Tokyo Enigma (15 page)

We kissed for the first time in two days, same lips, new
sensation.

She pulled her head away. "I thought you said you were a
law clerk in the military."

Her crooked grin met my gut-rumbling laugh. We were
back.

"I was too close to one of the air drops and got blown up
myself a little bit. A light colonel named Abe Granger took a personal
interest and got me a new MOS, military occupational specialty. He's
been messing around with my life ever sense. He's the reason I'm
here."

Yuri put her cheek against mine. Her breath rushed into my
ear as she spoke. "Introduce me. I'd like to thank him."

We kissed again, same lips, but... I wondered if women
understood the nuances of rutting bulls.

Yuri pressed her thigh between my legs.

I guessed they did.

"Good moment," she said.

"Bad venue."

"I'll get Sayoko."

I did a few breathing exercises to make sure my face wasn't
flushed. If it was, Sayoko was polite enough not to notice.

"
Konnichi wa
." She looked solemn and bowed too
deeply for my comfort. We needed to lighten the atmosphere.

"
Buenas tardes, Señorita
Sayoko." With a sweep
of my arm, I bowed from the waist like Zorro greeting the wife of his
archenemy. My head went past my knees. Ouch.

Sayoko smiled. Yuri rolled her eyes. I mentally patted myself
on the back.

Social niceties completed, I told them what I had in mind. It
was dicey in parts, but I hoped it sounded more like an adventure
than a pact with the devil.

Yuri clicked her tongue now and again. Sayoko cocked her
head and sucked air through her teeth.

Eventually, Yuri gave a thumbs up.

Sayoko nodded.

"Would you two stand next to each other?" Barefoot, Yuri
was about an inch taller. She was also several pounds heavier, but
there wasn't enough difference that the right clothes couldn't
cover.

I set up a meeting with Allworth in his office. It was probably
an unnecessary precaution, but I asked Morimoto to interpret
instead of Yuri. If anyone was watching, we didn't want them to see
Yuri and Sayoko together.

We'd already gone over the scenario for our radio play that
we'd act out for whoever had bugged Lance's office. His secretary
announced our arrival. His voice was snippish, and he kept us
waiting about fifteen minutes. Lance was playing his part fine. I
asked Morimoto to tell Sayoko to make sure she sounded
nervous.

Her left knee was jiggling. She answered twice.

"No problem." He interpreted.

Lance stayed seated when we went into his office. I
introduced Morimoto and identified Sayoko as a friend of the girl
Dorian was accused of murdering. "She has something you probably
ought to see."

"Show it to me."

"We don't have it with us."

"So why are we all here? I don't have a lot of time, Mick.
Besides, I don't see how Dorian's personal problems affect me or the
company." He snorted. Nice touch. "Except for bad publicity."

"What about Hashimoto?" I played long shot number
one.

"Our optics chief, the guy who died in a traffic accident?
What about him?"

"I'm not sure it was an accident. This is an unlucky place to
work, Lance. I wouldn't be surprised if accidents didn't happen on
cue. Why don't you listen to what Miss Shiyoda has to say?"

Sayoko told him about the break-in at her apartment and
how Maho had given her an item for safekeeping. She was afraid that
she might be harmed because of it, and she was afraid to go to the
police.

"What's the item?"

"I think you'd just better see it. I don't trust everyone in this
company, so we'll meet in public. I suggest you take it straight to
your home and secure it." We agreed to meet in a nearby park at
noon the next day. Lots of people, easily accessible. It sounded
perfect.

Outside his office, Lance said that if we wanted to search
Hashimoto's office, we'd better do it now. His family had asked for
his personal things.

I took him up on that offer.

"What are we looking for?" Morimoto said.

"I don't know, but holler when you see it." I wished for him
to turn into Yuri, but all he did was frown and scratch his ear.

Sayoko stayed with us. Before we went into Hashimoto's
office, I gave her the "shh" sign. She pinched her index finger and
thumb together and drew them across her mouth like she was
zipping her lips shut. Good girl.

Good detective.

She was the one who discovered the business card. Naoto
Yokoyama, Agent, Kamio Investigators.

