The Cloud Pavilion si-14 Read online

  The sentries rushed to open the gate. Sano found himself in a courtyard lit by fires in stone lanterns outside the mansion, a low, half-timbered building raised on a stone foundation. Rain trickled off the overhanging eaves. Major Kumazawa rushed out the door, trailed by a gray-haired woman. They halted on the veranda. Deja vu assailed Sano. Images surfaced from the depths of his mind.

  He had a vision of this same courtyard, of Major Kumazawa and this woman who must be his wife. But they were younger, their hair black, their faces unlined. Sano heard a woman pleading and weeping, somewhere out of sight. Dizziness and chills washed through him. For a moment he couldn't breathe.

  His vision was a memory. He had come here before. But when? And why?

  The images, sounds, and sensations vanished as Major Kumazawa and his wife hurried to the palanquin. Major Kumazawa opened the door. Inside, Chiyo lay motionless, covered by a quilt that Sano had bought in a shop. Her eyes were closed, her head wrapped in a white cotton cloth stained with blood.

  Major Kumazawa's wife cried out in dismay. The major demanded, "What happened to her?"

  He didn't thank Sano for bringing Chiyo home. Detectives Marume and Fukida frowned at this affront to their master, but Sano recalled how he'd felt when re united with his own kidnapped child. Courtesy had been the last thing on his mind.

  "There's a cut on her head," Sano said. That, as he'd discovered, was the source of the blood on her clothes. "She hasn't any other injuries, as far as I could see. But you should send for a doctor."

  Major Kumazawa barked orders to the servants who appeared on the veranda, then asked Sano, "Where did you find her?"

  "On a street in Asakusa district," Sano said.

  "I'll bring her in the house." As Major Kumazawa lifted his daughter, she awakened. She began to struggle.

  "No!" she cried. "Don't touch me! Go away!"

  "It's all right, little one," Major Kumazawa said, his voice as gentle as if he were talking to a child. "It's Papa. You're home safe now."

  Her struggles ceased; she quieted. "Papa," she whispered.

  As he carried her toward the house, his wife bustled along with them, stroking Chiyo's pale, muddy cheek, murmuring endearments. Major Kumazawa looked over his shoulder at Sano.

  "I'm indebted to you," he said gruffly. "If you and your men would like to come in, please do."

  "Right this way, Honorable Chamberlain," said a servant.

  Sano could tell that his uncle didn't want him here, but he was curious to see the house. Perhaps it would trigger more memories. Furthermore, Sano had a stubborn streak.

  "Come on," he told his detectives, and followed the servant inside the mansion.

  They left their shoes and swords in the entryway. They were led down a corridor with polished cedar floors, past rooms concealed behind lattice and paper partitions. They arrived in a reception room with a dais backed by a landscape mural and an alcove that held a vase of chrysanthemums. The house seemed familiar to Sano, but only because it had the same architecture and decor as other samurai homes including his own. His own was much bigger than this, but he looked at his uncle's home through the eyes of the child he'd once been.

  His family had lived in a tiny house behind the martial arts school that his father had operated. Compared to that, Major Kumazawa's estate was a palace. Sano thought of how his mother must have felt, banished to what had surely seemed like squalor to her. He recalled days when food had been scarce, winters when their house had been freezing because they couldn't afford enough coal. He knew his mother had suffered more than he had.

  Major Kumazawa must have known about her poverty. He could have helped but hadn't.

  Sano thought of the memory he'd experienced outside. He tried to dredge it up into the light where he could examine it, but it slipped away, elusive as a ghost.

  After a long interval, Major Kumazawa entered the room. "Chiyo is being cared for by her mother and her maids." He gestured to Sano and the detectives and said, "Please sit."

  Sano knelt in the position of honor by the alcove, the detectives near him. Major Kumazawa seated himself on the dais. He didn't offer refreshments, not that Sano would have accepted. Major Kumazawa was clearly ill at ease: He didn't like entertaining a stranger who was his blood kin and an outcast. Sano himself didn't exactly feel at home.

  "I looked all over Asakusa district and didn't find Chiyo," Major Kumazawa said. "How did you find her?"

  "I spotted her wandering in the rainstorm," Sano said.

