The Fire Kimono(44)
“Whoa!” Fukida said.
“What’s the matter?” Egen said, unflinching under the revolted gazes that Sano and the other men couldn’t tear away from him. “Haven’t you ever seen somebody who’s had smallpox?”
“I’m sorry,” Sano said politely.
“Don’t be,” Egen said. “Just tell me what you want.”
“I need to ask you some questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Were you once a monk at Bairin Temple?” Sano said.
“Yes,” Egen said crossly. “Who told you?”
“Never mind,” Hirata said. “Just answer his questions.”
“Forty-three years ago, did you work as a tutor to Tokugawa Tadatoshi?” Sano asked.
“Yes. In another lifetime.” Egen recalled his manners and said, “Can I offer you some tea?”
He gestured toward a corner that served as a kitchen. Around the ceramic hearth sat a few pots, pans, and bowls, all coated with scum.
“No, thank you,” Sano said.
Fukida examined the heaps, which consisted of old clothes and shoes, broken furniture, chipped dishware and statues, torn paper lanterns, and other damaged items. “What are you doing with all this stuff?”
“I collect it,” Egen said, “to sell. I’m a junk peddler.”
Marume picked up a small, headless Buddha figure. Egen snatched it away and exclaimed, “Hey, that’s valuable merchandise. Do you mind?”
“You’ve come a long way from tutor in the house of a Tokugawa vassal to peddler of junk,” Sano said. “What happened?”
“Bad luck. Is that all you wanted to know?”
“Not quite.” Sano couldn’t help liking Egen, who seemed to accept his lot in life without complaining and was brave enough to stand up to authority. Despite the man’s ugliness, he had a certain charm. “Tadatoshi went missing during the Great Fire. Do you remember?”
Egen nodded. “Oh, yes. I was sent out to look for the brat. Everybody in the house was.” Scratching his chest, he yawned again. “I could use a drink.” He picked up a grimy wine jar and waved it around. “Join me?”
Sano and his men politely declined. Egen drank straight from the jar, coughed and licked his lips, then said, “While I was looking for Tadatoshi, I almost got killed in the fire, like he did.”
“He didn’t,” Sano said.
“What? But he must have died in the fire, because he never came back.”
“Tadatoshi was murdered not long after the fire. His body turned up two days ago.” Sano explained about the unmarked grave near the shrine.
“Well, I never would have thought.” Egen shook his head. “What happened to him? Who did it?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Sano said.
“Pardon me, but why bother? It was a long time ago.”
“My mother has been accused of the crime.”
“Oh?” Surprised, Egen asked, “Who is your mother?”
“Her name is Etsuko, from the Kumazawa clan,” Sano said. It still felt strange to realize that the clan was part of his own family tree and he was a born Tokugawa vassal, not just one who’d earned his way into the regime. “She was a lady-in-waiting to Tadatoshi’s mother. Do you remember her?”
“Etsuko, Etsuko,” the tutor mulled. “Oh, yes. Pretty girl.” He swigged more wine. “Did she kill Tadatoshi?”
“No,” Sano said. “I’m trying to prove she’s innocent.”
“Well, good luck,” Egen said, “but what does that have to do with me?”
“My mother’s not the only person who’s been accused,” Sano said. “So have you.”
“Me?” Egen pointed to his own chest, taken aback. He thumped the wine jar down on a dingy table. “I didn’t kill anyone. Who says I did?”
“A man who was Tadatoshi’s bodyguard at the time the boy disappeared. His name is Doi.”
“Doi …” Recollection showed on Egen’s pockmarked face. “So he’s still around. What’s he doing now?”
“He’s a colonel in Lord Matsudaira’s army,” Sano said.
“Well, well.” Egen apparently knew who Lord Matsudaira was. “But I’m not surprised. Doi was headed for big things. So now he’s attacked you through your mother.” He also knew about the conflict between Sano and Lord Matsudaira and suspected that it was behind Doi’s accusation. “What does Doi say I did?”
“That you and my mother conspired to kidnap Tadatoshi for ransom, then something went wrong and you killed him.”