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.Junketsu-in hadn't cared whether Haru was punished by the law, as long as the girl no longer troubled her, and Reiko guessed why she hadn't reported Haru later."Then I remembered that I was the only one who'd seen Haru kill Oyama," the abbess said, confirming Reiko's guess."She could deny everything.It would be my word against hers, and Anraku might take her side.She could get away with murder!"Outrage shook Junketsu-in's voice."But I wouldn't let her.After I followed her back to the cottage, I slipped off my sandals, which had thick wooden soles, and grabbed one." The abbess raised her hand, the fingers curled around an imaginary shoe."I stole up behind Haru, and I hit her on the head with my sandal."Junketsu-in pantomimed the blow."Haru fell down and didn't move, but she was breathing.I went to the storehouse and got some oil and rags.I tied the rags around a stick to make a torch.Then I returned to the cottage.Haru was still unconscious.The lantern was still burning in the room where she'd left Commander Oyama, and I lit the torch there.I poured oil on the floor and along the corridor, and I ran around splashing more kerosene on the outside of the cottage.I touched the torch to the wall, and it burst into flames.I tucked the oil jar in the bushes and put on my shoes.Then I went back to my quarters, leaving Haru lying in the garden.I knew that her husband had died in a fire, and I wanted people to think she'd burned Oyama to death."This was how Haru had come to be found at the scene, ready to receive the blame for the fire and Oyama's murder, Reiko understood at last.A wondrous sense of vindication momentarily lifted her above her fear.Haru hadn't murdered Oyama in cold blood; she hadn't set the fire.That she was innocent of those crimes indicated that her husband's death had been accidental, as she'd claimed.Haru was indeed a liar and troublemaker, yet also a victim.Reiko's instincts had been true all along.Haru had been listening with an expression of mingled disbelief and confusion.She said to Junketsu-in, "It was you who framed me."The abbess sneered."I just made you face the consequences of your actions.""And you killed Chie and Radiant Spirit." Now Haru spoke in a tone of angry realization."You were jealous of them because Anraku liked Chie, and Radiant Spirit was his son.""I had nothing to do with their deaths," Junketsu-in retorted."They weren't even in the cottage when I was there."Reiko, elated by personal triumph, seized the chance to reintroduce the issue of Anraku's culpability."The abbess's story explains why you were unconscious in the garden and couldn't remember anything about the fire," she said, "but not how Chie and the boy died.That was Anraku's doing."Haru swiveled her head toward Anraku, refocusing her fury on him.New hope kindled in Reiko, but he gave her a disdainful smile and said, "Dr.Miwa shall tell the rest of the story."Behind Haru, the doctor started in fear; air whistled through his teeth."Oh, but --- " Anraku's gaze impaled him, and he surrendered."Chie became unhappy here after she bore her son.She wanted to care for Radiant Spirit herself, but the nuns took him away to raise with the other children and rarely allowed her to see him.She disliked the way the children were trained.She couldn't understand that prayer and fasting builds their spirits, and she complained whenever Radiant Spirit was beaten for disobeying."Reiko thought of the boy's bruises and emaciated body, the result of the cruel indoctrination."Soon Chie began questioning our other practices," Dr.Miwa said."She objected to my experiments --- she said it was wrong to give helpless people medicines that made them sick instead of healing them.She demanded to know the purpose of the potions we mixed.When she learned that they were poisons for contaminating the wells in Edo, she tried to persuade me that what we were doing was wrong.She begged me to stop.We argued, and she ran from me."The maltreatment of the child had broken down Chie's loyalty to the sect, Reiko noted.The argument that Haru had described to Sano really had occurred, although he'd misinterpreted it."But I didn't kill Chie," said Dr.Miwa, quailing as Haru wheeled around and pointed the sword at him."All I did was tell Kumashiro that she was becoming a problem."A chill coursed through Reiko.The doctor had passed along the "problem" to the man holding her --- the man responsible for the deaths of Chie and son.Now, as Anraku fixed his compelling gaze on Kumashiro, Reiko felt the priest stiffen, then yield."I had Chie watched," Kumashiro said."Just before dawn on the day of the fire, she stole her son from the nursery.My men and I caught them as they were running toward the gate.I dealt with tbam,according to the usual procedure for handling escapees."By strangling them, Reiko thought, appalled by Kumashiro's callousness and abhorring the close physical contact with him."As my men and I carried the bodies to the tunnel entrance, a watchman ran up and said the cottage was on fire.He'd found Haru unconscious outside.That gave me an idea [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]