Black Lotus (9 page)

"Can you think of anyone who wanted to harm your father?" Sano asked.

"My father made many enemies during his life," Jinsai said. "There were criminals he arrested; gangsters who hated him for interfering with their illegal business; rivals for power in the police department; men whose wives he seduced." The young man mentioned a few names, and Sano noted them. "But if I were in charge of the murder investigation, I would concentrate on that orphan girl who was found near the fire."

"Why is that?" Sano asked, welcoming evidence to connect Haru with the arson and murders.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss this with you alone." Jinsai glanced at his brother and sister.

At Sano's assent, the pair bowed, rose, and departed.

"I doubt if the criminals, gangsters, rivals, or angry husbands knew that my father was at the Black Lotus Temple that night, but the residents would have known. Especially the girls." His face rigid with disapproval, Jinsai explained, "My father used his status as a sect patron to take advantage of the female orphans and novices. Whenever he visited the temple, he would pick out a girl and have sexual relations with her. He took me to the temple once, telling me that I would enjoy the same privileges if I joined the Black Lotus. And he introduced Haru to me as one of his favorites."

"Did the sect leaders know about your father's relations with Haru or the other girls?" If they did, Sano thought, they hadn't mentioned it to him yesterday.

"Maybe; maybe not. You know how it is."

Sano nodded. Some unscrupulous sects used female members to attract followers, and the nuns were often little more than prostitutes whose earnings supported the temples. But the
bakufu
discouraged this practice by shutting down offending sects. It was possible that Oyama had carried on his activities without the knowledge of the Black Lotus leaders, swearing the girls to secrecy by threatening to hurt them if they told anyone. Or maybe they'd willingly consented to illicit sex because they wanted money or favors from him.

"I could tell that Haru hated my father," Jinsai continued. "She glared at him, spat on the ground at his feet, then ran away. He just laughed and said her temper made sex with her exciting. Maybe she killed him for violating her, then set the fire to cover up the murder."

"That's plausible," Sano said, yet he couldn't reconcile Jinsai's portrayal of Haru as a wronged woman out for revenge with the terrified girl he'd met yesterday. Besides, her hatred of Oyama didn't provide a motive for killing the other two victims. It was conceivable that she could have struck Oyama on the head and broken the child's neck, but she seemed too small and delicate to strangle a grown woman. Sano also wondered why, if Haru was guilty of the crimes, she hadn't fled the scene before the fire brigade arrived.

"Haru killed my father," Jinsai said in a voice crackling with controlled rage. "Whatever he did to her doesn't justify the misfortune she has brought upon this clan. I want her executed."

"If I can prove that she did indeed kill your father, she will be," Sano said.

As he exchanged farewell bows with Jinsai, he decided against going to the Black Lotus Temple to continue his inquiries. Instead he would go back to Edo Castle, because Reiko should be home by now. They would compare their results and determine whether Haru was an innocent bystander or the murderer and arsonist he sought.

7

Heed my warning that this world is a place of evil spirits and

poisonous creatures,

Of flames spreading all around,

And that a multitude of disasters

Will follow one another without end.

-----FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA

Reiko waited with her entourage in the narrow lane outside the Black Lotus Temple for an hour, but the monk didn't appear. An attendant brought her a bowl of noodles and some tea from a food stall, and she ate in her palanquin, watching the temple gate. Priests, nuns, and pilgrims passed in and out, but there was no sign of the young man who'd claimed to have important information and begged her to meet him. Temple bells tolled the hour of the sheep; the sun bathed earthen walls with the bronze glow of midafternoon. Reiko grew restless. If the monk didn't show up soon, she would go home to Masahiro.

Yet Reiko remembered the urgency in the monk's voice. Surely he'd risked harsh punishment by spying on Abbess Junketsu-in and Dr. Miwa. He might know who had set the fire and hurt Haru. Now Reiko opened the door of the palanquin and stepped out.

"Wait here," she told her attendants.

She walked down the lane between the high walls, circling the Black Lotus Temple. The monk hadn't specified exactly where they should meet. Perhaps he feared being seen with her. Reiko turned down the narrow alley at the rear of the temple. Gnarled pines rose above the wall, casting deep, cool shadows over the dusty path and the few pedestrians. The sound of chanting rose in air scented with resin, incense, and open sewers. Continuing along the wall, Reiko planned to sneak through the temple's back gate and look for the monk.

