Missing in Tokyo

by Graham Marks

  ‘OK …’ It was Adam’s turn to shrug. ‘And, no, I haven’t told her about my sister cos I have no idea what the sign language for “kidnapped” is … maybe you can save us both a lot of time and tell her for me.’

  ‘Sure, maybe … maybe later.’ Kenichi looked at his watch and said something to Ayumi, who nodded. ‘It’s time we went to baths – you gonna come, man, right?’

  Adam frowned. Baths? They’d just had a shower. Or did he mean go swimming? He looked questioningly up at Aiko, who seemed about to go off with Ayumi; she came straight over, knelt by the chair, locked eyes with him and spoke a few words in Japanese. Then she kissed him, one of those long ones, very long ones that were more than just a kiss, and then said something to Kenichi before she got up and went after Ayumi.

  ‘You like her, man?’

  ‘What’s not to like?’ Adam saw Kenichi frown and look puzzled. ‘Yeah, I like her a lot, really a lot.’

  ‘Aiko like you really a lot also, man.’ Kenichi, nodded, lighting up another cigarette. ‘She is kubittake … ah, neck length, man.’

  ‘Neck length?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘And that means?’

  ‘Like I say, she go for you, man. Big time.’

  It turned out that Kenichi really had meant they were going to have a bath, not a swim. He told Adam, as they left the apartment, that he and Ayumi often went to the public bath house on a Friday, then on to a restaurant. A way to get rid of the week, he said, in the salt waters. Adam figured he meant mineral, like some kind of spa.

  They got to the place after quite a short walk through narrow streets in single-file – inches from a constant rattle and hum of cars, trucks, scooters and bikes – as there were no pavements, just a white line on the tarmac. When they arrived, Adam thought the public baths, which were clean, but slightly run-down, looked like photos of his local swimming pool he’d seen when he was a kid, before the council had spent gazillions tarting it up. At the entrance, where you paid, they split up, Adam assuming they were going to different changing rooms.

  ‘OK, I tell you wha to do.’ Kenichi opened the door and let Adam through, handing him a towel out of the bag he was carrying. ‘Firs, man, you gotta wash, soap it up, head down to foot, OK? Then shower, then you get in baths. Watch me, man, OK?’

  The bath house was segregated, the girls the other side of a white-tiled wall that didn’t quite reach the glass roof, and Adam was in a room full of naked men – no swimming trunks here – some sitting on tiny plastic stools under showers, knees up around their ears, washing, shaving, rinsing, others walking around shooting the breeze. No one had given him a second glance, even the two small kids, a boy and a girl, who’d been there with their dad when he and Kenichi had arrived. Strange, he thought, because it didn’t look like the kind of place that got a lot of visiting gaijin customers.

  Adam was sitting up to his neck in hot, steaming, bubbling water the colour of full-strength Coca-Cola; it smelled slightly peaty, organic. Opposite him, Kenichi, with his hair pulled back into a ponytail, sat with his head leaning on the rim of the wooden tub and his eyes closed. He looked very Zen. They’d both been in this particular tub for about five minutes and he had to admit it was very relaxing, even though, on the way to the baths, he’d begun to stress about getting back to Tokyo so he could be outside the Bar Belle. He really should’ve been there the night before and he felt bad, but the hot water was easing the tension from his shoulders and the angst kind of drifted out of his head with the steam.

  He really had to get back to Tokyo anyway. He had a room booked at the New Economy and didn’t want to lose it by not turning up for another night … Being with Aiko was making it very difficult to think straight. And he was also hungry like a wolf. He’d get Kenichi to explain everything to Aiko over the meal they were going to have after finishing at the baths; she’d understand that, no matter how much he liked her, and he hadn’t been lying when he’d told Kenichi he liked her really a lot, he had to get back to trying to find Charlie. Otherwise he was just pissing about and he knew he didn’t want that thought hanging over his head the rest of his life.

  And what about Aiko?

