by Dave Daren
“So, Hoshu got his apology, and you two got a house in L.A.,” I concluded.
“Perhaps,” Masao sighed as he looked around the garden. “But it has never truly been ours. We are tenants only.”
“Is he here?” I asked.
“He has called Keiko several times in the last month or so,” Masao replied. “She has not told me what they have discussed.”
“But what do you think?” I prodded.
“I believe that not all is well in Hoshu’s empire,” Masao said quietly. “I believe that he is determined to fix the problem as he always has. I believe that he has been watching from the nearby shadows, and I believe he will soon begin his campaign against his perceived enemies.”
I couldn’t help myself. I stared into the shadows that surrounded the garden and wondered if there was someone hiding among the plants. I knew I’d taken a risk by coming here, but I hadn’t truly appreciated how dangerous this could have been until that moment.
“I can leave you my card,” I said. “Will you call if he shows up?”
“No cards,” Masao replied. “He will find it.”
Something startled a group of wrens that had gathered in the nearby bushes, and they took flight. I felt myself jump in my seat, and I looked over at Masao. He looked resigned to whatever fate was in store for him.
“Leave your number with Marisol,” Masao finally instructed. “She will get word to you, if necessary.”
I caught a glimpse of Keiko as she moved slowly along a path that curved around the side of the house. Masao stood up and followed after her without uttering another word. I’d been dismissed, and there was nothing to do but leave Masao and Keiko to their own sad story.
I made my way back to the house, in the hopes that I could find Marisol. It took my eyes a few moments to adjust to the sudden darkness when I stepped through the french doors, and I felt a sudden and intense hatred for the man that would happily condemn two healthy people to this existence.
“Marisol?” I called tentatively. I picked my way through the room and back to the foyer. I stood there a moment, trying to guess where Marisol might be. I decided the kitchen was a good bet and then tried to guess where the kitchen might be. Since I hadn’t passed it on the way back from tea, I turned in the opposite direction, and followed the hall to the other end of the house.
I found the kitchen tucked behind a formal dining room. Marisol was there, watching a telenovela on an old portable TV.
“Marisol,” I called out as I stepped into the room. She jumped to her feet and switched the TV off.
“You are finished with tea?” she asked.
“I am,” I replied. “Mr. and Mrs. Daigo are in the garden. I’m not sure if they’re done.”
“Si,” she said, “I will collect the tea set.”
“Are you Masao’s home health aid?” I guessed.
“Si,” she replied as she eyed me warily. “I have my green card.”
“I’m not concerned about that,” I assured her. “Masao wanted me to give you my phone number.”
She cocked an eyebrow but said nothing.
“It’s so you can call if something happens,” I explained.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“I’m a lawyer,” I replied. “I’m trying to find Keiko’s brother.”
“Ah,” Marisol breathed as her eyes grew big. “Si, we have been watching for him. He hasn’t appeared yet, but I think he is here, in the country. He has been making many phone calls to Mrs. Daigo, and she has left the house a few times without Mr. Daigo. She never says where she is going, or when she will be back. Mr. Daigo always looks very sad when she leaves.”
“I’ll give you my number,” I started to say.
“No,” she waved it away. “I know how to reach you.”
So she was a part of Sofia’s network. I never should have doubted that. Marisol walked me back to the front door and promised she would try to learn where the mysterious brother might be hiding. She gave me a pat on the cheek as she ushered me outside, then made me promise to treat Sofia to a nice dinner when we won our case.
I was glad to leave the house behind. I didn’t realize just how unsettled it left me until I was back on the street, with the sun on my face, and the normal sounds of everyday life in L.A. filling my ears. I was halfway to the office when I pulled into a gas station to call Anna.
“Hi,” she purred when she picked up.
“Hi, yourself,” I replied. “You sound happy.”
“I am,” she laughed. “I just had the most amazing massage, and now I’m soaking in my tub.”
