Read Online The Old Men of Omi by I. J. Parker - Free Book Online Page A

eyeball appears to have many small red dots in it.”
    The others knelt to study the dead man’s eyes. The coroner raised the second eyelid. Both eyes were indeed as he had described.
    Akitada sat back on his heels. “What does it mean?”
    Doctor Kimura spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “I don’t know … or at least I hesitate to say.”
    “Speak up, man,” Takechi urged. “We can always decide later if it’s significant.”
    “Well, I’ve seen this once before. On a murder victim in the capital. The corpse—it was a middle-aged woman—had died of strangulation. Her husband was her killer. I was a student at the university then and for once our professor, who normally lectured, took us to the police morgue, so that we might observe a female body. The secrets of the female are normally hidden from physicians who must diagnose and treat illnesses based on book learning.” He blushed a little when he met Akitada’s surprised eyes.
    Akitada smiled. “I would think that a man with your intellectual curiosity would have remedied this by visits to the willow quarter.”
    The blush intensified, but Doctor Kimura said, “Yes, but I was very poor in those days. I found that such education seemed well beyond my reach.”
    Akitada and Takechi chuckled at this, and after a moment, the young coroner joined them. The moment of amusement over, Akitada pointed out, “The woman was strangled. I assume her killer left marks on her throat?”
    Kimura nodded. “That is so.”
    “But the judge’s neck bears no marks of strangulation. How then can the two cases be related?”
    Again Kimura made the helpless gesture. “I cannot account for it. I only mentioned it because the spots on the eyes were the same.”
    Akitada bent over the corpse and examined his face and throat carefully. When he straightened, he shook his head. “Nothing. How do you account for the bruise to the back of his head?”
    “He could have fallen backward and hit his head.”
    Takechi said quickly, “He was not lying on his back when we found him. He was on his side, almost on his front.”
    “It is possible that the fall merely stunned him and he moved, perhaps in an effort to get up.” But Kimura looked worried.
    “You think something is wrong,” Akitada said. “That someone may have caused this death?”
    Kimura stared down at the judge’s body. “I don’t know, sir. I have no proof. We will cut him open, but I may not find anything useful. He was an old man, and not very healthy. He could have become dizzy from an excess of blood in his head, or its opposite. That would have caused him to fall. Death came a little later. Alas, dead men don’t speak.”
    Takechi nodded. “I get it. It’s a natural death after all. Very well, finish the examination and let me have the report.”
    Kimura bowed, and they left.
    “What do you think, sir?” Takechi asked when they reached his office again.
    “The coroner appears to be a very careful man. You’re lucky.”
    “Yes. I think so. But I meant about the judge?”
    “I think you’ve done all that was required, and so has Kimura. I shall tell the governor.”
    ∞
    Something nagged at Akitada after he parted from Takechi. Perhaps it was simply the fact that he had known Nakano and learned more about the man today. The judge had not been a likable man. The way he treated his servants proved this, as did the fact that he appeared to have no friends and that any family he had stayed well away from him. He had also been a miser and was probably quite rich by now. As a judge he had been corrupt. Such men make enemies and are likely to end up murdered.
    On an impulse, he returned to the judge’s house where he found that the housekeeper’s husband had returned. He was playing with the toddler, carrying him on his shoulder while galloping around the courtyard. The child shrieked with delight and his father looked happy.
    Akitada stopped. Just so he had carried his own children. And Yori