“No. No.” Dr. Huygens waved his hands and muttered in Dutch, obviously frustrated by his lack of Japanese vocabulary. “Beating not enough kill. And see?” He raised an imaginary knife and pretended to stab Sano, who instinctively threw up an arm to shield himself and reached for his sword. “You protect, you fight. But Spaen—”

The doctor touched the dead man’s unmarked arms and hands, where Spaen would have suffered defensive injuries during a knife attack. “He very strong. Good fighter. No let kill easy. He hurt after die.”

“Wonderful.” Sano expelled his breath in a gust of exasperation. The only thing about this case he’d been sure of was how Spaen had died. Now the Dutchman had dispelled that certainty. Thinking aloud, Sano said, “Maybe Spaen was killed while asleep. But there was no blood in his room. Maybe he was drowned. But why would the killer mutilate him after he was already dead? Why not let everyone think it was an accident? And why put the crucifix around his neck?”

Dr. Huygens bent over the corpse, probing with his finger the torn flesh around the worst wound, scrutinizing it over the top of his eyeglasses. Then he opened a cabinet, muttering in Dutch.

Sano’s breath caught when he saw the cabinet’s contents: saws, hammers, pincers, clamps, probes, shears, and knives of every description. Tools of the ship surgeon’s trade. Could one of them have inflicted Spaen’s wounds?

Dr. Huygens selected a knife and a pair of pincers and set them on the table. Clearly intending to perform a dissection, he opened the shutters.

“No!” Sano hurried over and slammed them shut.

“Need light. Need air,” protested Dr. Huygens.

“We can’t let anyone see. Dissection is a crime in this country.” Seeing the doctor’s blank look, Sano longed for a translator. But he couldn’t risk letting Iishino or anyone else witness the dissection and report him for participating in the practice of illegal foreign science, for which the penalty was execution. Sano rephrased his statement. “Cutting a dead body is wrong in Japan.”

Comprehension lit the doctor’s face. “Not wrong in Netherlands,” he said. “We look in body, learn how work. Learn cure sick. Everyone watch. No punish.” He studied Sano with puzzlement. “Why bad here?”

In the simplest language he could manage, Sano explained how the government so feared the encroachment of foreign ways that it forbade even beneficial barbarian practices. “I think the laws are wrong,” he finished. “We shouldn’t let fear close our eyes to the truth, or try to shut out the world. There’s so much I want to see and know, but can’t.”