On the television set, Senator Stephen Rowe was expressing sympathy for the bereaved family, and talking about the fact that Senator Morton had been overstressed. Senator Rowe pointed out that the Akai offer had not been withdrawn. The sale was, so far as Rowe knew, still going through, and there would not now be any serious opposition.
"Hmmm," Connor said.
"The sale is back on?" I said.
"It seems it was never off." Connor was obviously worried.
"You don't approve of the sale?"
"I'm worried about Eddie. He was so cocky. It's a question of what Ishiguro will do now."
"Who cares?" I was tired. The girl was dead, Morton was dead, and the sale was going forward.
Connor shook his head. "Remember the stakes," he said. "The stakes are huge. Ishiguro isn't concerned about a sordid little murder, or even the strategic purchase of some high-tech company. Ishiguro is concerned about Nakamoto's reputation in America. Nakamoto has a large corporate presence in America, and it wants it to be larger. Eddie can damage that reputation."
"How?"
He shook his head. "I don't know, for sure."
My beeper went off again. I called in. It was Frank Ellis, the watch officer at division headquarters for the evening.
"Hey, Pete," he said. "We got a call for Special Services. Sergeant Matlovsky, down at vehicle impound. He's asking for language assistance."
"What is it?" I said.
"He says he's got five Japanese nationals down there, demanding to inspect the wrecked vehicle."
I frowned. "What wrecked vehicle?"
"That Ferrari. The one in the high-speed pursuit. Apparently it's pretty ragged: the impact crushed it, and there was a fire. And the body was cut out with torches by the VHDV teams this morning. But the Japanese insist on inspecting the vehicle anyway. Matlovsky can't tell from the paperwork whether it's okay to let somebody look at it or not. You know, whether it's material to an ongoing investigation or not. And he can't speak the language to understand the Japanese. One of the Japanese claims to be related to the deceased. So, you want to go down there and handle it?"
I sighed. "Am I on tonight? I was on last night."
"Well, you're on the board. You traded nights with Allen, looks like."
I dimly remembered. I had traded nights with Jim Allen so he could take his kid to a Kings hockey game. I had agreed to it a week ago, but it seemed like something from my distant past.
"Okay," I said. "I'll handle it."
I went back to tell Connor I had to leave. He listened to the story and suddenly jumped to his feet, "Of course! Of course!What was I thinking of? Damn!" He pounded his hand in his fist. "Let's go, kohai."
"We're going to impound?"
"Impound? Absolutely not."
"Then what are we doing?"
"Oh, damn it, I'm a fool!" he said. He was already heading for the car.
I hurried after him.
* * *
As I pulled up in front of Eddie Sakamura's house, Connor leapt from the car, and raced up the steps. I parked and ran after him. The sky was deep blue. It was almost night.
Connor was taking the steps two at a time. "I blame myself," he said. "I should have seen it earlier. I should have understood what it meant."
"What whatmeant?" I said. I was panting a little, at the top of the steps.
Connor threw open the front door. We went inside. The living room was exactly as I had last seen it, earlier in the day, when I had stood there talking to Graham.
Connor went quickly from room to room. In the bedroom, a suitcase lay open. Armani and Byblos jackets lay on the bed, waiting to be packed. "The little idiot," Connor said. "He should never have come back here."
The pool lights were on outside. They cast a green rippling pattern on the ceiling. Connor went outside.
The body lay face down in the water, naked, floating in the center of the pool, a dark silhouette in the glowing green rectangle. Connor got a skimmer pole and pushed Eddie toward the far edge. We hauled him up onto the concrete lip.
The body was blue and cold, beginning to stiffen. He appeared unmarked.
"They would be careful about that," Connor said.
"About what?"
"About not letting anything show. But I'm sure we can find the proofs . . ." He got out his penlight and peered inside Eddie's mouth. He inspected the nipples, and the genitals. "Yes. There. See the rows of red dots? On the scrotum. And there on the side of the thigh . . ."
"Alligator clips?"
"Yes. For the electric shock coil. Damn!" Connor said. "Why didn't he tell me? All that time, when we were driving from your apartment to the television station to see the senator. He could have said something then. He could have told me the truth."
"About what?"
Connor didn't answer me. He was lost in his own thoughts. He sighed. "You know, in the end, we are just gaijin. Foreigners. Even in his desperation, we're excluded. And anyway, he probably wouldn't tell us because . . ."
He fell silent. He stared at the corpse. Finally, he slid the body back into the water. It floated out again.
"Let somebody else do the paperwork," Connor said, standing up. "We don't need to be the ones who found the body. It doesn't matter." He watched Eddie drift back to the center of the pool. The head tilted down slightly. The heels bobbed on the surface.
"I liked him," Connor said. "He did favors for me. I even met his family when I was in Japan. Some of his family. Not the father." He watched the body rotate slowly. "But Eddie was okay. And now, I want to know."
I was lost. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I didn't think I should say anything. Connor looked angry.
"Come on," he said finally. "We have to move fast. There's only a couple of possibilities. And once again, we have fallen behind events. But if it's the last thing I do, I want to get that son of a bitch."
"What son of a bitch?"
"Ishiguro."
¤
We were driving back to my apartment. "You take the night off," he said.
"I'm going with you," I said.
"No. I'll do this alone, kohai. It's better if you don't know."
"Know what?" I said.
We went on like this for a while. He didn't want to tell me. Finally he said, "Tanaka went to Eddie's house last night because Eddie had the tape. Presumably, the original."
"Right . . ."
"And Tanaka wanted it back. That's why they had an argument. When you and Graham came, and all hell broke loose, Eddie told Tanaka the tape was in the Ferrari. So Tanaka went down there, panicked when he saw the police, and drove the car away."
"Right."
"I always assumed the tape was destroyed in the crash, and the fire."
"Yes . . ."
"But obviously it wasn't. Because Eddie wouldn't dare be so cocky around Ishiguro unless he still had a tape. The tape would be his ace in the hole. He knew it. But he obviously didn't understand how ruthless Ishiguro would be."
"They tortured him for the tape?"
"Yes. But Eddie must have surprised them. He didn't tell them."
"How do you know?"
"Because," Connor said, "otherwise, there wouldn't be five Japanese nationals asking to inspect the wreck of a Ferrari in the middle of the night."