Misunderstanding
Following Akechi's directions, Kobayashi Monzō opened the front window and shouted in a loud voice. Then, after waiting to see the detectives who had been keeping watch outside run off, he stood for a moment in a daze. He was wavering between climbing up onto the roof after Akechi and staying where he was to look after Mrs. Yamano. The lady lay with her face on the ground at his feet, as motionless as if she were dead. When he looked closer, he could see that she was sobbing, her shoulders trembling minutely. Her collar was in disarray, baring the milky white nape of her neck all the way to her back, and innumerable straggling hairs were crawling over the exposed flesh.
The commotion on the roof gradually receded. The old lady downstairs was not showing herself for some reason, and in the midst of it all a queer stillness came. It felt as if they had been cut loose from the world.
"Madam."
Monzō placed his hand on the lady's shoulder and called to her in a low voice. At that, the lady suddenly stood up and called out: "It was me! I am the one who killed Michiko! Please say so to the policemen. Mr. Kobayashi, please take me to where the policemen are."
Her pale face was wet with tears and her lips convulsed unattractively.
"No, before that, please take me to my home. I must return home. Now, hurry, hurry Mr. Kobayashi," she cried, clinging to Monzō's arm. Her bloodshot eyes looked restlessly about, fearing the coming of any other person.
Monzō too was pale with excitement. A mysterious shudder crawled up his spine. Lick as he would, his lips remained parched.
"Madam, run away."
His voice was hoarse and trembling.
"Quickly, take me to my home." "I'll go too. Run away with me."
Due to her violent emotion, Yurie did not even have the strength to stand. She collapsed, depending on Monzō's shoulder for support. He put his arm around the lady's narrow chest, and at last managed to get her down the stairs. At the bottom, the deaf old woman stood absentmindedly. She somehow sensed that strife had occurred and had finally managed to make her way as far as the stairs.
Monzō thrust the old woman aside and ran to the entrance. He shoved his feet into the wooden clogs that were kept on hand there and went out of the gate. The police detectives on watch had gone after the dwarf, and the place was deserted. Monzō and the lady ran, stumbling, along streets that had already begun to grow dark, keeping to routes on which pedestrian traffic was scarce. Fortunately, no one appeared to challenge them.
They crossed over the street along which the trains ran without difficulty, and in time they came out onto the embankment of the Sumida River. That was the only way of escape open to them. The lady was short of breath and frequently seemed on the verge of collapse. Her hands, which had been clinging to Monzō's shoulders, fastened tightly on his neck. Cold, disheveled hair teased his ears. After much struggle, they finally arrived at the curving road to the Yamano estate.
"We won't go that way. If you go home now you'll only be arrested. Come on, let's keep running."
"No. I must return home once no matter what. Let go. Let go of me!"
The lady mustered her feeble strength and tried to turn toward the estate, but Monzō held her firmly in his arms and would not let her.
"You don't have to worry. I'll go with you anywhere. Come now, this isn't the time to be hesitating. Let's go. Let's run as far away as we can."
Monzō spoke in a shrill, nervous voice, dragging the lady along. Even so, she continued to struggle in Monzō's arms for a while, but at last her strength was used up. Monzō felt the lady's body suddenly, quietly grow limp and heavy. She was exhausted in mind and body, and had lost even the strength of will to resist.
Monzō practically carried the lady in his arms as he ran ever north along the embankment. As they went, human habitation grew sparse, and the oncoming dusk became still more pronounced. They must have run several hundred yards when Monzō suddenly looked up and found that there was a deep, thickly grown forest striking up against the embankment on his right.
Due to the weight of two people, Monzō's feet had ceased to obey him. He was short of breath and his breast felt as if it had burst open. It was just then that he discovered the forest, which made for a likely resting place. He practically collapsed into it. After laying the barely conscious lady's body on the grass in the shadow of a large tree, he retraced his steps to the embankment, advanced to the river, scooped up the dirty water and drank. Once he had eased his parched throat a little, he soaked a handkerchief in the water and carried it back with him into the forest.
