Fishing for Stars

by Bryce Courtenay

  I remained standing while six other men seated themselves. The prosecutor glanced up from case notes he appeared to be reading and said, ‘You may sit.’

  Kinzo-san sprang to his feet. ‘Your honour, my client prefers to stand for reasons that will be made clear at a later stage.’

  The prosecutor sighed. ‘Very well, let us proceed. Nicholas Duncan, you are charged under Japanese law to answer on four counts: kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, breaking and entering, and unlawfully possessing a dangerous weapon, in this case an unlicensed automatic pistol. I will hear what you and the honourable Kinzo-san have to say before deciding which of these charges are to be proceeded with. This is an inquiry only and you and your lawyer are free to present any evidence you believe contradicts the report I have here and the evidence of your arresting officer . . .’ he glanced briefly at his notes, ‘Sergeant Yamamoto. In the presence of two police officers you have undergone an interview with Special Services Officers Razan and Tanaka and their written evidence may also be taken into account at this hearing. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, your honour.’

  ‘Is there anything else you wish to say before we proceed? There is the matter your lawyer promised to explain, of your need to stand . . .’

  Kinzo-san rose to his feet. ‘Your honour, I ask that this matter be presented at a later time, but there is another I would wish to present immediately.’

  The prosecutor nodded. ‘Proceed, please.’

  ‘Your honour, it pleases me to inform you that the supposed kidnap victim has been found. Apparently she suffers from dementia and rose from her bed and left the home, wandering the city all night. She was discovered by a young kendo pupil next afternoon in a state of near-collapse in the vicinity of the Kyumeikan Kendo Dojo.’

  ‘Dementia? What is this condition?’ the prosecutor asked, then added, ‘There is nothing of this in my case notes.’

  ‘Your honour, the term “senile dementia” has only come into recent use in the medical profession and describes a form of brain disorder marked by mental deterioration that is irreversible and is known to affect some people, most often those over the age of sixty-five years. Progressive loss of memory inevitably occurs. We would previously have lumped it all together under the term senility,’ Kinzo-san explained.

  ‘Oh, I see. If she suffers from memory loss, how then could she tell whoever found her where she lived or even her name?’ the prosecutor asked pointedly.

  ‘Ah, in the case of her address she didn’t know where she lived. But I am informed that those elderly people who are afflicted have moments of clarity, and only in the final stages of senile dementia do they usually forget their names. It was most fortunate that she was brought to the notice of the honourable Saito-san, kendo hanshi, who recognised the noble name of Konoe and escorted her home in his limousine. I therefore ask that the charge of kidnapping be struck from the list of charges against my client.’

  ‘Very well, let us proceed with the hearing of the charge of attempting to kidnap Konoe Akira.’

  Kinzo-san was already seated but immediately jumped to his feet. ‘Your honour, I am pleased to inform you that I received a telephone call from the honourable Konoe-san’s lawyer this morning dropping the charges of attempted kidnapping as well as breaking and entering. I have his instructions with me and if you wish him to attend he is standing by. It seems that Konoe-san has received an explanation for the purpose of Duncan-san’s visit and is satisfied that no threat to him or to his property was intended.’

  The prosecutor sighed. ‘I am obliged, though reluctantly, to accept Konoe-san’s decision, although I feel sure a judge would be unwilling to let it pass without further cross-examination. Please tender your colleague’s instructions.’

  Kinzo-san handed in the written statement from Konoe Akira’s lawyer. ‘Konoe-san’s instructions are without equivocation, your honour.’

  The public prosecutor looked at Kinzo-san. ‘I feel quite sure Sergeant Yamamoto, the arresting officer, would see it differently, but I am prepared to accept that the complaint has been withdrawn. With regard to property damage, I see here that there is the matter of a broken vase that I believe was of great value and was destroyed by your client.’

