Akitada sighed. "So much for protecting the reputation of the university. But I must say, I am relieved that he has not been able to fool anyone. It means that he has gone as far as he can in the government."

"A tadpole can only turn into a frog," Seimei pointed out with great satisfaction.

"Yes." Akitada glanced at the document boxes. "How are the case reviews going?"

"All is well. No new business has come in since you left, and I can keep up easily with the ongoing work."

Akitada touched the old man's shoulder. "Well done, old friend! I don't know what I would do without you. I especially admire your handling of the clerk from records. I'm afraid I have to go back now. Professor Hirata and I are hoping to confront the culprits in the blackmail scheme." He walked to the door, then added, "By the way, one of the students has been arrested for the murder of the girl in the park. I believe he is innocent and have promised him some help."

He left before Seimei could ask questions.

• • •

Akitada's optimistic expectation of a rapid disengagement from Hirata's problems and the Hirata family was doomed to failure. When he passed the gate leading into the courtyard of the Temple of Confucius, he became aware that something was wrong.

It was a flash of red that caught his eye first. He stopped to look and saw a group of red-coated policemen guarding the temple steps against a handful of curious spectators.

With a strange sense of being about to confirm a nagging fear, Akitada joined the onlookers just as a glowering Captain Kobe emerged onto the veranda. He saw Akitada immediately and his expression turned even grimmer.

"I knew you would show up sooner or later," he growled. "Come up here!"

Akitada thought Kobe's manner more than usually rude, but complied. When he reached the top of the steps, he asked, "What has happened here?"

Kobe did not answer. Instead he walked to the open door of the temple hall, where he looked back and said, "I was told that you came to the jail to see the student who killed the pregnant girl."

Akitada was beginning to lose his temper. "You have the wrong man again," he snapped. "Nagai is as innocent as the beggar."

Kobe drawled, "Of course! Like a newborn babe! Follow me!"

The temple hall was plunged into a general gloom. The corners were in deep shadow, and the red-lacquered columns looked black. A strange smell hung in the musty air. Akitada wrinkled his nose, wondering if a dog had got in and relieved himself. On the raised platform against the far wall loomed the life-sized statues of the sages, looking more massive and ghostly in the murk.

In front of the central figure of Confucius stood two people. Akitada recognized the frail Tanabe, who was leaning on Nishioka's arm.

"What is going on?" he asked Kobe again as they approached the group. The smell was strong and repulsive. There was something horribly familiar about it.

Nishioka turned and said in a tight voice, "It's Oe! What a dreadful thing!"

"Oe?" Akitada followed Nishioka's glance to the statue of the sage and saw for the first time that it seemed to be draped in a voluminous, bulging blue robe. It also seemed to have grown a second head, drooping forward across its chest, and another set of arms, hanging limply. Then he saw the blood. Of course! He had smelled it, and excrement. The blood had streamed down from beneath the second head, a broad band of dark brown across the front of Oe's elegant blue robe. Blood and excrement mixed in a large puddle on the floor between Oe's neatly shod feet, and blood had run to the edge of the platform and dripped down, forming a second, smaller puddle on the polished floorboards. Shockingly, Oe's robe had fallen open. Apart from his white silk socks and black slippers, the dead man was completely nude underneath.

Kobe's sharp voice cut across Akitada's shock. "Two murders in two days," he said. "Within steps of each other. This one happened last night. I believe we have the killer already in custody. Not even you could believe that there are two separate homicidal maniacs loose in the university, Sugawara."

Akitada did not reply. His mind was reeling. Stepping up to the monstrous statue, he lifted the drooping head by its white topknot. Oe's sightless, bloodshot eyes stared back at him, his features distorted in death. The blood had poured from a deep gash nearly severing the head from the body. It was also apparent now what held the body upright. The killer had passed Oe's sash under his victim's armpits and slung it around the neck of the wooden figure of the sage. In death the body had slumped forward and the knees had buckled, but to a casual passerby its presence might not have been immediately noticeable in the dim hall.

As Akitada glanced down, he was struck again by the incongruity between the fine robe and neatly shod feet and the indecently exposed bulging stomach, the sagging folds of skin and the thin soiled legs with their varicose veins and age spots. Nudity, especially that of the elderly, negated the image of power and rank. Behind the pomp and circumstance was the reality of human frailty and imperfection. Someone had been at pains to reveal the real Oe to the eyes of the world.

Turning to his colleagues, Akitada asked, "Who found him?"

Tanabe was very pale and trembled. His lips moved but produced no sound. After a moment, Nishioka said, in an unnaturally subdued tone, "I did. It was a shock. Since there are no classes today, Professor Tanabe and I planned to spend the morning working on a new glossary for the Analects. I passed through the hall twice without noticing anything amiss. Then, the third time— I was returning a document to the library— I saw an odd reflection in a spot of sunlight." He looked at the shadowy dais. "It was midday then and the sun was just right. It came in through the open door. Anyway, something glistened. When I came closer, I noticed the smell, and then I found the blood on the dais. And . . . and then I looked up to see . . ." He broke off with a shudder. Tanabe patted Nishioka's hand with his own trembling fingers.

Akitada moved the body's arms and hands. They felt quite cold, and the stiffness which follows death had passed away already. The blood on the floor had congealed and no longer reflected light, and that on the robe was quite dry. Kobe was right. Oe had died during the night. Akitada turned to the captain. "I don't suppose you have had time to question people," he said briskly. "We must find out who was the last to see Oe alive."

Kobe, arms folded across his chest, looked grimly amused. "Since I am a mere police officer, I have been waiting for you. No doubt you will tell me how to proceed," he said, "whenever you are quite finished with your own investigation."

Akitada flushed. "I beg your pardon," he said stiffly. "I realize this is your case, but there are some things . . . ."He stopped. Perhaps it was better not to mention the details of Oe's involvement in the examination fraud or the blackmail letter at this time and in front of witnesses, so he continued, "Well, I have taken an interest in the student Nagai whom you seem to hold responsible for this murder also. Oe attended the poetry contest yesterday and became quite drunk and quarrelsome. He was led away early by his assistant Ono and a graduate student called Ishikawa. My colleague Professor Hirata was with them before they left the pavilion."

Kobe regarded him fixedly. "Your two colleagues here have already informed me of those facts. As you maintain your conviction that Nagai is innocent, can you provide a motive for the murder of this man?"