"Don't touch that. It may be contagious."
      The young man instantly snapped his extended hand away from the corpse as if he had just caressed a burning flame. Tanaka, one of the three samurai his eminence, Tokugawa, had ordered to accompany him on this endeavor, was a good man, but he still had a lot to learn about conducting an investigation.
      "Shall we burn it, Jubei-san?" Tanaka grimaced, unconsciously wiping his hands on his clothing.
      "Hai, that's best, but not yet."
      Yaggyu Jubei studied the face of another dead man; his throat had been slit from behind. He had known him, if only by reputation, Wakijin, Lady Nozomi's younger, and much favored, brother. There was a little bit of gray powder around the edges of the crescent red wound in his neck; he collected a bit of it on his fingernails, studied it momentarily, and then cautiously sniffed it. Poison, the kind that paralyzes the heart. The barest scratch from a blade laced with the stuff meant swift and unpleasant death. Jubei wondered which had killed Wakijin first, the blood spewing from his severed artery, or the deadly powder? He supposed it didn't matter, dead was dead.
      All in all, there were seven lifeless men, including Wakijin, and one young woman, Lady Nozomi's servant girl, Yumi. Lady Nozomi herself, was of course, missing; doubtlessly kidnapped for ransom. A ransom that her husband would probably pay in full, no matter how exorbitant, as he had more than enough wealth to spare - Lord Nozomi was quite fond of bleeding his peasants dry with taxes and mandatory "tributes".
      The kidnappers were ninja, or men masquerading as them, Jubei had not decided which yet. Nor did he rule out the possibility that Lord Nozomi himself was behind the kidnapping. Although, as a rule, Jubei didn't like to listen to gossip, it was well known that the man was carrying on a heated affair with a certain court official's eldest daughter. It would be most convenient for him if Lady Nozomi were to disappear permanently or have an unfortunate accident…
      The kidnappers had long departed, and if they were even remotely intelligent, gone into hiding. The Shogun had known this quite well when he sent Jubei to investigate. The whole inspection was a sham and just for show, but sham or no, Jubei was going to do his job and do it right.
      Any moment now, he was sure the news of a ransom note, or the discovery of Lady Nozomi's body would arrive, one way or another, the matter would soon be resolved. It was all very routine…except for one thing: Gaiyo, one of Nozomi's dead samurai guards. It was his body that Jubei had warned Tanaka not to touch, and with good reason. The samurai's corpse was a sickly green/black, rotten and festering, consumed from within by the gods only knew what, and there was not a wound of any kind to be found upon him. Jubei didn't know what to make of it, but he knew he didn't like it. No sickness or disease he knew of would do that to a man in such a short time, and there was no way the buzzing black flies, their eggs already doubtlessly laid in all eight bodies, could have worked Gaiyo over that well already either. Lady Nozomi and her retinue had departed from the city very early this morning, bound for the lands to the Southeast her husband ruled over, and the bodies had been discovered not more than two or three hours later after that.
      Although he knew the other three men would not like it in the least, Jubei was going to have to quarantine them and himself, if Gaiyo's body was evidence of a new, contagious plague of some sort, better that just the four of them die of it and no one else.
      "All right. Tanaka! Nagabe! Raijin! Break up the carriage and build a fire, we're going to burn the bodies."
      "All of them, Jubei-san?" Raijin questioned doubtfully, his thick black mustache twitching nervously. There wouldn't be much fuss over burning the guard's bodies and the handmaiden's, but the body of Lady Nozomi's brother was a different matter entirely.
      "Ee." Jubei answered, frowning at Gaiyo once more, "All of them. The carriage, the luggage, everything…and kill the horses and burn them too. I want everything reduced to ashes. I will take full responsibility for any backlash from the families of the dead."
      Jubei scowled. He had the nagging feeling that the condition of Gaiyo's body was intentional, the killers' knowing that because of it, he would be forced to destroy everything, and quickly, fearing plague. Any evidence he had missed would soon go up in smoke and twisting flames…
      "Baka…"