Assassin's Touch by Laura Joh Rowland Read Free Book Online

Reiko shut the door and turned to Yugao. The woman slouched, her face concealed behind her tousled hair, her robe hanging off her shoulder. Pity filled Reiko.
    “Here, let me fix your clothes,” she said.
    As she touched Yugao, the woman flinched. She tossed back her hair and stared at Reiko. “Who are you?”
    Reiko had expected Yugao to be thankful for her protection from the guards, but Yugao was wary, hostile. Seeing her at close view for the first time, Reiko noticed that her complexion was ashen from fatigue and malnourishment, her flinty eyes shadowed underneath, her lips chapped. Harsh treatment by the jailers had surely taught her to be leery toward everyone. Although she was accused and perhaps guilty of a serious crime, Reiko felt her sympathy toward Yugao increase .
    “I’m the magistrate’s daughter,” Reiko said. “My name is Reiko.”
    A long gaze of mutual curiosity passed between them. Reiko watched Yugao appraise her tangerine-colored silk kimono printed with a willow tree pattern, her upswept coiffure, her carefully applied white makeup and red lip rouge, her teeth blackened according to fashionable custom for married women of her class. Meanwhile, Reiko perceived Yugao’s jailhouse stink of urine, oily hair, and unwashed body, and saw resentment and envy in Yugao’s eyes. They looked at each other as though across a sea, the highborn lady on one shore, the outcast on the opposite.
    “What do you want?” Yugao said.
    Her rude tone surprised Reiko. Maybe the woman had never been taught good manners. Reiko wondered what station in society Yugao had originated from and what she’d done to become a hinin , but it didn’t seem a good time to ask.
    “I want to talk to you, if I may,” Reiko said.
    Suspicion hooded Yugao’s gaze. “About what?”
    “About the murder of your family,” Reiko said.
    “Why?”
    “The magistrate is having trouble deciding whether to convict you,” Reiko said. “That’s why he postponed his verdict. He’s asked me to investigate the murders and find out if you’re guilty or innocent.”
    Yugao wrinkled her brow, clearly perplexed by the situation. “I said I did it. Isn’t that enough?”
    “He doesn’t think so,” Reiko said, “and neither do I.”
    “Why not?”
    This conversation reminded Reiko of the time when Masahiro had stepped on a thistle and she’d had to pull the spines from his bare foot. “One reason is that we need to know why your parents and sister were killed,” Reiko said. “You didn’t say.”
    “But…” Yugao shook her head in confusion. “But I was arrested.”
    Reiko could sense her thinking that her arrest should have guaranteed a conviction, as everyone knew it would have under ordinary circumstances. “Just because you were caught at the scene of the crime doesn’t prove you did it,” Reiko explained.
    “So what?” Anger tinged Yugao’s query.
    “That’s another reason my father wants me to investigate the crime.” Reiko was increasingly puzzled by the woman’s attitude. “Why were you so eager to confess? Why do you want us to believe you killed your family?”
    “Because I did,” Yugao said. Her tone and expression implied that Reiko must be stupid not to understand.
    Reiko stifled a sigh of frustration and a growing dislike of the ill-natured woman. “All right,” she said, “let’s suppose for the moment that you stabbed your parents and sister to death. Why did you?”
    Sudden fear glinted in Yugao’s eyes; she turned away from Reiko. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    Reiko deduced that whether or not Yugao had killed her family, the motive for the murders lay at the root of her odd behavior. “Why not? Since you’ve already confessed, what harm is there in explaining yourself?”
    “It’s none of your business,” Yugao said, her profile stony and unrelenting.
    “Were there problems between you and your mother and father and sister?” Reiko pressed.
    Yugao didn’t answer. Reiko