Yurie was lying on her back as he had left her. Only her face was clearly visible. Her obscenely disordered appearance melted into the darkness, and engendered a dream-like beauty.
Monzō stared dazedly at her beautiful form, clutching the wet handkerchief in one hand. When he thought that he was now eloping with this person, who until the day before he would certainly have loved, and whom he had even regarded with a species of terror, he felt a pain in his chest. It was an inexpressible feeling, both tragic and sweet.
He went down on his knees and, lifting up Yurie's head, suddenly brought his lips to hers, in place of the wet handkerchief. Then he stole a kiss from her, just as he had once done to a girl cousin sleeping beside him when he was still a small child.
"My goodness, I wonder what was the matter with me."
At last, Yurie's lips spoke from beneath the rain of kisses.
Monzō could not help but wonder if his passion's excess had awakened her from sleep, or if she had been aware of everything and was pretending to have only regained her senses just then. Yurie's manner of waking was so unnatural, and it was strange that, even after waking, she made no attempt to refuse Monzō's arm, which was coiled around her head. A heat grew behind Monzō's eyes at the thought that this was not entirely due to his imagination.
"How do you feel? Can you walk?" He belatedly applied the wet handkerchief to Yurie's mouth. "Hold on just a little longer. If we turn right here, we should be at Hikifune Station. We'll take a train from there. Then we'll go someplace far away."
"No, there's no point now. There's no point in running away. I have no doubt that he has already confessed everything."
"What are you saying? Isn't that why we're running away? Or is it just that you think we can't succeed?" His eyes shone with self-sacrificing devotion, and he spoke as if reciting lines from a play. "I don't feel the least bit of regret for this life of mine. If I can die with you, I won't regret my life at all. Won't you please die with me?"
"Oh dear, you are . . . Why do you speak of dying?"
"But then, don't you fear the gallows? Of course, if it were me, I would run away as long as I could, but when at last I could run no longer, what could I do but die?"
"Be that as it may . . ."
So saying, Yurie fell silent and remained sitting in the darkness for a long while. Monzō, too, continued to clutch her hand without saying a word.
"You'll be my ally through thick and thin, won't you?"
"Why even ask such a thing? Don't you know that I will?"
"I know. But will you, even though I am, as I have always been, Yamano's faithful wife?"
"Yes."
"No matter what happens?"
"I swear it."
"Well then, I will tell you. It was not me who killed Michiko.
The criminal is someone else."
"Who is it, then?" Monzō asked with an exclamation of surprise.
"It is Yamano. Yamano, my husband. That's why I must return home as quickly as possible: so that he may escape."
"But Mr. Yamano is Michiko's own father, isn't he? Could such an absurd thing happen? Alright, even if it were so, what do you suppose an invalid like him will do if he is allowed to escape? Besides, I have no doubt that the estate is already in the hands of the police by this time." Mrs. Yamano let out a sigh.
"So it is pointless, after all. But perhaps that cripple managed a clever escape, and, in that case, the case may come to an end without the secret being exposed."
"Him? He holds the key to the secret? So that's why you were following the orders of a fellow like that. You only wanted to cover up your husband's crime."
"It was the only thing I could do." Yurie's voice became tearful. "Once I found out, I resolved that I would do my best to protect the Yamano family name and my husband's safety, even if it meant laying down my life. That was my late mother's teaching." Monzō stared at the lady's passion in a daze.
"I don't think that you understand the relationship between my husband and me very well. The Yamanos are my family's valuable benefactors. It is entirely in accordance with the will of my late parents that I married a husband much older and that I resolved to sacrifice myself for his sake. My disposition would not have allowed me to do otherwise."
