She got abruptly to her feet, and heaved a deep sigh. This was worrying, really worrying. She really did feel the urge to die with him. What would happen if instead of convincing him not to kill himself, she was lured into the trap herself?
Just past noon, Kita and Shinobu called a cab and left the hotel for the nearest town. They left their bags in the relatively deserted restaurant of the little hot springs town, and Kita made his fourth threatening phone call from the telephone box outside. It was not the boss but some other man who came on the line this time.
“Have you got those three thousand Yukichi Fukuzawas ready now?”
“Thirty million’s a big ask. We’ve got seventeen million. Wouldn’t this do?”
“You’re tryin’ to talk me down?”
“We’re just a small business. This is all we can manage. Shinobu’s a precious star, she supports our office. Send her back unharmed, we beg you. Her mother’s in hospital from the shock. We want to set her mind at rest as soon as possible. Come on, let’s compromise. Make it seventeen million.”
“Shinobu’d be pretty sad if she knew you guys were tryin’ to beat down her price. If that’s what you want, I have a plan.”
“Don’t hurt her please. Her fans all over Japan would be devastated.”
“I’m loath to kill her myself. There’s heaps of others I’d rather kill than her. No, I was anticipating that you mightn’t come up with the ransom money, see, so I’ve got another plan. Shinobu’s had some experience providing ‘comfort’ to some pretty famous politicians and high level bureaucrats. I’ll get her to tell the story in public. Here, listen to what she’s got to say.”
Kita beckoned Shinobu to the telephone box, and handed her the receiver. Watching Kita’s face, she began to talk in an unhappy voice.
“Help me please! I don’t want to die yet! Don’t make him angry.”
“Shinobu, have you spilled the beans about your relationship with those Congressmen?”
“I had to. He had a knife to my face, and he ordered me to tell everything, so I talked about it all. He’s got it on tape, and he’s going to send it to the television stations!”
“Shinobu, where are you right now?”
“He’ll cut my ears off if I tell you.”
“Goddamn the guy for causing all this trouble! Put him back on.”
The man on the other end of the line clicked his tongue in vexation, then his voice turned intimidating as he said to Kita, “I’m onto you, buster. You’re the guy who paid a hundred thousand to have a drink with Shinobu that night. I recognize your goddamn stupid voice. You’ve made a big mistake, you bastard. I hope you know what you’ve let yourself in for.”
Kita was strangely calm in the face of this exposure of his identity. He answered with the same calm tone he’d spoken with till now.
“Congratulations. You uncovered me, you crook. I’m not Yukichi Fukuzawa after all. I’m Ono no Imoko,” he went on, giving the name of a famous bureaucrat in the court of ancient Japan.
“Whaddaya mean, you’re Imoko? Hey Kita, don’t mess with us buster. You’ll be dead tomorrow.”
“No, it’s the day after I’m going to die. If you want to kill me you’d better hurry.”
“Don’t push your luck!”
“Pay up that thirty million. Get those stupid Congressmen to foot some of it. That should bring it up to twenty-eight million or so. You can borrow the remaining couple of million from a loan shark.”
“OK. We’ll get the full amount ready. Come and get it.”
“There’s no time to go do that. Donate the lot to the International Red Cross for helping poor sick kids.”
“What?”
“The International Red Cross, you idiot. Donate thirty million to them in the name of Shinobu Yoimachi. I’ll check whether you’ve really done it or not.”
“What crazy nonsense is this? Are you in your right mind?”
“I’ll let the newspapers and television stations know. You don’t need to keep this thing a secret any longer.”
Kita put down the receiver and left the telephone box in high spirits. Now this abduction was really getting into gear at last.
Shinobu stared hard at him. She looked scared.
“They’re going to pay the ransom. So I win the bet.” Kita smiled at her, but she still seemed dazed.
They went back to the restaurant and ordered beer, grilled fish, and slices of raw devil’s tongue, while he plotted their next move. For some reason, Shinobu seemed displeased. She sat there with lips pursed, chin propped on hands, looking sulky.
“You really hate losing the bet that much?” Kita said teasingly. But at this, her eyes filmed with tears. “What’s up? This is weird.”
“Yeah, it sure is. Why do I have to get killed?”
“What’re you talking about?” said Kita, grabbing her hand. “I’m not really going to kill you!”
She squeezed his hand tight. “No, no, not you. They’re the ones who’ll kill me. I know exactly what they’re thinking,” she went on. “There’s no way they’re really going to pay that money. It won’t matter a damn to them if I die. They actually want you to kill me, Kita.”
“But why?”
“They want to shut me up, that’s why. They’ll be running round frantically working on the press right now, making sure that even if I spill the beans about the politicians it won’t get in the news. I know too much, see. It’s better if I’m out of the way. They’ll be bringing in the gangsters, who’ll finish me off and set it up so it looks like I’ve been killed by my abductor.”
“Hmm, I wonder. Anyway, let’s do what we can. We can’t quit now in the middle of the job, after all. I’ve been a plain old Mr Nice Guy till now, you know. The only thing I was good at was sacrificing myself for others, just like my old man. I’ve only got two days more to live. The final gesture I want to make is to act completely willful in some way. It’s asking a lot to want to involve you in this too, but please stick with me just a bit longer Shinobu.”
“I was the one who asked you to abduct me as a joke, but I never thought you’d throw yourself into it quite like this…”
“You’ve gotta promise to keep it an absolute secret. Don’t ever tell anyone I did it for fun, will you. This was a forced abduction, right? It wasn’t a put-up job. Don’t tell the truth to a soul. Promise me.”
Shinobu nodded, overwhelmed by the earnest tone of entreaty in Kita’s voice.
“You won’t get killed, don’t worry. I’ve been planning how to make sure you’re safe ever since last night. Just leave things to me.”
Shinobu nodded over and over, wiping her eyes with the napkin.
“You’re on the stage, aren’t you?” said the old woman who brought them their plate of devil’s tongue. Her gaze shifted from Shinobu to Kita and back again. Maybe their conversation had the look or sound of a play to her.
“Would there be a bank near here?” asked Kita.
The old lady drew a map on the table with her finger. “You turn left at the second set of lights, there’s a pachinko parlour here, and the bank’s right next door.” She added the observation that it was maybe not the best idea having the bank so close to the pachinko parlour.
Kita needed to withdraw the getaway money, but before he did so he stepped into the phone box with the plan of giving the news-starved media the information about the abduction of a star. He dialled Information for the number that would put him onto the press section head of one of the television stations. Then he rang and left a message.