CHAPTER TEN
SUSPECTS
The neighbourhood Shiro took them to the next morning had, in Hiroki’s childhood, been a well-organized block, like all the other similar blocks in the capital, of near-identical houses on narrow but deep lots, each house with its own substantial garden behind it. Those gardens were gone, their space filled by newer, less-well built houses into which entire families seemed to have been crammed despite them being smaller than what Hiroki considered adequate for even a single man to sleep in.
“So many people,” Tetsuo said as they passed a throng of labourers and their women arguing about something. For a moment Hiroki was convinced that one of the women was Aki, Lady Tomiko’s maid, but she was of no consequence right now and so he kept pace with Tetsuo and Shiro.
“In such a small space,” the latter said.
“I think the capital may well have as many people in it now as lived here sixty years ago, before the first fighting,” Hiroki said. “But they’re living in perhaps half the space.”
“Why would anybody live like this?” Tetsuo paused, stepped sideways to avoid a pile of something unmentionable in the middle of the muddy street.
“Maybe they think being crammed in here like seeds in an eggplant is still better than being tied to the land in some hell of a province,” Shiro said.
“Perhaps this would appeal to peasants,” said Tetsuo. “But why would a samurai live here?”
“Despite the fact there is no shōgun resident here, and no chief minister either,” Hiroki told them, “the capital is still a place of power. If you want to influence the country you must have sway in Kyoto. If you want to rule the country, you have to possess the capital.”
“And at the moment nobody rules the country,” Shiro said. “How much longer can this go on, Hiroki?”
“And how soon can we get out of here and back to Kozuke and Lord Tanuma?” Tetsuo asked.
“You mean you aren’t excited by this wondrous city?” Hiroki asked. Shiro laughed, but Tetsuo just scowled. Perhaps, thought Hiroki, he doesn’t appreciate the challenge of trying to reveal what is hidden. At least in this city — he enjoys the work of gathering intelligence enough when it is directly in Lord Tanuma’s service. “Much as I would love to let you return to Kozuke,” he said, “the truth is that I need you here the capital with me. Your skills are simply too useful to do without.” Tetsuo continued to frown, but Hiroki thought he detected a pleased flush for a moment.
Akamatsu Noritoyo was in the garden — what was left of it — behind his rented house. Unlike most of the lots Hiroki had passed this morning, this one had actually held on to some of the open space behind the building; there was a shed of some sort at the very back, abutting onto the temporary house built on the back half of the neighbouring lot, but it was a small shed.
Not that the space in which Akamatsu sat could really be called a garden. It was a patch of scrubby, yellow-brown grass with a few bushes, and that was all. Walking into the space, Hiroki was convinced that much of the grass hid detritus thrown out of the house. The only part of the plot that appeared to have been maintained at all was the well. And it was on a stool adjacent to the stone well that Akamatsu sat.
Akamatsu did not belong in this decrepit space. He was tall, well-made and nearly as well-dressed as Shiro — a point Hiroki could see Shiro absorbing. His hair, freshly dressed, shone in the weak morning sunlight.
He rose to his feet on seeing Hiroki, Shiro and Tetsuo, one hand sliding across his belly to hover in the vicinity of his sword-hilt. Hiroki raised his right hand. “We mean no harm,” he said. “I wanted to talk with you a moment, Akamatsu-sama.” Akamatsu remained on guard.
“About Lady Miyoshi Tomiko,” Hiroki said, watching Akamatsu’s face. The samurai betrayed no emotion — which was itself telling, Hiroki thought. He feels this death is something he must endure.
“What is it about her you wish to talk to me about?” He spoke the words as if they were being chiseled out of him by a dentist.
“We’re not accusing you of anything,” Shiro said. Hiroki tried to keep his response to this from his face.
“We simply wanted to hear from you about the relationship between you and the lady, and to understand what happened to it.”
“There’s nothing much to understand,”Akamatsu said. Removing his hand from the vicinity of his sword-hilt, he sat back down. “We wanted to marry. Her brother refused to give her to me. Her friend — his secretary — tried to persuade him to relent, but he would not. We said good-bye. Clearly our union was not meant to be. She told me she wanted to leave this world, and now she has. It remains only for me to join her. I wish you would leave me alone, whoever you are.”
“We are trying to help find Lady Tomiko’s killer,” Tetsuo said. “Don’t you want to help us in this?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Tetsuo was beginning to sound impatient; Hiroki silenced him with a gesture. I thought I had taught both of you better than this, he thought.
“I understand your distress, sir,” Hiroki told him. “If you cannot think of any way of identifying the person who killed her, then we will leave you alone.”
“Whoever actually killed her, it was her brother’s fault she died,” Akamatsu said, anguish in his voice now. “You may tell him I said that, and that I will say it to the shōgun and his chief minister when next I see them. And to the arms-master’s cousin Lord Miyoshi, who is the true power now.”
“I don’t understand you,” Hiroki said. “As her brother he had the right to control her marriage.”
“I don’t deny that. All I say is that he also has the responsibility to deal with the consequences of his action.” He turned, slowly and deliberately, away from Hiroki. “As for helping you, I have no interest in learning who physically took her life, since her brother had already killed both our lives spiritually. Please leave me.”
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Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
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