Tokyo Enigma (23 page)

She did.

She showed up with Sayoko, who described her kidnapping.
She'd run out of money and places to stay. She'd gotten several calls
from Ito, finally answered one and, after some cajoling, agreed to
meet. Ito persuaded Sayoko to ride with her. It was the last she saw
freedom. They went to Ito's house. A couple of thugs ushered her
inside, and they locked the doors. She'd been afraid to scream or try
to escape. They had threatened retribution.

"Does she understand she's a witness against a
policeman?"

Yuri asked her. "Yes."

"She understands the danger?"

"Yes."

"She won't leave the agency by herself until this is
over?"

Yuri translated my question, but didn't have to explain the
answer. Sayoko's head was wagging like a puppy dog tail.

"I think we should call Kuroda. He might not have been
interested in an unverified kidnapping, but now we've got a witness
for his bad-cop investigation."

Everyone agreed. It went on a list of things to do tomorrow.
Item number two was to interview Dorian.

"Did Ito try to get any other information from her besides
the key?"

"Not specifically," Yuri translated.

"Then why were they keeping her?"

We came up with lots of reasons. They might have figured
out that we had connected her to the plainclothes cops. They might
have wanted her to help them find the motorcycle boy. Maybe they
just hadn't yet decided what to do with her.

"Did they ever talk about the tape? Did they know what was
on it?"

Sayoko ran her fingers along the sides of her head. "They
didn't talk to me about it, but they talked about it in front of me. They
said they could use 'her' for dubbing. 'Her' meant me."

"Dubbing? You mean a voiceover?"

Yuri answered directly. "Probably not. It's a loan word, but
in Japanese we use it to say 'make a copy.'"

"They wanted to use Sayoko to make a copy of the tape. That
doesn't make any—"

Nozaka snapped his fingers and pointed at me.

Gotcha!

That's why the plainclothes cop didn't care when I told him
we had copied the tape. They had already figured the cat was out of
the bag, or if it wasn't yet, it soon would be. They didn't need the
original tape or even to stop distribution of it. All they needed was a
copy. When I realized what they had in mind, I wanted to go back to
the river, find Yamazaki and put a knife in his heart. I wanted to
torch Ito's home with all the rest of them tied to stakes inside.

Sayoko would have been forced to play the role of Maho,
same positions, same actions with another man. They would shoot a
separate video that matched the original, then map images of the
man over those of Ohashi, the commissioner. They could say the
original was the fake, a libel fabricated by political or personal
enemies. They didn't have to prove how it was done or anything else,
just raise doubt.

Sayoko would have been a human prop needed only to get
the body parts in the right positions. After they had finished with
her, then what? They had already killed twice, Maho and the
engineer, Hashimoto.

To pull it off, they would need a world-class technician in
digital video and video animation. Japan was knee deep in talent like
that. They could probably find someone who needed money.

Without the fever and after two days' rest, my leg wound
wasn't much of an encumbrance. I went to Protect Agency on my
own. Yuri had contacted Kuroda, and he agreed to meet us at the
agency.

I asked Ishii, the lawyer, to sit in with us. He represented my
client, Dorian, so could he help us out? He said no. He listened to
what we had found, but he didn't see a direct tie-in to Maho's
murder. If there was no link, he couldn't bill for his time. I wanted to
argue with him, but I couldn't construct a logical link myself.

Gut link, yes. Logical link, no.

He wouldn't understand that. Lawyers don't think with
anatomical bits below their necks. At least, not when it comes to fees.
I called Abe and asked him if GRIM Inc. would guarantee payment for
Ishii's time. Otherwise, he might never see my cheery face outside a
Japanese lockup.

It took him an uncomfortably long time to say okay. We'd
talk about that when I got back. I called Ishii again. With payment
worked out, he said he was on his way.

