What was happening to her?
Would she survive, or die?
Even as she feared death, she felt a horrific premonition that something worse was to be her fate.
After leaving Reiko at home, Sano went with Detectives Marume and Fukida to the palace. There, officials stood in clusters about the grounds, their expressions somber.
"I smell trouble," Marume said.
So did Sano. Troops hurried about aimlessly, stopping to talk to one another. Idle servants hovered in the background, as if they wanted to know what was going on but were afraid to ask. The shogun flitted back and forth outside the main entrance, attendants trailing him anxiously. When he saw Sano, he cried, "Ahh! Thank the gods you've come at last!"
"What's happened, Your Excellency?" Sano said.
Out of breath from the unaccustomed exercise, the shogun clutched his chest, doubled over, and panted. His attendants seated him on the steps. He choked out, "My wife has disappeared!"
Sano exchanged surprised glances with his detectives. Lady Nobuko, the shogun's wife, left the castle even more rarely than the shogun did. Her bad health kept her confined to the women's quarters. Sano said, "She can't have gone far. Isn't anybody looking for her?"
The shogun gasped and wheezed. "I'm, ahh, going to faint!"
His attendants pushed his head between his knees. Yanagisawa and Yoritomo strode out of the castle together. When Yoritomo saw Sano, animosity hardened his expression. Yanagisawa looked grave.
"Lady Nobuko didn't disappear from the castle," Yanagisawa explained. "It happened at Chomei Temple in Mukojima district. She went there this morning, to drink from the Spring of Long Life and pray for good health."
Sano experienced a stab of shock tinged with foreboding. "How exactly did it happen?"
"There was a crowd at the shrine," Yanagisawa said. "Lady Nobuko got separated from her attendants. They looked for her, but they couldn't find her. One of her guards just came back to the castle and reported her missing."
Another woman gone missing at a religious site. "Was there any sign of foul play?"
Yanagisawa gave him a look that said he knew Sano feared that Lady Nobuko had been kidnapped. "None that we know of yet. We haven't had time to investigate."
That Lady Nobuko had been kidnapped wasn't Sano's only fear. Maybe she'd been kidnapped by the same man who'd raped Chiyo, Fumiko, and Tengu-in. If so, then his failure to catch the rapist by now had put a fourth woman in peril.
A fourth woman who happened to be the shogun's wife.
"How can this be happening to me?" the shogun lamented. He cared little about his wife-theirs was a marriage of political and economic convenience-but he took every misfortune personally. He raised his head and glared at Sano. "You're my chief detective." In his addled state he'd forgotten that Sano no longer was. "Don't just stand there like an idiot." He flapped his hand. "Rescue my wife!"
And the gods help Sano if the shogun should realize that his investigation had a connection with her disappearance. Once Sano would have expected Yanagisawa to rush to tell the shogun. But Yanagisawa shook his head, silently indicating that he would keep Sano's business a secret.
It was Yoritomo who blurted, "Your Excellency, you shouldn't put Sano-san in charge of rescuing the honorable Lady Nobuko. It's his fault she's missing!"
Yanagisawa said, "Yoritomo! Be quiet!" His face mirrored the dismay that Sano felt.
"What? How can that be?" the shogun said, confused. "No, keep talking, Yoritomo-san. I want to hear."
Sano was forced to listen while Yoritomo spilled the whole story of the three women kidnapped and raped, Sano's futile attempt to have Chiyo and Fumiko identify the two suspects at Edo Jail, and the missing oxcart drivers. He must have been keeping track of the investigation. Yanagisawa's face was set in an expression of disapproval toward his son. The shogun frowned, trying to understand the story. Officials and troops moved closer to hear, like sharks scenting blood in the water.
"Chamberlain Sano let the kidnappers go." Yoritomo addressed the shogun but looked straight at Sano. "It's his fault that they're at large." Yoritomo's dark, luminous eyes glittered with hatred. He looked disturbingly like his father had in the past, when Yanagisawa had spoken against Sano at every opportunity. "Therefore, Chamberlain Sano is to blame for whatever happens to Lady Nobuko."