  ‘Your honour, as this is not within the framework of the charges laid in this hearing, but may well be the subject of another such, I have been instructed by my client to charge the manservant of Konoe Akira, known as Staff Sergeant Goto, with assault and battery. I intend to subpoena Sergeant Yamamoto as a witness. My client was attacked by a vicious karate kick aimed at his throat while his hands were handcuffed behind his back. This caused him to be knocked backwards and into the vase in question, which resulted in serious wounds from the porcelain shards.’

  ‘I anticipate you, Kinzo-san. No future assault charges against Goto in return for ignoring the matter of the accidental loss of the very valuable vase. It is well known that the courts are overworked. I am happy that you so diligently endeavour to make it easier for the law to cope with the pressure.’

  ‘Thank you, your honour,’ Kinzo-san said, sitting down.

  ‘This brings us to the extremely serious business of the unlicensed weapon you were carrying, Duncan-san. How do you explain its presence on your person?’ He glanced down and turned a page. ‘Ah, here it is, a Browning Hi-Power 13-shot automatic. Not even our police or members of the First Intelligence Division are equipped with such an effective weapon.’ He paused, then continued, ‘Can you tell me how you acquired this weapon?’

  I glanced down at Kinzo-san’s hand to see that his forefinger was slightly raised. ‘I brought it from my home in the New Hebrides, your honour. I have an inter-island shipping fleet and it is judicious to carry such a weapon when on board ship.’ It was a careful lie to protect Fuchida-san and I was prepared, if I needed to make my lie more convincing, to build a story around the homicidal instincts of primitive people fired by alcohol on board ship.

  ‘Did you obtain a permit to import a weapon into Japan?’

  ‘Foolishly not, your honour. It is always in my luggage when I travel to the various islands, and I neglected to remove it when I was packing. I used the same valise as part of my luggage and most regrettably only discovered the pistol when I unpacked in the hotel.’

  ‘So you thought to use it when you paid what now seems to have become a cordial visit to the home of Konoe Akira?’

  Kinzo came to his feet. ‘Your honour, there is a matter of another kidnapping of my client’s partner by the Shield Society and his belief that Konoe Akira instigated it with this fanatical rightwing organisation. Konoe-san’s involvement is yet to be established but my client had reasons to believe that he was in danger. At the time, rightly or wrongly, he believed he needed to protect himself.’

  ‘Protecting a foreigner is a matter for the police. This is not a primitive land, we are not primitive people, we do not take the law into our own hands, Kinzo-san.’

  ‘Your honour, you are quite right. But in the matter of primitive people and their behaviour I submit these photographs and copies of the hospital report on the physical condition of my client after being interviewed by the metropolitan police and two special officers from the First Intelligence Division.’ He handed the manila envelope to the public prosecutor who opened it and took from it several ten by eight inch photographs and a single document. ‘I have of course in my possession the black-and-white and colour negatives, as well as the hospital report.’

  The public prosecutor looked at the photographs briefly then said, ‘As you well know, the so-called kidnapping of your client’s partner is not a matter for this hearing, honourable counsel.’ It was the first time he’d addressed Kinzo-san formally. He divided the prints and passed them to the pokerfaced men beside him. To this point in the proceedings neither had said a word.

  After a minute or so of silence the man seated on the left scribbled a note on his pad and placed it in front of the prosecutor who glanced at it briefly. ‘We w
ill adjourn for ten minutes,’ he announced. ‘Please do not leave this room.’

  Ten minutes later they returned and the public prosecutor requested Kinzo-san to stand. Then he announced, ‘The weapon in question has been confiscated and as it has done no harm in the possession of your client we accept, as a courtesy to our visitor and as a foreign-relations gesture, that he may have overlooked the weapon in his luggage. All charges against Duncan-san are dropped.’

  Kinzo-san bowed deeply. ‘Thank you, your honour.’

  ‘You are all dismissed with the exception of counsel and his client,’ the prosecutor said.

  We waited until the room had cleared of all but the three men on the platform and the stenographer. ‘Now I have one final question to ask you, Duncan-san,’ he said. I waited while he seemed to think about how he might phrase the question, but when it came it was simple enough. ‘Are you satisfied with the treatment you have received from the authorities?’