Our team exuded a false calm, while we waited for Kuroda.
Even with the lawyer there on GRIM's nickel, we were all anxious
about explaining what had happened. We still didn't know the
condition of the people we'd encountered. I was especially
concerned about the man Yuri had kicked. If she had hit the guy's
throat instead of his head, he would not have survived without
immediate and expert medical attention. I don't know if I had struck
an artery in Yokoyama's neck or not. If I had, it would have been
difficult to stop the bleeding. I knew the gunman I tackled had lost an
eye. If anything happened to Yamazaki, it was an act of nature. We
had his gun with his prints. We could establish self-defense, but that
didn't mean we were clear. Judicial systems saw the world in
proprietary light. Legal facts and true facts didn't always mesh.

Ishii did most of the explaining. Kuroda didn't reveal
anything in his expression until the presentation was over. When he
did talk, he zeroed in on Nozaka for not reporting it earlier. Nozaka
was the only one who hadn't been busy getting medical treatment.
He was also the only who could locate the site again.

We had it choreographed, bad news first, then evidential
offerings to Kuroda. I came to Nozaka's rescue by dropping the
thirty-eight on the table. It was in a plastic baggie. Drama, make him
forget the bad stuff.

Kuroda's focus shifted. "What's this?"

"It was Yamazaki's. He dropped it. You might find a piece of
my prints on the trigger guard where I picked it up. Any others
should be his."

Kuroda checked both sides of the gun through the baggie.
Country of origin unknown. "What about the tape they
wanted?"

Mai Ota placed a copy of the tape in front of Kuroda and
explained how we'd gotten it. Laws broken there I guess, but at least
we hadn't stolen anything.

"You should have told me," Kuroda said.

"Told you what? We didn't know anything, until we checked.
Besides, we had another concern, a kidnapping, that you and your
people didn't much care about."

Ishii was taking notes. He squirmed a little as Yuri
translated. She must have done a good job.

"Just a minute." I stood and walked out before Kuroda could
react. Sayoko had been waiting in another room. I brought her back
with me.

Sayoko bowed and in a voice scarcely above a whisper told
Kuroda about being taken to Ishii's home and held against her will.
Nozaka and I had rescued her. Otherwise she'd still be there, or
worse. She also told him about conversations regarding the
tape.

"Would you like to see it now?" I asked Kuroda.

He nodded, but watched only several seconds, before he
turned it off. "The woman is Maho Hosoi. Who is the man?"

Yuri told him, but, of course, he already knew. He just
wanted to confirm that we did.

"There's more," I said. I showed him a picture of the
plainclothes cop in the parking lot. "Do you remember this?"

"Yes."

I gestured toward Sayoko. She told him about her sex show
with Maho and seeing one of the policemen that he was
investigating.

A wisp of a smile wriggled onto Kuroda's stoic mask. Maybe
he'd gotten a glimpse of his next promotion. He already had Yuri's
and my statements that we'd seen the two plainclothes policemen
with Yamazaki in the forest, but Sayoko's statement seemed special. I
wondered if he knew more about that night than we did.

"This is a lot of information," he said. "It's good information,
but we have to verify what you've done."

He said he'd get a court order to open Maho's safe-deposit
box.
Don't bother, it'll be empty.
Nozaka and Yuri and I would
have to go back to the forest and show police where the things we'd
described happened. He wanted Sayoko to take him to the house in
Izu.

In all of Kuroda's yada, yada there was an item that never
got mentioned.

"What about Dorian? What about Maho's murder
investigation?" I asked.

"As I said before, that will never be my case. But there will
be another police officer assigned to it. You will have a fair
investigation, and I will do what I can."

Not good enough, Kuroda-san.

* * * *

Yuri and Nozaka went with the police to tour the site in the
woods. I didn't think I could add much, so I begged out. That left me
free to see Dorian. Ishii set up the visit, but he didn't come with me.
No police chaperone either, just the two of us.

I wasn't sure how to play it with this guy. Threaten, reassure
or humor. He was the one being weighed on the scales of justice, but
he was either unable or unwilling to help himself. Dorian showed up
in jail-cell utilities, no civvy clothes, no one to impress.

I stopped trying to figure Dorian out and just talked from my
gut. "A low-life private investigator, who may or may not be dead
because of me, said he figured you were holding out. I agree."