“Uh-huh,” I replied. “Don’t you work somewhere?”
“I do,” she said. “And I was up very early this morning dealing with customers in Europe and on the East Coast. I earned this.”
“I’m sure you did,” I laughed. “Do you feel like taking a drive?”
“Maybe,” she teased. “Where are we going?”
“Your father’s house,” I replied.
“And why are we going there?” she asked.
“You said you hadn’t cleaned anything out yet,” I said. “Is that still true?”
“Sadly, yes,” she replied. “Are you volunteering for that job?”
“We need to collect his medications,” I explained. “So we can have them tested.”
“Tested?” she murmured. “For what?”
“Strychnine,” I said. “Well, a derivative of it. Masao Daigo believes that’s what the Mizuchi used on him. If we can find those pills before the yakuza, we may have the first link we need to prove Kurzak’s statements are true.”
“Come pick me up,” she said. I heard the water in the tub splash as she apparently stood up, and I quickly banished the image that created in my mind.
“I’m on my way,” I declared.
I turned the car around and returned to the hills. I managed to skirt the worst of the traffic and pulled up to the gate for the spa in short order. Anna had called to say I was coming, and after scrutinizing my driver’s license for nearly ten minutes, the guard finally let me onto the premises. I followed the curving drive to the main building. Anna was already out front, tapping her foot in agitation. I’d barely pulled to a stop in front of her before she was in the front seat and telling me to go.
Traffic heading north was a lot worse, and we crawled towards Ventura. We made small talk for a while, but mostly we rode in silence. I still couldn’t shake the image of Keiko and Masao in that gloomy house from my mind. It seemed a fate worse than death.
“What are they like?” Anna finally asked.
“Who?” I said. “The Daigos?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“They’re nice, I guess.”
“That’s not helpful,” she teased. “I know you’re good at reading people. What did you think of them?”
“I think they wanted to be like everyone else,” I said. “They truly loved each other, and I think they still do. The Mizuchi has worked hard to destroy what they have, but they hang on. I just don’t know how much longer they can, though. I think they’re both nearing the end.”
“That’s terrible,” Anna replied quietly. I glanced at her and saw her eyes were glistening. “There must be something we can do.”
“I offered,” I explained. “But I don’t think they want any help. Not anymore.”
We pulled into the driveway then, and I parked around the side, out of sight from the street. Anna led the way to the kitchen door, and we found ourselves back in the house where she grew up. A fine layer of dust coated every surface, and Anna wiped a finger slowly along a countertop, leaving a sad little trail.
“Where are his medications?” I asked, as I tried to shake off the air of dejection that seemed to hang over us.
“His prescription meds are all in the master bathroom,” Anna replied. She rolled her shoulders back, as if she, too, was fighting off this pervasive gloom. “His over-the-counter stuff is mostly in here.”
“I
’ll go grab the prescriptions,” I said.
“Maybe check the guest bathroom as well,” she suggested. “Sometimes he’d keep some in there if he ran out of room in his own medicine cabinet.”
“On it,” I replied.
I found an impressive number of prescription pill bottles in the master suite, plus a few more in the guest bathroom. The dates went back the full four years. Apparently, Arturo never threw any of his old meds out, even when he received a prescription for something new. I hoped this meant we’d be able to show that the poison had been introduced four years ago. I checked a few more likely places in the bedroom and bathrooms, but didn’t find any more bottles.
I returned to the kitchen and found another round of bottles that Anna had set out on the counter. Most of these were vitamins and supplements, but a few were things like St. John’s Wort. At least I’d heard of that one. Some of the bottles had names that I’d never even seen before.
“Vince,” Anna said as she returned to the kitchen. There was an edge to her voice, and her eyes had a harsh gleam. “I went to check in the office, because I used to see him with a bottle of vitamin c in there. He would chew them like candy.”
