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[Continuing chapter 7]
Hiroki set the book aside. The characters had begun to blur together in his mind and it had been some time, he realized, since he had really understood any of the short poems he had been reading. It wasn’t an expensive book, nor was it comprehensive, but it was written in Japanese and not Chinese characters and so he had bought it, expecting Katsumi to be able to read it.
Poetry was far from the forefront of his mind, he knew, and neither — to his regret — was Katsumi, really. What he really wanted to think about was threats, of whom he had too many; and suspects, of whom he seemed to have no shortage; and evidence, of which there seemed to be too little.
He wanted to tell the arms master that in Hiroki’s opinion his secretary, Kanegawa, was no longer the primary suspect in Lady Tomiko’s murder. If he was a suspect at all. The most likely person to be the killer was the missing wakashū, Togashi Shokan — if only because the man was missing, after having been a regular visitor to the arms master’s mansion for a long period leading up to Lady Tomiko’s murder.
He still had to interview Akamatsu Noritoyo, he knew. While it was doubtful a man who had wanted to marry Lady Tomiko would also murder her, it wasn’t out of the question — especially if there truly was bad blood between the Miyoshi and the Akamatsu. He wondered just how much the arms master knew of the relationship between his sister and the rival clan; if Noritoyo really could be considered a serious suspect, why would the arms master have not drawn this to Hiroki’s attention?
But there was also his mother still to consider. His suspicions concerning her would have to stay between himself and Jiro for now, if only because he could not risk having anyone else know of his connection to the Lady Inaki. But Hiroki knew from bitter experience that his mother held the lives of others to little account, and her presence in the room with Lady Tomiko’s body would have made her a suspect even if Hiroki hadn’t known of her poisonous mind and her unforgivable behaviour toward him and — but he did not want to think about his wife, the mother of his lost son. Even after twenty years the pain of her death was enough to make him feel sick, weak, helpless.
He had just picked up the poetry book again when Shiro and Tetsuo burst into the room, apparently arguing over which of them would be first to speak to him. “Hiroki, we have him!“ Shiro shouted, drowning out whatever Tetsuo had been trying to say.
“Centre yourself, Shiro,” Hiroki said, ordering, with a rough gesture, that the two of them should sit down. “Remember that you are reporting to a superior and behave accordingly. Tetsuo, have those hakama been cleaned?”
“Yes, Hiroki, they have. They are still disgusting, but at least it was possible for Shiro to examine them, even if they are still stained and I’m convinced they still stink.” Shiro, so anxious was he to speak, practically bounced up and down — not something easy to do when seated on the floor.
Hiroki could not make himself force the boy to wait any longer. “Shiro? What is your conclusion?”
“The hakama definitely match the piece of cloth you found, Hiroki. Even better, I could easily see where the fragment had torn away, at the bottom of the left leg. But I have even more important news than this.”
Hiroki raised a hand to stop Shiro, who obeyed with reluctance he did not try to hide. “Tetsuo, what else have you learned?” Hiroki asked.
“It really is Shiro’s news, Hiroki. He’s the one who learned it, so he should tell.”
Hiroki sighed in exaggerated fashion before nodding to Shiro. “Out with it, then, before you burst.”
“Several of the maids saw Togashi Shokan wearing those same hakama on a number of his visits to Lady Tomiko,” Shiro said. “As recently as the day before we arrived in the capital. One of the maids who told me this is Aki, who was Lady Tomiko’s personal maid. And this is the same Togashi who disappeared when Lady Tomiko died, Hiroki. That’s why I say we have him.”
Hiroki felt a release of tension he hadn’t realized was there. If this really was true, if the arms master would accept the testimony of maids, then his responsibility and duty to the lord might well be ended. Surely the lord himself could organize the search for, and arrest of, the fugitive. “You have both done very well,” he said. “I am certain our superiors will agree with my assessment. We should take this news to them immediately.”
“I think they are having evening rice just now,” Tetsuo told him. “Perhaps we should wait until they have finished.”
“Wait? This news is important enough to interrupt a meal for,” Shiro said. “I will do it right now if you want, Hiroki.”
Hiroki was still weighing the risk of interrupting Lord Naitō at his meal with the urgency of the news when his servant Jiro entered the room. “A note for you, sir,” Jiro said, and set a folded piece of rough paper on the matting beside him.
“Who brought this?”
“I asked the gatekeeper, sir, but all he told he was that it was a young girl of low birth. I’m guessing someone paid a beggar-child to deliver it.”
Hiroki opened the note: it was from Katsumi.
I think I know who it was who attacked you. I don’t know why he did, though. Please come see me when you have read this.
Katsumi
“We will wait to tell Lords Naitō and Matsukata our news,” he said, getting to his feet, “until after I have returned. Jiro, get my staff and my katana. Tetsuo, Shiro, I want you to follow me at a discrete distance. Don’t let anyone guess that you are with me.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going for tea.”
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7
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