“Goddammit, this is official police business you’re interfering with! He’s my witness and I’m taking him in!”
Kameko slammed the door to the backseat with Ebina in it and opened the driver’s door.
“What are you afraid of me finding out?”
“Nothing,” Kameko said. “In fact, I hope he can shed some light on what happened. That’s why we’re going to have a chat with him.”
Mei tried again to get around Jun, but he was able to keep her at bay. She knew she was no match for him physically. She briefly considered pulling her weapon, but it was two against one. And she feared what their response might be. For her and for their new prisoner.
“And I’ll be sure to pass along whatever information he gives us. But we need to speak to him first.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Mei asked.
“Talk to him,” Kameko said icily as she slammed her door. “Besides, it’s not like you’ll be taking him anywhere in that.” She nodded towards Mei’s crippled car.
“Can you at least give me a ride back?” Mei asked.
She was grasping at any chance to stop them from taking Ebina. It wasn’t just the case that had her worried. The thought of losing another witness to Vasili and his people made her sick to her stomach.
“Oh, sorry, I would,” Kameko said with a look of artificial contrition. “But I have to debrief a witness.”
With that, the SUV drove off. She watched it disappear, along with her best chance of ever solving the case.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vasili glanced down at his cards to see the king and jack of hearts. A strong hand for heads-up hold’em that gave him lots of ways to connect. He looked up at his opponent to see Eriko staring at him placidly. Eriko raised from the button and he re-raised her, eliciting an arched eyebrow in response.
“Did you find your balls, Vasili? I noticed you’d been playing without them tonight.”
It was true, he was playing much more timidly than usual. It was no way to play in general, much less against a shark like Eriko. She had been snapping off his weak limps and checks all night with aggressive play. His stacks had been dwindling as hers piled up.
“Must have left them at home. Good thing, otherwise I’d probably lose those to you too.”
“Eh,” Eriko grunted as she called. “What would I do with four balls?”
Vasili smiled. With Eriko’s recent sickness, it had been too long since they had gotten together for one of their high-stakes, no-limit games. And while he usually lost, he still enjoyed his boss’s company. Always had.
“I heard about your little arrangement between Chobei and the Taira-kai,” Eriko said as she dealt the flop. “Very kind of you.”
Vasili didn’t know which he liked less—the topic of conversation or the flop. Both were liable to take him places he didn’t want to go. Queen of spades, seven of clubs, and three of clubs weren’t doing him any favors. He led with a continuation bet.
“He asked for my help. And you know me, I’m just big, cuddly teddy bear.”
Eriko snorted at that as she came over the top of his bet. “I don’t keep you around because you’re a cuddly bear. It’s because you’re more the rip-a-guy’s-arm-off-and-eat-it-in-front-of-him type of bear.”
“In Russia, is usually the same type. Depends on mood.” Vasili called to see another card.
“So I’m told.”
The next card was the two of diamonds. Which helped him not at all. He checked and she bet. He folded. She showed a ten and a six as she scooped up his chips. He cursed.
“I’ve also been working with Chobei,” Eriko said as Vasili shuffled the deck to deal. “Trying to … school him, you could say. Make him the leader I need him to be.”
Vasili didn’t like what that implied. “And how is that going?”
Eriko shook her head. “Not great. I fear that I put it off too long. I wasn’t always the most involved parent when he was growing up—usually too busy running the organization. I’m trying to make up for it now, but the boy’s already been warped.”
“He certainly seems to have strange sense of honor,” Vasili said. Even this was pushing it, he thought, but he couldn’t help it. Besides, he had earned the right to speak frankly with Eriko.
Eriko nodded slightly. “Yes, I suppose so. Still, he controls an important territory—though that may have been premature—so I need him up to speed and fast.”
“If he’s to lead, I hope he gets up to speed quickly.”
Vasili hoped that Eriko would clarify for him whether he was to lead in Kawasaki, or lead the entire organization. Instead, she just nodded and continued.
“Yes. I know he has his faults. Believe me, I know better than anyone. But he’s still my son. I’d do anything to protect him.”
Yes, but how far are you willing to compromise the organization to do it?
“Surely you of all people must understand that,” Eriko said.
Vasili nodded, because despite his doubts about the boy, he understood where she was coming from. He knew what it was like to be willing to do anything to protect those close to you. He had been there himself.
Vasili was picking and choosing his words carefully. Normally he felt capable of speaking freely with her, but he needed to tread lightly around the topic of her son. It was the one subject she had become increasingly defensive about over the years. But then, we all have our blind spots, he thought.
“I’m just concerned about his dealings with the Taira-kai. I wonder if maybe he is in over his head with them.”
Eriko didn’t say anything for a long moment. Vasili tried to appear nonchalant. He shrugged to show that, really, it was no big deal, just a thought. Then he picked up a poker chip in one hand and began deftly running it through his fingers. He quickly flipped it from one meaty finger to the next with an adroitness that belied the size of his massive hands. Finally Eriko spoke.
