Free The Iris Fan by Laura Joh Rowland

him to investigate the stabbing.
    Otani was dangling Sano like a carrot in front of a horse. Hirata took the bait in spite of himself. “If we go to the palace, will you let me talk to Sano- san ?”
    Yes.
    Hirata didn’t trust Otani to keep his word. He knew that going near Sano would put Sano in danger and protecting Lord Ienobu might interfere with Sano’s ability to solve the crime, but he convinced himself that he was strong enough to prevent the ghost from hurting Sano or sabotaging the investigation.
    “All right. We’ll go.”
    His lips curved as General Otani smiled with satisfaction. He opened the gate as the guards staggered to their feet and people spilled out of the mansion. He sped through the snowy streets, trailing a fiery wake like a comet’s tail, toward Edo Castle.

 
     
    9
     
    OUTSIDE THE LARGE Interior, Sano tried the door as the spectators in the corridor behind him watched. The door was locked. Captain Hosono called to the guard on the other side, “Sano- san is investigating the attack on the shogun. Let him in.”
    The guard obeyed. From the dim corridor behind him drifted women’s anxious voices and sweet, tarry incense smoke overlaying the odors of aromatic unguents and women’s bodies. The odors transported Sano nineteen years into the past, to the first time he’d entered the Large Interior. One of the shogun’s female concubines had been murdered during his wedding. That had been the first crime he and Reiko had investigated together.
    So much had happened between them since then.
    The last case they’d investigated together was the murder of the shogun’s daughter more than four years ago. At the end of that case Reiko had lost the baby and Sano had begun his campaign against Lord Ienobu. At first she’d been too ill and distraught to help Sano with his quest to prove that Lord Ienobu had murdered the shogun’s heir, then too upset because she thought it was a mistake. Sano missed their collaboration, and he knew he’d made life hard for her, but he couldn’t help feeling hurt and abandoned. Once he’d also had a corps of a hundred detectives. He was on his own now in a den of wolves.
    As Sano stepped inside the Large Interior, Manabe joined him. “Lord Ienobu sent me to watch you.”
    “Where is he? Where’s Chamberlain Yanagisawa?” Sano asked.
    The expression on Manabe’s hard, burnished face said it was none of Sano’s business. Sano shone his lantern on the floor—polished cypress planks in which he could see his blurry reflection. There was no blood. Unable to tell where the attacker had gone, Sano headed into the labyrinth of passages and small chambers. Two male guards appeared, soldiers who preferred their own sex and wouldn’t touch the women. Peering in doorways, Sano saw women huddled on beds where they slept four or five to a room amid lacquer chests and cabinets, dressing tables and mirrors, and garments hanging on stands. There were countless places where bloodstained socks or clothing could be hidden. Sano noted the many charcoal braziers. The socks could be burnt to ashes by now. There were also hundreds of potential suspects.
    A commotion arose outside the Large Interior. Sano heard his son, Masahiro, and Detective Marume arguing with the guard at the door. He called, “Send them in.”
    “We heard what happened,” Masahiro said. “We came to help you investigate.”
    Sano was glad to have helpers he trusted, but he felt the ever-present strain in his relationship with his son. As a child Masahiro had thought his father could do no wrong, but now he was old enough to know that his low station was Sano’s fault. After each demotion it had been harder for Sano to look Masahiro in the eye. Masahiro was always loyal, and he respected Sano’s dedication to honor, but he couldn’t help resenting the high price that he, too, must pay for honor. He’d grown aloof toward Sano. Now Sano welcomed the chance to work with his son and restore their harmony