The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria (48 page)

Lightning snorted in contempt, rejecting Sano’s suggestion that they were comrades. Sano eyed the gangsters, wondering if they were more worried about saving their own skins than loyal to Lightning. “We should work together,” Sano said to Lightning, but he glanced at the other men and pitched his voice so they would hear. “You help me, and I’ll help you.”

The gangsters resisted eye contact, their expressions inscrutable. Sano couldn’t tell whether they’d caught his meaning that if they helped him capture Lightning, he would spare them punishment for their leader’s crimes.

“No place will be safe for us. We’ll be pursued wherever we go,” Sano said, hoping to impress upon the gangsters that if they stayed with Lightning, their futures were bleak. “All of us will die—unless we’re smart enough to take the opportunity to escape when we can.”

“If you think you can scare me into turning myself in, forget it,” Lightning retorted in annoyance. “I’d rather die in battle than surrender.” The gangsters ignored the hint to desert. Sano’s hopes plunged. Lightning said to his men, “I want a drink. Go get me some sake.”

Three men descended the stairs, and Sano heard them rummaging through the warehouse’s goods. Only one man returned, bearing a sake jar. Lightning didn’t seem to notice; he just took the jar and drank. But Sano was jubilant to think that the other two men had fled and his plan was working.

“Surrender is your best bet,” he told Lightning.

“Are you crazy?” The gangster wiped his mouth on his sleeve and stared at Sano. “The shogun will execute me for stabbing his precious heir.”

Out the corner of his eye, Sano saw two more men amble downstairs. Lightning opened a window, looked outside, and said, “I wish your man would hurry up and bring the money!”

“We may be on the run for months,” Sano said. “How will you be able to stand hiding much longer? Captivity can be worse than death.”

“I’m not giving up.” Lightning hurled away the empty jar; it shattered on the warehouse floor below. Wisteria flinched. “I’ll keep my head on my neck as long as possible, and if the army finds me, I’ll kill as many of them as I can before I die.”

He turned to his four remaining comrades. “Go make sure nobody’s trying to sneak in.”

The men went, leaving Sano, Lightning, and Wisteria alone. Sano waited in suspense. The men didn’t return. Lightning began to pace again. While he was at the other end of the loft with his back turned, Sano caught Wisteria’s eye and signaled her to run down the stairs, before Lightning came near them again or guessed what was happening. But Wisteria frowned at him in bafflement: She didn’t realize the gangsters had gone. Suddenly, from the lower story, came the clatter of horses’ hooves. Dismay struck Sano as he comprehended that the gangsters had waited to escape until they were all downstairs, then fled together, noisily, on their mounts.

Lightning froze. “Hey, what’s going on?” He rushed to the edge of the loft and gawked at the empty warehouse. Sano heard the horses galloping away. “Those cowards have deserted me!”

He turned, and Sano watched spasms of panic ripple his features. “My chances of surviving are almost none because I’m all alone!” he shouted, and stalked over to Wisteria. “This is all your fault!”

Like many bullies, he derived his strength from his confederates, and shifted responsibility for his troubles, Sano observed. Wisteria stood and faced Lightning. “It isn’t my fault,” she said, boldly defiant now that he was weakened. “If you hadn’t killed Lord Mitsuyoshi, we would be safe now.”

The gangster jerked backward with surprise that she dared stand up to him. Heaving as though ready to explode from outrage, he said, “Quit blaming everybody else for problems you cause. If you hadn’t cooked up your crazy scheme, none of this would have happened.”

“If you’d done as I asked, everything would have worked out fine,” Wisteria retorted. “But no—you wouldn’t listen. You had to stab him. And now we’re paying, instead of just them!”

The conversation perplexed Sano. There was obviously more to the murder case than he’d thought. “What are you talking about?” he said.

“Go ahead. Tell him.” Lightning’s gaze raked Wisteria.

She eased away from the gangster and addressed Sano in a small, meek voice: “When I was young, Lightning and I fell in love. Later, I found out he was bad and tried to leave him, but he threatened to kill me if I broke off our affair. When I went to Yoshiwara, he forced me to sneak him into my room in the
ageya
. That night he came and found Lord Mitsuyoshi there. They were enemies because Lightning hated any man I bedded, and Lord Mitsuyoshi had refused to pay Lightning the money he owed. Lightning was so jealous of Mitsuyoshi, he stabbed him to death. Then he kidnapped me so I couldn’t tell anyone what I’d seen.”