* * * *

We didn't find anything else of interest, but the card was a
lot. If Yokoyama was the same Kamio investigator who had given
Maho cash, we had a critical link. Best of all, I wouldn't need
Kuroda's help, at least not yet.

We had a key. The question was how to use it.

When we got back to Protect Agency, Yuri looked relieved to
be off the hook for identifying Yokoyama. Since we had a name, the
Nozaka gambit might work after all. Yuri said she'd call, tell them she
had a cheating spouse and ask for Yokoyama personally.

She had it all worked out. We'd meet in a dark alley. Then,
I'd threaten to punch his lights out if he didn't tell us everything he
knew.

"What if he's tougher than me?" I said.

"Then I'll punch his lights out." Yuri smiled, and hit me in the
stomach to demonstrate.

I hoped she hadn't hurt her fist. "What's plan B?"

"We set up a meeting and jilt him. Get his picture and pin a
tail on him."

"For how long? Kyle's got deep pockets, but I think they'll
still want an accounting of how we spend their money. Plan C?"

Yuri folded her arms and looked at the floor. Morimoto had
long since tucked his head into his let-someone-else-think shell. No
one interpreted for Sayoko, so she didn't know what we were
saying.

"I believe you had it, Yuri, "I said. "Just stop at the
surveillance. No dark alleys. You don't call. Nozaka does. Nozaka
meets Yokoyama, tells him he's changed his mind about hiring
someone to watch his wife and offers to pay cash for the time he's
wasted. On the sly, he gets a cell-phone photo, finds out what he can.
A little charm, you know."

I glanced at Sayoko. She had turned attentive after I'd said
Nozaka's name.

"Run a standard check on his public records, the same as
you would for a potential fiancé or a company employee. After
we find out what we can, we think about what comes next."

"Might take a few days," Yuri said.

"If something better comes up, we go with it."

"I'll talk to Nozaka."

While you're at it, ask him to take over your Sayoko watch
for just one night.
I almost said it, but didn't.

The next day was crisp, blue and clear right up to the edge of
haze along the horizon. Not up to the rare Mt. Fuji visible conditions,
but for Tokyo, it was relatively cloudless. Crows cawed and swooped
among bare tree limbs. They pecked at trash, pulled it out of bins and
scattered it across the park's grounds. Their beaks sliced through
plastic and Styrofoam food containers like bolt cutters. Pigeons that
had proliferated in the city years before had been largely driven out
of many areas. There were no songbirds. A few office workers in
black, gray or navy blue coats ate box lunches on worn benches that
bore traces of dark green paint.

Yuri wore a baseball cap with the bill pulled low. We walked
together, slowly. A canvas satchel was slung on my shoulder.
Considering the detailed dismantling of Sayoko's apartment, I
guessed the object sought was small enough to fit inside it.

Nozaka and Morimoto were somewhere near, watching us,
surveying the crowd and taking videos.

We stopped at a small statue of a girl and a fawn and waited.
I had told Lance to come late, to give Nozaka and Morimoto time to
cover the crowd. After about ten minutes we saw him walking
toward us. I itched to do a three-hundred-sixty-degree scan, but I
focused on Lance. If we did have guests, I didn't want to spook them.
I needn't have worried. As soon as I handed Lance the satchel, I
heard a voice behind us.

"
Matte
!" It was a command to wait.

I shouldn't have been surprised to see Yamazaki, the
Panther, but I was. My friend Will had said he doubted the bugs were
the work of yakuza. I had agreed with him. Four other men were
walking toward us from different angles.

"
Are wa nan da
?" He pointed to the satchel.

"Tell him it's none of his business what that is." I spoke to
Yuri.

Yamazaki didn't seem to like the translation. He hit me in
the chest with the flat of his hand. One of the other men stepped so
close our shoulders touched.

"He's going to want the satchel, Lance, but wait for him to
take it."

It wasn't likely Yamazaki knew English, but he reached out
on cue, took the bag and opened it. Inside, there was a box of playing
cards. He narrowed his eyes and flipped open the box. Inside was a
full deck, including jokers.

"You can keep that." I grinned.

