The Snow Empress_ A Thriller Part 16

Perhaps it was too painful for her to believe that her sister had been deliberately killed. Reiko said, "Do you think Lady Matsumae did it?"

A few garbled words came from Wente. Under other circ.u.mstances Reiko would have pressed her for information. Under other circ.u.mstances Reiko would have questioned Wente about her relationship with Tekare, for Reiko knew that a murder victim's kin were potential culprits. But Wente seemed honest, decent, and truly grief-stricken by Tekare's death. And now she was leading Reiko up the hill toward the keep.

Antic.i.p.ation sped Reiko's pace so fast that she stumbled climbing the steps. She half-crawled the rest of the way. Gasping, she looked up at the keep's dingy plaster walls, protruding roofs, and barred windows. Snow pelted her face. Vertigo and hope dizzied her. She reached the ironclad door, which was unguarded. Wente helped her tug it open. Cautiously they stepped inside.

A dim, quiet anteroom enclosed them. The cold air stank of urine and feces. Wooden studs showed through gaps in the plaster on the walls. Reiko saw wooden benches, braziers filled with ash, and mops that stood in pails of water. The water was a dirty reddish brown. Instinctive fear bit deep into Reiko. Holding their gloved hands over their noses, she and Wente stole through a doorway that led farther into the keep. They found a maze of cells with metal bars across their fronts. Soiled hay had been swept into corners. The walls were smeared, streaked, and blotched with blood. Red-stained rags littered the floors. Reiko stared in horrified comprehension.

This was where Lord Matsumae had imprisoned the outsiders who'd arrived in Ezogashima during his madness. Here they'd been tortured and killed. The troops she'd seen here yesterday had been trying to clean the place up, probably in case Sano should see it. But the troops had taken ill, leaving their job unfinished and the truth plain as day to Reiko.

She was standing in a slaughterhouse.

A slaughterhouse to which her son had been brought.

"Masahiro!" she cried, running through the maze, peering in the cells. All were empty but for signs of carnage.

"Here!" Wente pulled her up a staircase that led to a square hole in the ceiling.

They emerged into the keep's second story. Light came from gaps around the shutters and c.h.i.n.ks in the plaster. Reiko rushed through unfurnished rooms part.i.tioned by sliding walls. In the last one she found a strange object, a big, square box with a wooden top and bottom, and sides made of crisscrossed iron bars. It was a cage for a large animal-or a small human. But no one was inside. Reiko let out a cry. She saw an image of Masahiro huddled in the cage, his eyes filling with joy as he recognized his mother who'd come to save him. She flung herself at the cage.

The image vanished. The cage was empty again except for hay, the door open. Nearby lay a quilt stained with blood.

"No!" Reiko wailed.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the quilt and pressed her face to it, inhaling the sweet, earthy, little-boy smell of Masahiro and the ranker odor of his blood. She wept, a.s.sailed by a terrible vision of troops beating him to death.

Wente knelt beside her, patted her back, and murmured words of sympathy in Ezo language. She reached inside the cage, removed something from the hay, and put it in Reiko's hand. It was a leather drawstring pouch that contained a figurine carved from wood, a brightly painted horse clad in battlefield armor. The horse belonged to a set of toy soldiers that Reiko and Sano had given Masahiro. Reiko held it to her heart and sobbed harder. This was all she had left of her son.

He was gone.

She was too late.

Sano had spent all day searching the rest of the palace and questioning the Matsumae clan members, officials, troops, and servants. He'd found no clues, but then he hadn't really expected to; the crime wasn't the kind that would leave evidence such as wounds on the culprit or blood-stained clothes in his possession. A vial of arrow poison was easily disposable, and n.o.body had left a written confession.

Except Lord Matsumae.

Sano's interviews had also turned up nothing. The witnesses were nervous and reluctant to talk. Gizaemon had listened in on all the conversations, even though Sano had repeatedly asked him to stand out of earshot. Maybe the witnesses didn't want to say anything that would incriminate him, Lord Matsumae, themselves, or their friends. Sano and Detective f.u.kida returned to their quarters at dusk empty-handed.

Except for Lord Matsumae's diary.

The blizzard had stopped, and the sky was dark, but the snow gave the landscape a spectral luminescence. A lantern over the door spilled a golden glow over high white drifts piled up against the guest quarters. Gizaemon left Sano and f.u.kida with the lone guard stationed in the entry way. The northern plague must have sent the others to bed.