This was the scenario that Sano had envisioned; yet the interchange between Wisteria and Lightning, and Lightning’s incredulous expression, contradicted her statement. With an utterance of fury, Lightning grabbed Wisteria by the shoulders and flung her against the wall. “Liar! That’s not how it was!”

He smacked her face. She screamed, her body twisting and arms flying up to protect herself. Sano considered rushing the gangster and seizing his weapons, but Lightning’s reactions were so quick, and his mood so combative, that Sano was likely to end up dead if he tried to disarm Lightning. Instead Sano said, “If she’s lying, then tell me what really happened.”

Teeth gnashing, face livid, Lightning wavered between the impulse to violence and the need to air his side of the story. He said, “She wanted me to help her get out of Yoshiwara and get revenge.”

“Revenge on whom?” Sano was more mystified than ever.

“Fujio. Her
yarite
, Momoko. Treasury Minister Nitta.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Wisteria pleaded, her eyes big with consternation as she hugged the wall. “He’s insane.”

“She stole Momoko’s hairpin,” Lightning said. “Then she waited until she had Lord Mitsuyoshi alone, and Fujio and Nitta were in the
ageya
. That night, after the
kamuro
let me in, Wisteria said the time was right, and we should go through with her plan. I would kill Mitsuyoshi. She would cut her hair and dress in the men’s clothes she’d hidden in the room, then walk out of Yoshiwara with me. Later, Momoko would be blamed for murdering Mitsuyoshi. She had other plans for Fujio and Nitta.”

The murder had been Wisteria’s idea? Astounded, Sano looked at her.

“You were only supposed to wound him,” she berated Lightning in a ragged voice. “He wasn’t supposed to die!”

Her gaze flew to Sano, and her jaw dropped because she’d thoughtlessly admitted her responsibility. Shock robbed Sano of speech. Lightning chuckled in cruel glee. “She knew Fujio and Nitta would be suspected of having something to do with the murder or her disappearance or both,” the gangster said. “Nitta was stupid enough to tell her he’d stolen from the treasury. She told Fujio, so that when he was questioned by the police, he would tell on Nitta, and Nitta would be put to death. Then I would kill a woman and put the body in Fujio’s house.”

“Who was she?” Sano said, as he began to fit the new revelations with what he’d already known about the crime.

“Just a whore from a bathhouse,” Lightning said.

Sano noticed scratches on the gangster’s wrists, where the victim had clawed them. “And Wisteria sent me the anonymous tip so I would find the body?”

Lightning nodded. “Fujio was supposed to be blamed for murdering Wisteria. Everyone was supposed to think she was dead and stop looking for her.”

“You should have put animal blood on my clothes and left them in the house, the way I told you,” Wisteria railed at Lightning. “But you can’t resist a chance to kill.” Flustered and defensive, she turned to Sano. “No one was supposed to get hurt except Momoko, Fujio, and Nitta. They deserved it. Momoko made my life hell when I was a young courtesan. Fujio and Nitta broke their promises to marry me. I had to pay them all back.”

Sano was astonished to learn that Wisteria was such a vengeful schemer. Her beauty and charm had disguised her true nature. He’d correctly guessed that Lightning had killed Lord Mitsuyoshi, while never suspecting that Wisteria was behind the crime. Now he recalled the clues that had hinted at the truth.

“The treasury minister confessed at his trial that you wanted him to marry you but he wouldn’t,” Sano said. “You ruined your mother’s clothes because she sold you to Yoshiwara. Now Momoko, Fujio, and Nitta are dead because they hurt you.” Magistrate Aoki had unwittingly aided Wisteria’s scheme. “And you might have escaped the consequences, except that you chose an accomplice you couldn’t control.” Her selfish depravity horrified Sano.

“Those weren’t the only people she meant to hurt,” Lightning said. “Do you want to know who her last target was?”

“Be quiet!” Wisteria shrilled. "You’ve done enough wrong!”

Lightning jabbed a finger at Sano and grinned. “It was you.”

“Me?” Flabbergasted, Sano stared at Wisteria.

“She wrote in her pillow book that you’d plotted to murder the shogun’s heir so your son could rule Japan someday,” Lightning said. “Then she sent the book to the chamberlain. You should have seen how glad she was when we heard the news that you’d been accused of killing Lord Mitsuyoshi.”

