Free The Old Men of Omi by I. J. Parker

head. “I never saw it before his death, sir. It’s not the sort of thing the judge would own. It was on the floor when we found the master dead. My wife put it on his desk.”
    “Strange. Where did it come from? Did he have any visitors recently?”
    “No, sir. No one.”
    “Well, then, did he go out the day before he died?”
    “No, sir. My wife and I do the shopping.”
    A brief silence fell while Akitada looked at the young man thoughtfully. If he had indeed worked against his will for the judge, he could not be trusted to tell the truth.”
    The young man shifted nervously, then said, “If you’ll forgive me, sir, but the figure looks like the sort of cheap stuff people sell at markets and fairs around here. Travelers buy them for good luck, and we have many travelers passing though.”
    “Hmm. Yes. But that doesn’t explain how it got here.” Akitada replaced the carving on the desk and looked about again. “I’ll mention it to the chief. Meanwhile it will be best if you and your wife stay out of this room. The police will seal the doors until the investigation is finished.”
    The young man bowed. “Is there anything else, sir?”
    Akitada noticed that the servant’s eyes wandered to the desk, and he glanced at it again. This time he noticed that the stack of notes had been shifted aside a little. “Have you or your wife tried to clean up here?”
    “No! The police chief said not to touch anything.”
    It came too quickly and with a furtive expression.
    “Very good. That’s all for now. You may leave. I’ll see myself out.”
    As soon as the young man was gone, Akitada scooped up the judge’s notes and put them inside his robe. Then he left, closing the door behind him.

Chapter Nine

The Sohei Return
    Tora arranged to have a pair of staves sent to his room, then he, too, rode into Otsu. He was uneasy about the man he had rescued and wanted to check on him. His first call was at the harbor master’s office.
    He dismounted and tied up his horse, then went inside. The clerks stared, but the harbor master saw him from his backroom and came to greet him.
    “How may I assist, sir?” he asked with a nicely calculated bow, and a glance at Tora’s black eye.
    “You recall the incident yesterday?”
    “I do indeed. Please accept my deep regrets for the monks’ behavior toward you.”
    Tora blinked, then got it. Touching his eye, he said, “Oh, this? That’s nothing. I came to check on that worker. Those bastards threatened him.”
    “I haven’t seen him today. If he’s smart he’ll have left Otsu with his family. North of here, at Hikone, there’s also good work and it’s much safer.”
    “Hmm.” Tora pondered this. It made sense, but he had a bad feeling about the man’s absence. He had not been eager to leave on the day of the incident, so why now? “What’s his name, do you know?”
    “Kinzaburo. He comes from someplace near Awazu.”
    “He was worried about his family, you said? Did he bring them to Otsu with him?”
    “That’s what I thought. He lost his farm. They couldn’t have stayed behind.”
    “And where would they live here?”
    “There’s a workers quarter over there.” The harbor master pointed. “Most of the men employed in the harbor live there. It’s poor housing, but the rents are cheap.”
    Tora thanked him and walked along the harbor looking at the teams of bearers and porters and scanning the area for armed monks. All was peaceful this morning. The unloading progressed briskly, and the men sang as they trotted back and forth between the quay and the bowels of the boats. Kinzaburo was not there.
    The workers quarter seemed a safer bet for finding him. In Otsu, this looked not much different from all the poor housing wards in other cities. The capital had several of these in its western part, and Hakata’s had borne a strong resemblance to Otsu’s. Here as there, the harbor provided abundant work to unskilled men who had nothing to offer but a strong back