Sano felt he owed these women honesty. “Yes. My mother has been accused of kidnapping and killing Tadatoshi.”

Lady Ateki looked too dazed to speak. Oigimi threw Sano a sidelong, puzzled glance and said, “Who is your mother?”

“Her name is Etsuko,” Sano said. “She was a lady-in-waiting to your mother. Do you remember her?”

Recognition dawned on Lady Ateki’s face. “Oh! That pretty young girl.” She smiled. “I was very fond of her.”

“You’re Etsuko’s son?” Oigimi said in surprise.

“I always wondered what became of Etsuko,” Lady Ateki said. “She left us very suddenly.”

Sano saw a chance to fill in some of the gaps in his mother’s story. “When did she leave?”

“It was soon after the Great Fire,” Lady Ateki said.

“What was the reason?” Sano asked.

Lady Ateki squinted in an effort to bring the past into focus. “All I remember is that she went home to live with her parents.”

Her parents-the grandparents Sano had never met. She’d told him they’d died in the fire.

“I was sad but willing to let her go,” Lady Ateki said. “My husband was dead, his estate had burned down. Some relatives took me in. We lived in their summer villa in the hills, very crowded. There wouldn’t have been room for Etsuko.”

“I never knew why she went,” Oigimi said, “but I had other things to worry about at the time.” Sano interpreted the bitterness in her voice to mean she’d been suffering from the burns, which must have been painful.

Yet another mystery had arisen for Sano to solve. “Did you ever hear from Etsuko again?” he asked Lady Ateki.

“No, I didn’t.”

“It was as if she’d vanished off the earth,” Oigimi said.

Was it a coincidence that she’d vanished from their lives shortly after Tadatoshi had? Uneasiness crept through Sano. How had his mother spent the months after she’d left them and before she’d married his father? He wondered whether she would tell him if he asked. “Did you have any suspicion that she was involved in Tadatoshi’s disappearance?”

“None at all.” Oigimi sounded incredulous at the idea. “I thought he’d died in the fire.”

“Dear me, of course not,” Lady Ateki said. “Etsuko was a good girl. She could never have hurt anyone.”

“I agree.” Oigimi thought a moment, then said, “May I ask who accused Etsuko?”

“It was Doi Naokatsu,” Sano said.

“This is certainly a day for names from the past,” Lady Ateki said. “I remember Doi. He was my son’s bodyguard.”

“He was also Etsuko’s fiance,” said Oigimi. “I always wondered why they never married.”

Ignoring her hint for information he didn’t have, Sano said, “Have you any idea why he would accuse her?”

“None.”

“I remember how upset Doi was after Tadatoshi disappeared,” Lady Ateki said. “He fell on his knees and apologized to me for not being able to find him. He cried and begged my forgiveness. He was ready to commit seppuku.”

Too bad he hadn’t, Sano thought. Doi’s ritual suicide would have saved a lot of trouble.

“But I was sure Tadatoshi was alive,” Lady Ateki said. “I told Doi that he must be ready to serve him when he came back.”

Sano wondered if Doi’s behavior meant he’d felt guilty about more than failing in his duty. “Do you think Doi could have killed Tadatoshi?”

Lady Ateki exclaimed, “Oh, no. He was devoted to my son.”

“The idea of him kidnapping my brother is ridiculous,” Oigimi said. “But so is the idea that Etsuko did, and not just because she was too good. Tadatoshi wasn’t a baby who could have been easily carried off and killed. He was strong enough to put up a fight. How does Doi say that Etsuko managed to kidnap him?”

“He says she had help,” Sano said, “from Tadatoshi’s tutor.”

The women sat motionless, stunned by this news on top of the rest. At last Lady Ateki said, “I suppose Tadatoshi did have a tutor. Who was he?”

“That monk,” Oigimi said impatiently. “His name was Egen.”

“Oh. Oh, yes, I remember now.”

“I didn’t know him at all, but he must have been a decent person or my father wouldn’t have hired him,” Oigimi told Sano. “Have you asked him if he did it?”

“Not yet,” Sano said. “I’m looking for him. Do you know where he is?”

Lady Ateki shook her head. Oigimi said, “We haven’t seen him in all these years. He left after the fire.”

Perhaps not just because he’d lost his pupil, Sano thought. Maybe Egen had been involved in a kidnapping gone bad. Sano hoped Hirata was making progress toward finding him. For now, Sano needed suspects closer at hand. “Do you know of anyone who would have wanted Tadatoshi dead?”

Mother turned to daughter. Sano saw astonishment in both their profiles. Lady Ateki said, “Could it be?” Oigimi said, “Of course. We should have suspected him ages ago.”

“Who?” Sano said.

“Tokugawa Nobunaga.” Lady Ateki explained, “He was my husband’s brother.”

“Why might he have killed Tadatoshi?” Sano said.

“He wanted his son to be shogun,” Oigimi said. “Tadatoshi was ahead of his son in the line of succession. With Tadatoshi gone, his son moved up a step.”

Political ambition had led to many murders, but Sano saw cause for doubt in this case. “Tadatoshi was far down the line. Getting rid of him wouldn’t have moved his cousin much closer to the front.”

“My husband and his brother had been rivals since childhood,” Lady Ateki said. “His brother was very jealous. He couldn’t bear to have my husband ahead of him in anything.”

“And we once saw him almost kill Tadatoshi,” Oigimi said.

“When was this?” Sano said, intrigued.

“Tadatoshi must have been about twelve years old,” Lady Ateki said. “It happened at our archery range. My brother-in-law shot an arrow. It hit the wall right beside Tadatoshi. And he wasn’t standing anywhere near the targets.”

“My uncle said it was an accident,” Oigimi said scornfully.

“After that, my husband kept our son away from his brother,” Lady Ateki said, “but he couldn’t watch Tadatoshi all the time.”

Especially when Tadatoshi wandered off, Sano thought. Maybe, on the day of his death, he’d had the bad luck to meet up with his jealous, homicidal uncle. “Where was your brother-in-law when Tadatoshi disappeared?”

“I don’t know,” Lady Ateki said. “I suppose I was too upset to care. My husband and so many other people had died in the fire. My son was missing, and I had to take care of my daughter.”

“Later, I heard Uncle talk about what he did during the fire,” Oigimi said. “He and his retainers and servants put wet quilts on the roof of his house, to protect it from the fire. It burned down anyway. They barely managed to get to the hills before the fire blocked the roads.”

He could have happened onto Tadatoshi near the shrine and seen an opportunity sent from heaven. “Where is he now?” Sano asked.

“He’s been dead more than ten years,” Oigimi said.

“And his son?”

“He died last year.”

“Can you think of anyone else who might have killed Tadatoshi?” Sano asked.

Neither woman could. Sano thanked them for their cooperation and rose. Lady Ateki said, “Many thanks for telling me about my son, Honorable Chamberlain. At least I can stop wondering what happened to him. I hope you find his murderer.”

“I’ll do my best,” Sano promised.

He joined Marume, Fukida, and his entourage outside the mansion. “Anything good?” Marume asked.

As they mounted their horses and rode away, Sano related what the women had told him. “Two witnesses to my mother’s good character and a new suspect. Not bad for one interview.”

“It would be better if Tadatoshi’s uncle were still alive,” Fukida said, “but his death doesn’t let him off the hook.”

“We can’t have everything,” Sano said. His mood had brightened; for the first time since his mother’s arrest, things were looking up. “And my favorite suspect is still alive.”

“Shall we pay Colonel Doi a visit?” Fukida said.