  I glanced down at Kinzo-san who raised his finger very slightly. ‘Yes, thank you, your honour. I have been treated with care and great respect and have no complaints,’ I replied.

  The public prosecutor picked up the papers lying on the desk, quickly collating them. Then he looked directly at me. ‘There are no charges I wish to make against you, Duncan-san. You are free to leave this hearing and need not return.’ He turned to the stenographer and instructed her to leave, then reached under the desk. We heard a soft but distinct click as he turned off the tape recorder.

  Still standing beside me Kinzo-san waited until the stenographer had left the room, then he withdrew a small envelope from inside his jacket, stepped forward and placed it on the desk. ‘The negatives, your honour,’ he said.

  One of the men reached over and took the envelope and, speaking for the first time, said, ‘We request that you do not bring formal charges in the matter of the kidnapping of Til-san as other arrangements have been made to secure her release.’

  My heart leapt. Unable to contain myself I said, ‘You have discovered the whereabouts of Anna Til, sir?’

  He paused and looked at the second man, who nodded. ‘There are arrangements to find her. That is all I wish to say.’

  ‘Is she safe?’ I persisted.

  ‘We cannot answer that question,’ the second man said.

  ‘Come, Duncan-san, we must go to the charge office to sign your release and obtain your personal effects,’ Kinzo-san urged, anxious not to prolong the conversation.

  We both bowed deeply and left the room.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘Of course I can walk! I don’t need anyone to carry me! And, by the way, I’m not a tearful little lady! Now, will you kindly return and fetch my handbag and shoes!’

  Anna, Tokyo

  WE STOPPED OFF AT the charge office, where Kinzo-san left me to sign for my personal effects while he made a call from the phone booth in the foyer. ‘Count the money in your wallet before you sign, Duncan-san. It will all be there, but it shows they have not broken your spirit,’ he’d instructed me on the way to the charge office.

  We finally left the huge Kasumigaseki Metropolitan Police Department Complex. Kinzo-san hailed a taxi and watched as I entered it and sat down very gingerly. ‘At least the seat is a little softer,’ he said sympathetically. ‘You must have the dressings looked at as soon as possible.’

  ‘I have a great deal to thank you for, Kinzo-san, and cannot think how I can possibly repay you or those who came to my aid.’

  ‘Ah, Duncan-san, you have powerful friends and I will be paid twice over, in money and in assistance from the same powerful people if at a future time I should need it. Fuchida-san is a man of great character who values friendship and loyalty above everything. The fact that at no time did you implicate the yakuza confirmed his trust in you and your friendship. To a man like him that is perhaps already repayment.’

  ‘I will send him my Queen Alexandra Birdwing,’ I said, suddenly deciding.

  ‘Birdwing?’ Kinzo-san asked as the taxi pulled into the traffic.

  ‘I’m sorry, I was thinking aloud. The Queen Alexandra Birdwing, the female, is the world’s biggest butterfly, with a wingspan of over 30 centimetres. It is very rare and Fuchida-san has expressed the wish to acquire a specimen for his collection.’

  ‘Ah, that is very nice,’ Kinzo-san said doubtfully, the habitual ‘Ah’ preceding the statement. ‘I am aware that he collects butterflies and that his men fear above all else the punishment of being sent into the wild to find them.’

  ‘Have you not seen his collection?’ I asked, surprised, then added, ‘It is very significant.’

  ‘Ah, very few have been allowed that privilege and I am not one such,’ he replied formally, nodding his head in a small bow, telling me at once that he wasn’t an intimate associate of the yakuza boss and that his defence, which led to the dismissal of the charges against me, was strictly business. ‘I have never been invited to his apartment,’ he added.

  This gave me the courage to say to him, ‘Kinzo-san, I find myself in somewhat of a predicament.’

  He smiled. ‘Ah, I thought I had just got you out of several, Duncan-san. Now you have found yet another?’

