She asked instead, "Has there been anyone through the village lately that she might have asked for help? Traders, travelers, anyone who could get a message out?" Particularly if she'd promised them payment.

Twelve wagon-loads of sake vanished in one night still loomed as an insurmountable obstacle, but they were close to discovering the who. After that, how would follow.

Noriko shook her head, then hesitated. "She did slip away for an afternoon, just before she disappeared. She asked me to watch the children. But she was only gone an hour or two, not long enough to meet anyone. And there were no strangers here, anyway."

"How soon after that did she disappear?" Kurenai asked.

"The same night. I think." Noriko chewed her lip again. "It was the night the sake vanished, and no one asked about Harubi for days. They were all too busy searching for the sake."

"Did Nomiya beat the children, too?" Genma asked. "Does he have a storehouse, or land elsewhere, that the rest of the village doesn't know about?"

Suggesting Nomiya could have killed them all, then stolen the sake to distract villagers' attention and give him time for a cover up? The solution was elegant in its simplicity, but even more impractical than Kurenai's current theory of a sympathetic bandit gang hiding in the mountains. How was one man supposed to move two hundred sake barrels in one night? Not to mention accessing the barrels in Goto's private stash.

"I don't think he'd hit them yet," Noriko said wearily. "But it was only a matter of time. Harubi kept saying, if he ever hurt them, she really would leave him. Maybe he did." She sighed. "If there is a storehouse, I don't know about it. But you could find it, couldn't you? You're here to find the sake, I know that. But if you can find Harubi, if you can get her justice— I don't have much, but here—"

"Keep your coin," Kurenai said, pushing Noriko's hand gently back. "Someone's already paid."

"Is there anyone else you think we should talk to?" Genma asked. "Or anywhere Harubi liked to go?"

Noriko shook her head. "Suki thinks Harubi was snatched by forest spirits. There's an old shrine Harubi liked to pray at, when she could get away, but you won't find it in the dark. Go tomorrow. It's near the waterfall." She gave them directions oriented by landmark as she stooped to pick up her lantern and rose stiffly from the bench. Kurenai nodded, memorized, and promised to return.

They left Noriko at her sister's house. Down the street the izakaya was closing, its owner wiping down tables and bringing in stools. Raidou and Ryouma must have already moved on. Kurenai and Genma followed, walking slowly through the dark street. They wouldn't run where there were civilians to see.

Kurenai said, "I should apologize for doubting you. But you could have phrased that question about infidelity better."

He groaned. "Yeah. I screwed that up. I was thinking about my next question, instead of the one I was asking."

That was far too simple an admission to be so incalculably warming. Kurenai smiled into the dark. "We've all done that. And you recovered well. I do want to hear your theory about how Nomiya murdered his family and stole the sake."