Free Flask of the Drunken Master by Susan Spann

should.”
    Hiro struggled to find a nonsardonic response and failed. Fortunately, Suke didn’t seem to expect an answer.
    “You’re right that I wouldn’t kill a thief on purpose,” the monk continued, “but since I killed him in my sleep, I couldn’t stop myself. It was me, and also not-me. Understand?”
    “Do you really believe you killed a man while sleeping?” Hiro asked. “I think the killer stole the flask without your waking.”
    “Not possible,” Suke said. “I sleep like a cat.”
    Hiro wondered how much experience Suke had with sleeping cats. “If that’s true, why don’t you remember someone trying to steal your flask?”
    Rippling furrows appeared on Suke’s brow. “I killed Chikao. I know I did. Ginjiro had already locked the shop, and he never leaves the brewery after closing.”
    “Never?” Hiro asked. “You’re sure of that?”
    Suke tipped his head to the side. “I sleep in the alley. If he ever left the brewery, I would know.”
    The way you know you killed a man in your sleep. Hiro’s patience, like his time, was running out.

 
    Chapter 15
    “One last question,” Hiro asked. “Did you see anyone else in the alley?”
    “Anyone else?” Suke looked confused. “Like a vagrant?”
    “Anyone at all,” Hiro said.
    Suke looked at the ground and scratched his cheek with a filthy hand. “I don’t remember.”
    “Thank you, Suke,” Hiro said. “I’ll try to persuade the magistrate to release you as soon as possible.”
    “He won’t release me.” Suke smiled cheerfully. “He’ll order me hanged and display my head on a pole as a warning to others. I don’t mind. Death will free me to enter my next incarnation. This time, I hope I return as a cat.”
    “A cat.” Hiro had to ask. “Why do you want to become a cat?”
    Suke’s lips curled into a knowing smile. He raised a hand to wipe the tendril of drool that started down his chin. “Cats catch mice. Mice eat grain. Grain makes sake. As a cat, I’ll find a brewery and kill its mice. The grateful owner will give me a bowl of sake every day!”
    “Cats don’t drink sake,” Hiro said.
    “I would,” Suke said.
    Hiro had nothing to say to that. Knowing Suke, he probably would.
    Hiro returned to Ginjiro’s cage and gestured toward the monk. “He doesn’t know anything at all. He claims he murdered Chikao in self-defense, and in his sleep, while defending his precious sake flask.”
    Ginjiro glanced toward Suke. “Did he mention that he’s ‘a dangerous man’?”
    “Once or twice,” Hiro said. A wave of stench from the filth on the ground erased his urge to smile.
    Ginjiro sighed. “Please persuade the d ō shin to let him go. They shouldn’t punish a silly old man for something he didn’t do.”
    “I doubt they intend to punish him long.” Hiro remembered the yoriki ’s words. “They only arrested him to prevent a scene.”
    “Still,” Father Mateo said, “we will speak to the d ō shin on his behalf. Is there anything more you can tell us about the night of the murder before we go?”
    Ginjiro shook his head. “At closing time I locked the shop and went upstairs. My wife and Tomiko were already sleeping. I went to bed and didn’t wake up until the d ō shin came to arrest me.”
    “Did you leave anyone downstairs when you locked the shop?” Father Mateo asked.
    Ginjiro stared at the priest but didn’t answer.
    After a moment that lasted a little too long, Ginjiro asked, “Like a customer? No, they had all gone home.”
    “Nobody else?” the Jesuit asked. “Nobody guards the brewery at night?”
    “Why would I need a guard?” the brewer asked. “We live upstairs.”
    Hiro admired the Jesuit’s effort, but Ginjiro’s answers were exactly as expected. If the brewer hired a guard who killed Chikao, he wouldn’t say so.
    Hiro started to turn away but paused when Father Mateo said, “Thank you. We appreciate your answers.”
    The brewer did his best to bow despite the cramped conditions.