The Fire Kimono

14

Reiko was surprised to see that her mother-in-law had made a miraculous recovery.

Etsuko had felt well enough to rise from her bed this morning, wash and dress herself, and eat breakfast. Now she strolled with Reiko and Akiko through the garden. The air was cool and humid. Clouds had blown down from the hills, threatening rain. Akiko toddled beside Etsuko and clung to her hand. Reiko walked on Etsuko’s other side. She was hurt because Akiko had refused to hold hands with her and wanted Grandma between them. That did not improve Reiko’s feelings toward her mother-in-law, an interloper as well as a suspect in a murder case that threatened her family.

Akiko paused to examine a rock. Etsuko smiled as she chatted with the little girl. Reiko could guess the reason for her restored health.

“I suppose my husband told you what he learned yesterday?” Reiko said.

“Yes.” Etsuko’s face had relaxed into her usual serene contentment. “He said that Lady Ateki and Oigimi spoke well of me. Things are not as bad as before.”

“But not as good as we might wish.” Reiko tasted the acid in her own voice. She knew that her jealousy was irrational and unbecoming, but she had better reason to be displeased with her mother-in-law. The trouble wasn’t over, Etsuko had done little to abate it, and Reiko was having a hard time treating Etsuko gently, as Sano wanted her to do. “Did my husband also tell you that Hana has given you an alibi?”

“I believe he said something to that effect.”

This was an example of the formal speech that sometimes slipped into Etsuko’s conversation, that Reiko had thought didn’t jibe with her humble background. “But when I talked to you yesterday, you said there wasn’t anyone who could vouch that you were someplace other than near the shrine when Tadatoshi was murdered. Then Hana said she could; she was with you. Which is the truth?”

Akiko broke away from them, ran to the flower bed, and bent to sniff the blossoms. A shadow of anxiety dimmed Etsuko’s expression. “I wasn’t in my right mind yesterday. I was confused. If Hana says we were together, then we were.”

How glibly she’d explained the discrepancies between their stories, Reiko thought; and how shrewd of Etsuko to pick the one that served her better. Sano would probably excuse his mother and believe the alibi. He couldn’t see her intelligence through her humble guise.

“Very well,” Reiko said, “but there’s a problem with that alibi, even if it’s real.”

“Oh?”

“Devoted servants will lie for their employers,” Reiko said. “Lord Matsudaira knows that, and he’ll be sure to point it out to the shogun.”

“We’ll just have to pray they believe Hana,” Etsuko said, clearly less assured than her words.

“We need to do more than pray,” Reiko said. “What would really help is someone else to vouch for your whereabouts during the murder. Can you think of anyone?”

“There’s no one. I told you yesterday.” A tinge of sharpness crept into Etsuko’s voice.

“What about your relatives?” Reiko said, introducing this topic that Etsuko had seemed unwilling to discuss.

Etsuko hunched her shoulders; she took on a tense, cornered air. She looked across the garden at Akiko smelling flowers, as if she wished she could escape Reiko and join the child. “They weren’t with me during the Great Fire.”

“Maybe they can still help,” Reiko said. “The Kumazawa are high-ranking Tokugawa vassals. They might have some influence with the shogun.” Etsuko and Sano needed all the powerful allies they could get. “Shall I ask my husband to contact them?”

Reiko was avidly curious about the Kumazawa, her husband and children’s new blood kin. She wanted to meet them. But Etsuko cried in panic, “No! Please!”

“Why not?”

“… I–I don’t want to see them. And they… they won’t want anything to do with me.”

“When did you last see your relatives?” Reiko asked.

Etsuko shook her head. She inched away from Reiko, who followed. “A few months after the Great Fire.”

Tadatoshi had died during or shortly after the fire; Etsuko and her family had become estranged at around the same time. Did the estrangement have bearing upon the murder? Reiko began to believe so. Something bad had happened back then, and it wasn’t just the Great Fire. “Why did you lose contact with your family?”

