Linnear 01 - The Ninja (44 page)

Terry and Ei were murdered. Two of the instructors - Karate and aikido senseis -

‘Sensei.’

‘All right, whatever. They said this man was the best they had ever seen. Afterwards, he had a kendo match with Terry. Vincent told me Terry had been troubled by it when they had dinner together. That was the night of the double murder.’

Nicholas looked at him, ignoring the paper in his hand. It was thin and limp, seeming to be stained with sweat. ‘What’s the punch-line?’

‘This Japanese gave his name as Hideoshi.’

Nicholas looked away for a moment, out over the cemetery. The white marble headstones were brilliant in the burning sun and even .the dark grey or striated stones seemed as light as feathers, threatening at any moment to shake free of their moorings and float away into the sky as serenely as clouds. It was the middle of the week; there was little movement along the neat, narrow paths, the close-cropped lawns. Bright blobs of colour, flowers placed precisely at the doorways to heaven, gave the panorama a rather false festiveness as if they stood in the middle of a newly abandoned state fair. At the periphery of his vision, a yellow bulldozer moved fallow earth. Beyond, the highway arched in a steel and stressed-concrete rainbow, its traffic so muted its hiss seemed like the sigh of endless surf.

‘In 1598,’ Nicholas said, ‘Hideoshi, the Kwambaku, he who controlled all the warring daimyo of Japan, died. It is commonly believed that he, being a far-sighted man, bequeathed his power to leyasu Tokugawa, the strongest member of the governing council. This is not so. Hideoshi’s mistress was Yodogimi and she had given him a son. He loved them both and wished, above all else, to have his heir one day rule Japan. Just before his death he asked to see a close friend, Mitsunari the policeman. He told him in strict secrecy to guard Yodogimi and his son. In effect, he set Mitsunari against leyasu. “Mitsunari, my friend,” he said, “leyasu exults in my death though you will see him act otherwise. Do not be deceived. leyasu is as clever as he is dangerous. He will, within a short time of my death, seek to

become Shogun. Mitsunari, my friend, you must oppose this with all your might for, to do this, leyasu must destroy Yodogimi and the true heir.”

‘Then, just moments afterwards, Hideoshi received leyasu. “You are the strongest of the council,” he told him. “Thus you must take over the reins of power after I am gone.” “Do not speak of such sad matters, Kwambaku,” leyasu said, but Hideoshi waved him to silence. “Listen to what I have to say. There is little time. When I am gone, there will be anarchy among the council members. Undoubtedly they will split into factions and the country will be plunged back, into civil war. This must be avoided at all costs. You must seize power, leyasu. Those other three daimyo are as nothing to you. Sweep them aside; rule to forestall a civil war which would rip Japan asunder.” And leyasu Tokugawa bowed his head in acquiescence.

“Thus did Hideoshi set in motion at the very moment of his death a complex plan for the eventual succession of his heir; thus he hoped to manipulate the destiny of Japan even from -beyond the grave. He knew that the moment of his death was most inopportune. His son was still far too young to be able to defend himself or to hold for long the loyalty of all but a tiny fraction of those who were loyal to him. He knew of leyasu’s ambition to become Shogun and this he would not permit. That honour must go to his own heir.’

Off to their left, a small funeral procession made its lentitudinous way from the black macadam road from which heat waves rose, along one of the narrow paths towards an open grave. The gleaming casket was already in place, surrounded by garlands of flowers. The mourners were forming up and a slight commotion began as one of the family members collapsed. Distance and the heaviness of the air dampened the sound so that it appeared as if they were viewing a mime show.

‘Was Hideoshi successful?’ Croaker asked after a time.

‘No,’ Nicholas said, ‘he wasn’t.’ He was still watching the crowd of people. The person - a woman, it appeared - had recovered and the service commenced. ‘For one thing, leyasu Tokugawa was far too clever and powerful. For another, Mitsunari gathered a coalition of daimyo around him who were just

not up to the task of defeating leyasu. In 1615 leyasu led his forces against those who sought to protect Yodogimi and the heir. They had retreated into the nearly invulnerable castle at Osaka. On June fourth of that year, leyasu’s forces breached the castle’s defences but by that time both Yodogimi and the young heir were already dead; she had killed her son and then committed seppuku.’

‘Is there a villain in this story ?’

There came a flash in the sky and a drone, heavy with vibration, as a 747 headed in to Kennedy.

