Read The Flower Master (Rei Shimura #3) for Free Online Page A

stopped and bowed. "Oh, I'm sorry! My brother and I had a slight disagreement. I hope we didn't disturb you."
    So the insolent-looking young man who'd been lounging in the back of the class was a Kayama. It made sense. Even though women made up the vast majority of the millions of ikebana practitioners in Japan and throughout the world, men were almost always the school headmasters.
    "Why aren't you at the front desk?" Takeo asked Miss Okada. "If the police need help, you should have telephoned Mrs. Koda."
    "She's not here! I looked everywhere!" Aunt Norie spoke shrilly, her first real sentence since the police had come.
    Lieutenant Hata's attention turned from me to the Kayama heir. As he began introducing himself to Takeo Kayama, the young man cut him off.
    "Nice to see you. We already donated money to the neighborhood beautification campaign."
    Lieutenant Hata smiled tightly and told Takeo that he was not there to solicit funds. He explained to him that Norie and I had found Sakura Sato upstairs, and that the medics who had tended to her had declared her deceased.
    At this retelling of the cold, hard facts, Natsumi gave a small bleat and swayed as if she was going to faint. Takeo caught her by the arm just as the elevator door opened once more, and a half dozen flower-arranging students filed out. The ladies stopped short at the sight of all the men in blue.
    "I thought the school was officially closed! How many people are in the building?" The National Police inspector sounded furious.
    "I don't know exactly, " Takeo Kayama said. "With staff and other students, perhaps thirty."
    "In a ten-story building? That is relatively few."
    "Floors six through eight are vacant space," Miss Okada explained. "Ten is the Kayama family penthouse, and as you can see, the iemoto's children are here."
    "Seal the exits," the inspector directed two assistants. "Miss Okada, please help them."
    "But our families are expecting us to come home to make dinner," Eriko said. She obviously had no idea of what was going on. The other Japanese women began murmuring, and the two foreigners in the group, Lila Braithwaite and Nadine St. Giles, looked toward me for help. Mari Kumamori, the student with a talent for pottery, seemed frozen in place.
    "Sakura Sato is dead," I said in English. Lila gasped and Nadine reached toward her, inadvertently knocking against the receptionist's table. The calla lily arrangement fell over, spilling water across the glossy rosewood surface. The spreading water on the red wood reminded me of Sakura's blood, which by this time had probably flowed enough to make a red sea.
    The National Police Agency inspector tapped the slate floor impatiently with the tip of an umbrella. "Shimura-san, we need you and your niece to accompany us upstairs and retrace your steps toward the scene of the death."
    "I can't. Oh, please." Aunt Norie began sobbing, and Eriko rushed to embrace her friend.
    "She is in shock. She must take a rest," Eriko said sternly to Lieutenant Hata.
    "Yes, I've been trying to get her to sit down for the last five minutes. Can you help with that? In the meantime, the niece will accompany me upstairs," Lieutenant Hata said. I followed him into the elevator, admiring the way he hit the door-close button so swiftly that the inspector had no chance to follow us. Well, he would probably be busy enough questioning all the ladies.
    "The National Police Agency heard what happened over a scanner. Murder is big enough news for them to get involved in Metropolitan Police business. Especially in this neighborhood." He raised his eyebrows at me. "I'm sorry, Shimura-san. How are you?"
    "Pretty upset. Do I have to look again?"
    "Not so much at the body, but at the scene. I want you to explain again what you noticed before and after you entered the room. I'm hoping that will help you remember more details than you told us downstairs."
    I'd thought that I'd done a pretty thorough job of talking. I didn't respond, just stared at the