“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Reiko said, then began whispering her plan.

11

His Excellency has given orders that no one should disturb him,” said the guard stationed outside the door of the shogun’s private quarters.

Sano, Chamberlain Yanagisawa, and Police Commissioner Hoshina had come to report the progress of their investigation to the shogun. Sano exchanged glances of surprise with the other men: They’d all thought the shogun would be anxious for news, and hadn’t expected to be denied entry.

“What’s going on in there?” Chamberlain Yanagisawa’s face darkened with offense that their lord, to whom he usually enjoyed free access, had shut him out.

“His Excellency is having a private consultation,” the guard said.

“With whom?” Yanagisawa demanded.

Just then, the shogun’s reedy voice called, “Come in.”

The guard opened the door, and Yanagisawa strode through ahead of Hoshina and Sano. Inside the chamber, an ornate metal lantern that hung from the coffered ceiling shone down upon a low platform. On this sat Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, wearing his cylindrical black cap and a jade-green satin dressing gown, supported by heaped silk cushions. Near him, below the platform, knelt a Buddhist priest clad in a saffron robe.

Yanagisawa halted in his tracks. Sano and Hoshina paused on either side of Yanagisawa. They all regarded the priest with consternation, while his gaze challenged them. This was Priest Ryuko, spiritual advisor and lover to Lady Keisho-in. In his forties, he had a high, shaved scalp and the long nose, hooded eyes, and sensuous lips of a Buddha statue. A gold brocade stole cloaked his broad shoulders and glittered in the lantern light. To find him in intimate company with the shogun gave Sano a presentiment of trouble.

“Ahh, greetings,” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi said, his face bright with eager anticipation. He beckoned Yanagisawa, Sano, and Hoshina.

Recovering his composure, Yanagisawa moved to kneel in his usual place, the position of honor at the shogun’s right. Sano and Hoshina knelt a short distance from the platform, opposite their lord. They all bowed to him.

“Have you found the honorable Lady Keisho-in?” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi asked, looking around as if he expected to see her.

An uneasy moment of silence passed; then Yanagisawa said, “I regret to say that we have not.”

Disappointment dimmed the shogun’s expression. Yanagisawa turned to Priest Ryuko. “How pleasant to see you. What brings you here?”

His tone made Sano envision a steel razor swathed in silk. That Yanagisawa detested the priest was no secret. Ryuko possessed an ambition for power that equaled the chamberlain’s. His longtime association with Lady Keisho-in had elevated him to the status of highest-ranking priest in Japan and indirect advisor to the shogun. His influence over Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and thousands of clerics in temples all over the country, threatened Yanagisawa’s domination.

“I came to give spiritual solace to His Excellency in his time of trouble,” Priest Ryuko said in a suave voice that didn’t conceal his hatred for the chamberlain, who waged a covert, ongoing campaign to expel him from the court.

“I see.”

Yanagisawa’s expression conveyed a skepticism that Sano shared. Priest Ryuko had obviously seized on the kidnapping as a chance to ingratiate himself with his lord, for reasons clear to everyone present except Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The priest knew his position in court depended on Lady Keisho-in, and should she die, he would lose his powers-unless he secured the shogun’s protection. Antipathy edged Sano’s own distrust of Ryuko. The man cared more about his selfish interests than about the welfare of Keisho-in, Reiko, or the other women.

“Why haven’t you, ahh, rescued my mother?” the shogun demanded, oblivious to undercurrents in the atmosphere.

“Please allow me to remind Your Excellency that less than a day has passed since we learned of Lady Keisho-in’s kidnapping,” Hoshina said with cautious deference. “The investigation requires time.”

“You’ve had plenty of time. Have you done anything besides, ahh, waste it?” Inflated with dangerous petulance, the shogun leaned forward, glaring at Hoshina, Yanagisawa, and Sano. Just as Sano had feared, their lord expected instant results. “What, ahh, progress have you made toward bringing my mother home to me?”

A hint of amusement curved Ryuko’s full lips as he observed the interchange. Hoshina scowled at the priest. Chamberlain Yanagisawa said, “A number of promising leads were pursued today. The sōsakan-sama will describe what he has discovered.”

Trust Yanagisawa to make him speak first and throw him into the fire of the shogun’s wrath, as if heaving water on a burning house, Sano thought. “I interrogated two Black Lotus criminals this morning,” he said. “They told me about a priest named Profound Wisdom, who’s high among the sect’s leaders. They say the Black Lotus has been planning a major attack on the Tokugawa regime. It could be the kidnapping, and arranged by Profound Wisdom. He’s deserted his secret temple, but my men and I searched the city and arrested forty-eight Black Lotus members today. I’ll question them at Edo Jail. Someone among them should be able to tell me where the priest is.”

The shogun nodded, pacified. Chamberlain Yanagisawa maintained a neutral composure, and Hoshina relaxed. Then Priest Ryuko said,

“Have you any real cause to believe that the Black Lotus kidnapped the women?”

“Black Lotus clergy and followers are mad enough and brazen enough to have committed the crimes,” Sano said.

The priest gave him a sardonic smile. “But you’ve no proof that the sect is involved in the crimes.”

“Years of detective experience tell me that it is.” Now Sano guessed what Ryuko was up to, and he grew angry at the priest’s scheming.

“It appears that the sōsakan-sama has spent the day chasing people in the absence of evidence against them,” Ryuko said, his voice inflected by an odd mixture of gloom and glee. “I begin to think he would rather persecute old enemies than find the real culprits.”

“That’s not true,” Sano said, incensed at the unjust accusation.

The shogun ignored his denial and beheld him with shock and outrage. “How could you betray my trust?” he demanded. “After everything I’ve, ahh, given you?”

Before Sano could defend himself, Ryuko spoke: “The sōsakan-sama’s behavior is deplorable, but a more serious issue troubles me. Your Excellency, I fear that all the inquiries are headed in the wrong direction.”

His critical gaze moved to Yanagisawa and Hoshina. Sano watched them try to hide their alarm: They, too, understood Ryuko’s motives. The priest wanted Lady Keisho-in back because she was the source of his power, and he wanted everyone to do a better job of rescuing her. But in case she didn’t come back, Ryuko must protect himself from people he feared would strike him down. Thus, he meant to undermine Sano, Yanagisawa, and Hoshina in the eyes of the shogun.

In his years as sōsakan-sama, Sano had often been the target of detractors during assemblies like this; but never had he shared the dubious honor with Yanagisawa and Hoshina.

“Perhaps it is you, not our inquiries, that are headed the wrong way,” Yanagisawa said. He flicked a venomous glance at Ryuko but forbore to openly attack the priest.

“We have other avenues of inquiry besides the Black Lotus,” Hoshina said. His belligerent expression dared Ryuko to fault him. “I’ve seen Suiren, the maid who survived the massacre. That fool of a doctor prevented her from talking to me, so I’ve been questioning the palace women about her. If she was an accomplice in the kidnapping, I’ll soon find the culprits among her associates.”

“If she was an accomplice,” Ryuko said with disdain. “You seem to have no more proof that Suiren is guilty than the sōsakan-sama has evidence that the Black Lotus is.”