A Samurai Never Fears Death by Tom Hoobler

Author:Tom Hoobler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, japan, historical, samurai, osaka, puppets
Publisher: Tom Hoobler

11: Case Closed--Almost

“Used your sword this time, I see,” said Judge Izumo. “What did he do to offend you?”

Seikei sighed. The worst thing about the murder--of course, not worse than it had been for Nishi--was that it had indeed been committed with one of Seikei’s swords. Nishi hadn’t found a safe place for them after all, Seikei thought bitterly.

“This is your sword?” Judge Izumo asked.

“Yes,” Seikei admitted.

“I thought I recognized it,” said the judge. “Beautiful blade. So you say you put it aside back here while you were playing puppeteer on stage?”

Seikei nodded weakly. He knew how that sounded.

“Doesn’t seem right to me,” said Judge Izumo. “A true samurai...”

Seikei put his hands over his face, only because it would be too rude to put them over his ears. This was punishment even worse than the crime: to be lectured by Judge Izumo on the proper conduct of a samurai. If only Judge Ooka were here to advise Seikei what to do. But by the time Seikei had reported Nishi’s murder, and someone had gone to fetch Judge Izumo, the audience had cleared out, and Judge Ooka and Bunzo had gone too. Even now Seikei was wondering if he had really seen them, or if the mask had blurred his vision.

“...so really, you should just admit this strange fellow insulted you beyond endurance,” Judge Izumo was saying. “No harm in that.”

“He’s dead,” said Seikei. “You call that no harm?”

“You needn’t be rude about it,” said the judge. “Why did you come back here to the theater anyway?”

“I was trying to find out who killed Kamori.”

“Ah. But you told me that young fellow in the jail confessed to that crime, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” Seikei knew that would come back to haunt him. Judge Ooka had once told him that when a person tells a lie, it stands out from the truth unless the liar is able to change enough of the truth to make the lie fit smoothly. And few people were that good at lying. “I...I didn’t believe him,” Seikei told Judge Izumi.

“Oh, I don’t recall you mentioning that to me,” said the judge, who seemed to be not quite as obtuse as Seikei had thought.

“It was just a...hunch I had,” said Seikei. “And I came back here to test it.”

“What did you find?” the judge asked.

Seikei wanted to tell him that the crime must have something to do with a play about five criminals who had been executed years ago. But that story was so bizarre, it would only make the judge think Seikei was insulting him.

“Perhaps you found out this fellow killed Kamori,” suggested the judge, gesturing toward Nishi’s head, which hadn’t yet been moved. Seikei glanced at it, wishing it could still speak. “And then,” the judge went on, “when you confronted him, he tried to grab your sword, and you were compelled to kill him.”

Seikei shook his head. He knew the judge still wanted him to be the killer, but he couldn’t lie about that. “I told you,

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