“Did you find the bottle?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said as she dropped it next to the rest of the bottles. She held up a piece of pale blue stationery. “I also found this.”
“And that is?” I inquired. She handed it to me without comment.
It was a simple letter, laying out Kurzak’s losses during the trip to Macao, and his encounter with certain “forceful people”. He apologized for his weakness and swore that he would find a way to save ArDex. He also tried to explain that the contract might be good for the company because the company wouldn’t have to compete for business. That was probably the point when Arturo realized that Kurzak wasn’t going to work for the future of ArDex any more. Kurzak was already in league with the Mizuchi, no matter how hard he tried to deny it.
The final paragraph was one long plea for forgiveness, and a promise to protect Arturo and his family. I wondered if Arturo had forgiven him, and if he believed that Kurzak would be able to keep Leo and Anna safe. I hoped that he did, because I imagined that the truth would have killed him just as surely as the poison.
“We can use this,” I said.
“He never planned to stop them,” she replied angrily. “He claims he would, but then he turns around and says what a great deal it is. It must have killed my father to read this.”
“Kurzak wasn’t a very strong man,” I pointed out. “The Mizuchi knew that, and he knew how to use Kurzak. Who knows how long the yakuza had been watching. Years, maybe. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mizuchi had eyes on all the senior management. But Kurzak was the one he felt he could manipulate.”
“Don’t defend him!” she warned.
“I’m not defending him,” I said as I held my hands out in front of me. She stormed past me, and I let her go. I found an old canvas tote in the pantry and filled it with the bottles I had collected. When Anna didn’t reappear, I called Sofia.
“Where are you?” Sofia asked by way of greeting.
“In Ventura, at the old Bernardi house,” I replied. “Why? Did something happen?”
“I had a call from Miyo Tatsuda,” Sofia said. “It’s nothing big. She just wanted to drop off some documents. I offered to meet her, but she said she’d call you.”
“I haven’t heard from her,” I stated. “I’ll call her back later.”
“So why are you in Ventura?” she prompted.
“I think I know what type of poison they used on Arturo, and I think I know how they administered it,” I explained. “We’re up here collecting all his medicines. We need a good chemical analysis lab where we can drop these off.”
“Hmmm,” Sofia pondered. “I may have to make a couple of phone calls, see if there’s someone who can do this quickly.”
“This can’t be a guy in his garage,” I said quickly. “We need to establish a chain of evidence, and we need to have a witness we can put on the stand and who can testify about the results.”
“I know that,” Sofia protested. “But maybe I can move us the front of the line. These labs can be backed up for weeks on some of these tests. How much do you have?”
“About thirty or forty bottles,” I replied as I looked inside the tote bag.
“That’s a lot,” Sofia remarked.
“Some of these are old,” I explained. “He probably hadn’t used them in a couple of years, but he still had them in his medicine cabinet.”
“I’ll call you back,” she said.
I went in search of Anna and found her sitting in an old Adirondack chair in the backyard. She gazed at the cloudless sky, lost in thought. She was dry-eyed now, but there was still a deep sadness about her. I watched her from the window until my phone rang. I stepped back, but Anna had heard the phone. She looked towards the window for a moment and then stood up and walked back towards the house.
“Okay,” Sofia began without even waiting for a greeting, “I’ve got someone who can do this, but you have to get the stuff there now.”
“Just text me the address, and we’ll drop it off,” I replied.
“You’ll need to stop at a place called Sun Village Donuts on the way,” Sofia said. “I promised Jeanine that you’d bring her a box. She wants the one with the mix of the glaze and cake varieties.”
“Sun Village Donuts, got it,” I agreed.
“See you tomorrow, boss,” Sofia replied cheerfully.
Anna found me still by the window. I tucked the phone back into my pocket and gave her an inquisitive look.
“I’ll be okay,” she assured me.
“We need to stop at Sun Village Donuts,” I said, “And then we can drop off the medicines for testing.”
