge that an open quarrel with Hayas.h.i.+ would earn him a reprimand from Ogyu made him bite it back. Ogyu expected the police department to run smoothly and un.o.btrusively.

"Some might think so," Sano forced himself to answer calmly. "Others perhaps not."

Hayas.h.i.+'s smirk made him even angrier. Out of anger came inspiration. No matter what these men thought, a tutor and history scholar had plenty of useful skills! Ones that could be applied to any task-even the investigation of a murder. When he wanted to learn about a historical event or person, he questioned people who had witnessed the event or known the person. As yet he had no witnesses to the murders. But he could talk to those who'd been close to Yukiko and Noriyos.h.i.+. Maybe that way he could discover their killer's motive and ident.i.ty. Throwing down his chopsticks, he rose and bowed his farewells to the others.

Hachiya frowned. "Leaving us so soon?"

"Yes." Sano looked down at the six upturned faces. The hostility he saw there saddened and worried him. His inability to make comrades of his peers boded ill for the future. But he tried to convince himself that their enmity didn't matter. Finding the truth and bringing a killer to justice did. "I must go to my office and leave orders for my staff. Then I shall pay my respects to the families of the dead."

The yas.h.i.+ki-great fortified estates of the daimyo-occupied large tracts of land south and east of Edo Castle. Each was surrounded by a continuous line of barracks, where as many as two thousand of the lords' retainers lived. Decorated with black tiles set in geometric patterns, their white plaster walls were punctuated by heavily guarded gates. Smooth, straight thoroughfares, wide enough to accommodate huge military processions, divided the estates. Along them, mult.i.tudes of samurai moved on foot or on horseback.

Sano walked quickly through the avenues, checking each gate for the crest that would identify the Niu yas.h.i.+ki. The weather had turned colder; a cloudy sky pressed down upon the city, threatening snow. His breath frosted the air, and he bunched his gloved hands in the sleeves of his cloak for extra warmth. Under his arm he carried the obligatory funeral gift: a package of expensive cakes, wrapped in white paper and tied with black and white string. The castle loomed before him, an imposing conglomeration of stone walls and tile roofs set on a wooded hilltop.

He paused for a moment to look about. The sight of Edo Castle, the fortresses around it, and all the armed men reminded him forcibly that this city was first and foremost a military base. The thousands of townspeople, crammed into the meager remaining land between here and the river, existed only to serve it. Edo belonged to the shogun and the daimyo.

Niu Masamune, as befitting his wealth and power, would have one of the estates nearest the castle, Sano thought as he continued on his way. Ah, there it was: the Niu clan symbol, a dragonfly within a circle, painted in red on a white banner. Black mourning drapery hung in loops above the gate. Sano reflected that the dragonfly, symbol of victory, seemed an inappropriate crest for the Nius. They and their allies had, after all, suffered defeat at Sekigahara by the Tokugawa faction. After the battle, the Nius had been stripped of their ancestral fief. But Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, had realized that unless he somehow pacified his conquered foes, they wouldn't stay conquered for long. He'd granted them other fiefs-the Nius' in distant Satsuma, far from their traditional power base. He and his descendants had exacted a fortune in tributes from these daimyo clans, while allowing them to keep much of their wealth and to govern their provinces autonomously. Thus Niu Masamune maintained his status as one of the highest-ranking "outside lords"-those whose clans had sworn allegiance to Tokugawa Ieyasu after Sekigahara. The elaborate gate, with its red beams, twin guardhouses, ma.s.sive double doors, and heavy tile roof, proclaimed its supremacy over the simpler gates of lesser daimyo.

Sano stopped a few paces from the Niu gate. Never had he imagined calling on a daimyo, for any reason. Now he wondered whether he had the audacity to elicit details of Yukiko's life while seemingly paying an official condolence call. Only his increasingly compelling need to seek the truth and find Yukiko's killer gave him the courage to approach the guardhouse.

He identified himself to one of the guards and explained, "I wish to pay my respects to the Niu family." Then, not wanting to tell a total lie about his reason for coming, he added,"And to settle a few matters regarding Miss Yukiko's death."

The guard said, "Please wait." Unlike the Edo Jail guards, he acted neither surprised nor servile. As retainer to a great lord, he no doubt encountered many visitors who ranked far higher than a yoriki. He left his guardhouse and crossed to the other, where he consulted his partner. Then he opened the gate, spoke to someone inside, and closed it again. "Wait," he repeated to Sano.

Sano waited. The damp chill seeped into him, and he paced before the guardhouses to keep warm. Finally, when he was beginning to think he would never gain admittance to the yas.h.i.+ki, the gate opened again.

Another guard stood there. Bowing, he said, "Sir, Lord Niu is not presently in the city. But if you would be so obliging as to come with me, Lady Niu will see you."

Sano wasn't surprised to find Lord Niu absent, or Lady Niu at home in Edo. According to the law of alternate attendance, the daimyo spent four months of each year in the capital, and the rest on their provincial estates. When they returned to their estates, the shogun made them leave their wives and families in Edo as hostages. The daimyo were divided into two groups, one of which was in Edo while the other was in the country. These restrictions, which greatly humiliated the proud daimyo, effectively kept them from plotting and staging a rebellion. They also had to maintain two establishments, thereby draining their wealth into nonmilitary expenditures. Peace came with a high price, and the daimyo had paid it with their money, their pride, and their freedom. Still, Sano hadn't expected Lady Niu to receive him. Most ladies spent their days confined to the women's quarters of their mansions while the daimyo's retainers handled the households' official business. They seldom received strangers of the opposite s.e.x. Even more curious now-and increasingly unsure of how he should act once inside- Sano followed the guard through the gate.