  ‘I have the means to pay you well,’ I explained clumsily. ‘You see, now the charges have been dropped I have yet to resolve the matter of the kidnapping of my partner, Anna Til. I am no nearer to finding her than I was before my arrest and all the consequent trouble I caused. The prosecutor indicated that I must not bring her kidnapping to the attention of the authorities and that other arrangements to free her have been made. Whatever these are, will you allow me to engage your services to guide me? I am totally confused and out of my depth.’

  Kinzo-san scratched his forehead, thinking. ‘Ah, the Japanese way of resolving problems is sometimes difficult for Westerners to understand. There is no legal way of effectively finding your partner as you have agreed not to bring the matter before the authorities. Nor do the authorities wish to move against the Shield Society until they are sure that they will not upset the balance of power, or do something that challenges our new democracy.’

  ‘But a foreigner has been kidnapped! Surely that is reason enough?’

  He shrugged. ‘Evidently not. Your partner is a drug addict. It would be easy to leave the Shield Society out of it entirely and blame her kidnapping on criminal activity.’

  ‘But if the Shield Society decided to publicise it?’ I asked, then realised that this was a stupid question and corrected myself. ‘No, of course not. If Konoe Akira has paid them for the kidnapping there’s no point. So then he is obviously the key to her release.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  What was once again clear was that my rashness had led to this entire mess. By going to the yakuza for help I had made a monumental stuff-up of the whole thing.

  ‘What now, Kinzo-san? How will I free Anna?’

  Kinzo-san cut to the chase. ‘As you say, Konoe Akira is the linchpin. He ordered the kidnapping, and may even have paid for it. Either way, as you say, he is the key to her release. Before the prosecutor’s hearing it would not have been in his interest to let her go. But now that the whole thing has been hushed up and his mother restored to his home, he may agree.’ Kinzo-san smiled, thinking. ‘Of course, Anna-san will have to sign a legal document promising not to talk or indict him.’

  ‘Oh, she wouldn’t do that! Definitely not talk, and we’ve seen enough of the public prosecutor! We’ll be leaving Japan on the next flight home,’ I assured him. ‘But in the meantime, what do I do?’

  ‘You go to the yakuza.’

  ‘Shit! Not again! Will you not represent us, Kinzo-san? See if you can make a deal? Money is no object,’ I added hastily.

  ‘I would very much like to, Duncan-san, but I am under instructions from Oyabun Fuchida.’

  ‘Fuck!’ I said in English.

  It was evidently an expletive he recognised because he laughed. ‘Ah, do not entirely despair, Duncan-san. Perhaps there are other ways.
I made a phone call while you were collecting your personal effects. The taxi will drop me off at my office and then take you on to see the oyabun. I was informed that later today I have an appointment with Saito-san, the kendo hanshi who, you will recall, found Konoe Akira’s ageing mother wandering in the street. This suggests there are further developments afoot. I daresay I will be involved. In the meantime, you would do well to save yourself a whopping legal fee and speak to Oyabun Fuchida.’

  By the time I’d dropped Kinzo-san off and was on the way to see Fuchida-san I seemed to be aching everywhere. The wounds on my bum and back were throbbing, and without fresh dressings they would soon become infected, if they already weren’t. The backs of my arms felt a little better, though they still stung and itched, and when I had last gone to the toilet my swollen and bruised scrotum showed that my testicles would take a fair while before they were free of pain. Despite all this, I was almost entirely preoccupied with Anna. I would have gladly suffered ten times the pain – no, a hundred times – if I could have secured her release. I kept telling myself that if I had done nothing except wait in the hotel room, then the problem would have resolved itself in a short time without her being harmed.

  Having met Konoe Akira, even under the most trying circumstances, I did not believe he would want Anna killed. It was much more likely that he simply wished to warn her that he still possessed the power to retaliate if she decided to bring charges against him for his wartime activities. But his plan, thanks to my personal interference, had gone badly wrong. Then another thought struck me. Anna wasn’t silly, nor would she panic; she would try to bribe her captors to secure her own release. She would ask them to contact me by phone to negotiate, but of course they would have been unable to locate me. The hotel desk would report that I had not returned for the past three nights. Yet another Nick Duncan superior fuck-up!