"That's enough, son," Yanagisawa said grimly. "Leave us."
Yoritomo walked away, but the damage was done. He cast a triumphant glance over his shoulder at Sano.
"Your Excellency, please allow me to explain," Sano began, wondering how in the world to defend himself when he was guilty of everything Yoritomo had said.
The shogun gazed after Yoritomo in openmouthed shock, then turned on Sano. "How could you do this to me? After all I've done for you!" He struck Sano's chest with his soft, weak hand. "Find Lady Nobuko, and bring her home safe and sound, or I'll put you and your family and all your close associates to death!"
Here was the threat that he'd used against Sano many times in the past, the threat that Sano most feared. Sano felt a familiar, terrible sinking sensation.
"I've, ahh, told you that before," the shogun said, "but this time I mean it." He jabbed his finger at Sano. "Fail, and you all die!"
"I'll find her. I promise." Sano thought of Reiko, Masahiro, Akiko, and all the people whose lives depended on him. In the past, he'd always managed to solve his cases and avert the threat. Could he this time?
"If I may put in a word, Your Excellency," Yanagisawa said, "but this isn't Chamberlain Sano's fault. The real culprit is the person who kidnapped Lady Nobuko-if indeed she was kidnapped, which we don't yet know for sure."
Even in the midst of his distress, Sano noted the irony that Yanagisawa was defending him after so many attempts to ruin him. He had to appreciate Yanagisawa's efforts whether he trusted Yanagisawa or not.
"You're right, it's not entirely Chamberlain Sano's fault," the shogun said. "If you had been, ahh, doing your job all these years, there wouldn't be evil criminals around to attack my family." He jabbed his finger at Yanagisawa. "It's your fault, too!"
It was Yanagisawa's turn to look dismayed, and Sano's turn to defend his former enemy. "Your Excellency, with all due respect, Chamberlain Yanagisawa had nothing to do with what happened to your wife."
"I just said he does. That means he did!" The shogun had never been known for rationality, but his word was the law. His tearful glare fixed on Yanagisawa, his old friend and onetime lover. "You let me down. You and Chamberlain Sano must find my wife, or you'll share his punishment!"
He turned and flounced into the castle. His attendants traipsed behind him cautiously, afraid of his temper. The troops and officials departed as fast as ants scurrying into their hills. Sano, his detectives, and Yanagisawa looked at each other in mutual, dumbfounded apprehension.
"Well," Sano said to Yanagisawa, "hadn't we better get started?"
35
Two armies of samurai on horse back descended on Chomei Temple, from which Lady Nobuko had disappeared. Sano led one army, Yanagisawa the other. They and their troops stopped and questioned people, searched the temple grounds and the surrounding Mukojima district. The afternoon passed; night fell. Carrying torches, the armies fanned out in widening spirals around the temple. They went from door to door, questioning the residents, inspecting the houses. Not until dawn did Sano and Yanagisawa return to Edo Castle.
"Where is she?" the shogun demanded as they walked into his chamber. "Have you found her yet?"
"I'm sorry, Your Excellency, but we haven't," Sano said.
Lady Nobuko seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth.
The shogun pouted as he picked at his breakfast of steamed buns, noodles with prawns, and sweet cakes. Sano's stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since last night.
"Then go out and look some more," the shogun said. "Find her before sunrise tomorrow, or I'll have both your heads."
"Yes, Your Excellency," Yanagisawa said.
He looked as weary and discouraged as Sano felt. As they walked down the palace corridor, he said, "If this case is like your others, then we won't have to keep up the search much longer. With luck, the kidnapper will dump Lady Nobuko near the shrine in time for us to meet our deadline."
"That's not good enough, and you know it," Sano said, testy from fatigue. "The shogun wants her back safe and sound, not drugged and violated."