Sano took charge after the debacle. Everyone else was too shocked. Although he himself was still reeling from the day’s events, he ordered the army to disperse the crowd and court physicians to attend to the shogun. He sent servants to clean up the shogun’s chamber and arranged for the dead to be removed. Everyone obeyed Sano for want of any other authority. Officials returned to their duties, troops to their posts. A sad parade moved out the gate-porters carrying three litters bearing the corpses of Kajikawa, Ihara, and Yoritomo. Yanagisawa accompanied his son. Tears streaming down his face, he stumbled like a blind man. Sano walked home with Reiko, Masahiro, Hirata, and Detectives Marume and Fukida, through the strangely deserted, quiet castle.
A pale sun and patches of blue showed through the clouds in the sky. Sheets of ice slid from roofs. Water dripped from trees and eaves and cascaded down the walled passages along which Sano and his companions trudged. The crystalline world was thawing into puddles, slush, and mud.
“That was some show,” Marume said.
“People will be talking about it for a hundred years,” Fukida said.
Sano heard a hollow note beneath their humor. They were as shaken as he was. Reiko asked the question that was on everyone’s mind: “What’s going to happen to me?”
Her face was drawn, frightened. Masahiro held her hand. All present understood the gravity of the situation: She’d drawn a weapon inside Edo Castle, killed a man, and threatened the chamberlain. That would surely have repercussions.
As would Yoritomo’s death.
Marume and Fukida looked at the wet pavement instead of answering Reiko’s question. Hirata brooded in some private, dark study of his own. Sano said, “I doubt you’ll be punished. Nobody will take against you on Kajikawa’s behalf. And I’ll protect you.”
Reiko forced a smile, pretending she was reassured. “At least the mystery of the vendetta is solved. The supreme court can decide the fate of the forty-seven ronin.”