  "What a stroke of good luck." Then Major Kumazawa seemed to realize how ungracious he sounded. "But you brought my daughter back to me. I apologize for my bad manners." For once he seemed honestly contrite about how he'd behaved toward Sano. "A thousand thanks."

  Sano bowed, accepting the thanks and the apology. He began to realize that Major Kumazawa's treatment of him wasn't entirely personal. Old samurai often became curmudgeons. If that was true of his uncle, Sano could live with it.

  "How did Chiyo get there?" Major Kumazawa asked.

  "It would seem that someone kidnapped her, then dumped her in the street," Sano said.

  "Who?" Major Kumazawa clenched his fists; his expression tightened with anger.

  "Your guess is as good as mine," Sano said. "While I was tending to your daughter, I sent my men to look around the area. It was deserted because of the rain. They didn't see anyone."

  Major Kumazawa brooded darkly. "Two days Chiyo was gone. Where was she? And what happened to her during all that time?"

  The sound of a sob interrupted the conversation. Sano, the detectives, and Major Kumazawa looked up and saw Chiyo's mother standing in the doorway. Tears streaked her contorted face. Major Kumazawa rose and went to her. She whispered in his ear, then fled. He returned to his guests, clearly shaken.

  "My daughter," he began, then swallowed and drew a deep breath. "When my wife undressed and bathed Chiyo, she saw… injuries. And blood." He finished in a low, broken voice, "My daughter has been violated."

  Her torn clothes had suggested the possibility of rape to Sano, but he was dismayed to have his suspicions confirmed. Major Kumazawa sank to his knees, stricken with horror and anguish. Rape was a terrible thing to happen to a woman, perhaps worse than death. Rape contaminated her body and spirit, destroyed her chastity and her honor. Sano and the detectives bowed their heads in sympathy.

  Indignation transformed Major Kumazawa's face into a hideous mask so flushed with red that Sano thought the man would burst a vein. "This thing that has been done to my daughter is a disgrace! But it's not against the law!"

  Tokugawa law didn't recognize rape as a crime. Men could take their sexual satisfaction where they chose, against a woman's will, and not be punished. But Chiyo's case was different.

  "Your daughter was the victim of a kidnapping," Sano said, "and she was injured. The violation constitutes an assault. Kidnapping and assault are both illegal. The law won't let whoever hurt Chiyo get away with it."

  This rapist had earned a stay in prison and torture by the jailers. He could also be sentenced to live as an outcast for a term set by the magistrate. And since he'd chosen a victim with political connections, he might even get the death penalty.

  Major Kumazawa grimaced. "Tell that to the police. They wouldn't do anything to find Chiyo. They won't catch her attacker. No," he said, pounding his fists on the floor. "If I want him punished, I'll have to do it myself. But first I'll have to find him." He fixed his bitter gaze on Sano. "I must trouble you for another favor. Will you help me catch the bastard?"

  Sano realized that he and his uncle had found common ground: They both wanted justice for Chiyo. Sano saw the attack on Chiyo as a personal offense to himself as well as her immediate family. He felt a new, unexpected kinship with his estranged relatives.

  "Of course," he said. "I'll start at once. The first thing I need to do is speak with Chiyo."

  "Why?"

  "To ask her what happened."

  Resistance flared in Major
Kumazawa's eyes. "She was kidnapped and violated. What more do we need to know? I don't want her forced to relive it. She's been through enough."

  Sano saw that working with his uncle would be no easy partnership. "Chiyo will relive what happened to her whether she talks about it or not." Sano knew that although Reiko seldom spoke of the episodes of violence in her life, she still had nightmares about them. "And right now Chiyo is our only source of information about her attacker."

  "I don't want you to upset her," Major Kumazawa said, obstinate. "We should go out and shake up everyone in the district until somebody talks."

  They might have to resort to that eventually, but Sano couldn't ignore their best lead, the victim who'd witnessed the crime. And he was getting fed up with his uncle's interference. "Understand that I don't need your permission to question Chiyo." Sano rose; so did his detectives. "You can be present while I do it, but I will question her, make no mistake."

  Detectives Marume and Fukida looked gratified because Sano had put his foot down. Major Kumazawa stared in offense because Sano had pulled rank on him. How he must resent that Sano the outcast had risen so high in society!

