Part 12 (1/2)

The guards brought out the corpse, now shrouded in white cloth. They carried it into Dr. Huygens's ground-floor surgery near the east guardhouse. The room ran the whole depth of the building, with large windows overlooking both street and back garden. Cabinets and shelves lined the walls; two long, waist-high tables with accompanying seats occupied the center. The guards unloaded the corpse onto a table. Servants appeared and started to open the shutters.

oNo. Light the lamps. Sano wanted no witnesses. oBring water and cloths.

The servants obeyed. Sano ordered the staff away. At last, he and the barbarian doctor were alone.

oUnwrap the body, Sano told Dr. Huygens. He had no intention of physically handling the examination if he didn't have to. Already he sensed death's foul aura seeping through the white shroud, suffusing the dim, hot surgery.

The barbarian seemed not to share the j.a.panese distaste for death. Gently, but without squeamishness, he uncovered Director Spaen's head, then peeled back the cloth to reveal the mutilated torso and stiff limbs. He didn't flinch at the nauseous odor of decay; he surveyed the killer's work with calm detachment.

Sano experienced a sudden qualm. Shouldn't the barbarian show surprise at Spaen's wounds, or display respect for his dead superior? Or had he known what to expect? Sano tried to dismiss these disturbing thoughts while he watched Dr. Huygens examine the crucifix around Spaen's neck, then the stab wounds. Perhaps the doctor had merely seen so many terrible deaths that he'd grown hardened to such experiences.

Dr. Huygens shook his head. oThis not kill, he said, pointing to the crucifix's chain. oBody swell up in water. Then ” He pantomimed choking, then indicated the stab wounds. oI think this not kill, too.

Taken aback, Sano said, oWhat do you mean? Surely that alone ” he pointed to the hacked area below Spaen's breast ” owould have been fatal. And he was badly beaten.

oNo. No. Dr. Huygens waved his hands and muttered in Dutch, obviously frustrated by his lack of j.a.panese vocabulary. oBeating not enough kill. And see? He raised an imaginary knife and pretended to stab Sano, who instinctively threw up an arm to s.h.i.+eld himself and reached for his sword. oYou protect, you fight. But Spaen ”

The doctor touched the dead man's unmarked arms and hands, where Spaen would have suffered defensive injuries during a knife attack. oHe very strong. Good fighter. No let kill easy. He hurt after die.

oWonderful. Sano expelled his breath in a gust of exasperation. The only thing about this case he'd been sure of was how Spaen had died. Now the Dutchman had dispelled that certainty. Thinking aloud, Sano said, oMaybe Spaen was killed while asleep. But there was no blood in his room. Maybe he was drowned. But why would the killer mutilate him after he was already dead? Why not let everyone think it was an accident? And why put the crucifix around his neck?

Dr. Huygens bent over the corpse, probing with his finger the torn flesh around the worst wound, scrutinizing it over the top of his eyegla.s.ses. Then he opened a cabinet, muttering in Dutch.

Sano's breath caught when he saw the cabinet's contents: saws, hammers, pincers, clamps, probes, shears, and knives of every description. Tools of the s.h.i.+p surgeon's trade. Could one of them have inflicted Spaen's wounds?

Dr. Huygens selected a knife and a pair of pincers and set them on the table. Clearly intending to perform a dissection, he opened the shutters.

oNo! Sano hurried over and slammed them shut.

oNeed light. Need air, protested Dr. Huygens.

oWe can't let anyone see. Dissection is a crime in this country. Seeing the doctors blank look, Sano longed for a translator. But he couldn't risk letting Iis.h.i.+no or anyone else witness the dissection and report him for partic.i.p.ating in the practice of illegal foreign science, for which the penalty was execution. Sano rephrased his statement. oCutting a dead body is wrong in j.a.pan.

Comprehension lit the doctors face. oNot wrong in Netherlands, he said. oWe look in body, learn how work. Learn cure sick. Everyone watch. No punish. He studied Sano with puzzlement. oWhy bad here?

In the simplest language he could manage, Sano explained how the government so feared the encroachment of foreign ways that it forbade even beneficial barbarian practices. oI think the laws are wrong, he finished. oWe shouldn't let fear close our eyes to the truth, or try to shut out the world. There's so much I want to see and know, but can't.

Huygens nodded and smiled, and Sano knew the doctor grasped his meaning, and sympathized with his plight. He felt closer to this barbarian than to his compatriots who accepted the laws without question. An increasing sense of alienation frightened Sano. In his estrangement from lord and regime, could not the seeds of treason take root?

oYou go school? Huygens asked. At Sano's a.s.sent, he said, oWhat learn?

oHistory, Sano answered. oCalligraphy; mathematics; military strategy; the Chinese cla.s.sics; the martial arts. After I left school, I taught those subjects. But never science. Sano felt ashamed of his ignorance, and newly resentful of the laws that had restricted his education.

oAh. Huygens bobbed his head enthusiastically. oYou scholar, teacher. He thumped his chest. oLike me.