"But even so, there's something I don't understand." Monzō pulled himself together at last. "You probably think that you burned and disposed of it, but the strange letter you received came into Mr. Akechi's hands. The letter that cripple wrote to call you to the house in O. Street. I'm certain it said, 'We buried Michiko's body as requested, only the three of us, somebody, myself, and Fukiya, know of this.' Only one name was burned and couldn't be read, but you were the recipient of the letter, so if it wasn't yours, whose could it be? There are several other pieces of evidence. For example, weren't the shawl and handbag and the rest of the things that Michiko was said to have taken with her that day hidden in your closet? And that's not all. Even the plaster statue, which seems to have split Michiko's head, was in your room. Surely it is only natural that I suspected you." Monzō listed the evidence to conceal his embarrassment.
"My goodness, I had no idea that those things were in my room.13 Did Mr. Akechi find them?"
"No, it was Oyuki the maid. She's been bribed by Mr. Akechi."
Monzō's beautiful dreams had come to nothing, and he was growing desperate.
"Oh my, is that so? I had no idea. I remember the letter you spoke of, but has even it fallen into Mr. Akechi's hands? That letter. It was the first time I learned who the real criminal was. The cripple confessed that he had disposed of the corpse at Yamano's request, and he threatened me. He knows my disposition and the relationship between me and my husband well, so he took advantage of that weakness and schemed to do as he pleased with me. I received that letter just after Mr. Akechi came for the first time. Until then, I only half-believed that Michiko was even dead. If I had not been uncertain, if I had done something to Michiko, why would I ever have wished for Mr. Akechi's services?"
Monzō had not the slightest idea how to handle this excess of surprises and the embarrassment of having leapt to a misapprehension and gone so far as to propose to die with the lady.
Yurie, having made a clean breast of her secret, was hanging her head in dejection and saying that everything was finished, and Monzō, who had been pushed down from the beautiful country of dreams into world of reality, sat in a daze, left speechless by absurdity and embarrassment. The awkward silence continued for a long time.
"Well then, the unknown third person in the letter was Mr. Yamano? In other words, that cripple undertook to bury the corpse at Mr. Yamano's request," Monzō asked at last, his tone become businesslike.
"That's right," the lady answered, but her tone was careless, as if it to say that it no longer mattered.
"The fact that my husband took out a considerable amount of money from the store just after Michiko disappeared proves that it's no lie. The manager was worried and spoke to me about it, but it didn't seem likely that my husband would need such a large amount of money. When I saw that letter, I realized at once why he had done it. Perhaps half of that money went to the driver. My husband said that he followed that man to Osaka in order to find Michiko's abductor and bring her back, but afterwards I realized that he went to give the driver money so that he would not reveal the secret. But I did not allow my manner to show that I suspected my husband. When I saw that he was making himself ill like that, it was a pity, but there was nothing to be done."
"So Fukiya learned the secret somehow?"
"Yes. I can't say for certain, but I wonder if it mightn't have been Fukiya who hauled that garbage cart. After all, Yamano couldn't possibly have played that part himself. The priest of Yōgen Temple is a cripple, and aside from them there's no one else who could have transported Michiko's corpse. But it's no use trying to pry into things like that now. Mr. Kobayashi, I wonder what I should do."
"Why don't we try returning to the estate, in any case? I couldn't possibly ask you to elope with me again, after all." Monzō grew red and made a clumsy attempt at a joke. "If that fellow managed a clever escape, or, better yet, if he fell from the roof and died, we can still do something to salvage the situation, but at this point we have to be prepared for things to go either way. From now on I'll be your ally and try to help however
I can. I hope you'll allow me to do that for you."
"It is I who should be asking you."
Foolish Monzō's spirits recovered a little when he saw that the lady accepted his assistance without ill will.
At last, the two left the forest and began walking along the embankment in the direction of the Yamano house.
"But what I still don't understand is Mr. Yamano's motive. I wonder what could ever have made him want to kill his daughter."