“I don’t remember… it was so long ago… the people closest to me are all dead now… it doesn’t matter…” Etsuko’s evasions trailed off in a shaky sigh.

Reiko felt her patience dwindling fast. “I think it does matter,” she said, for a new idea had occurred to her. “I think they know something about you that you don’t want anyone else to know. Am I right?”

“No. With all due respect, Honorable Daughter-in-law, you’re talking nonsense.” The fear that shone in her eyes belied Etsuko’s words.

“Is it something about the murder?” Reiko persisted.

Etsuko turned her back on Reiko. “I won’t put up with this,” she said, her voice tight.

“You’ll have to put up with much worse if my husband can’t clear your name.” Reiko kept her own voice low so Akiko wouldn’t hear her, but her own temper snapped. “You’ll be executed. Or maybe you don’t care. But what about your son? What about your grandchildren?”

She gestured angrily toward Akiko, who picked a flower, oblivious to her elders. Reiko realized that this was her first quarrel with Etsuko, and that Sano wouldn’t approve, but ten years of peaceful if strained relations between her and her mother-in-law had just ended. “Do you want them to die? Don’t you owe it to them to be honest, to cooperate?”

Etsuko whirled. She faced Reiko, her hands curled into claws, her usually mild face suffused with rage. “Of course I care! I protected my son before you were even born. I would do anything in my power to protect him and his children now. And I’m cooperating as best I can. What else do you want me to do? Confess to the murder?”

She laughed, a harsh, mournful sound. “I would confess if it would save them. But it would only condemn them to die alongside me. If you believe otherwise, then you’re not as smart as you think you are, Honorable Daughter-in-law!”

As Etsuko glared at her, Reiko stood openmouthed with shock. It was as if a domestic cat had suddenly turned into a lion, roared, and charged. Reiko saw a different, stronger, ruthless person in Etsuko, a person that she knew Sano had never seen.

She saw a woman capable of murder.

Every instinct told her that her mother-in-law was guilty.

A fretful wind swirled around them. Raindrops dashed the garden. Above them, black clouds encroached on the blue sky. Then Reiko heard Sano’s voice from a distance, calling, “Mother! Reiko san! I have good news!”

Sano hurried across the garden toward his mother, wife, and daughter. He’d ridden ahead to Edo Castle with Marume, Fukida, and some of his troops while Hirata and the others followed with the tutor. He’d arranged an audience with the shogun, then stopped at home. Now he was glad to see that his mother had recovered from her ordeal, and he anticipated that what he had to say would make her feel even better.

She was standing with her back to him, so he couldn’t immediately see her face. He did see Reiko’s. Its expression told him that his wife and mother had been quarreling. Then his mother turned, Akiko ran to him, and Sano forgot to wonder why.

“What is it?” his mother said, hopeful yet not daring to believe.

“I’ve found Egen the tutor,” Sano said.

“How wonderful!” Reiko said. The anger on her face changed to a smile of admiration and eagerness for details.

His mother’s eyes went so wide that Sano could see the yellowed whites encircling the brown irises. The pupils dilated; the blood drained from her face. She swayed.

“Mother!” Sano caught her before she could topple. “What’s wrong?”

She gasped. “Nothing. I–I just felt a little dizzy.”

Akiko wailed in alarm. Sano said, “It’s all right, Akiko. Grandma’s just having a spell. You go and play now.”

The little girl ran off with a nervous, uncomprehending look backward. Sano saw the color return to his mother’s cheeks. She shook him off, and her eyes shone with an ardor he’d never observed in her before. She clasped her hands, which trembled.

“Where is Egen?” she cried.

Her reaction was extreme, considering the fact that she’d claimed she hardly remembered the tutor. Sano saw Reiko eyeing her with puzzlement. He said, “We found him in Kodemmacho. He’s on his way to the castle.”

“I want to see him!”

“Why are you so eager to renew an acquaintance with the man after forty-three years?”

Her gaze skittered. “I’m just curious.”

