The monk’s breathing quickened; the memory of terror glazed his eyes. “We fled into the woods, but they were everywhere. Yasue was so confused from the mind poison that she ran away from me. Someone shouted, ‘There she is!’ I saw three priests grab her and drag her away. The other priests followed. I realized that they didn’t know there were two of us. I wanted to rush over and rescue Yasue, but there were too many priests. I might have escaped, but I couldn’t leave without her. So I sneaked back to the monks’ dormitory, hoping we could get away another night.
“The next morning, I expected the priests to punish Yasue in front of everyone, the way they did other people who tried to run away, but Yasue wasn’t there. When I asked where she was, the priests said she’d been transferred to a different group. But I know better.”
Pious Truth pressed his fist to his mouth to stifle the sobs that choked him. “They killed her!”
Aghast, Reiko said, “How do you know?”
“The next morning, there was the fire in the cottage, and the fire brigade found a woman’s body there,” the monk babbled through a spate of tears. “Yesterday I overheard the priests telling the detectives that no one was missing from the temple. Today Dr. Miwa told you that no one knows who the woman was. Well, they’re lying. My sister is missing. I’ve asked around, and I’ve looked all over for her, but she’s not with any of the other groups of novices. No one has seen her.”
Reiko felt a thrill of excitement, mixed with pity for the young man before her.
“What about the child who died in the fire?” she asked.
“I don’t know who it was.”
“Could it have been one of the temple orphans?”
If Dr. Miwa and Abbess Junketsu-in had lied about knowing the woman, they could have lied about the child, too.
“They’re not all orphans,” Pious Truth said. “Many of them are children of sect members-conceived and born at the temple.”
Reiko was shocked. “The Black Lotus permits relations between the nuns and priests?” Buddhist orders usually required the clergy to observe vows of celibacy.
“The sect breeds children as future followers. At the orphanage, they’re starved and beaten as part of their indoctrination. It’s a test of physical and spiritual strength. The strongest ones will become the Black Lotus’s leaders someday; the weaker will be their slaves. And the ones who don’t survive…”
The monk’s voice trailed off in a thin stream of despair. “I’ve heard of children vanishing from the nursery. Supposedly, they were adopted by kind families, but I don’t believe it. The child in the cottage probably died during the indoctrination, and the priests used the fire to get rid of the body.”
Fresh shock warred with skepticism inside Reiko. The notion of people bred like animals defied credibility, as did such cruelty to children. Yet even as Reiko wondered if Pious Truth was inventing tales to enlist her aid, his statements supported her theory that Haru was a victim rather than a criminal. Haru was covered with bruises. She’d claimed to be happy at the temple, but her recollection of torture could have vanished along with her memory of the night before the fire. Perhaps she, like Pious Truth’s sister, had tried to run away and failed, then somehow escaped death in the fire meant to destroy her and other evidence of the sect’s crimes.
“I’m just guessing about the child,” Pious Truth said, “but I’m sure about Yasue. The Black Lotus priests killed her.”
“To keep her from running away and telling outsiders how the novices are treated, or about the underground tunnels?” Reiko wondered if Haru had also posed this threat to the sect.
“No, not just for that.” Pious Truth’s words emerged between deepening gasps and sobs: “I overheard the priests talking. The Black Lotus is working on a secret project. Yasue must have seen something. They had to silence her.”
Slavery, imprisonment, torture-and now, diabolical plots. Reiko shook her head as her mind reeled from the torrent of allegations. “What is this project?”
“Last night, I went there. I saw. I heard. I know everything.” Hysteria reduced Pious Truth to incoherence; his eyes were black pools of fear. “If they find out, they’ll kill me, too!”
“I can’t help you unless you tell me what-”
Weeping, Pious Truth grabbed Reiko by the shoulders. “The whole country is in terrible danger. You must warn everyone. Convince your husband to save us!”
The pain of his hands on her, the violence of his plea, alarmed Reiko. Afraid for her safety, she ordered, “Let go!”
She pulled away and backed toward the gate, but Pious Truth hurried after her. Falling to his knees, he grabbed the skirt of her kimono, clutching her legs, oblivious to her dismay at his effrontery. “Please don’t leave! Help me!”
Then Reiko heard hurrying footsteps outside the shrine. A shadow darkened the precinct. Turning, Reiko saw two priests standing under the torii gate, blocking the sunlight from the street. One was old, with a long gentle face; the younger was thickly muscled, his rough-hewn features blank. At the sight of them, Pious Truth inhaled a deep hiss of breath. He let go of Reiko and stumbled backward against the shrine building. Terror sharpened the bone structure of his gaunt face. His voice rose in a thin wail.
“Go away. Leave me alone!”
While the muscular priest advanced on him, the gentle-faced one addressed Reiko in a voice that exuded concern: “Did he hurt you, Honorable Lady?”
Daunted by the pair’s sudden arrival and Pious Truth’s reaction, Reiko faltered, “No. I’m fine.”
“On behalf of the Black Lotus Temple, I apologize for any trouble caused you by Brother Pious Truth,” the priest said with a kind smile. “He suffers from madness. He sneaked out of our hospital when his nurses weren’t looking.”
The heavyset priest grabbed Pious Truth, who struggled, crying, “Let me go! Help! They’re going to kill me!”
Reiko didn’t know what to think. Pious Truth seemed genuinely terrified, but the old priest sounded so reasonable. “He says he’s in danger. He asked me to rescue him.”
The priest shook his head sadly. “Delusions. Symptoms of his spiritual malady. It is he who is dangerous. We must restrain him to prevent him from hurting himself or others. “ As his comrade wrestled Pious Truth to the ground, the old priest removed thin cords from beneath his robe. He bound Pious Truth’s wrists and ankles while his comrade held the shrieking, thrashing monk. “He has a habit of assaulting women. You’re fortunate that we came along in time.”
“Don’t believe him!” Pious Truth shouted at Reiko. “Don’t let them take me! The Black Lotus is evil. The mountains will erupt. Flames will consume the city. The waters will flow with death, and the air will breathe poison. The sky will burn and the earth explode. You must prevent the conflagration!”
The priest gagged him. He retched and moaned, straining against his bonds, but his captors lifted him and carried him out the gate.
“Wait!” Reiko ran after them. Pious Truth’s words sounded like the ranting of a madman, but she distrusted the priests as associates of Abbess Junketsu-in and Dr. Miwa, potential murder suspects who had thwarted her investigation. She needed Pious Truth because his story would help her defense of Haru. “I want to see for myself that he’ll be all right.”
In the street, the priests bundled the novice into a black palanquin and shut the door. “We’ll take Brother Pious Truth back to our hospital, where he’ll get the care he needs,” the old priest told Reiko. “For your own safety, do not attempt further contact with him.”
The priests lifted the handles of the palanquin and trotted down the crowded street toward the Black Lotus Temple. Reiko helplessly watched them go. As she walked back to join her entourage, she wondered whether her inquiries would ultimately benefit or hurt Haru. Of all the conflicting statements she’d heard today, which should she believe?