  He obviously realized that he'd been given an order he must obey, but he said, "Can't you at least wait until tomorrow?"

  "No." Sano was loath to cause further pain to Chiyo, but the passage of time could erase important clues from her mind. He added, "I'll be careful with her. I give you my word."

  Major Kumazawa rose reluctantly. "Very well."

  In the women's quarters, Sano and Major Kumazawa entered a room where Chiyo lay in bed, her mother and the physician kneeling on either side. She looked small and delicate under a thick quilt. Her eyes were closed. The right side of her head had been shaved around an ugly red cut, crossed by stitches. Major Kumazawa stared at it, appalled.

  The physician was a middle-aged man who wore the dark blue coat of his profession. "The cut wasn't deep." He covered it with salve and a cotton pad, then wound a bandage around Chiyo's head. "It should heal perfectly."

  "What about the inside of her head?" Major Kumazawa said.

  "It's too soon to tell."

  "Is she unconscious?"

  "No, just drowsy. I've given her a potion to ease the pain and let her sleep." The physician picked up a tray that held his instruments, jars of medicine, Chiyo's hair clippings, and a bloodstained cloth. "I'll come back to check on her in the morning." He bowed and departed.

  Major Kumazawa knelt at the foot of the bed, obviously disturbed by his daughter's condition. His wife glanced up at Sano. She seemed too shy as well as too upset to speak. Chiyo's eyes fluttered open. She looked around, her pupils dilated wide and black by the drug. Her gaze fixed on Sano. Her lips formed broken, halting speech: "… thanks… rescuing me… grateful…"

  Sano was moved by her effort. Even in her condition she had better manners than her father did. Sano knelt near her and noticed again her resemblance to his mother. She had the same sweet, pretty features set in a rectangular face. He thought of a time when he'd interrogated his mother about a crime, when she'd lain drugged and sleepy just like this. But Chiyo was the victim, not the accused.

  "Chamberlain Sano is going to catch the person who did this to you," Major Kumazawa told her. "But first he needs to ask you a few questions." Only a few, his gaze warned Sano.

  Chiyo nodded weakly. Sano began in a quiet voice, "Do you remember wandering in the Asakusa district before I found you? Can you tell me how you got there?"

  Vagueness clouded her eyes. "I woke up lying in an alley. My head hurt. It was raining. When I stood up, I was so dizzy I could hardly walk. I didn't know where I was. But I kept going. When I was a child, Papa told me that if I were ever lost, I should walk until I saw something I recognized, I shouldn't just cry and wait for help."

  Sano admired her bravery. He also approved of how Major Kumazawa had taught his daughter to be self-reliant. "Did you see anyone around when you woke up?"

  Her forehead wrinkled. "No. I don't think there was anyone."

  For now Sano avoided the subject of what the kidnapper had done to Chiyo. Maybe he could get enough information about the man without discussing the rape itself. He said, "Do you remember going to the Awashima Shrine with your baby?"

  "My baby…" Alarm agitated Chiyo. "Where is my baby?" She tried to sit up, gasping and frantic.

  Her mother gently restrained her, whispering, "It's all right, dearest. He's safe at home."

  "I want to go home," Chiyo cried. "I want to see my children. They need me. I want my husband."

  "I've sent for him," Major Kumazawa said. "He'll take you home as soon as you're well enough to go." He asked Sano, "Are you almost finished?"

  "Almost." Sano asked Chiyo, "What happened at the shrine?"

  She made an obvious, labored effort to calm herself. Her gaze wandered, as if into the past. "My baby started crying. He wasn't used to so many people, so much noise. I thought that if I took him someplace quiet, he would settle. So I left my attendants and carried him into a garden. That's the last thing I remember until… until…"

  Chiyo's eyes and mouth opened wide in horror, at something that only she could see. She screamed, "No! Stop! Please!" and thrashed under the quilt. "Help! Help!"

  She was remembering the rape, Sano realized. Her mother tried to soothe her, but she burst into a torrent of weeping. Major Kumazawa said to Sano, "That's enough." His paternal protectiveness outweighed his duty to obey Sano and their mutual wish to catch Chiyo's rapist. "Please go."