A sudden movement rustled the pine boughs above her. As she looked up, a human figure dropped out of the tree and landed with a heavy thud in front of her. Reiko exclaimed in surprise. It was the monk, sprawled on hands and knees, pine needles showering his shaven scalp and protruding ears, his eyes wild with panic. He scrambled to his feet and seized Reiko's arm. Pulling her down the lane, he said in a breathless voice, "Please come with me."

He was only a little taller than Reiko, with a wiry build. His thin fingers dug into her flesh. "Where are you taking me?" she demanded, shocked by his impertinence.

"Hurry," the monk pleaded. "Before they come."

"Who?"

Instead of answering, the monk shot a fearful glance over his shoulder. He was about sixteen years old; a faint stubble of whiskers darkened his chin and upper lip. His smooth skin was flushed and beaded with sweat. Reiko's curiosity overcame her resistance, and she let the monk hurry her away. He didn't slow down until they reached a small Shinto shrine. He drew Reiko through the torü gate and behind a tall stone lantern in the precinct, where pines sheltered a prayer board, incense vat, gong, and a rustic wooden shed that housed the spirit of the deity. The monk fell to his knees before Reiko.

"Forgive me for imposing on you," he said, bobbing a hasty bow, "but I'm desperate. I have no one else to turn to…"

His face contorted, and he began to cry in hoarse, barking sobs. Reiko's need for information gave way to an impulse to help a person so obviously in trouble. "I'm here to listen," she soothed. "Calm down."

"There's no time! They know I'm not where I'm supposed to be. They're after me. That's why it took me so long to get out of the temple."

"Who's after you?" Reiko asked, increasingly baffled. "Why are you afraid? At least tell me your name."

The monk gulped back sobs; he gritted his teeth to still his body's tremors. "My religious name is Pious Truth. Before I joined the Black Lotus, I was Mori Gogen." The two names marked him as a former samurai, as did his educated diction. "I saw you with the abbess and heard her say that your husband is the shogun's
sōsakan-sama
?" At Reiko's nod, Pious Truth blurted, "I need his help."

"We'll help you if we can," Reiko said, "but first, you must tell me what's wrong." She spoke calmly, but his anxiety infected her. "What is it that you want?"

"The Black Lotus sect is evil and cruel!" Passion raised Pious Truth's voice to a shout. "I can't bear it anymore. I want to leave!"

Excitement flared in Reiko. "Tell me what happened," she urged.

"My family are retainers to the Kuroda clan," Pious Truth said. He wiped his face on the frayed, soiled sleeve of his robe. "We've always been very religious. Last winter, my father befriended two Black Lotus priests. They came often to pray with our family, and invited us to the temple. When we went there and met High Priest Anraku, we became convinced that he alone knew the true way of the Buddha. I decided to enter the monastery, and my older sister Yasue became a nun. We hoped to achieve enlightenment, but life at the temple wasn't what we'd expected."

Bitterness hardened Pious Truth's voice. He rose, peered furtively around the lantern, then continued, "The priests forced us and the other novices to spend every moment chanting, meditating, and listening to them ring gongs and read prayers to High Priest Anraku. They gave us nothing to eat except seaweed soup. We were allowed to sleep for only two hours each night. There was so much incense smoke in the worship hall that we could hardly breathe. Our legs hurt from kneeling, and we all had stomach cramps and diarrhea from the seaweed. We weren't allowed to bathe. Whoever complained or disobeyed was beaten. The priests told us we were weak, stupid, and worthless, and unless we passed our training, we were doomed to be reborn again and again into lives of meaningless suffering."

Although Reiko knew that strict rules, limited diet, and physical discipline were customary in Buddhist orders, this sounded more like torture than religious instruction. "If things were as bad as you say, why didn't you leave?"

"We couldn't," Pious Truth said. "The priests kept a close watch to make sure no one left the temple."

"Surely your families wouldn't allow you to be mistreated," Reiko said, "and the law doesn't allow temples to hold people against their will."

Wringing his hands, Pious Truth shifted his weight from one foot to the other as if on the verge of flight. "No one knows what's going on. We novices aren't allowed to see or speak to anyone from outside the sect."