“I understand the concern. I think he’s his own worst enemy at the moment. But I’ve got some of my top soldiers stationed with his crew, keeping an eye on him. I am hearing … rumors, though. From within the syndicate.”
Vasili’s hand slipped as he was flipping the chip. It fell to the table and rolled into his own greatly diminished stack of chips, where it clattered to a stop. He put his hand down on the table so that Eriko couldn’t tell that it was shaking.
“Oh? Like what?”
“Perfidy and betrayal. Lies and deceit. Sturm und Drang. The usual bullshit, in other words.”
“Of course. Anyone in particular?” He was almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Well, let’s just say it will all come out in good time. We have our board meeting next week. Then, after that, I’m having a dinner for all the bosses. The matter will be dealt with soon enough.”
Vasili nodded. “One of your famous dinner parties?”
“One for the ages.”
“And who will we be feasting on at this dinner?”
“That remains to be seen!” she said with a wicked grin.
Eriko’s dinner parties were legendary, ever since the one where she’d solidified her place as boss by purging the syndicate of doubters. Vasili could still see the scene clearly in his mind’s eye, however hard he tried not to.
He saw the young upstart Ichimonji to his right, blood gurgling from his neck, where a gleaming blade now protruded. To his left, he saw the gleaming tip of a sword that had stopped inches from his own face, beyond which he glimpsed Horigoshi’s head, severed in the middle. All around, he saw a table with only a few bosses that had been spared, but more who had been put to the knife, her men still hovering over them with bloody knives, or swords still protruding from their flesh. Nobunaga locked eyes with him for a second with a look that seemed to say: Did that really just happen?
Up ahead, he saw Eriko, a crimson streak of blood and a wicked grin both splashed across her face. She was calmly sipping a cup of sake as she surveyed the carnage. Nishihara’s butchered cor
pse lay on the floor in front of her, several polished steel blades protruding from his carcass. When she saw Vasili looking at her, she raised her glass to him in a toast.
Vasili shook his head to dispel the image, but it stayed with him. Only this time, it was his face with a bloody knife sticking out of his mouth. This time he was the one who had been served cold in revenge for his treachery.
Yukari Sato stumbled through the lobby of her new building. She weaved tipsily over the gray marble floor, polished to a mirror sheen and slippery as ice. Her heels clacked and nearly slid out from her a number of times.
As she rode the elevator up to her apartment, she closed her eyes. The motion made her nauseous despite the smooth, silent ride. She had had way too much to drink tonight. She swayed back and forth in the elevator, hoping she didn’t throw up. The housing board was already mad that she was behind on her payments. If only Vasili would cough up the money like she asked, she could pay them what they were owed.
As soon as she fumbled her way into her apartment, she was grabbed from behind by a pair of powerful hands. One arm bear-hugged her, immobilizing her arms, as another hand clamped tight over her mouth. The man who grabbed her pinned her against the wall. His odor, a mix of sweat, stale cigarettes, and something like motor oil, assaulted her nostrils and made her gag into his hand. Her heart pounded, making her uncomfortably aware of the sugary alcoholic drinks coursing through her veins.
“Miss Sato! Very sorry about all this! May we have a few words with you?”
Not knowing what else to do, she nodded her head yes.
“Excellent! So if my colleague here were to release you, you wouldn’t scream, would you?”
She shook her head no.
“Alright, then.”
The man behind her released her. She turned around to see four men in total, including the one who had grabbed her. Judging by the tailored suits, gold jewelry, and shortage of fingers, she figured they were on the Path. The one who had spoken to her invited her to have a seat on her own couch. Two of them walked into her bedroom with a large duffel bag each, and closed the door. She watched them go, until the talker waved at her to get her attention. The other loomed somewhere out of view behind her.
It occurred to her that she should be protesting all of this more, but she was unsure what her best option was. She still didn’t know who they were or what they wanted. The thought occurred to her that these were some of Vasili’s men. But what were they doing here? Was he trying to send a message? Frighten her? Was he pissed about the money and being shitty about it?
“What do you want?” she asked once she was seated.
“Well, I’m here for two reasons, actually,” the talker said.
“Did Vasili send you?”
“The first is because I’m a fan,” he said, ignoring her question. “I must say, Miss Sato, I absolutely loved you in Cherry Blossom Summer. And your performance in The Shogun’s Mistress was positively sublime.”
Yukari stared at him, dumbfounded. She was still too drunk and startled to know what to make of all this.
“You see, I must confess to being something of a cinephile. And I consider you to be one of the best actresses of our generation. In Japan, or anywhere.”
“Thanks,” she said. “But that doesn’t explain what you’re doing in my apartment.”
Just then a phone rang behind her. The man looming there answered, then grunted a few responses into his phone. When he was finished, he said to the man across from her, “That’s the Doctor. He’s on his way up.”
“Oh good,” the man said with a grin that set Yukari on edge. The man behind her reached for something behind his back, and suddenly she was afraid for her life.
