Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [15]
“This is taking too long,” he growled, pounding his fist on the tatami. “You must have some of it here. Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” replied Okō, folding her hands over her stomach forbearingly.
“Don’t give me that, woman!” he bellowed. “Where is it? I know it’s here!” “I don’t have a thing!”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Well, then, maybe you don’t. Maybe I have the wrong information… . “He eyed her warily, tugging and scratching at his beard. “That’s enough, men!” he thundered.
Okō had meanwhile sat down in the next room, with the sliding door wide open. She had her back to him, but even so she looked defiant, as though telling him he could go ahead and search wherever he had a mind to.
“Okō,” he called gruffly.
“What do you want?” came the icy reply.
“How about a little something to drink?”
“Would you like some water?”
“Don’t push me …” he warned menacingly.
“The sake’s in there. Drink it if you want to.”
“Aw, Okō,” he said, softening, almost admiring her for her coldhearted stubbornness. “Don’t be that way. I haven’t been to visit for a long time. Is this any way to treat an old friend?”
“Some visit!”
“Now, take it easy. You’re partly to blame, you know. I’ve been hearing about what the ‘moxa man’s widow’ has been up to from too many different people to think it’s all lies. I hear you’ve been sending your lovely daughter out to rob corpses. Now, why would she be doing a thing like that?”
“Show me your proof!” she shrieked. “Where’s the proof!”
“If I’d been planning to dig it out, I wouldn’t have given Akemi advance warning. You know the rules of the game. It’s my territory, and I’ve got to go through the motions of searching your house. Otherwise, everybody’d get the idea they could get away with the same thing. Then where’d I be? I’ve gotta protect myself, you know!”
She stared at him in steely silence, her head half turned toward him, chin and nose proudly raised.
“Well, I’m going to let you off this time. But just remember, I’m being especially nice to you.”
“Nice to me? Who, you? That’s a laugh!”
“Okō,” he coaxed, “come here and pour me a drink.”
When she showed no sign of moving, he exploded. “You crazy bitch! Can’t you see that if you were nice to me, you wouldn’t have to live like this?” He calmed down a bit, then advised her,
“Think it over for a while.”
“I’m overcome by your kindness, sir,” came the venomous reply.
“You don’t like me?”
“Just answer me this: Who killed my husband? I suppose you expect me to believe that you don’t know?”
“If you want to take revenge on whoever it was, I’ll be happy to help. Any way I can.”
“Don’t play dumb!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You seem to hear so much from people. Haven’t they told you that it was you yourself who killed him? Haven’t you heard that Tsujikaze Temma was the murderer? Everyone else knows it. I may be the widow of a freebooter, but I haven’t sunk so low that I’d play around with my husband’s killer.”
“You had to go and say it, didn’t you—couldn’t leave well enough alone, eh!” With a rueful laugh, he drained the sake cup in one gulp and poured another. “You know, you really shouldn’t say things like that. It’s not good for your health—or your pretty daughter’s!”
“I’ll bring Akemi up properly, and after she’s married, I’ll get back at you. Mark my word!”
Temma laughed until his shoulders, his whole body, shook like a cake of bean curd. After he’d downed all the sake he could find, he motioned to one of his men, who was positioned in a corner of the kitchen, his lance propped vertically against his shoulder. “You there,” he boomed, “push aside some of the ceiling boards with the butt of your lance!”
The man did as he was told. As he went