Chapter 19: A Lie for Sale

The letter was short, and it was written in a neat copperplate hand.

Kuzunoha read it aloud at the counter, with Haruna reading it again over her arm.

"The undersigned requests the courtesy of one public question, to be put to the keeper before her clients at the second hour of this night.

"If she answers it truthfully, the offer of the Hakuro Clinic is withdrawn, and the undersigned will trouble the Dispensary no more.

"If she declines, or cannot, the shop will be understood to have forfeited the confidence of its patrons."

"What's the question?" Tsukumo asked.

"It doesn't say."

"Then it's a trap."

"Of course it's a trap," said Haruna. "A man doesn't mail you a letter that polite unless he's already counted the exits."

Kuzunoha folded the paper in half.

"I can't refuse. If I refuse, the clients think I'm afraid. If I answer, I tell the truth, because I can't do anything else."

"Then what does he gain?"

"I don't know."

"We'll find out," Haruna said, and opened her bag. "In the meantime we prepare."

They prepared as well as two women and an umbrella could.

Tsukumo swept the shop and laid out every cushion in the place.

Haruna wrote out a list on her prescription pad of everything that could possibly go wrong: poison, pressure, a trick question, a witness who lied.

Kuzunoha stood at the counter with her hands flat on the wood, breathing slowly.

"It's only a question," she said.

"It's a question from a man who sells lies."

"I haven't told one in forty years."

"I know," said Haruna. "That's exactly why he'd like to hear you tell one."

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