"Yamano is a strict man, not cut out to be a merchant, and it is his nature to do extremely drastic things when he flies into a rage. So I wonder if he might not have gotten an inkling of Michiko's immoral behavior and meant to chastise her but flew into such a rage that it came to that by mistake. Besides, there are several other reasons to consider. It was hidden even from the servants, but that maid called Komatsu, who ran away, was really my husband's illegitimate child. He is a firm person, but of course there were mistakes in his youth. Under normal circumstances she could have entered the household as a daughter, but, as I just said, my husband is a stubborn man, so he said that it would be inconvenient for the discipline of his daughter and in front of relatives and so on. It was covered up and, although he kept an eye on her, in front of others she was forced to be a maid."
"Then, Michiko and Komatsu are sisters." Monzō was taken aback.
"That's right. They are sisters, and their temperaments could not be more different. Michiko is a great tomboy. Komatsu, on the other hand, is an extremely considerate, well-behaved girl. One would never think that she came from merchant stock."
The two of them were trudging along the top of the now fully darkened embankment. One was exhausted in mind and body. The other was afraid of returning to confront reality and his natural walk had become sluggish. Somehow, it was unbearably lonesome not to speak.
"Because Yamano was like that," the lady continued, "if he learned that both of his daughters were competing for the same man, for a driver of all partners, I think he could not help but fly into a rage. His feelings can easily be guessed. I'm sure it felt like Hell. He could not bear to think that the one loose daughter must be a child of sin, born of his own looseness. When you come to think about it, Yamano is truly unfortunate."
"I wonder why he doesn't give himself up and have done with it. If it was an accident like that, I don't think it would have been a major crime."
"But one cannot face society having killed a person, even if the crime is minor. My husband minds the opinion of society more than others, so trying to hide the matter entirely was perfectly natural for him. Yamano was worried for his family name more than for his own safety. If you ask why, perhaps it is because, if the matter got out, everything from Yamano's looseness to his daughters' unsightly competition would become well-known."
"I wonder why he only punished Michiko."
"She was his official daughter. It's his nature to methodically account even for details like that. Besides, you must consider the fact that my husband's love, if I had to say one way or the other, tended toward the unfortunate Komatsu. A tomboy daughter did not suit his disposition."
"Please try to be quiet a moment." Monzō suddenly threw the lady down. "There's someone following along behind us."
Sure enough, when they ceased their conversation and strained their ears, they sensed the presence of another. That it was a pursuer was proved beyond a doubt by the fact that, when the pair's feet stopped, the other suddenly halted as well. Looking through the darkness, they saw that someone was concealing themselves in the shadow of a grove of trees right beside them.
"Who are you? Do you have some business with us?" Acting brave, Monzō spoke loudly.
"It's me, Mr. Kobayashi."
The man emerged nonchalantly from the shadows, speaking in a tone of familiarity.
"So I've been found out at last. I've been tailing you all the way from O. Street, but you were thoroughly excited and didn't notice a thing. Me? I'm Hirata, one of the people who assist Mr. Akechi. You wouldn't know me, but I happened to see you once or twice at the Kikusui Inn."
When he heard that, Monzō flew into a rage at such disgraceful behavior. When he thought that even the affair in the forest would be communicated to Akechi through this man, Monzō had a sudden urge to grab at him out of an inexpressible feeling of shame.
"What? You followed us?"
"Please forgive me. Those were Mr. Akechi's instructions. It was my role to wait in front of that house in O. Street for you to come out."
"Then, he was perfectly aware that we would flee?"
"It appears so. He told me to tail you and that if you entered the estate it was alright, but that if you did not do so, I was to follow the two of you wherever you went and to catch every detail of your conversation. And if something dangerous to the two of you were to occur, I was to call for help and . . ."
"So what? This means that Mr. Akechi knew that Mrs. Yamano was in that house and brought me along deliberately. It was his plan was for the two of us to run away, allowing him to eavesdrop on our discussion."
"It was just a precaution, orders to do this in the unlikely event that such a thing were to happen. He said that he knows Mrs. Yamano is under a terrible misapprehension, so we mustn't let anything happen."
