“What would you think if you found a small strip of plastic caught in the band of the victim’s wristwatch?”
“What kind of plastic?”
“Sheet plastic. Thick. The kind that comes in rolls, for protecting furniture and other large valuables.”
I was familiar with some of the uses for that kind of plastic, and I thought for a moment. “Your killer could have gotten the victim drunk. Let’s leave aside how for the moment. Then he rolls him in the plastic to prevent contamination from handling. Take him to the edge of the roof, grip one end of the plastic, and give a hard shove. The victim rolls out of the plastic and into the air. Very neat.”
“Unless, somehow, the victim’s watch snagged on the plastic.”
“Not impossible. But if that’s all you’ve got to go on, you haven’t got much.”
“There was also an eyewitness. A bellhop, working late in the hotel where one of the victims died. At three in the morning, the same time the coroner fixed the time of death, he got a good look at a janitor with a large cart going up in one of the elevators. Exactly the scene you just depicted.”
“He described your man?”
“To the details. A crushed left cheek, from his Muay Thai days. Unusual scarring on the opposite side of his face, under the eye. These are healed dog bites. ‘A frightening face,’ he said. Entirely accurately.”
“No such janitor employed in that building?”
“Correct.”
“What happened to the bellhop?”
“Disappeared.”
“Dead?”
“Probably.”
“That’s all you’ve got?”
He shrugged. “And two similar deaths, outside of Tokyo. Each to a family member of a key player in parliament.” His jaw clenched, then released. “One to a child.”
“A child?”
Clench, release. “Yes. One with no history of emotional or other problems in school. No evidence of precursors for suicide.”
I had once heard that Tatsu had lost an infant son. I wanted to ask him, but didn’t.
“If those deaths were intended to send messages to the principals,” I said, “they were being pretty subtle. If the principal thinks it was suicide, there’s no impact on his behavior.”
He nodded. “I had the opportunity to interview each of the principals. Each denied that there had been any contact from anyone claiming that the deaths were other than suicide. Each was lying.”
Tatsu had a nose for that sort of thing, and I trusted his judgment. “I’m surprised you didn’t suspect I was involved in some of this,” I said.
He paused for a moment before answering. “I might have. But, although I don’t pretend to understand how you do what you do, I know you. You could not kill a child. Not that way.”
“I’ve told you as much,” I said.
“I am not talking about what you told me. I am talking about what I know.”
I felt bizarrely appreciative of his confidence.
“In any event,” he continued, “some of your movements, as recorded on the Osaka security camera network, provided you with an alibi.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Your cameras are good enough to track me, but not good enough to spot someone wrapping people in plastic and dumping them off roofs?”
“As I have told you, the networks are far from perfect. I do not have control over their operation.” He looked at me. “And I am not the only one with access.”
I took a last sip of tea and asked a waitress for some more hot water. We sat in silence until it had arrived.
I picked up the delicate china cup and looked at him. “Tell me something, Tatsu.”
“Yes.”
“These questions. You already know the answers.”
“Of course.”
“Then why are you asking me?”
He shrugged. “I believe this man we are dealing with is a sociopath. That he is capable of killing under any set of circumstances. I am trying to understand how such a creature operates.”
“Through me?”
He nodded his head once in acknowledgment.
“I thought you just said I’m not the right model.” My tone was more forceful than I had intended.
“You are as close to such a creature as I have known. Which makes you ideally suited to hunt him.”
“What do you mean, ‘hunt him’?”
“He is careful in his movements. Not an easy man to track. I have leads, but they would need to be followed.”
I took another sip of tea, considering. “I don’t know, Tatsu.”
“Yes?”
“The first guy, with the business fronts, okay, he was strategic. I understand. But this guy, the dog fighter, he’s just muscle. Why aren’t you going after Yamaoto and the other kingpins?”
“The ‘kingpins,’ as you put it, are difficult to get to. Too many bodyguards, too much security, too much visibility. Yamaoto in particular has hardened his defenses, I believe out of fear that you may be hunting him, and is now as inaccessible as the Prime Minister. And even if they could be gotten to, there are many like them in the various factions, waiting to take their places. They are like shark’s teeth. Knock one out, and there are ten rows waiting to fill in the gap. After all, to be a kingpin is not so hard. What does it take? Some political acumen. A capacity for rationalization. And greed. Not a particularly rare profile.”
He took a sip of his tea. “Besides, this man is no ordinary foot soldier. He is ruthless, he is capable, he is feared. An unusual individual, whose loss would not be a trivial blow to his masters.”
“All right,” I said. “What are you offering me? Given that I’m under no obligation.”
“I have no money to offer you. Even if I did, I doubt that I could match what Yamaoto and the Agency were paying you previously.”
He might have been trying to get a rise out of me with that. I ignored it.
“I’m sorry to be so blunt, old friend, but you’re asking me to take a hell of a risk. Just spending time in Tokyo entails risks for me, you know that.”
He looked at me. When he spoke, his tone was measured, confident. “It would not be like you to assume that your risk from Yamaoto and the CIA is confined only to Tokyo,” he said.
I wasn’t sure where he was going with that. “It’s where the risk is most pronounced,” I said.
“I’ve told you, Yamaoto has felt compelled to live a much more heavily defended existence since the last time you saw him. He has curtailed his political appearances, he no longer trains at the Kodokan, he travels only surrounded by bodyguards. My understanding is that he does not enjoy these new restrictions. My understanding, in fact, is that he resents them. Most of all, he resents the cause of them.”
“You don’t have to tell me Yamaoto has a motive,” I said. “I know what he’d like to do to me. And it’s not just business, either. He’s the kind of man who would feel humiliated, enraged by how I helped steal that disk from him. He’s not going to forget that.”
“Yes? And none of this keeps you awake at night?”
“If I let that kind of shit keep me awake at night, I’d have bags under my eyes the size of Sado Island. Besides, he can have all the motive he wants. I’m not going to give him the opportunity.”
He nodded. “I’m certain that you wouldn’t. At least not deliberately. But, as I have mentioned, I am not the only one with access to Juki Net.”
I looked at him, wondering whether there was a threat hidden in there. Tatsu is always subtle.