They smiled at each other. The tentative friends.h.i.+p between them deepened, and Sano gave in to an impulse to confide. oI would have remained a scholar and teacher for the rest of my life, he said, obut for family obligations. He described how his father, eager to improve their clan's status, had gotten him the job of police detective, which had led to his current position. oHave you any family?

The cheerfulness vanished from Huygens's plump face. oWife and son dead, he said somberly. oFather want me be scholar. In Netherlands, I doctor. I teach and study there; Paris and Rome, too. But no more.

He paused, as if mentally translating an explanation into j.a.panese. Sano waited, intrigued at the prospect of seeing into the life and soul of a barbarian.

Then the doctor forced a smile and said, oWe look Spaen's body now. We learn. Good, maybe. Yes? He walked back to the corpse, took up the knife, and beckoned. oBring lamp, please?

Disappointed, Sano hesitated while other concerns took precedence over his wish to further their acquaintance. Witnessing a dissection in the relative safety of Edo Morgue, which even the most conscientious spies avoided, was one thing; to do so with a barbarian on Des.h.i.+ma, with guards lurking nearby, after the solemn oath he'd taken... Madness! But Sano wanted the truth about Director Spaen's death. Without it, he might never identify the killer.

He picked up a lamp, joined Dr. Huygens at the table, and held the light over the corpse.

The doctor cut away pieces of torn flesh from in and around the chest wound. With the pincers, he lifted out blood clots, bone fragments, a snail that had lodged inside the opening. The odor of spoiled meat rose to Sano's nostrils. His stomach convulsed. To distract himself and thus prevent sickness, he concentrated on unclasping the chain around Spaen's neck and removing the crucifix, an important clue that he didn't want buried with the body.

oWhat are you looking for? he asked, suppressing a gag and hoping the procedure would be over soon.

Huygens spoke a word Sano couldn't understand. Deeper and deeper he probed, twisting the pincers, churning the flesh. Foul-smelling liquid oozed from the wound. Nausea kept Sano from pressing for an explanation, and in the silence he heard the ocean lapping against Des.h.i.+ma's foundations, and voices in the street. He hoped the guards would stay away. Then, with a soft click, the doctors pincers struck something hard.

oAh! Dr. Huygens exclaimed.

Failing to grasp the object with the pincers, he dropped them on the table, fetched a small saw, and cut away a b.l.o.o.d.y rib. Sano closed his eyes against the horrible grinding noise. When he opened them again, he saw Dr. Huygens reach into the wound.

oAh! Triumphantly the doctor pulled his slimy hand out of Spaen's chest. In a water bucket, he rinsed the pebble-sized metal sphere he'd found, then held it up.

Sano's heart began a slow descent as recognition struck him. oA bullet. Director Spaen was shot.

oShot. Yes! Dr. Huygens nodded and pantomimed firing a gun. In his excitement, he lapsed into Dutch, but Sano could guess what he was saying.

oAfter Spaen died, the killer tried to remove the bullet, and failed. Sano spoke reluctantly, delaying the inevitable conclusion. oSo he cut up the area around the gunshot wound, to disguise the hole. He hacked and struck the body to make it look like Spaen had been stabbed and beaten to death. Perhaps he's a Christian, and attached the crucifix as a gesture of atonement. Then he threw the body in the sea, hoping it would never be found.

From outside came voices, moving nearer. The examination was over, and Sano almost wished it had never happened.

oPrepare the body for the funeral, he told Dr. Huygens.

The results had changed the focus of his investigation and placed him in the dangerous position he'd hoped to avoid. Treason... the word echoed in his mind as the threat of death and disgrace loomed closer.

The barbarians on Des.h.i.+ma had no guns; all their weapons were confiscated when they entered the harbor. Therefore, the killer was j.a.panese: a fellow citizen, whom Sano must pursue at the risk of his own life.

Chapter 9.

REFRESHED FROM A good night's sleep and armed with a revised plan for investigating Jan Spaen's murder, Sano returned to Des.h.i.+ma early the next morning. The previous day's balmy weather had fled. Sculpturesque clouds swirled across the sky; a chill wind blew in from the sea.

oI want divers to search the water around Des.h.i.+ma for a gun and knife, Sano told the officers in the guardhouse. oI want the names of everyone on duty and all visitors present the night Director Spaen disappeared. These were his prime j.a.panese suspects.

The chief officer showed Sano the duty roster, then opened the ledger where he'd recorded Sano's visit to Des.h.i.+ma yesterday. oThere, he said, pointing to a single name.

oPeony? Sano read, surprised. oA woman?

oDirector Spaen's courtesan, the officer explained. oShe spent the night in his bedchamber. We found her there alone the next morning. She didn't know where Spaen had gone, so Chief Ohira sent her home.

Prost.i.tutes were the only women allowed on Des.h.i.+ma. Could this one have killed Spaen? Guns were not common weapons; only high-ranking officers owned them. And though Sano hadn't asked about visitors earlier, it seemed odd that Chief Ohira hadn't mentioned Peony. She could be a crucial witness, if not a suspect.