Yamazaki grabbed my coat and responded with a string of
Japanese that I couldn't understand except for a couple of words.
Doko
means "where." The other word was the same in
Japanese and English, "
tape
."

I made no outward reaction, but we were eye to eye and a
telepathic message traveled between us as sure as voice over copper
wire. His face went slack when he realized that I hadn't known what
he was looking for. He let go of my coat and snatched the cap off Yuri.
I seized his wrist. It was reflex. I forced his arm down so far that he
had to stoop.

"You got a free hit on me. Not on her."

Most men would have trouble with my grip. Yamazaki
twisted his wrist against my thumb and was free in an instant. He
took a step back and opened his coat. The man next to me did
likewise. In sight were a revolver and a knife with a blade too long to
be a buck skinner.

"
Koi
!"

"He wants us to go with him," Yuri said.

"Don't move," I told her.

Just for practice, I ran it through my mind. Two knuckles to
the sternum of the man next to me, unsheathe the knife and use it on
Yamazaki before he could shoot me. I think I could have done it.

Instead, I raised my arm and moved it in a small circle, the
military field signal for assembly. I looked around and saw Nozaka
about fifty yards away. I doubt he knew the signal, but he understood
the situation. He raised the video camera in one hand so we all could
see it and pointed to it with his other hand for emphasis. I looked
back at Yamazaki.

The left side of his mouth ticked and his nostrils flared. He
walked backwards a few paces, stopped and stared at Yuri for
several seconds. He looked back at me, made a fist and tapped the
side of his head. He turned to leave.

"Yamazaki!"

He froze. We had his name, we had his picture and now,
thanks to him, we had an idea of the object he wanted. He turned his
head slowly and looked back at me.

I made a fist and tapped my chin. "How's your friend?" I
opened my lips over clinched teeth. It was my impersonation of a
man with his jaw wired.

During our little ordeal, Lance had held his ground like a pro
and come out of it unshaken. I hated to admit it, but pretty boy
Nozaka was also a good man. If push had come to shove, I had no
doubt he would have rushed in. As it was, he kept his distance,
knowing our safety was in his camera.

Morimoto had taken video, without a clue, I believed, of
what was going on around him.

Between the two of them, there were twenty to thirty
minutes of video to analyze. Nozaka and Morimoto worked with a
technician to load the files onto computers. We needed to run slow
motion, make stills and enlarge faces.

Sayoko had spent the day in the custody of Protect Agency.
She was ready for a distraction when she met Yuri and me.

"Any idea what Yamazaki had in mind?" Yuri translated my
question. "Tape" could mean video, audio or duct.

"
Iie
," Sayoko shook her head.

"Did Hosoi-san leave anything with you?"

"
N-n
." She strung two syllabic "n's" together. That
meant "no."

I looked to Yuri for help.

She slipped in smoothly. "If Maho-san had wanted to leave
something important with someone she trusted, do you have any
idea who she would have relied on?"

"She didn't get along with her parents, but she had a
brother. She would call him or send him e-mail. I think they were
close."

I should have thought of her brother. She'd left important
stuff with him. The thing was he had volunteered a lot of
information, but he hadn't said anything about a tape.

"Anyone else?" I asked.

Sayoko chewed the edge of her thumb.

"The more we know, the safer you'll be. The safer everyone
will be. Dorian did not kill Hosoi-san. Help us find who did."

"What if..." Sayoko kept her hand against her mouth. "Can
you really protect a person?"

"Who?"

"There's a man, younger than me. Can you protect him?"
Sayoko's eyes challenged mine.

I looked at Yuri for backup. She didn't respond.

"I'll do whatever I can. I can't promise I won't fail. I guess
he's on his own now. Can you be sure he won't be safer with
us?"

"Would you do what Maho-san did?"

I didn't think I was going to like the follow-up to her
question. I was right.

"Would you die to protect him?"

How should I know? I'd played the odds of physical risk lots
of times, but I'd always had a number to count my odds that was not
a zero. I was never a witness, but I'd read of troops who had covered
grenades with their bodies to save comrades. "Greater love hath no
man," or was it something else that motivated them?