To her credit, Anna didn’t ask, simply gave me one raised eyebrow. We collected our stash of drugs and then set off in search of donuts. We found the Sun Village Donuts shop easily, and after picking out the dozen for Jeanine, indulged in a few for ourselves.
We munched on our sugar bombs on the drive back to L.A. They were perfect little bits of goodness, and I could understand why Jeanine had picked this as her price. By the time I pulled into the parking lot for the lab, we’d polished off every last crumb, and I was giving serious consideration to the idea of eating one from Jeanine’s box. If the drive had taken another five minutes, Jeanine would have found herself with only eleven donuts.
The lab wasn’t officially open when we arrived, but Jeanine met us at the door after I called to let her know we were there with the drugs and the bribe. Jeanine turned out to be a thirty-something black woman with purple hair, coal-black eyes, and a ballerina’s walk. She arrived with the proper forms for us to fill out, and we exchanged one box of donuts for the paperwork. She opened the box and cooed over the contents, while I scribbled down answers to an endless list of questions. The survey finally complete, I handed her the clipboard and the bag.
“Thank you,” I pronounced heartily.
“Thank you,” Jeanine replied with a huge grin. “I’ll call Sofia when I have something.”
She disappeared back inside, leaving the scent of donuts and something woodsy in her wake. Anna and I exchanged glances and then walked back to the car.
“That was… anticlimactic,” Anna commented.
“After everything that’s happened in this case so far, I’ll take anticlimactic,” I replied.
Anna laughed, finally. I drove her back to the spa and then returned to the apartment that was starting to feel more like home than my actual apartment. I fell asleep early that night, and dreamed of Masao and Keiko in their garden, eating donuts with Arturo.
Chapter 19
Jeanine came through two days later and confirmed Masao’s suspicions. She found the poison in some of the early prescription medications, as well as the daily vitamins. Jeanine theorized that Kurzak had probably created a paste with the poison, and then rolled the pills in it, g
iving each one a thin coating. It would have to be done carefully, and patiently, so that it wasn’t obvious, but only a thin layer would be needed to have the desired effect.
I had Sofia reach out to Marisol so Masao and Keiko would know. Marisol thanked Sofia, and said that a man had stayed overnight the night before, but had been gone by the time Marisol came on duty. Marisol only knew because Masao had told her when Keiko left the house on another unexplained trip. This was Masao’s warning that the Mizuchi was indeed in L.A.
We produced copies of the lab report and Kurzak’s letter for Ramsey Taft and the FBI. I would have loved to have heard the conversations that took place in the Ramsey Taft offices after that. Instead, we witnessed Tucker Watts do a series of short TV interviews in which he placed all of the blame squarely on the shoulders of Joseph Kurzak. That was followed by the production of several emails that ArDex suddenly found. The emails were between Kurzak and an “unidentified individual” in Japan, and detailed Kurzak’s attempts to force the board to accept his proposals.
At last, the trial was set to begin. The case had suddenly garnered a great deal of attention when the police announced that the deaths of Arturo and Leonardo Bernardi were under active investigation. I slipped unnoticed inside the courthouse when the press spotted Bertoch and his crew approaching.
The courtroom was empty when I arrived. I unpacked my briefcase, then stood for a moment to soak in the atmosphere. Anna arrived a few minutes later and quietly took the seat next to me. I squeezed her hand, and she gave me a small smile in return.
The silence came to an end with the arrival of Bertoch. His staff descended on the defendant’s table while Bertoch continued to respond to the journalists that followed behind him. Several ArDex board members arrived and arranged themselves in the bench behind Bertoch. Tucker Watts appeared and took the chair next to Bertoch after shaking hands with the other board members. I realized that not everyone was there. Genji, the silent Japanese man, was a no-show.
The session was called to order, Judge Luca took his place at the bench, and the jury assembled in the box. The players were set, and Judge Luca gave the command for opening arguments.