“Hurting me would be a mistake. I’m connected! You ever heard of Vasili Loginovski?”
“Heard of him?” the first guy said with a wicked grin. “In fact, that’s why we’re here. See, that brings me to the second reason for this little house call.”
Before she could protest further, the talker nodded. The next instant, the man behind her quickly looped something over her head and began choking her. She struggled vainly, but the man’s grip was like iron. She started to panic as her vision went spotty, then began going dim.
As her oxygen-starved brain began blacking out, the last thing she ever saw was the man in front of her turn to her killer.
“Waste of a perfectly good actress, if you ask me.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mei was able to hold herself together until she got back to their basement office.
“FUCK!” she screamed, slamming her fist into the thin metal sheet of a shelving unit. It dented easily with a satisfying sound.
“Everything alright?”
Startled, she turned around to see Kentaro seated in a corner.
“What are you doing here this late?”
“Trying to put in some work on the case. What happened to you?”
Mei hesitated. She wasn’t sure how much she should tell him. She had always trusted Kentaro, and she figured he might have some advice for her on navigating this problem. But the shame of being beholden to someone like Vasili stopped her cold. After wavering between these two extremes for a few moments, she decided she’d rather be damned if she did.
So she told him everything, how Vasili had compromised her, and how his assistants were now alternately helping and hindering her investigation. Kentaro regarded her dispassionately throughout, seeming neither angry nor surprised.
“So there you have it, how I found and then lost the best lead we’ve had on this case. In less than an hour. How I sold my soul to save my ass. How I compromised myself, and where it’s gotten me.”
Kentaro nodded but remained silent.
“Well? What do you have to say? You want to tell me how I did this to myself?” Mei said. “Go ahead. Tell me how I opened myself up to this, made it easy for them to get their hooks in me. Tell me I rolled over too easily when I should have fought it.”
Still he remained silent, with just a pained expression on his face.
“Say something!”
“I don’t blame you,” Kentaro said. “I’ve been around long enough to know how it goes.”
“Well, you fucking should blame me. I blame me. I rushed in too fast to realize that a trap had been laid for me.” She shook her head in disgust. “So stupid.”
“Look, there’s something I should tell you too,” Kentaro said, swallowing hard. “This is difficult for me to admit, so—”
He was interrupted by a guard who ran into the room, shouting, “I’m so glad you’re still here! Detective Kimura, I need you to come with me right away!”
“What is it?” Mei asked, slowly getting to her feet.
“We’ve got someone here who wants to see you. Says it’s about your case.”
“Well, send him down. We’re kind of in the middle of something.”
The guard shook his head. “I think you, uh, better come up to see this.”
Mei and Kentaro followed the guard, who took off at a trot-run towards the elevators. When they arrived in the building’s front lobby, Mei saw a tall man whose head towered above the swarm of confused police officers surrounding him.
The first thing Mei noticed about the man was his face. It was pale, except where it was covered in tattoos unlike any Mei had ever seen. They seemed to shift and change as they caught the light. They were concentrated around his facial features and ran down his neck. Sometimes they made him look skeletal, but then he would turn his head and look like a corpse that had been stitched up, as if they were shifting with the light.
The second thing Mei noticed was that his naked torso was smeared with blood.
As soon as he saw her, he smiled and waved a bloody arm at her.
“Detective Kimura! A pleasure to meet you! I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Shigeo. I’m the killer you’re looking for!”
Vasili stood looking out the window of his office. He gazed at the gray s
ky of another gray morning hanging over the even grayer city below. Jun had woken him up a few hours ago to tell him the news. He hadn’t been able to get back to sleep since then.
Now he stood here in the early morning, drinking and looking out over the city. He couldn’t shake the thought that somewhere in this maze of concrete, glass, and fog was the man who had killed Yukari. They weren’t close anymore, Vasili didn’t stay close to people for long. A side effect of the job. But they had been close at one time, and that meant something to him.
It meant that whoever did this would be found and made to pay dearly for it.
“Sir?” Jun asked from the doorway. He was still awaiting his response. Vasili ignored him.
“Sir? How do you—”
The glass of vodka in Vasili’s hand shattered. Shards of ice and glass tinkled to the floor and were soon covered in droplets of blood from Vasili’s quaking fist. Jun just nodded, then took his leave.
He stood there for a few more minutes, letting the grief wash over him. The anger would come soon enough, but for now he allowed himself to feel the emptiness at her loss. They had been together a long time, by far the longest he’d ever been with someone. Now she was gone.
He knew where this was headed. Knew himself well enough to know that soon the grief would give way to rage, and the rage would crystallize into violence.
But right now there was just the grief. He let it gnaw at him some more, until he told himself that he couldn’t put off the inevitable forever. He didn’t look forward to telling Shoichi—the boy would be crushed. He dialed his number, hearing the phone ring several times before he picked up.
“Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
Vasili stood there for a few moments, the phone against his ear. He knew what needed to be said but couldn’t bring himself to say it.
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