That answer didn’t satisfy Sano, but he didn’t have time to press his mother for an explanation. Neither did Reiko ask; she kept silent. “I’m taking Egen to the shogun,” Sano said. “He’s agreed to testify that you and he didn’t kidnap or kill Tadatoshi. He’s going to exonerate you.”

“He’s coming to save me.” As his mother murmured the words, she pressed her hands over her heart. A radiant glow suffused her. The years seemed to fall away from her like a dropped robe.

Sano was disconcerted to see in her the beautiful, passionate young woman she’d once been, whom he’d never known. “After Egen finishes testifying, I’ll bring him here.”

“No! I can’t wait. Take me to the palace with you!”

“That’s not a good idea,” Sano said. “Lord Matsudaira and Colonel Doi will surely come to hear him testify. You’d have to face them again.”

“I don’t care!” She grabbed Sano’s sleeve. “I must go. Please!”

Sano had never seen her so excited about anything, and he hated to deny her what she wanted so badly. She might as well hear Egen testify on her behalf and the shogun pronounce her innocent.

“All right,” Sano said. “Let’s go.”

As they hurried through the garden together, she smoothed her robes and hair. Sano felt a twinge of a new suspicion that he couldn’t, or perhaps didn’t want to, define.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Reiko watching his mother. His wife’s face was an exact mirror of his misgivings.

At the palace, Sano and his mother knelt on the lower level of the floor in front of the dais, Detectives Marume and Fukida behind him. The shogun occupied the dais, Yoritomo at his left, Lord Matsudaira at his right. Colonel Doi knelt on the upper level, near Lord Matsudaira. Along the walls Lord Matsudaira’s troops, Sano’s, and the shogun’s guards stood in tense proximity.

“Well, ahh, Chamberlain Sano, who is this witness that you’ve gathered us all to hear?” the shogun asked.

“It’s Egen,” Sano said, “your cousin Tadatoshi’s former tutor.”

Yoritomo didn’t look happy. Neither did Lord Matsudaira and Colonel Doi.

“So you’ve found him,” Lord Matsudaira said in a flat tone.

“I suppose you didn’t think I would.” Sano turned to Colonel Doi. “You must have been counting on Egen never showing up and contradicting your lies.”

The shogun frowned as if noticing and trying to understand the hostility between the three men. “Don’t, ahh, keep us in suspense any longer, Chamberlain Sano. Where is the witness?”

The door at the back of the room opened. In walked Hirata, escorting Egen. The man had closed his kimono, tied a sash around his waist, and donned a pair of leggings; but the clothes were worn and stained, his frizzy gray hair a mess. The sight of his pockmarked face sent a stir through the assembly.

“Smallpox!” the shogun cried, holding his sleeve over his nose and mouth to prevent the evil spirit of the disease from entering. “Is he contagious?”

“I doubt it, Your Excellency.” Sano looked at his mother.

Her eager smile had melted into stunned astonishment. Egen gazed around the room, remarkably nonchalant in the face of the repugnance he’d aroused. He grinned as he knelt and bowed to everyone.

“Egen?” she blurted.

The old man glanced in her direction, then said to Sano, “Is that your mother?”

“Yes,” Sano said.

She and Egen regarded each other. Her expression showed her disappointment. “You’re so changed,” she whispered.

“Forty-three years will do that to a person.” His expression showed only mild curiosity. “Did I know you very well when we were living at Tadatoshi’s house?”

Sano saw woe and disbelief in his mother’s eyes. She said, “Don’t you remember?” Sano wondered why she was so upset, but now wasn’t the time to ask.

Egen turned away from her to face Colonel Doi, who glared at him. “Is that you, Doi-san? You’re certainly well preserved.”

“Let’s stop the chatter and get down to business,” Lord Matsudaira interrupted.

The shogun hesitated as if seeking an excuse to contradict his cousin; not finding one, he nodded. Yoritomo looked anxious. Sano said, “Egen, tell them that Colonel Doi lied about you and my mother.”

Egen sat straighter, unfazed by all the attention on him. Breath swelled his chest. He spoke in a deep, resonant voice: “He didn’t lie. Not exactly.”