  Big, big question. Was it just sex? The sex had been majestic, no doubt about that, but they did also seem to connect on a whole other level that wasn’t physical at all. It sounded stupidly cosmic even inside his head, let alone if he ever actually got to say it out loud. They didn’t speak a word of each other’s language, but the fact was he felt a strong contact, almost a bond between them … and not forgetting, she was beautiful. Small but perfectly formed, to use one of his dad’s favourite phrases. And the feelings appeared to be mutual. Aiko must’ve seen something other than a drunk scally at the Gaspanic to want to take him home to bed. Could you fall in love this fast? Was she in love with him? That kiss, just before they’d left the apartment, had been about as different as a kiss could be.

  Was he in love with Aiko? Right now he was beginning to think the answer was yes, but if that was true what about Suzy … didn’t he love her? Yesterday he’d have probably said yeah, he did, even though she was right and he did expect more from her than he got. More emotion. Like Aiko …

  God, he was confused.

  ‘We get out now, man,’ Adam jumped, looking across the tub at Kenichi, who was holding up a hand wrinkled like a prune and laughing, ‘else we gonna look all like toshiyori … you know, old guy – Aiko no like you like that!’

  ‘Kenichi … ?’

  ‘Yeah, man?’

  ‘You known Aiko long?’

  ‘Couple years. Ayumi work for Aiko father, met her that way.’

  ‘What’s he do?’

  ‘Fashion, man … gotta fashion company.’

  ‘And she really likes me?’

  ‘Aiko? She win lottery, man!’

  Adam stood up, shivering slightly in the cooler air. ‘Lottery?’

  ‘Get a boy like you, with a blond hair an stuff? Big win, man.’

  24

  It’s a labour of human …

  The restaurant they took him to was a cab ride away; Adam in the back between Aiko and Ayumi, Kenichi up front. A smart, lime-green, 70s-style saloon, it wasn’t like any cab he’d ever been in before; for a start, the passenger doors opened and closed automatically, and then the seats all had dainty white lace covers on the head restraints and the driver wore white cotton gloves. Light years away from the skanky north London minicabs he and his mates used, rust buckets with saggy seats, smelling of stale fags and rattling like a tin can full of nuts and bolts.

  When the cab got to the restaurant, Kenichi refused any money from Adam and he was taken to a narrow, wooden-fronted place that looked like the kind of restaurant you’d only go to if you knew about it. Inside there were only about eight tables, heavy, red-stained pine with red vinyl banquette seats and padded stools; kind of rustic, in a completely foreign way. Square paper lamp shades hung down from the ceilings and the walls were covered in a haphazard collection of what looked like framed family snapshots. They took a table at the back of the restaurant where there was a view right into the kitchen.

  ‘This place good for sakana.’ Kenichi weaved his hand, palm upright, through the air towards Adam. ‘You know, man …’

  ‘Fish?’

  ‘Yeah, man, fish!’ Kenichi nodded, grinning. He pointed with his thumb at the kitchen where Adam could see the back of someone moving efficiently between sink, chopping block and a big wok. ‘No sashimi, Mr Suzuki do great cooking, jus him there.’

  ‘Sashimi?’

  ‘Raw, man.’

  A small, round woman with a flat, impassive face appeared out of the kitchen, a smile blossoming as soon as she saw Kenichi, Ayumi and Aiko. They introduced her to Adam – which involved serial bowing – and he gathered that this was Mrs Suzuki, who handled everything front of house while her husband cooked. Tall, cold beers were delivered moments later and food ordered; no menus, just a general to-and-fro discussion.

 
; ‘You like everythin, man?’

  ‘I’m so hungry, you put it on a plate and I’ll eat it.’

  Adam watched Kenichi translate what he’d just said – lots of nodding, glances in his direction and laughing – then Mrs Suzuki asked something.

  ‘You eat tako?’ Kenichi made his hand into a cone shape and waggled his fingers. ‘Got lotta legs, man …’

  ‘Octopus?’ Adam nodded at Mrs Suziki. ‘Yeah, I eat that.’

  Mrs Suzuki left and everyone took a drink; in the silence Adam became aware of the buzz of relaxed conversation in the easy atmosphere around him, like being in someone’s house. It was great here, with these people … with Aiko next to him, their arms touching.

  ‘Kenichi?’

  He looked over. ‘Yeah, man?’

  ‘You told Aiko about my sister yet?’

  Kenichi glanced at Aiko, then back to Adam. ‘No yet, man …’ He directed a volley of Japanese at Aiko and Adam felt the atmosphere subtly change. Aiko took his hand in both of hers and spoke to Ayumi and Kenichi, lacing her fingers with his. Then she looked at him, a kind of worried, embarrassed expression on her face.

