"Eddie. What about the Imperial Arms?"
"What about it?"
"You go there tonight?"
"No."
"You clean up Cheryl's room?"
"What?" Eddie appeared shocked. "What?No. Clean up her room? Where you getting all this shit, Captain?"
"The girl across the hall . . . Julia Young," Connor said. "She told us she saw you tonight, with another man. In Cheryl's room at the Imperial Arms."
Eddie threw his arms in the air. "Jesus. Captain. You listen. That girl wouldn't know, she saw me last night or last month, man. That girl is a fucking hophead. You look between her toes you find the marks. You look under her tongue. Look on her pussylips. You find 'em. That's a dream girl, man. She doesn't know when things happen. Man. You come here, give me this. I don't like this." Eddie tossed his cigarette away, and immediately lit another. "I don't like this one bit. You don't see what's going on?"
"No," Connor said. "Tell me, Eddie. What's going on?"
"This shit's not true, man. None of this true." He puffed rapidly. "You know what this is about? It's not about some fucking girl, man. It's about Saturday meetings. The Doyou kai, Connor-san. The secret meetings. That's what it's about."
Connor snapped, "Sonna bakana."
"No bakana, Connor-san. Not bullshit."
"What does a girl from Texas know about Doyou kai?"
"She knows something. Honto nanda. And she likes to cause trouble, this girl. She likes to make turmoil."
"Eddie, I think maybe you better come in with us."
"Fine. Perfect. You do their job for them. For the kuromaku." He spun to Connor. "Shit, Captain. Come on. You know how it works. This girl killed at Nakamoto. You know my family, my father, is Daimatsu. Now in Osaka they will read that a girl is killed at Nakamoto and I am arrested in connection. His son."
"Detained."
"Detained. Whatever. You know what that will mean. Taihennakoto ni naru zo. My father resign, his company must make apologies to Nakamoto. Perhaps reparations. Give some advantage in business. It is powerful osawagi ni naruzo. You will do this, if you take me into your custody." He flicked his cigarette away. "Hey. You think I did this murder, you arrest me. Fine. But you are just covering your ass, you maybe do a lot of damage to me. Captain: you know this."
Connor said nothing for a long time. There was a long silence. They walked around the garden, in circles.
Finally, Eddie said, "Na,Connor-san.Tanomuyo. . ." His voice sounded pleading. It seemed like he was asking for a break.
Connor sighed. "You got your passport, Eddie?"
"Yeah, sure. Always."
"Let's have it."
"Yeah, sure. Okay, Captain. Here goes."
Connor glanced at it, handed it to me. I slipped it in my pocket.
"Okay, Eddie. But this better not be murina koto. Or you'll be declared persona non grata, Eddie. And I will personally put you on the next plane for Osaka. Wakattaka?"
"Captain, you protect the honor of my family. On ni kiru yo." And he bowed formally, both hands at his sides.
Connor bowed back.
I just stared. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Connor was going to let him go. I thought he was crazy to allow it. I handed Eddie my business card and gave my usual speech about how he could call me later if he thought of anything. Eddie shrugged and slipped the card into his shirt pocket, as he lit another cigarette. I didn't count: he was dealing with Connor.
Eddie started back toward the house, paused. "I have this redhead here, very interesting," he said. "When I leave the party, I go to my house in the hills. You need me, I will be there. Good night, Captain. Good night, Lieutenant."
"Good night, Eddie."
We went back down the steps.
"I hope you know what you are doing," I said.
"So do I," Connor said.
"'Cause he seems guilty as hell to me."
"Maybe."
"If you ask me, it'd be better to take him in. Safer."
"Maybe."
"Want to go back and get him?"
"No." He shook his head. "My dai rokkansays no."
I knew that word: it meant sixth sense. The Japanese were big on intuition. I said, "Yeah, well, I hope you're right."
We continued down the steps in the darkness.
"Anyway," Connor said. "I owe him."
"For what?"
"There was a time, a few years ago, when I needed some information. You remember the fugupoisoning business? No? Well anyway, no one in the community would tell me. They stonewalled me. And I needed to know. It was . . . it was important. Eddie told me. He was scared to do it, because he didn't want anyone to know. But he did it. I probably owe my life to him."
We came to the bottom of the stairs.
"And did he remind you of that?"
"He would never remind me. It is my job to remember."
I said, "That's fine, Captain. All that obligation stuff is fine and noble. And I'm all for interracial harmony. But meanwhile, it's possible that he killed her, stole the tapes, and cleaned up the apartment. Eddie Sakamura looks like a blown-out speedball to me. He acts like a suspect. And we're just walking away. Letting him go."
"Right."
We kept walking. I thought it over and got more worried. I said, "You know, officially this is my investigation."
"Officially, it's Graham's investigation."
"Yeah, okay. But we're going to look stupid if it turns out he did it."
Connor sighed, as if he was losing patience. "Okay. Let's go over it the way you think it might have happened. Eddie kills the girl, right?"
"Right."
"He can see her any time but he decides to fuck her on the boardroom table, and he kills her. Then he goes down to the lobby, and pretends to be a Nakamoto executive – even though the last thing Eddie Sakamura looks like is an executive. But let's say he passes himself off. He manages to dismiss the guard. He takes the tapes. He walks out just as Phillips comes in. Then he goes to Cheryl's apartment to clean that up, but somehow he adds a picture of himself, stuck in Cheryl's mirror. Next he stops by the Bora Bora and tells everybody he's going to a party in Hollywood. Where we find him, in a room without furniture, calmly chatting up a redhead. Is that how the evening lays out to you?"
I said nothing. It didn't make much sense, when he put it that way. On the other hand . . .
"I just hope he didn't do it."
"So do I."
We came down to the street level. The valet ran to get our car.
"You know," I said, "the blunt way he talks about things, like putting the bag over her head, it's creepy."
"Oh, that doesn't mean anything," Connor said. "Remember, Japan has never accepted Freud or Christianity. They've never been guilty or embarrassed about sex. No problem with homosexuality, no problem with kinky sex. Just matter-of-fact. Some people like it a certain way, so some people do it that way, what the hell. The Japanese can't understand why we get so worked up about a straightforward bodily function. They think we're a little screwed up on the subject of sex. And they have a point." Connor glanced at his watch.