"See you at the funeral tomorrow, Honorable Chamberlain," Gizaemon said.

After he and f.u.kida had removed their shoes, Sano went to the chamber he shared with Reiko. Her blanket-covered figure lay in bed in the darkness. He decided to let her sleep. She needed rest, and he didn't have any good news for her. He joined his men in their room; Hirata, Marume, and the Rat had returned. They'd spread their coats upon drying frames over the charcoal braziers. Sano added his to theirs. The room was steamy and redolent of wet fur. Marume poured hot tea and laid out a dinner of cold rice b.a.l.l.s, dried salmon, and soup with seaweed and boiled lotus roots. As he and the other men tore into the food, Sano forced himself to eat. Fear for Masahiro chased through his anxiety about the investigation. He felt the snow weighing upon the roof, suffocating him.

f.u.kida explained about the plague. "Now would be the time to cut and run, while the troops are sick and there aren't so many around. But we don't exactly have anyplace to go. Too bad, because we aren't making much progress on this investigation." He asked Hirata and Marume, "What about you?"

"We went hunting with the Ainu," Hirata said.

"The what?"

"Ainu. That's what the natives call themselves." Hirata added, "They saved our lives. We owe them at least the courtesy of using their proper name."

He sounded defensive on their behalf, Sano observed. His interest in the Ezo-or Ainu-seemed to have been strengthened by the hunt. "Did you get anything?"

"One deer," Hirata said.

"I meant information pertaining to the murder," Sano said.

"Oh. Well." Hirata told how Chieftain Awetok had explained his way of disciplining his people and his ritual for driving out the evil spirits that made them behave badly. "He said he didn't kill Tekare. I think he's telling the truth."

"What about her husband?" Sano asked.

"The same with him."

But Hirata looked into his tea instead of at Sano. Now Sano knew something more had happened on the hunt besides a talk about native customs and shooting a deer. Something that incriminated one or the other native, that Hirata didn't want to tell Sano. Hirata's loyalties had become divided.

"Well, I've found a clue," Sano said, "although it's not exactly what I wanted."

He produced the diary. Hirata read it first, then the detectives. They all reacted with surprise.

"This is the most incriminating evidence we've got against anyone," said Hirata.

"Especially that last part about the spring-bow," Marume said. "It sure sounds like Lord Matsumae is our killer."

"It may be proof of intention, but not of deed," Sano said. "The diary doesn't say whether he actually carried out his plan to murder Tekare."

"Do you really think he did?" f.u.kida sounded doubtful. "Then pretended to think someone else had killed her? Held the whole island hostage? And agreed that you should investigate the crime that he committed himself? It sounds insane."

"Which Lord Matsumae is," Hirata said.

A new idea occurred to Sano. "Sometimes a disturbed mind hides painful things from itself. And Lord Matsumae's mind seems to have been disturbed long before Tekare died." Sano opened the book and read aloud the pa.s.sage about the wine and the pipe filled with native herbs. "I wonder what those herbs were? And what was in that wine?"

"Poisons that made him forget he killed Tekare and made him think he's possessed by her spirit," Marume suggested.

Sano wondered if enslaving and ruining Lord Matsumae had been another form of Tekare's revenge against the j.a.panese who'd mistreated her. "Maybe they also drove him to all the other violent acts he's committed since her death."

"Supposing he did kill her," f.u.kida said, "why would he have let you search the palace and find his diary?"

"Maybe a part of him wants to be caught and punished," Hirata said, "and leaving his diary for you to find is his way of confessing."

"I wonder what the spirit of Tekare would do to him if she found out that he killed her," f.u.kida said.

"What do we do next?" Marume asked.

Sano had been pondering that question ever since he'd found the diary. He'd delivered many criminals to justice, but never one who'd been holding him prisoner. "Lord Matsumae won't take kindly to my telling him that he's the killer I've been commissioned to catch. Particularly if he doesn't remember killing Tekare and believes he's innocent."

"We could arrest him," Marume said.

n.o.body laughed at his joke. The time might come when they must try to take Lord Matsumae by force. The samurai code of honor didn't excuse them from suicide missions.

"I'm not willing to move against Lord Matsumae based on this alone," Sano said, holding up the diary. "Not when there are still other suspects." And not while he needed to stay alive to rescue his son.

