Twenty-two

Storm Warning

The following day passed with dreary slowness. Akitada chafed under his teaching duties, his mind distracted by thoughts of Tamako and the extraordinary way in which another human being had suddenly become his, closer than any sister ever could be, or any parent, and more necessary to him, in a way, than food, water or air. His skin warmed at the thought of holding her in his arms again.

However, he owed it to her and to her dead father to catch his murderer, and he was determined to do so this very night, before returning home. The risk, he hoped, would be negligible. He had guarded against surprises. Now that he had new responsibilities, he could not afford to play the hero.

These thoughts preoccupied him, causing him to forget to set the students a topic for their next lesson, and made him stare blankly at Ushimatsu when he asked permission to go to the latrine. Even after the students finally left, he sat looking dreamily into space.

"Sugawara? May I come in?"

Akitada blinked and saw to his astonishment the burly music master in his doorway. "Yes, of course, Sato."

"I took a chance." Sato bowed briefly and cast a glance at the papers scattered over Akitada's desk. "Am I interrupting?"

"Not at all. Please sit down. A cup of wine?"

In the slanting light of the setting sun, Sato's large eyes looked like black pools under his heavy brow. He seemed ill at ease. "I won't stay long. No, no wine, thank you. I came to see you on a personal matter." He sat.

Akitada asked, "What is it?"

"It's about Oe's murder. That police captain stopped by this afternoon to ask more questions. He sounded . . . I don't know . . . it seemed like a veiled threat. He said the case was about to be solved and that you were assisting the police. Is that true?"

Akitada felt a flash of irritation with Kobe. He had expected more discretion from the man. He said, "Kobe may have exaggerated. It is true that I have shared some of my conclusions."

Now Sato looked distinctly frightened. "I knew it. You told him about me, and now he thinks I did it! Please, you must believe me when I say that I had nothing to do with Oe's death."

Akitada raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think I suspect you?"

"Don't pretend!" cried Sato. "You saw me with Omaki, and I could tell what you thought of me. Then, as my lousy luck would have it, you walked in when my wife was visiting. When I could not explain the situation, you assumed I was entertaining another female, and that Oe was about to dismiss me with good cause. I'm the one with the perfect motive. Believe me, I often fantasized about killing the bastard, but I did not do it."

"That talented lady was your wife? In the Willow Quarter, I am told, she goes by the name Madame Sakaki."

Sato bit his lip. "Her professional name. She could hardly work there under my name."

"I see the problem. But surely you put your wife into an impossible situation? She is a true artist. Could she not have found a more respectable setting for her performances?"

A look of acute misery passed over Sato's face. "I know she deserves much better, but we are poor and have six small children and two sets of parents to support. My salary here does not begin to feed all those mouths. And I am afraid we are not in the class of those who are invited to the parties of the great."

Embarrassed by the naked shame in the other man's face, Akitada looked out at the deserted courtyard. The heat shimmered on the gravel, and there was a strange sulphurous hue to the green of the trees. A hot wind was rustling through the dry weeds outside the veranda. "I think," he said, turning back to Sato, "you should tell your story to the president of the university. I have found Bishop Sesshin a very understanding man, and he may be able to help your wife. He has many friends among the great.

"I wish I could be more reassuring about Kobe. Though I did not discuss your situation with him, he has other sources, and I am afraid he knows that Oe was not the kind of man who would have accepted your wife's occupation calmly."

Sato looked down at his clenched hands. "That was the main reason for all the subterfuge. But the more we tried to cover up, the more gossip we created. Because I went to the Willow Quarter regularly to watch over my wife, I soon had a reputation of being a drunkard and womanizer. I got Omaki as a student on one of my visits. My wife was against the private lessons, but we needed the money. Oh, that pompous devil Oe would not begin to know what it is to have a family and be poor." He gave Akitada a beseeching look. "But you, Sugawara, you have a mother and sisters to support, I'm told. You must know that I would never do anything so desperate as kill a man. If I were caught, my family would starve to death. Please speak to Kobe for me, will you?"

They looked at each other. Akitada tried to reassure the man. "I know exactly what you mean and I believe you. Do not worry about Kobe! Go home to your wife and children, and tomorrow speak to Sesshin."

Tears of gratitude welled up in Sato's eyes. Too overcome to speak, he bowed very deeply and left. His footsteps receded quickly, and silence fell over the courtyard again.

Akitada sat, thinking of the devotion of those two people to each other and their family. He had himself only just come to understand fully the sacrifice a man made to the one he loved. He, too, would gladly accept any hardship and humiliation to secure Tamako's happiness.

It was then that the sound of distant thunder startled him. He rose to walk outside. The sun, bright as molten gold, was disappearing over the tiled rooftops of the student dormitories, but the sky northward and to the east was filling rapidly with heavy, roiling black clouds. A storm was moving in, and the long heat wave was finally about to break. Akitada thought worriedly that the weather might keep his visitor away.

Thunder growled again. Sighing, Akitada returned to his classroom to pass the time till darkness fell by grading his student papers.

He had to light his oil lamp early. It spread a yellow glow over his papers, but left the corners of the room in murky shadows. There was, from time to time, a far-off rumble of thunder, but the storm seemed to hold off.

He was not sure how long he had been working when he heard the sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel of the courtyard. When he glanced outside, there was still some faint light in the east. Surely it was too early! And Kobe had not arrived.

Feeling a sudden twinge of nervousness, he forced himself to remain calm by breathing deeply and concentrating on the coming encounter. The steps ascended the wooden stairs, approached to within a few feet of the open door, and then halted outside in the murky gloom.

"Please come in!" Akitada called out.

To his stunned surprise, the tall figure of Ishikawa stepped through his doorway. The student looked positively frightening in the uncertain light and against the backdrop of dark purple clouds. His face was still dreadfully disfigured by swellings and bruises. Both his scalp and his face were covered with stubbly growth that, together with his stained and torn robe, made him look like a cutthroat. Moreover, his sneering expression and distinctly threatening manner signalled that this visit was more than just ill-timed.

"Working late all by yourself?" the student scoffed, looking about with a mocking grin. "What an admirable devotion to duty!"

Akitada rinsed out his brush and laid it on its rest. "How did you get out of jail and what do you want?" he asked curtly.