by R E Swirsky
***
The grilling session dragged on for some time. As much as Nathaniel probed Taka, he only responded with vague and deceptive answers. He was certain Takahiro was holding back something, and that was not good for either of them.
“I’ll say it again, one last time, Taka. You father said you were at the apartment Friday night. Were you?”
Takahiro remained defiant and offered no response.
“Just talk to me. I’m trying to help you get out of here.”
Taka shrugged and turned to face the wall. He mumbled something.
“What? I didn’t hear that.”
Taka spun around. Anger ruled his face. His eyes burned into Nathaniel, but he said nothing.
“Look around you, Taka. Do you actually think you’ll be going anywhere if you keep this up? If you don’t tell me what’s going on.…”
“I…” Taka dropped his eyes and sighed heavily. When he looked back up, his eyes looked defeated for a moment before they hardened again.
“C’mon, Taka. Give me something—anything.”
“I knew her,” he said and looked away to the corner of the room.
“You knew her?” This was new.
“Yes.” He glanced up at Nathaniel briefly before turning away again. His eyes watered.
“So you were there on Friday night just like your father said you were.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Taka was closer to telling him something. “Your father claims you had a part in her disappearance. Is he just making this nonsense up?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathaniel realized something that he had missed earlier. Taka had not seemed at all surprised when he brought his father’s name up. He didn’t even flinch. But he reacted surprised and with anger after hearing Nathaniel knew he had been snatched.
Nathaniel laughed and backed away towards the front door, as if preparing to leave. “You know what? You’re not giving me anything, so I think I’m about done here.” He shook his head in dismay and pointed at Takahiro as he spoke. “All I asked is for you to be honest with me.” He waved his arms in a sweeping motion in front of him. “I’m done here, and do you know why?”
Taka did not respond and kept facing the stone wall.
“You keep lying to me. We’ve known each other since you were in grade school, and I really expected more from you, Taka. I shouldn’t have come.”
Taka twisted towards Nathaniel and frowned. “Please, Uncle.…”
“No more.” He stood by the front door and placed one hand on the doorknob. “You’ve been tied up here for three days claiming you don’t know anything about the girl or why you’re here. I know you’re lying.” He shook his head and slowly turned the doorknob. “I don’t have time for this bull today. These boys will take care of you from here on.” He cast his eyes on Randal. “And what I said earlier about not touching him? Doesn’t apply any more. Treat him like the rest.” Nathaniel turned away and opened the front door.
“No! Uncle Nate! No! Okay, okay! I know what happened! I do! Please don’t leave me here, please!”
Nathaniel stopped and relief swept over him. He stepped back, closed the door and stared down at Taka. The young man look terrified, and it wouldn’t have surprised Nathaniel if he’d soiled his pants.
“Then I need the truth, Taka. What happened Friday night?”
Taka squirmed around on the blankets, and the chain rattled again. He dropped his eyes to the floor as he spoke.
“I didn’t have anything to do with her kidnapping. I only led them to her. That’s it.” He looked up at Nathaniel. “I had no idea they were going to kidnap her. I didn’t.” His mouth hung open.
“Go on.…”
“My Dad…he…I don’t know why, but he wanted me to befriend her, get close to her. Honest.” He lifted his shackled hands in the air. “I was only supposed to get close enough to find things out about her.”
“What things?”
“Things. What she liked to do, where she went…stuff like that…her hobbies, habits, and routine.”
It was starting to make some sense. Kaito had used his son for reconnaissance, for information gathering, just like the Order does for all targets.
“Why?”
Taka shrugged. “He didn’t tell me. He just told me it was important, something to do with her dad—some lawyer.”
The link to Metcalf was made through Kaito’s son to Metcalf’s daughter.
“And you got close to her?”
Taka hesitated a moment and his mouthed dropped open. Nathaniel wasn’t sure if he was going to say anything or not.
“She and I…we, uh.…”
“You and her what?”
“I wasn’t supposed to be there. I wasn’t, but I went back on Friday night because I liked her.”
“I’m not following. You liked her?”
“I was supposed to be on a flight to Mexico Friday afternoon, but I didn’t go. My dad had arranged it. I was supposed to leave town, but I went to see Lucy instead.”
Nathaniel frowned.
“My dad wanted me to get to know her, so I did. I didn’t tell my dad, but.…”
“But what, Taka?”
Shame filled Taka’s eyes. “I was only supposed to get close. Just be a friend.”
“Go on.”
His eyes met Nathaniel’s. “She became my girlfriend. We only broke up last week and I went back to see her on Friday night. I…uh. That’s all.”
“So you do admit you were at her apartment on Friday night?”
Nathaniel glanced up at Randal as if to suggest beating people isn’t the only way to get confessions.
Randal shrugged. “He’s your friend’s son. Of course he’ll open up to you.”
“I only went back to say goodbye to her,” Taka said.
“That’s good, Taka. I only want the truth.”
“I liked her, and I knew.…” Taka stopped mid-sentence as if he was about to say too much.
“Knew what?”
“Nothing, but…it’s just that when I left, I knew I’d never see her again.”
Nathaniel raised his eyebrows.
“Do you know why your dad wanted her killed?”
Taka’s jaw dropped and his face turned ashen white as blood drained from it. “Killed? My dad? What are you talking about?”
Nathaniel turned to Randal who was leaning against the kitchen door frame opposite the room with his arms crossed upon his chest. “You never told him?”
Randal shrugged. “Makes a better confession if he offers up freely that he knew she died. No, we never told him.”
“I’m sorry, but Lucy died after tumbling off a mountain on Saturday,” Nathaniel said bluntly.
A few tears surfaced in Taka’s eyes and he wiped at them with his cuffed hands the best he could. His eyes darted about the room as the wheels turned in his head. Nathaniel had seen Taka cry as a boy enough times to know these tears were real. “A mountain? No,” he whispered and his expression changed momentarily as if a light bulb flashed on inside his head and then went out. “He wouldn’t.…”
“He used you, Taka.”
“I only meant I’d never see her again because we had broken up. It was the end of the school year and I was hoping we could.… Fuck! She’s dead? Off a mountain? Seriously?” He turned to Randal, hoping he’d say his uncle was making it up, but Randal just stared back, devoid of emotion. “And my dad…?” He didn’t finish the sentence.
“I’m sorry, Taka.”
Taka looked up at him and raised the cuffs again. “The fucking bastard!” He was angry. “Can you take these fucking things off now?”
Nathaniel nodded at Randal, who retreated into the next room to get the keys.
“Taka, did your dad ever.…”
“And stop fucking calling me Taka!” He glared at Nathaniel. His anger with his father was clear. “Only my dad calls me that anymore and I hate it. I always have.”
“What should I call you
then? Takahiro?”
“Do you know what it’s like growing up over here with a name like that?”
“I can’t say that I do.”
“Look at me? Do I even look Japanese to you? Do I?” His English sounded as Canadian as anyone who lived here through multiple generations, and he really didn’t appear to be of Asian descent at all.
“No, not really.” His mother, Ellen, was Polish, a third-generation Canadian.
“I was born here. People say I look like my mother.”
Nathaniel had trouble following the young man’s rant, but he understood what growing up different was all about.
“I’ve been going by Johnny since I left for U of C.”
“Johnny?” He smiled.
“Yeah, my name’s Johnny. What the fuck’s your problem with that?”
He shrugged. “Nothing, really. I’ve got no problem with it, Johnny.”