"Are we talking about my defense?" Dorian maintained his
practiced calm.

"We are. The question is, how much you can
contribute."

"Nothing's changed. I still don't remember anything."

"Not that night. I'm more interested in what you remember
before then. The investigator I mentioned was seen giving Maho
Hosoi money. We found his business card in the office of one your
former employees, a Mr. Hashimoto. Have you heard about him?
Killed in a car wreck."

"Yes."

"I'm not sure it was an accident. What do you think?"

"I have no opinion. What are you getting at?"

"Do you know if Hashimoto ever hired a private
detective?"

"Yes, at my request. It's common practice in Japan for
companies to have prospective employees and business partners
checked out."

"Was Maho being considered for a job?"

"I never said she was a subject. That's your inference. I
wasn't directly involved. I don't know who Hashimoto used, or who
he had investigated."

"That's rough. Might've been an asset in getting you out of
here."

If I hadn't been watching closely, I wouldn't have noticed the
slight rise in Dorian's eyebrow.

"There's another factor." I said.

"Which is?"

"People have been hurt since we started this. If I find out
that you've been hiding information that could have prevented that,
I'll do whatever I can to keep you here for as long as possible. If
anything else happens to me or anyone I care about, I won't bother
with the authorities. I'll make sure that you have Mick Sanchez
nightmares until the day I turn 'em off."

He started to say something, but fell silent.

I got up and walked to the door. "If your memory gets better,
let me know."

I called Will Simons and asked if he wanted to see a late
afternoon matinee, private showing, strictly confidential.

He made time for me. He was glad he did.

"There's more creativity than I would have given that boy
credit for." Will switched off the commissioner's video.

I was curious about what had impressed him the most, but I
let the question lie. "No doubt it's him, right?"

"It's him."

"But, as agreed, you won't do anything with it right
now."

"I couldn't if I wanted to. Reuters wouldn't touch this unless
there was an official investigation. I could introduce it to some
scandal-sheet lads though. They'd use it. They'd print still shots from
the video. Then there'd be an investigation, and then we could run
with it."

"Don't do that, not just yet. They might have a
counter-ploy."

I told Will about the video-dubbing theory and briefed him
on our woodland adventure. He asked me if he should set up another
meeting with the FTC secretary. I said no. First, I wanted to find out
how things went with Yuri and Nozaka.

There was no way to tell when they'd be back, so I went to
Protect Agency to wait. Sayoko and I kept each other company. She
was antsy to get out. Instead of an escorted break though, I gave her
a lecture on risk avoidance in tortured Japanese, supplemented with
gestures and artwork. I'm sure I made no sense, but it helped pass
the time. After I was done, we played cards until our tummies
rumbled. I was about to give in and take Sayoko out for supper, when
Yuri and Nozaka came back.

"How'd it go?" I said.

"We did the tour. They made a sweep," Yuri said, "over a
broad area. All we found was Yamazaki's body."

I felt like I'd been sucker punched in the soul. I'd expected
Yamazaki to suffer and pull through. I guess my expression said as
much. Yuri addressed my unspoken response.

"He was beached on a shoal, a good bit downstream from
where you and Nozaka-san left him. The medical examiner said he'd
drowned."

"Drowned?"

"Yeah. Nozaka-san was surprised too. He's already made a
statement that Yamazaki was alive and on land when you both left
him. They're going to want an affidavit from you also. Doesn't make
sense does it?"

"No." Unless, perhaps, Yuri and I weren't the only ones
scheduled to be taken out that night. Assume Yamazaki had killed
Maho. I had a theory of two people who carried out the murder.
Could the other guy have been Yokoyama? With loose ends like that
tied up, Yuri and I were hardly worth an afterthought. But why a
drowning and why leave his body? Maybe Yamazaki had seen
something coming, pushed into the river and swam until his strength
gave out. Maybe some people had held him under water and let his
body float downstream. They didn't care if he was found. Dead men
don't talk a lot.