‘I suppose it depends on your point of view,’ Nicholas said. ‘But I can tell you that leyasu was one of the greatest leaders in the history of Japan. Whether Hideoshi understood those qualities in leyasu is open to debate. In any case, they were two different kinds of men, and it is impossible, I think, to make an overwhelming case for one against the other. They were both crucial to the development of their country.’

‘Yet, in the end, Hideoshi is the loser,’ Croaker pointed out. ‘His line died with him.’ Nicholas said nothing. There was a kind of stillness over the cemetery. People looked like statues, caught within a moment as if part of an old photograph. The hazy spires of Manhattan, sitting astride the horizon in the West, seemed out of place, dropped there by mistake by some drunken stage hand. Croaker’s voice had lowered in volume when next he spoke. ‘Why would this man take Hideoshi’s name - we can be certain it’s not his own - when that man failed?’

Nicholas smiled thinly, turned to look at Croaker’s face. Odd, he thought. Depending on the intensity of the light and which way it struck,, one could see his face as either nigged or battered. But perhaps they were the same, after all. ‘That’s a totally Western way of viewing history,’ he said softly. ‘In Japan there is what we call the nobility of failure. Many of our greatest heroes failed in their ultimate objectives. But their vision was heroic, as were their subsequent actions. In the West, you revere only the victorious. That’s a. pity, don’t you think ?’

Croaker squinted against the glare of the sun. ‘You mean this Hideoshi was a hero.’

Nicholas nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘What about the other names on the list? How would they fit in here?’

‘Frankly, I don’t know, but Terry wasn’t just doodling.’ He handed the paper back to Croaker.

‘Well, I don’t get it.’

‘Neither do I,’ Nicholas said.

There was a kind of stillness in the air that had nothing to do with sadness and death and defeat. Nicholas thought, wonderingly, that it had been some time indeed since he had felt as close to another man as he did nqw to Lew Croaker.

‘You know,’ he said, ‘when I came to this country years ago, I deliberately put aside a certain part of my life. That is not an easy thing to do - for anyone - but especially for someone brought up in Japan. There was a debt I felt I owed to my father - to the West, really - where it resided inside myself.’ Croaker’s eyes seemed silvery with the sunlight as he regarded Nicholas silently. He had come to understand the immense importance of this gesture.

‘But, abruptly, I stopped. Just like that. It was as if I had suddenly awakened from a long dream-filled sleep. What had I been doing all these years here? What had I accomplished? I would not have myself, feel, as my father had-at his death, as if I had squandered the time allotted to me. It was enough that I had been encompassed by his sorrow, his bitterness. I could not countenance the same thing happening to me.’

They were silent for a time, listening perhaps to the unsteady wind reaching the elms. The sun was very hot.

‘And now?’ Croaker said with a hint of hesitation; he was still in unfamiliar territory. ‘Has anything changed?’

Nicholas laughed, not unkindly but with a sword-sharp edge. ‘My whole world has turned upside down. It’s as if the intervening years since I came here had never occurred.’

‘I’m trying to imagine something like that happening to me.’

Nicholas looked at him for a moment in pleasure.

As if by mutual consent, they began to walk slowly down the path towards Croaker’s waiting car. Both seemed somehow reluctant to be on their way, as if dreading the frenzy of the city. Just before they reached the car, Croaker said, ‘What’s your

opinion of Justine’s old man?’

Nicholas looked at him. ‘That’s an odd way to put it.’

Croaker shrugged. ‘A figure of speech.’

But Nicholas suspected his friend of having inserted a subtle warning. ‘I started out by hating his guts,’ he said slowly as if formulating his thoughts as he spoke. ‘But dial’s hardly surprising, given Justine’s point of view and the way he and I first met. He’s deliberate and heavy-handed and used to getting everydiing he wants. I don’t like any of dial.’

‘I hear a “but” hanging around there some place.’

Nicholas stopped and faced Croaker. ‘Look, it would be very easy - and expedient for us all - to write him off as a rich villain out of some dime-store novel but it’s not as simple as all that.’

‘He’s a murderer, Nick.’

‘He’s vulnerable -‘

‘Oh, Jesus-‘

‘He loves his girls, no matter what they think of him. He’d do anydiing to protect them. And he’s not as sure of himself as he ought to be. There’s something -‘

‘It’s the grand act he’s putting on for you. He needs your help and he knows you’re no dummy.’

‘I really think you’re wrong. He’s not as two-dimensional as you make him out to be.’

