The Pearl Diver

by Sujata Massey

  “I need to speak to the complainant,” he said flatly. “When’s she coming back?”

  “Not until after midnight,” I guessed. “But she told me she left the place at noon today, locked, and her neighbor heard somebody here around six o’clock tonight.”

  “And when did this neighbor call the police?”

  “She didn’t. She called Andrea instead, who called 911 directly.”

  “I see. Any reason that you’re sitting in the dark?”

  “None of the lights work.”

  “Probably had her power cut off for nonpayment,” the cop said.

  “I’m sure the power must be out for some other reason. Maybe the lights were cut by the guys who came in.”

  “Only in made-for-TV-movies.” He snorted.

  I ignored his cynicism. “I have a pretty good idea of what was taken, based on what my friend told me to look for. It’s not an ordinary burglary, but one relating to information theft.”

  “Computer hard drive?”

  “No, some personal papers,” I said. “Andrea and I went on a trip together, you see, and we were given these papers by some people who, well, might have regretted giving them. My guess is that they came to grab them back.”

  “Papers, you say. Any idea of the estimated value?”

  “There’s no dollar amount on them. It’s just that the papers are of great personal value.”

  “Have you looked at them?”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, then how do you know they’re valuable?” The cop appeared pleased with his deductive skills.

  “I don’t know exactly. I just wish you’d forward this report on to Detective Louis Burns.”

  “He’s not in this division,” he said. “When your friend comes back, tell her to call and we’ll come out and write the report. In the meantime, she should get someone out to change the locks. Bunch of freaks live around here. They’ll be here in no time for that TV.”

  What Andrea would worry about, I thought, was not a TV, but her clothes. What I’d seen in the closets was definitely worth stealing. When the cop departed, I used my cell phone to call the restaurant again, asking for Andrea.

  “She’s gone,” Alberto told me after I’d been patched back by an insolent Justin to the kitchen.

  “What?”

  “She was so upset, she was dropping things. Marshall gave her the rest of the night off. She left about twenty minutes ago. I think she went back to the apartment, you know, to pick up things. Hey, your boyfriend called here, too, which really made, you know, Marshall crazy. We gotta stay off the line if it’s personal business.”

  “Just tell me how Andrea’s getting home.” The sun had set at seven-thirty, around the time we’d left Bethesda. By now it was solidly dark.

  “By the Metro. She takes that all the time.”

  “Alberto, do you know if Andrea has a cell phone?”

  “I think so,” Alberto said. “Doesn’t everyone?”

  “Do you know the number?”

  “No, I’m sorry. Marshall would have that on file in his office, but I don’t wanna disturb him because of a phone call—like I said, it’s not good to talk on the phone.”

  “Thanks anyway. I’m sure she’ll be here soon.” I hung up feeling uneasy. Andrea would almost certainly be coming from the Howard University Metro stop because that was technically the closest stop on the Green Line—but it was a dicey walk at night. In fact, it made my solo walk from Dupont Circle to Adams-Morgan look as safe as a stroll through a shopping mall.

  I heard voices downstairs, and stepped out into the hall.

  “Rei-chan?” my aunt called in Japanese. “What are you still doing upstairs? Come downstairs and we’ll go back to your kind friends’ home for dinner.”

  “Please, you go ahead,” I urged. “I heard Andrea will be arriving shortly, and I want to help her move her clothes or any other valuables that are left.”

  “I don’t want to leave you here.”

  “It’s perfectly safe. And please, I don’t want to put the Naganos through any more trouble. I’ll be over there within an hour or two to take you home.”

  “You’ll miss the tempura.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll walk you to the car.” I went with the three of them, apologizing profusely for the inconvenience I’d caused. Nothing seemed to be going on at the shooting gallery, I noticed with a great deal of relief. But as their car sped away, I hurried back to the apartment, not wanting to take any more risks than were needed.

  I made it up the stairs to the apartment, but just as I was about to step inside, I felt a presence.