"The priests and nuns I saw at the temple looked healthy and contented and free to wander among the people."

Pious Truth gave a humorless laugh. "Those are the trusted initiates. They get better food and other privileges. They beg alms and recruit new followers. The authorities and the public are allowed to see them because they won't tell anybody what goes on at the temple. Their spirits have been conquered by the Black Lotus."

The story was growing more and more astonishing. Reiko said, "How many novices are there like you?"

"Hundreds. I don't know the exact number, because we live in separate groups, and I see the others only in passing."

"But where are they? How can the Black Lotus hide them from everyone?"

"Our quarters are in the buildings near the convent," Pious Truth said. "The walls are lined with cotton padding to muffle the sound. Outsiders aren't allowed there."

Reiko remembered the secluded buildings, Abbess Junketsu-in hurrying her past them, and the sound of muted chanting.

"The temple is bigger than anyone realizes." Pious Truth leaned toward Reiko, his eyes alight with the need to convince. "What you saw is just the part that's visible on the surface. The Black Lotus has many places to hide things they don't want anyone to see. There are underground rooms, and tunnels leading outside. It's like a monstrous invisible growth, spreading everywhere!"

Shaking her head in amazement, Reiko said, "How could that happen without anyone noticing?"

"It is happening. I've seen it," the monk insisted. "After six months of training, we novices are forced to dig new tunnels. We work at night. The tunnels run beneath the roads, so our neighbors won't hear noises under their floors."

Pious Truth jittered with increasing agitation. "In the daytime, we work in a shop in the temple grounds, printing copies of High Priest Anraku's teachings to sell to the public. That's where I'm supposed to be now. I sneaked out, but before I got to the gate, they had patrols searching the grounds for me. By this time, they'll know I've left the temple. They'll look all over until they find me. They'll never let me go."

"But if there are hundreds of you, all desperate to be free, why
don't
you band together and walk out?" Reiko asked in confusion.

"It's not that easy. They have spies mixed in among us, to inform on people who are plotting to run away. We can't trust anyone. And after a while, all the drumming and gongs and chanting and smoke and hard work and going without sleep does something to your mind. You obey and endure because you haven't the wits to do otherwise. And they put something in the food --- some kind of poison that confuses you even more. I found out by accident, when I got sick last month.

"I vomited constantly; I couldn't keep any food down. But my thoughts were completely clear for the first time since I came to the temple. I realized what had happened to me, and what I must do to free myself and my sister."

This extraordinary story about imprisonment and slavery wasn't what Reiko had hoped to hear from the monk, but his words echoed with the timbre of truth. Might the fire be connected to the practices he was describing?

"When I got well, I went back to work and behaved myself," Pious Truth said, "but I stopped eating the food. I threw it away when the priests weren't looking." Belatedly, Reiko noticed the gauntness of his face, the sharp bones under his robe. "But my spirit grew stronger, and I was determined to escape. Three nights ago, I waited in my bed until everyone was asleep and the priests who patrol the novice monks' dormitory were in another part of the building. Then I climbed out the window and sneaked into the convent.

"I woke up Yasue and led her across the temple grounds. I'd never been out there at night, and I'd expected the place to be dark and deserted, but there were lights in the buildings, and priests and nuns coming and going. We heard strange noises. Yasue was frightened and begged to go back to the dormitory, but I pulled her along. Just as we reached the main precinct, I heard running footsteps. I looked back and saw lots of priests carrying lanterns, spreading out over the grounds. They were looking for us."

The monk's breathing quickened; the memory of terror glazed his eyes. "We fled into the woods, but they were everywhere. Yasue was so confused from the mind poison that she ran away from me. Someone shouted, 'There she is!' I saw three priests grab her and drag her away. The other priests followed. I realized that they didn't know there were two of us. I wanted to rush over and rescue Yasue, but there were too many priests. I might have escaped, but I couldn't leave without her.

So I sneaked back to the monks' dormitory, hoping we could get away another night.

"The next morning, I expected the priests to punish Yasue in front of everyone, the way they did other people who tried to run away, but Yasue wasn't there. When I asked where she was, the priests said she'd been transferred to a different group. But I know better."