‘All right. Your ninja goes out and kills people,’ Croaker said. ‘But there must be someone somewhere who he comes home to and loves. He is still what he is.’

‘You’re ignoring the complexities -‘

‘He’s a fucking shark, man. You’d better face up to it.’

‘You’re looking at it from only one point of view.’

Croaker shook his head. ‘No, Nick. I’ve just known him longer, dial’s all.’

On the way into the city, Croaker told Nicholas all he knew about the circumstances of Vincent’s death. It wasn’t much.

He dropped Nicholas at Tomkin’s building on Park and continued downtown. At the office the M.E.‘s report on Vincent was waiting for him. He slung his sopping jacket over the back

of the grey and dull green chair, took a MintyPick out of his breast pocket, flipped it into his mouth and opened the folder.

What he saw brought the sweat out on his forehead and along the line of his upper lip. He ran a hand through his thick hair and swore under his breadi. Then he reached for the phone. There was the minimum of delay.

‘Nate?’ he said when he got the M.E. on the line. ‘Croaker. Thanks for the report on Vincent Ito. Someone must have broken his back to get it here so soon.’

‘I did it myself.’ Graumann’s voice sounded tired. ‘We’re all still a bit stunned here and -‘.

‘Hey, Nate, I’m working on it.’

‘What’s up? And don’t give me any schmeer?

‘Not much,’ Croaker admitted. ‘Only dial it seems related to the deaths of Terry Tanaka and Eileen Okura. They were friends of Vincent’s.’

‘Yeah, I remember the files. Vincent did the autopsies himself. But how? There’s certainly no similarity in M.O.’ —Croaker rubbed at his eyes. ‘Right now, all I can say is that M.O. doesn’t seem very relevant.’

‘I see. I phoned Doc Deerfordi out on the Island. I wanted it to come from me.’

‘How’d he take it?’

‘Not well. Look, Lew, we’d - I’d appreciate anything you can do - you know …’ His voice trailed off.

‘I know you two were close. Believe me, the minute I have something, I’ll be in touch.” He looked up. Vegas was in the open doorway, grinning like a Cheshire cat. He put one finger in the air, put his hand over the speaker, said, ‘Hold on, I’ll be off in a minute.’

‘… the funeral arrangements,’ Graumann was saying.

‘Do that,’ Croaker said, ‘I want to be there.’ He looked down at the report. ‘About this chemical substance you found - are you certain -‘

‘Like I said, I did the autopsy myself. There’s no doubt about the finding.’

‘Good. That narrows things down considerably.’

‘There’s absolutely no way the substance could have been

introduced accidentally. It happened shortly before his death.’ ‘So I see,” Croaker said, reading the typescript. ‘A modified nerve toxin; slowed down his muscular responses enough so that-‘

‘I’d say he was pretty near helpless by the time - by the time it happened.’

‘It wasn’t injected.’

‘No. It would have no effect that way. This is an organic compound we’re talking about, npt a laboratory synthetic. It must have been sprayed and from close range. He might have known his murderer.’

‘Or just not suspected. Anyone - even someone coming quickly out of a crowd - could have sprayed him. Listen, I’ll get back to you.’

‘Yeah. I just hope it won’t be long.’

Croaker cradled the receiver thoughtfully. Still no word from his contact. What was taking so fucking long? ‘Come on in,’ he said to Vegas. He shifted the MintyPick from one side of his mouth to another. ‘Where you been all duded up?’ Vegas was wearing a plum-coloured suit with wide lapels and modified flare trousers. Underneath, he wore a pink shirt with a high collar.

‘Been out pickin’ up the shit,’ Vegas said, the wide smile still stitched to his mouth. ‘Yeah, real bad shit this time, my man. Took us three months settin’ it up.’

Croaker grunted. ‘Business as usual.’ His mind was on the M.E.‘s report.

‘No way, man. No way a-tall.’ Vegas lounged his huge frame against the open doorway, disdaining the chair inside the office. ‘This time I got me a fox among all this shit I just hauled in.’

Croaker clucked his tongue. ‘Don’t tell me you’re planning to mix business with pleasure.’

Vegas shook his head and his grin seemed to expand. ‘Uh-uh, not this fox. This fox is special.’

‘Yeah? They’re all the fucking same, man, those cunts you come across.’

Vegas was waiting for this. He poked his forefinger towards Croaker and said, delightedly, ‘Not this one. This one’s your fox, man. I just been her guardian angel till I got her here.’