“Quite simply, to liquidate Dr. Masuda. I want to make it clear that I came under coercion. I was under constant threat of being murdered myself. Those two who traveled with me were mafia hit men. I was to lead them to her and Naomi would be used as bait. They planned to drive into the country, kill Mrs. Masuda and abandon Naomi.”
“Do you really think they would have let you live?”
Leapman pondered this for a moment. “Maybe not. Like I said, I’m glad it’s over. I don’t mind giving evidence when all mis comes to court. I’ve been a damned fool, Mr. Diamond, but I was never a willing party to the violence.”
Diamond felt a twinge in his back as he got up to leave. He wasn’t quite the fighting machine he’d appeared to be earlier. “You say that, Mr. Leapman, but you were blithely prepared to sentence untold numbers of Alzheimer’s patients to serious liver damage and maybe death so that you could be rich and successful. In my book, that’s on a par with murder.”
“Are you leaving?” Leapman asked, sidestepping the accusation.
“As soon as I can get a flight.”
“What will happen to me?”
“You’d better ask a lawyer. I daresay they’ll extradite you in time to give evidence against Massimo Gatti and his hit men.”
Leapman twitched.
“You’ll be safe behind bars for a while,” Diamond reassured him. “After that, there’s always plastic surgery.”
On the way out, he was stopped by one of the clerical staff and invited into another office, where, unknown to him, Yuko Masuda and Naomi had been waiting. The interpreter followed him in.
Dr. Masuda was standing hand in hand with Naomi. She bowed and delivered a little speech.
“She says that she has learned of all the trouble you took to help her daughter and the danger you faced. She says that you saved both their lives.”
“Mr. Yamagata did that,” Diamond said.
“She insists that she owes her life to you. She would like to repay you in some way.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“Excuse me if I take the liberty of speaking myself,” the interpreter said. “It is our way in Japan. If you can think of some small service she can perform, it will ease the burden of debt that she has to carry now. A token of gratitude. Small thing, but very important”
He glanced towards Dr. Masuda. “In that case, what I would really like is to hold her daughter’s hand for a moment.”
“I think that would satisfy decorum.”
After it was explained, Dr. Masuda nodded.
Naomi was standing beside her, gazing at the wall.
Diamond took a step closer and offered his hand.
Dr. Masuda said something in Japanese.
Naomi placed her hand in his. She didn’t look up, or do anything else, but that was enough. It satisfied decorum for a Japanese lady and it brought a lump to the throat of an unsentimental Englishman.
The ceiling still wanted decorating in the basement flat in Addison Road.
“I’ll get some more paint tomorrow,” he promised.
“A bit of a comedown after all your globetrotting,” Stephanie said.
“Not at all. Domestic life has its attractions.”
She smiled faintly. “That doesn’t sound like the man of action I read about in the paper this morning.”
“Man of action? With my figure?” He dismissed the idea with a laugh.
“You don’t fancy yourself as a sumo wrestler, then?”
“No chance.”
“The paper says you tossed an armed man over your back. It says you’re Britain’s sumo champion.”
“Get away!”
“Really. Do you want to see?”
“No, it’s rubbish, and we both know it. I’m just glad to be home with you.”
Her smile became more definite. “Did you, by any chance, remember the sneakers?”
Big he may have been, but he felt himself shrinking.
“There just wasn’t an opportunity. Sorry, my love.”
She said, “I wouldn’t have mentioned it, but you did phone me from New York to check the size.”
He got up abruptly to delve into the hold-all he’d brought back from Japan. He took out a shoe box. “But I got these for you yesterday afternoon in a Yokohama shoeshop. They don’t look quite so comfortable as American sneakers, but I was told they’re better for the feet. They call them geta.”
With anticipation she lifted the lid. Then she gave Diamond a frown. She lifted out a small pair of traditional wood and leather flip-flops.
“No sneakers?”
He shook his head. He’d been tempted to call them Japanese sneakers, but there were limits.
She took off her shoes and tried on the geta.
“Do they fit?”
She tottered over and aimed a mock punch at him. “You’re the bloody limit. I suppose I can wear them around the house.”
“Good,” he said, removing Yamagata’s geta from the bag. “I was given this pair myself and I’d quite like to wear them sometimes.”
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Diamond Solitaire pd-2 Page 33