  ‘What?’ Adam had no idea what was going on, but was beginning to realise that Kenichi had an opinion about something to do with Aiko, a bone to pick? He didn’t know. And Aiko was confused about the situation, asking Ayumi stuff, Kenichi shrugging, as if to say ‘it’s up to you’. Was this anything to do with him? ‘Kenichi … ?’

  Kenichi shrugged and lit a cigarette. Looking up at the ceiling he blew a smoke ring. ‘You tell him, man.’

  You tell him? Tell who? ‘What d’you mean?’ Adam knew there was a language barrier here, but …

  ‘He means I tell you that I speak Engrish, Adam.’

  Adam did his second double-take of the day.

  ‘It was game … jus for fun.’ Aiko let go of Adam’s hand and looked away, then down at the table. ‘Started last night at club.’ She shot him a glance. ‘You mad at me?’

  ‘Mad? I, uh … you speak English?’ Aiko nodded, eyes down. He didn’t know what to say. Had this all been just one big joke on him, or what? Adam looked over at Kenichi and Ayumi, neither of whom were laughing. OK … but did the fact that Aiko had been playing a trick change the way he felt about her … had she also been pretending that this was anything more than a fast-food relationship? ‘Was, like, um, everything a game?’

  ‘You an me?’

  ‘Yeah, you and me … was all that just for fun too?’ Adam reached across the space there was now between them and touched Aiko’s hand. ‘I mean, it’s kind of OK if it was, cos it was a lot of fun, but I thought …’

  ‘No just fun for me, Adam, honest. Sorry.’ Aiko crossed her hands on her chest. ‘You forgive?’

  Before Adam could say anything Mrs Suzuki swept out of the kitchen carrying a tray covered in bowls of steaming food and set them, one by one, down on the table, along with chopsticks and paper napkins.

  ‘Yeah …’ He broke apart a pair of wooden chopsticks, grinning. ‘I forgive.’

  ‘Hot-dam!’ Kenichi stubbed out his cigarette. ‘I like happy ending, man!’

  With the truth out and the game over, the only person who needed translations now was Ayumi, who spoke about as much English as Adam spoke Japanese. While they ate, Adam laid out the basic story of Charlie’s disappearance and how he came to be in Tokyo trying to find out what had happened to her. Everything except Suzy. Way too complicated, that, definitely a situation to be dealt with at some other time. No need to stir up the situation, eh, mate? Andy’s voice whispered in his ear.

  Pushing the nagging reminders that he had another life away and locking the door on them, Adam also explained about having to get back to Tokyo that night so he could try and catch the girls coming out of the Bar Belle – and that he had to contact the New Economy Hotel or he’d have to go and stay in a capsule hotel again.

  ‘No way, Adam!’ Aiko’s loaded chopsticks stopped in midair. ‘You don’t need hotel or anything!’

  ‘You taking him home, man?’ Kenichi looked over at Adam and winked. ‘You see the movie Meet Parents? Her father lotta fun, like de Niro, man!’

  ‘Don’t listen, Adam, my father sure very nice man; but my friend Keiko has place, near Harajuku, more central …’ Aiko got out her mobile, which had even more stuff hanging off it than Ayumi’s, and flipped it open.

  ‘But I booked this hotel for five days, Aiko.’

  ‘You don’t wanna stay with me?’

  Stay with Aiko? OK … ‘Yeah, course I do, but what about your parents and stuff? They won’t want to know where you are?’

  ‘They away, gone to USA for two week; they don’t know nothing.’ Aiko tapped in a series of numbers and put the handset to her ear, waiting for the call to be picked up.

  Adam watched as Aiko burst into high-speed Japanese, then looked over at Kenichi, raising his eyebrows. ‘All Japanese girls like this?’

  Kenichi grinned and shook his head. ‘No way, man … you got one special type girl. Very unique, man, lemme tell you.’

  ‘What’s she saying to her friend?’

  ‘Keiko finding out she got guest tonight, man. No hotel for you – what I told you, right? You Euro-boy, the girl they love you, man!’

  ‘Her friend, is she gonna mind?’