"Where should we look for evidence against them?" Hirata asked.

"The funeral is a good place to start. Some if not all of the suspects should be there. Let's watch how they behave."

A tapping noise caught Sano's attention. Puzzled, he got up, walked to the wall, and lifted the mat. Underneath was a window. He opened the panel of paper panes and the shutters.

Reiko stood on the veranda. "Let me in!" she said in a loud, urgent whisper.

Sano hauled her through the window and closed it. "I thought you were in bed. Where have you been?"

She was trembling violently, her eyes red-rimmed, face crusted with mucus, lips white. Sano brushed the snow off her, hung her coat and gloves over a drying frame, and helped her remove her boots. He seated her and himself by a brazier. Hirata offered her hot tea, but she pushed it away.

"I went to the keep." Her voice quavered. "Wente took me. This time we got inside. But Masahiro wasn't there. All we found was an empty cage and a blanket with blood on it. And this." She gave Sano a leather pouch she'd been clutching in her hand.

Sano opened the pouch and saw the toy horse painted to resemble the real horse that Masahiro had been learning to ride. His worst fears solidified into reality. Hope withered like burnt-out ashes.

"Masahiro is dead!" Reiko began to cry with violent, wracking howls. "He probably has been since before we came here. We were too late from the beginning!"

Sano held her. Her sobs shook them both. He wanted to break down and weep with Reiko. All along he'd seen the signs that their son was dead and tried to ignore them. He couldn't now.

"Maybe Masahiro escaped," Hirata said.

"Yes, why not?" Marume said. "He takes after his mother. She's pretty good at getting out of tight spots."

Their efforts to cheer up Sano and Reiko failed. Sano had tried not to wonder why Lord Matsumae and Gizaemon wouldn't just give him back his son; what harm could it do them? The reason was that they knew Masahiro was dead because they'd killed him. They didn't want to admit it to Sano for fear of eventual consequences. But at this moment Sano was devastated beyond craving retribution. All sense of meaning and purpose drained from his existence. His son was dead. Nothing mattered anymore.

"Let me die," Reiko moaned in Sano's embrace. "Let my death reunite me with Masahiro. Masahiro! My baby, my firstborn, my dearest child!" Her frantic cries resonated through the hollowness inside Sano. "Just let me see him again!"

As the other men watched with stern pity, Sano ceased to care about the investigation, about whether he ever found out who'd killed Tekare. He no longer cared whether Lord Matsumae set him and his comrades free or put them to death. If he and Reiko died on Ezogashima, at least their earthly remains would be near their son's.

Through all the past dark times, Sano had always believed a brighter day lay ahead of him, that he would not only survive but triumph.

Not this time.

Life as he knew and cherished it had ended tonight.

20.

The morning of Tekare's funeral was clear and bright. Reiko stood lost among the mourners and guests convened outside the palace's main reception hall. It seemed impossible to her that the sun was shining, the sky brilliant turquoise, the snowdrifts pure, fresh, and beautiful. The light hurt her eyes, which were swollen from weeping. How incredible that the world should go on, indifferent to her sorrow; that she was still alive when her heart had been torn out of her; that she should attend a funeral for a stranger while she grieved for her son.

She hadn't wanted to come, but Sano had said, "Lord Matsumae's ordered everyone in the castle to go. You must."

He'd acted calm and strong, although his eyes had an expression that she'd seen in them once before, while he convalesced after he'd been beaten almost to death by an a.s.sa.s.sin. Then he'd looked as if his body had been tortured to the very limit of survival. This time he looked as if his spirit had. They'd spent the night clinging to each other in bed, but although they'd conceived Masahiro together and should have taken comfort from sharing their loss, Reiko had felt utterly alone in hers. She now felt as distanced from Sano as if he were on the moon, even though he stood beside her.

The funeral party entered the hall, led by Lord Matsumae, his uncle Gizaemon, and their officials, clad in formal black ceremonial robes decorated with gold crests. The native men and concubines followed, wearing their usual animal-skin clothing and bead jewelry. Reiko saw Wente, but Wente was watching the native men. A small, thin, male commoner strode in after them, bundled in a luxurious fur coat. Reiko heard Hirata say to Sano, "That's Daigoro, the gold merchant."