  By now, I’d learned to trust my instincts. Someone must have entered when I was outside. Now I was stuck, because the cell phone was halfway across the living room, over by the window where I’d used the last bit of light to look through my address book for the Bento phone number. All I could do was leave. I started to tiptoe back down the stairs.

  “Who’s there?” a cold male voice asked—a voice that I recognized in a flood of exasperation and relief.

  “Hugh!” I said, hurrying back up the stairs and through the apartment door. He was all the way over by the living-room bay window. “You scared me to death.”

  “You’re scared?” He grabbed me tightly by the arms. “You—idiot! How could you come out here by yourself at night?”

  “I didn’t come alone. I came with my aunt and the Naganos. Actually, I was just out sending them away, because the police had come and now I’m just waiting for Andrea—”

  “When I finished swimming and checked my phone for messages, I couldn’t believe what I heard you’d done,” Hugh said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as angry in my life.”

  “That’s got to be an exaggeration,” I said. “As I just told you, I didn’t come alone—”

  “But you sent them away! What kind of reckoning went into that situation?”

  “Settle down, Hugh. Everything’s all right,” I said tightly. I wished he’d never come.

  “For you maybe, but not for me. Let’s go!” He put his arm around me, and started down the stairs.

  I balked. “Don’t manhandle me.”

  Hugh let go. “I’m sorry. But don’t you feel—urgent—in an environment like this?”

  “The theft has already happened,” I said. “Whoever came in took what remained of Andrea’s mother’s papers. Now I’m waiting to meet her, because she’s going to be devastated.”

  “Meet her? How can you, in the dark? Rei, you’ve got to walk away from this girl and her problems. You’ve already lost our baby and I’m not going to stand by and lose you, too.”

  “You do blame me for the baby,” I said, feeling an inward chill. “I knew you did.”

  “I—I don’t blame you,” Hugh said in an unconvincing tone of voice. “But if you love me, you’ll listen for once. I want you to step back, to get out of this before something terrible happens again.”

  I thought back on the past three years, the ones I’d spent with Hugh and also without him. We had survived misunderstandings and arguments galore, but he had never ordered me to do something.

  I said, “No. I won’t stop helping her.”

  Hugh was silent for a minute. When he spoke, his tone was frigid. “If you’d rather put her ahead of me, that’s your choice. But this is it for me. I will not marry someone bent on self-destruction.”

  “What are you saying?” I was horrified.

  “I’m saying that I’m leaving! Give me the car keys, okay? I had to take a taxi over here and it wouldn’t wait around.”

  “If this is the end, you’ll want more than the keys.” I yanked the engagement ring off my finger and shoved it toward him. Of course, being dark, he didn’t see it and it bounced off him and onto the floor. I made a disgusted sound.

  “What now?”

  “I dropped the engagement ring. Don’t worry, I’ll find it. I can turn on the light on my watch.” I did that, and moved the tiny circle of light across
the floor, looking to no avail.

  “You can’t even give back a ring like a normal person would do.” Hugh sounded bitter.

  “Well, you always said that I was not like the others.”

  We were quiet then. There was nothing left to say.

  24

  Our strained silence was finally broken by the sound of footsteps on the stairs, footsteps that were lighter than a man’s.

  “Hello?” Andrea called out as she entered the apartment.

  “It’s me,” I answered swiftly. “Hugh showed up, too, but he’s not staying long. Andrea, I’m so sorry. Whoever broke in took the box.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Andrea said. “So it’s all gone? The pictures and the papers?”

  “Not the letters,” I reminded her. “You still have her words. I’m sorry I haven’t chained my aunt down to do the translation yet, but I promise you I will later tonight.”

  “If you hadn’t picked them up at the restaurant today, I don’t know what would have happened,” Andrea said. “Someone went through a few people’s lockers there tonight. My wallet was taken. I had to borrow money from Alberto to take the Metro home.”

  “It sounds as if someone’s quite interested in you,” Hugh said.