  ‘Don’t got no choice, man, know why-mean?’

  ‘I think I do.’ Adam smiled, sitting back. ‘How come you’re not, like working today, Kenichi?’

  ‘I gotta do Nichiyobi, man.’ He made one hand leap frog over the other. ‘You know, not tomorrow, nex day?’

  ‘Sunday?’

  ‘Right. So, no work today.’

  Aiko closed the phone and nodded firmly, looking at her watch. ‘Fixed, but we better be in a hurry.’

  ‘Hurry, why?’ Adam checked his watch: 10:30, not what you’d call late.

  ‘Lot of stuff to do …’

  An hour later they were on a train, speeding back towards Tokyo. They’d had to get a cab back to Kenichi and Ayumi’s apartment, collect all Aiko’s stuff, walk to the station – too close to waste time waiting for another cab – and then wait for a train that would take them back to central Tokyo. Out here, so far from the middle of town, there were no signs in English and Adam knew he’d stay lost for ever without Aiko.

  The plan, it turned out, was to get to Roppongi, where Adam discovered Aiko had left her scooter; from there it wasn’t far to her friend Keiko’s apartment. They’d go there, settle in and then, around two thirty, go back to Roppongi and be outside the Bar Belle when the girls came out. Simple.

  It was, thought Adam, like having a tour manager to sort everything out for him. Nice. Not long after the train left the station it went over a river and across a flat stretch of ground; a couple of hundred metres away, under what looked like another elevated track, he saw a series of flickering lights and the silhouetted shapes of people moving, like an encampment.

  He pointed out of the window. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘They got no home, no job … live there now, like up in Ueno.’

  ‘Ueno?’

  ‘Big park near National Museum, whole like city there …’

  Adam hadn’t been aware of seeing homeless people on the streets. Not like you saw them back in London, where they seemed to be clinging to life in the shadows of almost every other doorway, hanging round all the cashpoints, reminding even people like him that they really did have spare change. Spare change … jeez, he even had plastic, not much in the way of credit, but something. And a home.

  ‘You OK, Adam?’

  ‘Yeah, fine … just thinking about my parents …’

  DS Keith Venner put the phone down, sat back and pushed the fingers of both hands through his hair. ‘That was Mr Grey.’

  DC Eddy Thomson looked up. ‘What’d he say?’

  ‘He and his good lady wife are on the first flight out to Tokyo on Sunday … sayonara, and thanks for all the sushi.’

  ‘What?’

>   ‘Nothing, Eddy, I’m just rambling.’ Venner reached out and picked up his now tepid cup of coffee.

  ‘That it, boss?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘He say anything else?’

  ‘Yeah, he said their boy had emailed his girlfriend again. Claims the person running the place the sister was working in says the friend was lying, that the sister never left the bar or whatever with any customer. But then they would, wouldn’t they.’

  ‘Anyone managed to find out where the sister sent that email from yet?’

  ‘Not yet, Eddy; I made a call, asked for Simons to be kept informed, not much else any of us can do at the moment.’ Venner took a sip of coffee and made a face. ‘Cold … anyway, we’re out of the loop on this one, we only know what Interpol or the Foreign Office remember to tell us.’

  ‘And the parents.’

  ‘Yeah, and the parents …’

  ‘Not a good look, though, is it? She’s been missing almost two weeks now, the girl.’

  ‘There’s no rules to these things, Eddy, no actual Law of Diminishing Returns if you don’t find them in the first forty-eight hours. She could turn up any time.’

  ‘Yeah, turn up dead.’ Eddy Thomson picked up the cap of a blue biro and chewed on it. ‘I was them, I’d’ve been out there straight away, not leave it this long. Two weeks? I’m not surprised the boy took off and went over there. That would’ve been me, in his shoes.’

  ‘Which you would not want to be in when he gets back!’

  ‘Least he’s doing something, boss.’

  ‘If I was them, right? I don’t know that I’d let my daughter go off round the world with another girl in the first place. There’s enough bloody lunatics wandering about this neck of the woods to worry about, without the shit going on elsewhere.’

  ‘You’re a cop, boss, you can’t help but see the shit side of everything.’

  ‘You’re beginning to sound just like my wife, Eddy.’

  ‘Now there’s a worry, boss …’

  25