Saburo’s resentment grew by a few notches. So Tora got a favorable hearing. Maybe because that death concerned one of the good people. He spat into the straw and left.

Tora was on his way out. Of course, he looked happy, Saburo thought sourly. Here he lived in a comfortable house with a pretty wife and handsome son, and his master favored him above all his other retainers. Even Genba, for all his grumbling, was a lucky family man. Only he, Saburo, had neither wife nor family.

And now not even a girlfriend any longer.

“Hey, Saburo. Why the long face?” Tora grinned at him.

“I can’t seem to do anything right.” Saburo’s resentment grew. Tora could do no wrong. Fortune smiled on him. “The master just laid into me because I told him about a murder in the city. All I wanted to do was to get him interested again. You know he hasn’t been out of that room in months and has made no effort to return to work. And we’re almost out of money. I don’t know what to do. Genba’s worried about feed for the horses. When I told him about the murder, the master accused me of gallivanting about on my own business instead of doing my chores. But I’d stayed up nights to work on the account so as not to be in his way. Frankly, Tora, I don’t know what to do any more.”

As he poured out his pent-up feelings, Tora’s face gradually lost its smile. Now the handsome Tiger scratched his head. “It’s that bad about the money?” he asked, getting to the most urgent of the problems.”

Saburo nodded.

“I think it’ll be all right,” Tora said cautiously. “He’s starting to take an interest again. Sorry you got a lecture. It’s probably all been a bit much for him. See, I got him to look into the suicide of this Lady Ogata this morning, and then his sister came. She always makes him irritable. What’s this about a murder in the city?”

Saburo felt a little ashamed of having blamed Tora for being the master’s favorite. He said, “I’m sorry, Tora. It’s not your fault. I’ve had a bad day over this murder of a moneylender in one of the bathhouses. The police arrested one of Shokichi’s friends, a blind shampoo girl who worked at the Daikoku-yu. Shokichi broke off with me because she thought I didn’t do enough to help her friend. I hoped maybe the master might look into it, but you’d already got him to look into your case.” He sighed.

“It’s not my case. Lord Nakatoshi told the master about it. As it turns out, some of the master’s friends have been plotting to get him out of the house. And it worked, too. I just happened to be the one to go with him. I tell you what, Saburo. I was about to go see Superintendent Kobe to report. Why don’t you come along? You can talk to him about your blind shampoo girl.”

Saburo accepted gratefully. He was experiencing a strong feeling of kinship with Sachi and the poor schoolmaster. Once he had been like them: poor and therefore preyed upon by everyone. The good people looked through you as if you didn’t exist. Your presence appalled them and offended their sensibilities, so they closed their eyes to your suffering. The rich merchants drove you from their doorstep, and the rest stole from you or took out their frustrations by beating you up.

He had convinced himself that the blind girl had been a convenient scapegoat, and the poor schoolmaster had been brought to his abject condition by the greed of the Nakamuras. He still felt a little resentful that his master had behaved the way all the other good people did and ignored the needs of the poor.

It was no longer raining, but the sky was overcast and a cold wind blew down from Mount Hiei. They huddled into their quilted jackets as they walked to the prison where police headquarters were located.

Saburo voiced his thoughts to Tora on the way.

Tora glared at him. “If you think that of the master, then you don’t know him. He’s never turned his back on the poor. If you can’t see that he’s been buried under a mountain of grief since his lady died, along with the little son, then you’ve really lost your mind.”

Saburo flushed. “I didn’t really think he was like the rest.”

“He’s not!”

A brief silence fell. After a while, Tora said more calmly, “Mind you, when I first met him, I made the same mistake. You see, it’s all that book learning that makes him a bit stiff when it comes to rules, and I thought he was cruel and uncaring. As it turned out, he saved my neck when I was about to be taken up for a highwayman, and then he saved Genba and Hachiro from being arrested for murder, when all they’d done was to defend their honor. For that matter, he took you on, too, didn’t he? The way you looked back then, I wouldn’t have given you a chance.”

Saburo hung his head. “You’re right. I’m sorry I said what I did, but I think someone has to help Sachi and the schoolmaster.”

“Tell me about them.”

As they walked, Saburo told the story from the beginning: his meeting with Shokichi and the murder in the bathhouse, his break-up with Shokichi and his decision to solve the murder himself, his visit to Nakamura’s house, and the plight of the schoolmaster. He summed up, “When I saw what that crook had brought this poor family to, I knew there was no point in hunting down all the other borrowers. They’re all going to be the same kind of poor devils. That’s when I went to ask the master’s advice.”

Tora had listened without interrupting. Now he said, “You can’t know that they’re all the same. But I’ll help you as much as I can, and Genba, too. Well, here we are. Let’s talk to Kobe. Maybe we can see this blind girl of yours and find out if she knows anything.”

Kobe was busy and made them wait. They sat outside his office, watching the coming and going of constables and senior police officers.

“So you and Shokichi have broken up?” Tora asked after a while.

Saburo’s irritation with Shokichi’s unreasonable behavior rose again. “She says she’ll have nothing more to do with me. That sounded pretty final to me.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her so stubborn. Would you believe she expected me to attack the constables and free Sachi?”

Tora raised his brows. “Doesn’t sound like her. This Sachi, do you at all think she might have done it?”

Saburo looked morose. “Not really. But considering Shokichi’s behavior, it strikes me women lose their minds sometimes. Who’s to say Sachi didn’t cut Nakamura’s throat if he said something she didn’t like? Women!”

Tora laughed. “Let’s assume she didn’t do it. I like the moneylenders much better for it. They have no conscience. You know, we need to go to that bathhouse and start asking questions about the people who were there.”

Saburo slapped his forehead. “Of course. Honestly, the quarrel with Shokichi upset me so I couldn’t think straight.”

At this point, a constable stuck his head out of Kobe’s office and asked them to come in.

Kobe sat behind a desk that was laden with papers as usual. Several clerks worked on more paperwork.

The superintendent smiled. “So, what do you have to tell me? Did he go to check out that suicide?”

Tora grinned back. “Yes, sir. It worked beautifully. He not only looked at the room where the lady hanged herself, but he talked to three of the people living there. A really odd bunch of people, if you ask me. And he came away suspecting Abbot Genshin of having had a hand in it somehow. Apparently the abbot was a holy terror among the ladies in his younger years.”

Kobe laughed. “True, but these days the reverend abbot is in such great favor with the court and Buddhist hierarchy that he can certainly shrug off Lord Sugawara’s suspicions. I wish I’d been there.” He paused. Suddenly looking worried, he asked, “Did he think there was something wrong with that suicide?”

“Not really. He did look through the lady’s things and, as I said, he asked some questions. But he seems to be mostly curious why the lady and the others were living there.”