Read Online The Fire Kimono by Laura Joh Rowland - Free Book Online Page A

Sano’s mother. “You know me, don’t you, Etsuko-san?” He stopped in front of her. His gaze was hard, threatening. “Even though it’s been forty-three years since we last met.”
    As she squinted up at him, her cloudy eyes filled with wonder and fright. Her face blanched; she swayed. Sano put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
    “She recognizes me,” Doi said. The shogun nodded; Lord Matsudaira looked satisfied, as did his friend Lord Arima. “She knows the truth.”
    Sano had always taken his mother for granted, at face value. He was ashamed to realize that even though he loved her, he’d never been interested enough in her to think she’d had a life apart from him. Now she seemed a woman of mystery. The only fact that Sano could be absolutely certain of was that his parents had wed six months after the Great Fire. He’d seen the date written in their family record. What had happened to his mother between then and her stint as a lady-in-waiting in Tadatoshi’s household?
    “She knew Tadatoshi,” Doi said. “She saw him every day while she served his mother and sisters.”
    Sano couldn’t ask his questions even though Doi might very well have the answers. He couldn’t afford to expose more ignorance and put himself at a worse disadvantage with his enemies. And he had business more urgent than dredging up his mother’s hidden past. He had to defend her against Doi’s accusation.
    “Suppose she did know Tadatoshi,” Sano said. “That doesn’t mean she killed him.”
    “That’s not all there is to my story,” Colonel Doi said. “Your mother plotted to kidnap Tadatoshi.”
    More outraged than ever, Sano exclaimed, “That’s ridiculous! She would never have done such a thing.”
    “Perhaps not on her own,” Doi said, “but she didn’t act alone. She had an accomplice. He was Tadatoshi’s tutor, a young Buddhist monk named Egen. They wanted to extort ransom money from Tadatoshi’s father.”
    “How do you know?” Sano said.
    Maybe it’s true, the detective part of his mind whispered. You can’t decide that a suspect is innocent just because you want her to be. And how well do you really know your mother?
    “I overheard Egen and your mother talking,” Doi said. “They said they needed money and Tadatoshi’s father was rich. Your mother said, ‘He’d do anything to save Tadatoshi.’ Egen said, ‘We’ll watch Tadatoshi and wait for the right moment.’”
    The dubiousness of this evidence didn’t ease Sano’s fears for or about his mother. “This conversation took place when?”
    “About a month before Tadatoshi disappeared.”
    “That would be forty-three years ago,” Sano said. “What a memory you have, if you can remember an entire conversation after that long.”
    “My memory is good,” Doi said, refusing to be shaken.
    “Then let’s test your memory a little further. Did you actually hear my mother and this tutor say they were going to kidnap Tadatoshi and collect ransom?”
    “Well, no,” Doi admitted reluctantly. “But that’s what they meant to do.”
    “If so, then why didn’t you stop them?” Sano said. “You were Tadatoshi’s bodyguard. Why did you just twiddle your thumbs and let him be kidnapped?”
    “I didn’t realize what their conversation meant,” Doi said, defensive now. “Not until yesterday, after the skeleton was found. Before then I’d always thought Tadatoshi died in the Great Fire. So did everyone else. But now I know better.”
    “Was there any ransom demand ever made?” Sano said.
    “Well, no, but-”
    “You didn’t hear my mother and the tutor admit they killed Tadatoshi, did you? Because if you did, you’d have taken action against them then.”
    Doi’s testy expression was his answer. “When they kidnapped him, something must have gone wrong and they killed him instead of ransoming him. He was murdered, and she did it.”
    He pointed at Sano’s mother. Lord Matsudaira and Lord Arima nodded judiciously. The shogun