Hoshina gave him a cocksure smile. “Residents of the Great Miura brothel have identified it as Lady Wisteria’s.”

“Did you bribe them? Or did you threaten to kill them unless they said what you wanted? You wrote the book yourself, to ruin me.” Sano grew certain this was true. “Admit it!”

The shogun’s puzzled gaze flicked from Sano to Hoshina, who said ruefully, “I’m not the author of the book. The sōsakan-sama is trying to save himself by accusing me.”

“Let’s examine this book and compare the calligraphy to yours.” Knowing the book was in ashes, Sano hoped that forcing Hoshina to admit it no longer existed would lessen the harm it could do him.

“The book has vanished,” Hoshina said, unperturbed.

“How convenient for you that no one can scrutinize it too closely,” Sano said.

Hoshina’s gaze rebuked him. “How much more convenient for you if you’d had it stolen before we read it instead of afterward.”

Hoshina dared frame him for theft along with murder and treason! “I didn’t know the book had turned up until now,” Sano said. “How could I have stolen it?” Yet he feared everyone could see through his pretended ignorance. He addressed the shogun: “Even though you’re understandably upset by what the book said about me, please consider that there’s no other evidence that anything in it happened.”

“That is, ahh, true.” Realization eclipsed the anger on Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s countenance. “You’ve always been loyal to me in the past. And the, ahh, man in the story was a cad who didn’t, ahh, resemble you at all.”

His unexpected good sense relieved Sano, but Hoshina said, “The affair between the sōsakan-sama and Lady Wisteria was verified by my informants. And here’s a page of the account book from the brothel, showing a sum paid by Sano Ichiro for the discharge of Lady Wisteria.” Hoshina held up a paper.

“That proves nothing except that I freed her,” Sano said, appalled by the thoroughness of Hoshina’s effort to authenticate the book.

“Any verified detail lends credibility to the others,” Hoshina said. “Besides, I’ve located the house where Wisteria lived after she left Yoshiwara. The neighbors say she had a samurai lover. Their description of him fits the sōsakan-sama. They also say that he and Wisteria quarreled frequently and violently, as the book describes.”

Sano couldn’t admit he’d visited Wisteria at all, and make himself look guiltier. “I never quarreled with her. Either those witnesses are lying, or you are,” he told Hoshina. “Your evidence is slander woven from a few innocuous facts!”

The shogun recoiled from Sano’s vehemence.

“See how he rages when someone irks him,” Hoshina said to the assembly, his face alight with vindication. “This is the bad temper that caused him to hurt Lady Wisteria.”

Further incensed, Sano looked at the chamberlain. Yanagisawa met his gaze with a warning expression that said their truce didn’t make them allies and Hoshina had free rein here. The elders watched with a detachment that fueled Sano’s anger. They expected him to destroy their enemies for them, at his own risk, and now they were doing nothing to help him. The contemptible wretches!

Stifling an impulse to rage at them, Sano mustered his self-control. He said to the shogun, “That Police Commissioner Hoshina has demonstrated an association between Lady Wisteria and me isn’t proof that I’m a murderer or traitor.”

“That the sōsakan-sama attempted to conceal the association indicates that he’s guilty,” Hoshina said quickly.

Sano turned on his foe. “Just when does the book say I plotted against His Excellency and Lord Mitsuyoshi? Or is the story as vague about dates as it is untrue?”

Caution narrowed Hoshina’s eyes. “Lady Wisteria marked the date as Genroku Year Five, the seventh month, on the night of the full moon.”

“You mean you did. When you wrote the book, you made the mistake of specifying an exact time. My wife will swear that I was with her that night,” Sano said.

“I certainly did not write the book. And the wife of a liar is no more honest than he,” Hoshina scoffed. “Everyone knows Lady Reiko is very fond of her husband and would do or say anything to protect him. She’s an untrustworthy witness.”

“Do you have any witness at all who can confirm that I said the things in the book?” Sano demanded.

“Your Excellency, the only witness to his statements was Lady Wisteria, who’s been murdered. Her body was discovered the night before last.” The crime hadn’t escaped the notice of Hoshina and his spies. “How convenient for the sōsakan-sama that she can’t speak against him.” Hoshina flashed a sardonic glance at Sano.

“The body may not even be Wisteria,” Sano said, “and it was found in a house belonging to Fujio the hokan. He’s the primary suspect in that murder, and also in Lord Mitsuyoshi’s. There are other suspects, including Wisteria’s chaperone, and maybe more we don’t know about because the investigation isn’t finished.”

“The investigation has been controlled by the sōsakan-sama from the start,” Hoshina said with disdain. “The suspects he mentions are only people who can’t prove their innocence. He persecuted them to shield himself.”

“You were the one who arrested Momoko,” Sano pointed out.

“Because he tricked me into it,” Hoshina told the shogun. “He even defended Treasury Minister Nitta at his trial to make everyone believe he cares about justice. But his investigation is a farce, and his good character a disguise.

“Lady Wisteria wrote in her pillow book that she wanted to force the sōsakan-sama to marry her. He gave her the weapon she needed when he insulted Your Excellency and threatened Lord Mitsuyoshi. It’s obvious that Wisteria tried to blackmail the sōsakan-sama, and he killed her so she could never tell anyone what he’d said. He’s a traitor who killed once to place his son in line for the succession, and again to cover up his crime.”

“Indeed.” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi glowered at Sano.

Sano felt the escalating pulse of panic along his nerves. Whatever he said in his own defense, Hoshina twisted to make him appear guiltier. Terrified by the nightmare that enmeshed him, furious at Hoshina, the elders, the shogun, and the injustice he faced, Sano resorted to guile, his only means of survival.

“Your Excellency,” Sano said, “please allow me to remind everyone here that you are the ultimate authority. Your wisdom and powers of judgment surpass those of lesser humans. Police Commissioner Hoshina owes you an apology for trying to impose his feeble opinions on you.”

Dismay wiped the self-satisfaction off Hoshina’s face. “He’s trying to flatter you into thinking better of him and worse of me, Your Excellency.”

But the shogun, clearly eager for praise, frowned in resentment at Hoshina and waved a hand to silence him. “Go on,” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi ordered Sano.

“You are a judicious ruler with a unique ability to distinguish right from wrong. Would you condemn a man just because a mere subordinate said you should?” Sano went on, though ashamed of manipulating his lord. “Would you let the real killer go free because Hoshina-san wants me blamed for Lord Mitsuyoshi’s murder?”

While Hoshina stared in helpless outrage, indecision creased the shogun’s brow. “I, ahh, guess not,” the shogun said, looking to Sano for approval.

“Of course you wouldn’t.” Heartened that he’d gained the upper hand, Sano said, “Your strong sense of honor requires more than just a book of dubious origin and Hoshina-san’s accusations before you decide whether a man you’ve trusted is a criminal. You require facts.”

“Facts. Ahh, yes.” The shogun seized upon the word, as though delighted to see a complex situation reduced to one simple idea. Then his face clouded with confusion. “But how do I get them? What, ahh, shall I do?”

“Since you ask my humble opinion,” Sano said, “I suggest that you order me to continue investigating the murders until I find the real culprit and prove my claim that I am innocent and have been framed by my enemies.”