  I was thinking the same—and also, that when I’d talked to Alberto half an hour ago, he hadn’t mentioned the locker theft at all. Was it because he didn’t have time to talk, or was it because the thefts weren’t something that he was upset about?

  “I’m too shaken up to stay here tonight,” Andrea said.

  “I understand that. I think you should just take anything that’s really important to you, and we’ll find you somewhere to sleep.” I stopped myself, realizing that I couldn’t volunteer Hugh’s apartment. Maybe she could go to the Naganos, but I’d have to check with them first.

  “David from the restaurant already gave me his key. But he lives on Capitol Hill—”

  “Splendid. We’ll drive you.” Hugh made a move toward the door.

  “Actually, I was hoping to take most of my clothes with me.”

  “I’d be glad to carry them out,” Hugh said, not sounding glad at all. “The problem is that I can’t see a damn thing in here.”

  “I’ve got two flashlights in the kitchen. Just wait.” Andrea moved off.

  “Did the lights go out before today?” I called after her.

  “Yep. The electric company turned them off last week. When I pay off the bill, I’ll get them back, but it’s been tight, now that my wages are lower.”

  Andrea came back holding two turned-on flashlights in her hands. I aimed the one she handed me at the floor so I could find Hugh’s ring. Its emerald sparkled like green fire in the tiny spotlight. I picked it up and handed it back to Hugh, who stuffed it in the breast pocket of his suit, and then started hauling clothes.

  By the time we were all in the car, it was clear to Andrea that there was serious tension between Hugh and me. She did most of the talking on the way to David’s apartment on Capitol Hill. She told us that she’d spoken to her landlord about the broken locks, and he had said the locksmith would come the next day. But David didn’t mind if she stayed awhile. He was worth a roll between the sheets, every now and then. I saw Hugh stiffen at this comment; he wasn’t used to girls talking like that. But he didn’t know the restaurant world. I made a big point of laughing uproariously at what Andrea had said. For a few minutes, it took my mind off the fear.

  Andrea handled the key in David’s front-door lock as if she’d used it before. Then we hustled the clothing into the first-floor apartment of a narrow row house. Andrea waved us away, telling us she could hang things up by herself.

  Finally we were done and back in the car. Hugh made a move toward the driver’s seat, but I stopped him.

  “Why don’t I drive, because I can drop you off at home before I go out to Bethesda to bring my aunt home?” I suggested.

  He looked at me for a long moment. “I’m not going home.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “I’ve too much bloody work to do! I need to go back to finish some writing.”

  “But that’s crazy! It’s eight-thirty now.”

  “I’ve been away from the office for seven days, taking care of you. Now I realize there are other people who need tending.”

  I wasn’t going to ask him how he planned to get home. Another taxi, probably. He could call one to pick him up from his ivory tower when he was good and ready.

  I turned on the radio to cover up the silence as we headed back downtown to K Street. He got out of the car on K Street without saying good-bye, and I didn’t wait to see if he got into the law firm’s steel-and-glass tower. I flipped through the CDs in the changer to find the artist I really wanted to listen to: Rachael Yamagata. Just like the woman in her song, I was worn down like a road—an extremely bumpy and patched one. But the irony was that I was behind the wheel of my lover’s car, and still had a place in his bed. This was going to be a complicated break.

  Norie, as I’d expected, was distraught when I finally arrived in Bethesda. I picked at the plate of tempura they’d left in the oven for me as I described how Hugh and I had moved Andrea and her valuables to the home of a restaurant friend.

  “Where does this friend live?” Yuji Nagano asked. I started to answer, but then stopped myself. Outside of Norie and me, and the Norton family in Virginia, the Naganos were the only ones who’d known about the existence of Sadako’s letters. I’d thought they’d been trying to help me with their stories about her—but what if they hadn’t? What if something had happened between the Naganos and Sadako that they needed to keep secret?