Lady Matsumae and her three attendants, all in lavish silk robes, minced up the stairs. Reiko was surprised that her mind continued functioning despite her grief. She noted that Lilac was absent. She remembered that Lilac had promised her information about Masahiro, about the murder, today.

Troops resplendent in full armor ushered Sano, Reiko, Hirata, the detectives, and the Rat last through the door. Inside the hall, a fire burned in a native-style hearth. The corpse lay north of the hearth, on a woven mat, amid bra.s.s bowls from which rose yellow, acrid smoke.

"It's the native custom to burn sulfur, to mask the odor of decay," the Rat whispered.

Reiko smelled its vicious stench despite the sulfur. The natives hugged one another, hands positioned on shoulders or under armpits, in a gesture of mutual condolence. Lord Matsumae and his men knelt along the north wall. His face was hollow-eyed and drawn with misery, theirs stoic. The strong, handsome native that Reiko remembered from the beach squeezed in beside Lord Matsumae, who was nearest the corpse.

"You don't belong here," Lord Matsumae said, offended. "Sit somewhere else."

The native blurted out angry speech. The Rat whispered, "Urahenka says that as Tekare's husband, he's the most important mourner, and he, not Lord Matsumae, should sit in the place of honor."

The troops stood over Urahenka. He slunk off to join the other native men along the east wall. Wente's solemn gaze clung to him. Sano and his comrades took places along the south wall, the women along the west. Kneeling in the gap that separated the j.a.panese ladies from the native concubines, Reiko got her first good look at the corpse.

Tekare wore leggings, fur mittens, and an ocher-colored robe with black-and-white designs on the collar band and sleeve hems. These covered her shrunken body, but her face showed in all its gruesome mortality. The blue tattoo around her mouth melded with the discolored adjacent skin that had sunken at the eye sockets. Outlines of her teeth showed through it. Silver earrings hung with black, turquoise, and red beads pierced lobes that looked like dried gristle. Disgust nauseated Reiko. She thought of Lilac, who'd somehow avoided the funeral, and a spark of new emotion kindled within her grief.

It was anger toward Lilac. Reiko was certain that Lilac knew Masahiro was dead. She'd strung Reiko along, teasing her with false hopes, w.a.n.gling for a new life in Edo. Such despicable cruelty!

Servants brought trays containing a feast-dried salmon, deer stew with vegetables, fish roe, chestnuts, cakes made from millet, and water vessels. They placed one tray beside the head of the corpse, offerings to the G.o.ds. The other trays were laid before the a.s.sembly. The natives and the local j.a.panese began to eat, slowly and ceremonially, with their fingers. "You have to eat," the Rat hissed at the j.a.panese from Edo. "You'll be cursed if you don't."

Reiko nibbled at a millet cake, forced herself to swallow a few crumbs, and washed them down with water. Sano, Hirata, and the detectives did the same. Lord Matsumae sobbed.

"Tekare!" he wailed, then said in an eerie female voice, "I'm here with you, my lord. Be strong."

Weeping broke out among the natives, a low, collective wail. "It's the custom to weep at funerals, no matter how you felt about the person who died," the Rat explained.

The natives chanted, "O-yoyopota! O-yoyopota!" "O-yoyopota! O-yoyopota!"

The Rat said, "That means, "Oh, how dreadful." Everybody should join in."

Everybody did, except Lady Matsumae, who wore a faint smile. Under the cover of the noise, Reiko said to Lady Smart, who sat beside her, "Where is Lilac?"

"She must have sneaked out of the castle. The bad girl!"

Lord Matsumae rose, walked to Tekare, and knelt by her head. So did Urahenka. "Go away," Lord Matsumae said, shooing the man away as though he were a dog.

Sulky and defiant, Urahenka held his position. A servant brought a cup of water, which he and Lord Matsumae both grabbed for. It spilled. Another servant hurried over with two cups. They drank the ritual toast, glaring at each other, then retreated to their places.

"Where did she go?" Reiko asked Lady Smart.

The woman shook her head, but Lady Pansy spoke across her: "To the hot spring."

The chanting continued. The chieftain began to speak, apparently prayers to the G.o.ds. The natives moved forward one by one to bow and weep over the corpse. Sulfur smoke and fury choked Reiko. That Lilac had sneaked off to cavort in the hot spring while she suffered! After scheming to exploit her!