Shock reverberated through Sano. The book he’d deemed a forgery was genuine. Police Commissioner Hoshina was guilty of nothing except using the book to his advantage. Wisteria herself had mixed lies about Sano with authentic details of their affair, then delivered her slander to Hoshina. Enlightenment removed Sano’s last illusions about Wisteria Horrified fascination propelled him a step closer toward the wicked stranger who’d been his lover.

“Why?” he said, his voice hushed and his brow creased with his effort to understand Wisteria.

Her lips trembled in a smile that begged for mercy; she looked small and harmless. But Sano likened her to a woman in a No drama, played by an actor wearing a mask with moveable parts that shift, turning her beautiful face into an ugly one and revealing her as a demon. Wisteria’s mask had shifted.

“It was a mistake. Please let me explain,” she said, breathlessly eager. “Four years ago, you asked me questions about a murder. I was punished because men in high places didn’t want you investigating the case or anyone to help you. I was demoted to
hashi
—the bottom rank of courtesans. My private room and nice kimonos were taken away from me. I had to live in a crowded attic infested with lice, eat leftovers from other people’s plates, and wear cheap clothes. I lost my rich clients. I had to serve the poorest, crudest men—three or four a night. I suffered because of you.”

Sano acknowledged his culpability, yet marveled at the lengths she’d gone to retaliate.

Memory and hatred darkened Wisteria’s eyes. “Then I learned that you’d risen in the world and meant to free me. I thought you would take me to Edo Castle to live with you. But you just sent someone to pay off the brothel and give me money.” Her voice turned jagged with ire. “And later, you visited me and took your pleasure from me, as if it didn’t matter that you’d left me to struggle on my own.”

Now Sano understood why Wisteria had acted cold toward him during those visits. She’d expected more of him, and he’d disappointed her.

“She got in trouble and went back to Yoshiwara.” Lightning paced around Wisteria and Sano, clearly enjoying the drama he’d provoked. “She thought you owed it to her to rescue her again. But you didn’t, and she wanted to make you pay.”

A spark of anger within Sano ignited as he recalled what Yuya had told Reiko.“You squandered the money I gave you,” he reminded Wisteria. “You ran up debts and became a thief. I compensated you for suffering on my account. What you did afterward was your fault, not mine.”

Anger blazed into outrage. Fists clenched, Sano advanced on Wisteria. “You framed me for murder and treason because you couldn’t handle your freedom. You almost destroyed my whole family instead of taking responsibility for your own mistakes!” His offense against Wisteria didn’t justify her attack on him. The last of his sympathy toward her vanished. “To think I risked my life to rescue you!”

“I know now that I did wrong. I’m sorry I hurt you,” Wisteria said in a wheedling tone. She gave him a coy smile that faltered, exposing her terror of his wrath. “Please forgive me.”

Dropping to her knees, she clutched Sano’s hands against her bosom. Her attempt to propitiate him repelled Sano. He yanked his hands out of hers, just as Lightning seized her by the hair.

“You think you can blame me for everything and save your own hide,” Lightning shouted. “Well, you won’t get away with it. This is all your fault, and now you’ll pay!”

He smote her face. He threw her to the floor and kicked her. Wisteria curled up, sobbing.

“Help!” she screamed to Sano. “He’ll kill me!”

Sano was tempted to walk out and leave Wisteria to Lightning. As he thought of how she would have condemned his wife, son, and all his retainers to execution just to punish him for sins she’d magnified out of proportion, her agony gladdened him. Yet his honor deplored his own thirst for vengeance. He couldn’t permit another murder, and Wisteria was still a witness he needed alive. Tokugawa law would mete out justice to her.

Now Lightning drew his sword and raised it high over Wisteria, who shrieked in terror. “Stop!” Sano ordered. He lunged, and seized the gangster’s arm. Lightning wrenched free; he slashed at Sano. As Sano dodged, Wisteria crawled away toward the stairs. Lightning charged at her, sword poised to kill. Sano dashed after Lightning, when suddenly, a shout came from outside the warehouse.

“Lightning!
Sōsakan-sama
!” Hirata’s voice called. “I’ve brought the money.”

Reiko didn’t wait for her palanquin to carry her to her door. As soon as it entered the official quarter, she leapt out of the vehicle, ran up the street, and burst through her gate. Heart thudding, she raced into the courtyard. She experienced cold, nauseating fear that what she sought to prevent had already come to pass. A wail rose in her throat as she dashed into the mansion.