He saw immediately that the yas.h.i.+ki was laid out like a military camp, where soldiers' tents were arranged around the general's. Here the barracks bordered a vast courtyard where tens of samurai patrolled, protecting the estate's center where the Niu family lived. Other samurai tinkered with weapons in the guardrooms, or sat idly. More barracks, larger and more elaborate residences for higher-ranking officers, formed an inner wall. A paved walk led Sano and his escort through them and into a formal garden. Beyond this lay the daimyo's mansion, a large but deceptively simple-looking structure with half-timbered walls and a tile roof, set above the ground on a granite podium. Sano knew that such mansions were rambling complexes of many buildings, connected by long corridors or intersecting roofs, that housed hundreds. Awe, combined with a sense of his own inferiority, weakened Sano's resolve. Was he a fool, daring to confront such a rich and powerful family?

Just outside the house stood an open shed containing several palanquins decorated with elaborate carved lacquerwork. Sano followed the guard beneath the covered porch and into the s.p.a.cious entry way, where he removed his shoes and donned a pair of guest slippers. He placed his swords on a shelf that held a large collection of bows, swords, and spears; etiquette dictated that samurai must always enter a private home unarmed. Then he followed his guide into the house proper.

The guard's quick pace allowed him only a glimpse of a vast empty reception room with a coffered ceiling, murals of green islands in a swirling blue sea, and a large dais at the far end where the daimyo sat during formal ceremonies. A maid was opening windows to air the room; through them, Sano saw the outdoor stage where No dramas were performed in summer. Everything was elegant and luxurious, but not ostentatiously so. The Tokugawa sumptuary laws forbade lavish home decoration, and no daimyo would risk seizure of his property.

A corridor led to another reception room. From it came the murmur of voices. When they entered, the guard knelt and bowed.

"Yoriki Sano Ichiro, from the Office of the North Magistrate," he announced, rising to stand beside the door.

Sano also knelt and bowed. When he raised his head, his eyes went immediately to the woman who knelt upon the dais, dominating the room and everyone in it.

Against the painted backdrop of misty gray mountains, Lady Niu was a striking figure in her aqua kimono printed with colorful landscapes. Her body was broad and straight, like a man's; the white throat that rose from the kimono's deep neckline formed a strong, thick column. From the neck up, she had an arresting cla.s.sical beauty. Her face was an elongated oval with smooth, youthful skin, a slender nose, long, narrow eyes, and a delicate small mouth vivid with scarlet paint. Her black hair, swept back from her forehead into an elaborate chignon fastened with lacquer combs, showed no gray. But her erect posture and confident air suggested maturity. A silk quilt patterned in diamonds of aqua and black covered her lap and spread over the square frame of a charcoal brazier. Against it, her hands lay folded, their smallness and daintiness belying the aura of power she exuded. Lady Niu was a fascinating study in contrasts: a woman whose appearance combined beauty with strength, who radiated femininity but did not let convention shut her away from the world. Sano wanted to know more about her.

Bowing again, he recited the words appropriate to the occasion. "I offer you this humble token of my respect." With both hands, he extended the box of cakes. Funeral custom prohibited him from directly mentioning death during a condolence call. He would have to introduce the subject after the formalities were done.

"Your tribute is much appreciated." Lady Niu's voice was husky but melodious. If she felt any grief over Yukiko's death, she hid it behind her properly calm demeanor. She inclined her head. Then she turned toward the wall on her left. "Eii-chan?"

Now Sano took notice of the others in the room. The figure coming toward him was not a child, as the diminutive chan implied, but a large, hulking man with a lumpy, pock-marked face. His vacant expression at first made Sano think that this was a feebleminded servant kept on for some reason involving obligation or sentiment. However, the rich black silk robes and two elaborate swords identified Eii-chan as a high-ranking retainer in the daimyo's service. And Sano saw an unmistakable flash of intelligence- wary, measuring-in the tiny eyes that met his for an instant. Without speaking, Eii-chan held out a tray to receive Sano's gift and to offer the traditional return token, a decorated box of matches. Then he carried the tray to a table by the door, set the gift there among others, and resumed his place near Lady Niu.

"Lord Niu's daughters," Lady Niu said, nodding toward a standing screen on one side of the room, halfway between her and Sano.

Through its close-woven lattice, Sano discerned two shadowy figures. Otherwise he could see nothing of the women but a fold of red silk kimono lying on the floor beside the screen. As he watched, a hand s.n.a.t.c.hed it out of sight. He noted that Lady Niu had said "Lord Niu's" and not "my" daughters. They must be the children of a concubine, placed in Lady Niu's charge.

"I understand that you have come on official business regarding Yukiko," Lady Niu said.

"Yes." Sano was glad that she'd brought it up first. "Regretfully I must trouble you with a few questions."

Lady Niu lowered her eyes, signifying resigned acceptance. Her expression was serene, like that of a royal beauty in an ancient painting.

Sano had planned his questions carefully. He must avoid giving any sign that he was investigating a murder, and avoid offending the Nius. And he was conscious of the listening daughters behind the screen, no doubt eager for forbidden knowledge. So instead of asking Lady Niu if she believed the deaths were suicide, he said, "Were you surprised by the manner of Miss Yukiko's demise?"