  “He lives in the city,” I said slowly. Sadako had been a sad, lonely, and beautiful young woman. It was Yuji Nagano who’d known she was a diver—she had told him things she hadn’t told the women in the group. Could he have loved her? And could there have been complications, a threat to his own marriage?

  “He? Akiko is staying with a man?” Yuji Nagano sounded worried.

  “We also stay with a man: Rei-chan’s fiancé, Hugh,” Norie interjected. “It’s best to have protection in a city like Washington. A woman should not stay alone.”

  I was amused by my aunt’s quick display of old-fashioned logic to throw off Yuji Nagano, but she wasn’t going to let me off easily. After we made it into Hugh’s apartment and I started to make a pot of tea for the two of us, she pointed to my hand.

  “Where is your engagement ring?”

  “I returned it.” I couldn’t meet her gaze, because I felt tears starting at the edges of my eyes. As angry as I’d been, I would never have broken up with him. I wouldn’t have given up, the way he had.

  “What are you saying?” Norie’s voice broke. “I’m here to help with your wedding!”

  “We’re not getting married after all. And let’s talk about something else, please.” I held up the packet of letters. “I tried to start this, but I’m hopeless at it. Do you have enough energy to help me with it tonight?”

  “Rei-chan, I think it’s more important that I help with your marriage!”

  I shook my head. “Let’s not think about it. Please. These letters are all Andrea has left.”

  Norie settled down on the couch with the letters. I brought over two cups of green tea and some sembei crackers and sat, with a pen and paper, cross-legged on a zabuton on the floor. I was all ready to transcribe.

  Sadako’s early letters were written to her sister long before the wedding. Robert Norton had been sent on temporary duty to a U.S. Marine base in California. The letters describing how Sadako flew by plane for the first time, and then moved into a small apartment off base, were filled with a mixture of sadness about the break from her family, but also wonder at what lay before her.

  A letter from the plane said:

  Robert tells me that it will not be too difficult to find a judge. Here, weddings can occur in many places. Churches and hotels, of course, but also office buildings, even outside in
gardens. It is so dry here, though, that I do not think a garden would be a nice place. Robert asked me my dream, and I said it was to marry beside the sea. I explained to him that if we were beside the sea, I could think of you on the other side, with nothing between us but the water.

  The next letter talked about the wedding itself.

  We had many guests, American and Japanese. Omura Reiko-san and Kiyoshi Junko-san, those friends from Tokyo I told you about, are now called Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Wilder. They wore their best kimono to the wedding. You would have liked Jones-san’s kimono. It was a silk crepe patterned with lily flowers. Wilder-san’s was a crepe with a design of orange and gold roses. As for mine, it was a deep-red-and-orange silk brocade with a pattern of ducks embroidered on it in gold thread. Unfortunately the weather was cold, and I fear the ladies were as chilled as I. Another surprise was to see some guests who were not invited, two men who served with Robert in Vietnam. At our wedding party, they talked to him for such a long time that when he returned to the festivities, he did not seem to be enjoying himself. I asked Robert if he had invited them, and he said he hadn’t. Maybe it is an American custom, to visit weddings without an invitation. If so, it is a custom I do not care for. Despite the surprises, the wedding was joyful. After the ceremony we had a tall cake with many layers, all white, decorated with sugar roses.

  There was a letter about married life.

  Dear Atsuko,

  I am trying hard to be the kind of wife Mother taught us to be, but it is a challenge. Robert is eager to eat handmade American food, but I have trouble making it correctly. They have a leafy green vegetable here similar to horenso that they simply call green. It is a green color, but a more bitter taste. Since Americans have a sweet tooth, I could not imagine that this could be considered delicious alone. To improve the taste I added sweet mirin syrup. Robert noticed right away and instructed me that the correct flavoring to add is a piece of pork, preferably from the pig’s bottom. I was embarrassed because there were some people who had come to our house to eat, people from his hometown. There is a woman who I think would like to have him. She follows him with her eyes, and she talks loudly about their happy times in high school. She said very little to me except for hello and good-bye and how different the greens tasted.