  7

  High on a hill above the city, Edo Castle's massive conglomeration of stone walls, gabled roofs, and watchtowers shimmered, hazy and insubstantial, in the rain and fog. As dusk deepened into evening, lights from its many lanterns wavered as if submerged in the sea.

  Inside the castle, Sano's estate occupied an enclosed compound. The mansion's many wings angled around courtyards and gardens. Within the private chambers at the center of the estate, Reiko began the nightly ordeal of putting her daughter to bed.

  "Time to go to sleep," Reiko said, patting the futon laid out on the floor.

  "No!" Akiko said.

  Reiko sighed. Akiko was a moody child, all sweetness one moment and all temper the next. Reiko wondered whether bad experiences she'd had while pregnant had affected her daughter's personality. Or maybe Akiko had never forgiven Reiko for leaving her behind when she and Sano had gone to rescue Masahiro after he'd been kidnapped. Sometimes they got along fine, but often they clashed wills like enemy warlords.

  "Come on, Akiko, it's late, and you're tired," Reiko said.

  "No tired," Akiko protested.

  Her face bunched into a frown that portended one of her horrific tantrums. She didn't have them for anybody except Reiko, who, determined to learn to handle her child, resisted the temptation to call the nurse to deal with Akiko.

  "No more arguments," she said gently but firmly. "You're going to bed now."

  Akiko sobbed, screamed, and beat her head and heels on the floor as if possessed by a demon. Reiko soothed, scolded, and pleaded. By the time Akiko had worn herself out and fallen asleep, Reiko felt as beaten up as if she'd lost a battle.

  She stepped out the door and saw Sano coming. He smiled, but an air of tension around him caused her heart to race. "What's happened?"

  "No new political upheavals," Sano reassured her. "I met my uncle, Major Kumazawa, today."

  "Ah," Reiko said, thinking that it was about time.

  She accompanied Sano into their chamber, where he removed his rain-damp clothes. Reiko opened the cabinet, took out a robe, and helped him into it. "Why did you finally decide to make contact with your uncle?"

  "I didn't. He came to me, to request my help." Sano explained that the man's daughter had gone missing and he'd spent the day searching for her in Asakusa.

  Reiko felt a stir of excitement. Here, perhaps, was a new investigation for her to join. "Did you find any clues?" she said as she heated sake on a charcoal brazier.<
br />
  "Better than that," Sano said, kneeling opposite Reiko. "I found Chiyo herself. She's alive."

  Reiko was amazed at his quick results. "That's wonderful!" But even though she was glad for Chiyo's sake, she couldn't help feeling disappointed. The investigation was over already.

  "I took her to my uncle's house," Sano said.

  "The place where your mother grew up? What was it like?"

  "About what you would expect. Typical for his rank."

  Men weren't good at describing places in the detail that women wanted, Reiko thought. She sensed that the visit to his ancestral estate had caused Sano feelings he would rather not discuss. "Your uncle must have been very pleased and grateful."

  "Pleased, I would have liked. Grateful, not exactly." Sano sounded nettled beneath his humor. "He's a stern, hard man-a real old-style samurai."

  "Well, a plague on him," Reiko said, offended on Sano's behalf. "You brought his daughter home safe and sound."

  "Not exactly sound." Sano described Chiyo's dazed, weak condition and the injury on her head. "And it appears that she was violated."

  "How awful," Reiko murmured, recalling the time she'd been kidnapped by a madman who'd nearly ravished her. And she knew that the consequences of a rape could be even worse than the pain and terror.

  Masahiro padded barefoot into the room and asked, "What does that mean, 'violated'?"

  Reiko and Sano exchanged perturbed glances. They tried not to talk about adult matters when their son could hear, but Masahiro had sharp ears. He could sense when something had happened, and often showed up at the scene before his parents knew he was there. Reiko gestured at Sano. You're his father; you explain.

  Sano told Masahiro, "It means she was hurt."

  "Hurt how?"

  Sano looked as flustered as Reiko felt. Masahiro was familiar with the facts of life; he'd seen animals mating, their offspring born. But he was too young and innocent to know about rape.

  "Never mind." Sano put on a stern expression that closed the subject.

  "Who did this to Chiyo?" Reiko asked. "Has she said?"